davidjohnhall

Really, MM? I have to respectfully disagree. That's the great thing about the market (and our emotional composition). It can be as simple or as complicated as we want (or need) it to be. When I am trading in the market, what can actually happen to me? 1. I can lose money. 2. I can be wrong. Can I be eaten by a bear? No. Can I fall off a roof? No. Can I go to prison? No. (Well, not if I'm doing it legally). (For me) all market related fears could only be a derivative of those two fears. Just like I choose to see that the market can only... 1. Go up 2. Go down 3. Go sideways I know that Mark Douglas states it can do a 1,000 other things. But when I see my set up, and take a position, it can only... 1. Hit my target (or move in my direction if I'm trailing a stop). 2. Hit my stop (this includes gapping below it). 3. Or meander sideways. When you say "hopefully, for your sake they are that simple" -- this statement in and of its self seems to imply fear for me. What would happen if I got that list of two fears wrong? Would I lose money? Would I be wrong? I'm okay with both of those outcomes. Again, Mark Douglas asks that we fully realize the risk of each trade before placing it. I apply the same principle to forum posts. Luckily, I can't lose money with a forum post. David John Hall

When it comes to topics like this I like to look at what there is to be afraid of in very simple, black and white terms. With trading I can only think of two things: 1. Being wrong 2. Losing money There isn't much else is there? How much fear you experience based on either of those things could be directly related to: 1. How much you need to be right. 2. How much you need the money you might lose. To end your fear about these two items: 1. Understand that you will be wrong...a lot...and embrace it...in fact, start sharing your losers instead of your winners. 2. Don't trade any account killers...if you really believe #1 that should help with number 2. Or if you need that money for dinner tonight, don't trade it. If you know yourself and know your mind/body connection...and trust it...then, when you are scared you will know that... 1. There is a legitimate reason for it... If you don't trust it, then you know that maybe... 2. You're making the whole thing up. If I am standing in a room and that room is on fire...I am going to be scared and there is going to be a reason for it. If I am standing in a room and there is no fire...and I am afraid that there is going to be a fire...then either I have ESP...or something is out of tune.... Have you ever heard of the law of reversed effort? Next month, instead of trying to find winners, try and find losers. Take losing trade after losing trade after losing trade. You might start winning and then you will be mad at yourself because you can't find losers. LOL That's life, right? Sometimes you have to blow up a few accounts to stop being afraid of hitting a losing trade. Sometimes you have to brag at the top of your lungs on a trading forum about how great you are and have everyone watch your trades tank to get over having an ego. But it all comes from experience. When you go to your day job (assuming you don't trade for a living) -- do you feel fear? Or do you have the process automated now? When I first started surfing I peed my pants on any wave above 1 foot. Now I surf huge waves and I'm only thinking about what I want to do on that wave and how I want to do it and I'm having a blast. When i first started trading, any increase in volatility, or any move against my position was enough to freak me out. After trading through 2008 and learning about position size, it would take quite a but to scare me. Time...and experience. Fear is part of what Seth Godin calls "The Dip". The dip is the great filter in an endeavor. It weeds out those without commitment...or those not suited. But if you tough it out and make it to the other side of the dip, then the growth...and the rewards (not all monetary) are yours!

This is one of the books most recommended by some of the biggest names in trading. Masters of the craft. If they told me Spongebob Squarepants could help take my trading to the next level I would be flipping to Nickelodeon faster than you could say...Spongebob Squarepants. I would say read it, draw your own conclusions, then give your opinions on the book here. You might think it's the worst book ever written about trading. You might think it's one of the best. But the opinion would be yours. I think it's one of the best books I've read..trading related or not.. In a list of about 10. Not only do I like Jessee Livermore, warts and all, I like the idea of Livermore. I like him standing in front of his mansions in photo's. I like him in the bucketshops outsmarting them. I like him making millions. I like him going broke. Let's face it, he's iconic. He doesn't need to be honest. He doesn't need to be pure. He doesn't need to be anything to anybody. I'm not sure why anyone needs him to be. I'm currently reading a book called Wolf on Wall Street. In the first 5 pages this guy is high on drugs and flying a helicopter into the ground. Like it or not, Wall Street is the wild west. It's not pretty (well it is shiny) and it's not sending out any appology letters. And that's how I see Livermore. It's an adult story. About an adult topic. Let us know what you think.

