Monoid, I think you are correct in saying if anything has a negative effect on your trading, then you should stop what you are doing. However, at times some discussions may appear to be counter productive, but can easily turn, just like a trade itself. One thing that I do not like myself, is posting as if I know everything by the words I use, so from now on I am going to try and stress that every post I make is purely my own thoughts, which may or may not suit whoever reads my posts. J_S
Yes indeed, I thought you might recognized the deeper meaning. Maybe another time. Looking forward to this thread.
I had an idea that was what you were on about, but was not fully sure, for you could have been talking about religious stuff, which we do not want to get into. Anyway, I have thought of one word to express what I think is the most relevant piece of information that I have learned to date, but it means a lot more than one word. A.C.T or I must ACT J_S
The trade may not be successful just because you followed your plan deaddog, but I know what you mean. Some of my thoughts. The only certain thing with trading is that you can lose money, and a lot more than you originally thought if you are careless. If you learn not to lose too much then you might last long enough to learn what you need to do so that you can make some money. I like to remind myself with 3 simple words, and they are "I must ACT" A = Awareness ( I must be aware of what is happening globally and market specifics ). C = Control ( I must do what I need to do by having a solid plan - written or mental ). T = Trading ( I MUST TRADE or I will never get anywhere and just waste most of my time reading things that do not really matter. I have to learn the difference between high/low probability trading as soon as I can ). J_S
To my way of thinking the trade will have been successful if I followed my plan. There are 2 possible outcomes for a trade. Either I take a small loss or I take a profit. That is the relevant piece of information I have picked up. You can have a successful trade with a bad outcome. You need to be aware of what the market is doing. You don't have to know why. I highly recommend written, mental leaves you open to your emotional bias when in a trade. I'd say T = training (I should never make a trade until I have a strategy that I have traded profitably following my written rules on a demo account in real time)
(A) Agree 100% (B) Agree 80% - mental can be sufficient once you have adequate experience and cut all the irrelevant stuff from your written plan - but I think you are correct in what you say for those who are starting out. (C) Disagree 80% - I think after training you should be able to effectively use what ever platform you are using, after that trading is the best way to learn - there is nothing like live training to teach you the hard lessons that you need to learn, as there will be many, no matter how good you think you might be. So T stays at trading, for me at least. Good discussion. J_S