rule #2 know what your good at and poor at, adapt to it I know I wet my pants if I hold a winner for more than a quarter so Ive become a microscalper.... that kind of stuff
Read everything you can find by Linda Bradford Raschke, she has awebsite but I don't have the url at hand. Devote 90% of your time to learning backtesting software like wealthlab and find out what doesn't work. That will confirm to you the above quote about 99% of what you read being bs.
so that when you think you're clicking "BUY", you'll actually be clicking "SELL" and vice versa. The Road to Riches is not far off! read, trade, and hang on to your capital! dog
38 steps to becoming a trader 1. We accumulate information - buying books, going to seminars and researching. 2. We begin to trade with our 'new' knowledge. 3. We consistently 'donate' and then realize we may need more knowledge or information. 4. We accumulate more information. 5. We switch the commodities we are currently following. 6. We go back into the market and trade with our 'updated' knowledge. 7. We get 'beat up' again and begin to lose some of our confidence. Fear starts setting in. 8. We start to listen to 'outside news' and to other traders. 9. We go back into the market and continue to 'donate'. 10. We switch commodities again. 11. We search for more information. 12. We go back into the market and start to see a little progress. 13. We get 'over-confident' and the market humbles us. 14. We start to understand that trading successfully is going to take more time and more knowledge than we anticipated. MOST PEOPLE WILL GIVE UP AT THIS POINT, AS THEY REALIZE WORK IS INVOLVED. 15. We get serious and start concentrating on learning a 'real' methodology. 16. We trade our methodology with some success, but realize that something is missing. 17. We begin to understand the need for having rules to apply our methodology. 18. We take a sabbatical from trading to develop and research our trading rules. 19. We start trading again, this time with rules and find some success, but over all we still hesitate when it comes time to execute. 20. We add, subtract and modify rules as we see a need to be more proficient with our rules. 21. We feel we are very close to crossing that threshold of successful trading. 22. We start to take responsibility for our trading results as we understand that our success is in us, not the methodology. 23. We continue to trade and become more proficient with our methodology and our rules. 24. As we trade we still have a tendency to violate our rules and our results are still erratic. 25. We know we are close. 26. We go back and research our rules. 27. We build the confidence in our rules and go back into the market and trade. 28. Our trading results are getting better, but we are still hesitating in executing our rules. 29. We now see the importance of following our rules as we see the results of our trades when we don't follow the rules. 30. We begin to see that our lack of success is within us (a lack of discipline in following the rules because of some kind of fear) and we begin to work on knowing ourselves better. 31. We continue to trade and the market teaches us more and more about ourselves. 32. We master our methodology and our trading rules. 33. We begin to consistently make money. 34. We get a little over-confident and the market humbles us. 35. We continue to learn our lessons. 36. We stop thinking and allow our rules to trade for us (trading becomes boring, but successful) and our trading account continues to grow as we increase our contract size. 37. We are making more money than we ever dreamed possible. 38. We go on with our lives and accomplish many of the goals we had always dreamed of. Most traders will identify with this list and should be able to place themselves within these steps. Keep in mind that very few people progress through these steps in an orderly fashion. Developing your trading skills is an iterative process. For example, you may reach Step 13, find that although you were making money, your basic premise for trading was flawed (you might have been benefiting from the bull market, rather than your own trading prowess and then have been rudely awakened when the market entered a bear phase) and you may drop back to Step 4 and start 'climbing' the steps again. Having the proper mindset, attitude and psychological makeup becomes increasingly important as you progress through the steps. The focus of the earlier steps is on external issues, i.e. developing proficiency in the mechanics of trading while the focus of the latter steps (particularly from Step 30, on) is on internal issues, i.e. improving ourselves mentally and psychologically, maturing as traders. -- Ironic thing is, you really can't skip any of these steps.
I've read so many list of rules over the years, most of which are crap. I don't recall when I first encountered this particular list, but it was and remains the only one that is of real value. Only problem is that those who need it most are those who are least likely to benefit from it because it contains no recipes.
I recently graduated with a B.S. in finance from a decent school. I just started working for a proprietary trading firm about 4 weeks ago and I am currently training and trading from a demo account. Some good books that I have read and that were recommended are "The Electronic Day Trader" by Marc Friedfertig, and "Technician's Guide to Day and Swing Trading" (CD included) by Martin J. Pring. Hope they help, good luck bro