This is what it takes to be successful at trading (mindset)

Discussion in 'Psychology' started by djmartin, Sep 25, 2015.

  1. i960

    i960

    Back during the SGX A50 party days in June/July I was actually able to exploit this as a gimmicky edge. China markets were so volatile that there was a week the A50 contract would hit both limit downs (and even limit up at one point). I'd precalculate the circuit breaker levels and mark them on my chart and as price approached the limit down I'd just sell market before it started piling up - waiting the 15 mins until it exploded downwards. The problem though was you couldn't send limit buy orders as a target because the exchange refused them for being past limits. So by the second time I had changed my orders around to be MIT orders. Even though I was able to pick up some "free money" it wasn't nearly the full length of the move when the circuit breaker was released because the retrace was pretty damn fast.
     
    #21     Sep 26, 2015
  2. loyek590

    loyek590

    psychology and strategy go hand in hand. When my strategy goes bad my psychology gets adjusted.

    perhaps "psychology" is not an accurate word to describe personality and mental well being. You can be grumpy, hard to get along with and bitching all the time and still have a very good "psychology" to trade your strategy.

    when I enter on a limit my psycho tells me I am smarter and they don't know what they are doing. A real superiority complex. When I enter on a stop I become very passive and empathetic. If they want it to go up who am I to argue?
     
    #22     Sep 26, 2015
  3. Inspirational nonsense. :p ...said by people who teach, rather than do themselves.
     
    #23     Sep 26, 2015
  4. londonkid

    londonkid

    my 2c. psychology and motivation are huge in trading. You have to be smart though, there is no use getting all pumped up and saying today I am going to trade well, it's just going to ramp up your emotions and your fight-flight response. What's needed is calm considered thinking. So you have to want it badly but not in a way that's going to get yourself pumped up.

    Developing good habits and stopping bad habits is essential and the quicker the better. For example letting losers run out of control and going into hope mode is a bad habit that you must stop quickly. You need to recognise as soon as you get the hope emotion you should close out the position and walk away from the screens. Also when you get the feeling 'I probably should bank here' that nearly always means you should definitely bank here and move onto the next trade.

    I think you can accelerate the process of building good habits and stopping bad habits by being in the right environment or having been in that environment before. It cant help but rub off. You can learn a lot by trading with other people who absolutely detest losing and are used to winning. I have seen people almost smash a desk not because they lost money but because they didn't make enough. Seeing that taught be a lot about how winners think.

    You see a lot of newbs say 'I can't stick to my plan' etc. That is a huge red flag. If you cant control yourself you are not going to make it.
     
    #24     Sep 26, 2015
    Vindago and Redneck like this.
  5. EPrado

    EPrado

    Hopefully for his sake it was monopoly money and he was just putting on a show. Not sure why someone would want to broadcast themselves getting wiped out with real money.
     
    #25     Sep 26, 2015
  6. djmartin

    djmartin

    The guy speaking is Dr Eric Thomas, how are you going to judge someone you know nothing about. Eric Thomas is an example not just a teacher.
     
    #26     Sep 26, 2015
  7. EPrado

    EPrado


    Back in 2000-2003 the limits were much tighter so you would see them hit more frequently. Also there wasn't as much HFT activity so you had a bit more time to maneuver things. A trade that worked a lot was to watch them hit the limit. Usually you would see 10,000 or so on the offer when limit down. Once they started lifting them and lets say it got down to 2000 you could buy em as most of the time those 2000 were gonna be taken. Once they took out the offer they would pop at least 4-5 ES points for a nice quick scalp. Sometimes a lot more. I know guys who would wait until the whole limit offer was gone and just buy into the spike as it usually was a prolonged spike. These days though with limits set much higher you never see those trades. The only limit I have seen recently was Aug 24, and to be honest messing with a limit down market on cash opening is borderline insane.
     
    #27     Sep 26, 2015
    i960 and londonkid like this.
  8. NoDoji

    NoDoji

    My most recent trading strategy involves buying/selling just inside levels where MIT orders are likely to be found and catching my profit off the retrace. Sometimes the retrace is so fast that my profit target is filled within seconds before I even have a chance to contemplate whether to remove it or not.
     
    #28     Sep 26, 2015
  9. Redneck

    Redneck


    Yes…, and no Sir


    Physical – takes a mental toughness

    Mental – not only takes a mental toughness…, but also a mental suppleness


    Trading - not much physical is required

    jmo
    RN
     
    #29     Sep 26, 2015
  10. volente_00

    volente_00


    This was on a Sunday night/early monday morning and the FED made a .75 cut that Tuesday so he pretty much puked at the bottom before the markets rallied on the news.
     
    #30     Sep 26, 2015