I agree with most other replies here. It's a fine line between genius and insanity and to try and marry the book to the man is a mistake in my opinion. A great many successful and talented men have taken their own life. Hemingway blew his head off with a shotgun. Does that make his literature any less readable? Works of art are ultimately judged by the public for whom they are made. Seems to me the public has passed their verdict on Reminiscences. It's a classic must read. What I would look at and inspect here, is your own emotional reaction to the story behind the story and the need to create this poll. Perhaps it can give you some insight into your own trading and how you view wealth, success and failure. I think the results of that introspection would be much more valuable than the results of this poll.

Why not do both? Have a minimum target that you will feel okay closing after that is relation to your initial risk...say 2.5x your initial risk...? Knowing that you will be happy with any profit over that mark...? For me it comes down to knowing what I'm looking for going in and having an overall strategy in place. I have that strategy in place because it makes money. If it makes money I keep it in place. After that it comes down to balancing the need for improvement with greed. Yes, we always want to get better, but we have to know the difference between that healthy desire and the destructive force of greed. My profits are defined by my risk and my win rate as these variables are always acting upon each other. If I have a high win rate I will probably have smaller per trade profits. If I have a lower win rate I will need bigger profits and smaller risk. As someone else said, we have to find which we're most comfortable -- and realize that we can't do both for the simple reason that... Knowing which trades were going to turn and which were going to reverse before that happened would mean that I could predict the future. If it were possible for me to predict the future then I would be a gazillionaire. Because I can't predict the future then I have to use the tools available to me to profit in the market. One of those tools is letting profits run. The other is closing at predetermined targets and being okay in the knowledge that some of the trades you close are going to the moon without me. Sometimes I catch those rockets, sometimes I watch them leave without me. Sometimes I close on target and watch price plummet and feel like a hero. By knowing what I'm looking for I can look at any trade I'm currently in and ask: is this what I'm looking for? Are we making new highs? Is volume present? Are the consolidations healthy? If so, then the trade stays open. But... If I am up over 2.5 times my initial risk I allow myself to close if I want to. Why not, right? The only thing I have to worry about is that trade skyrocketing to the moon without me on it. LOL As long as I can be okay with that happening then I'll ring the register. But....the more that I do that the more I'm reminded that I simply cannot predict the future... In closing, here's a recent example. A trade I closed a couple months ago in URG. The trade opened well and after a bumpy start was off to the races. Then at +44% gain it started to faulter. Now, URG is a low priced stock and I've been trading them for a few years so I know how fickle they can be. With my initial risk at 10%, and having a 44% gain...I am happy, and close the trade. Here's the chart: Now here's what happened after I closed: 200%+ gain. Now, I can either beat myself up or understand that if I want to get gains like this then I have to be willing to give back a lot of those early gains...or I have to be content with letting these monsters go. Or...I can shoot for both. While I've never made a 200% gain I have got plenty of 100%+ gains and I'm pretty sure it all balances out. Good luck to you. David John Hall

Hi Tim, You might also want to try recognia.com, they have an excellent pattern scanning tool. But you have to get it through one of their affiliated brokers. I get it through Trade King. I know they are also affiliated with Etrade Canada along with a few other canadian brokers. Good luck David John Hall

Hey Tim, I post a lot over at the Worden forum and enjoy Apsll's approach and commentary. I, myself, have been using Telechart for a few years now and get a lot of value out of it. I'm not sure what you mean about candle pattern feature. There isn't one that i know of, though you can enter PCF's (personal criteria formulas) for just about anything and then sort any watchlist to find the candles you're looking for. A quick example would be an inside day: h<h1 and l>l1. (Today's high less than the high of one bar ago and today's low greater than the low 1 day ago) You could create a scan and every night every inside day would appear in that watchlist after you update data. Telechart is also a favorite of mine for going through hundreds of charts, organizing and sorting industry groups and annotating however I like. I'm not saying you should sign up or anything, just offering some of the positives from a satisfied customer point of view. David John Hall