Soultrader

Just draw a horizontal line with the tools and adjust the thickness and color. Im assuming you use TS?

I actually dropped by the local bookstore and found this book. Purchased it instantly and it has been quite fascinating so far. Sort of like Liars Poker in a more academic way. Ill post some more comments on it once Im done. Thanks for the book review... I am glad I got a hold of this book.

They used to have it on the cme webpage. I believe they took it off for some reason. It basically dealt with mental calmness and mental preperation for trading. Dan showed some visualization techniques. He is definitely the calm giant... should be a hypnotist if he ever decides to leave finance.

Thank you very much brownsfan for providing this information. Like Cooter requested, I have stickied this thread for reference.

Yes, it is painful and I end up thinking about it for the remainder of the day. Theres a good saying in poker... you cant remember how you won but you remember all the big (painful) losses by heart.

Hi timokrates, My style of trading at the moment has become more and more discretionary reading purely order flow off tape, level 2, and candlestick spreads relative to volume. By no means is this style something that can be taught 100%. I think each trader needs to really develop a branded style of their own. This is the key to success. In the beginning we end up following another traders style we learned from. I am pretty hard headed when it comes to alot of things in life including trading. This is the reason why I believe personally that price action through volume and tape is the only way to make money when trading discretionary. Obviously this is not the case, but I can not seem to profit when applying any other methodology. Even candlestick patterns are hard for me to apply in trading. I am pretty confident in understanding order flow and betting on future price movements of up to 1-30 minutes. But, I am probably the last person you want to ask for market direction when swing trading. (longer timeframe) I have no clue. No matter what technicals tell me, I understand that fundamentals can throw a counter blow easily. Therefore my edge lies in extremely short term trading. Work hard on finding your style and being extremely good at it. You should start seeing things that most traders do not see or find patterns which you can profit from. Also it is important to act when opportunities come. You might see a profitable pattern over and over again and pat yourself on your back. However, just observing it and recognizing when it occurs is not going to make you a trader. Good luck.

For any bond investors/traders, I would like to ask a few questions. Fixed income is still relatively new to me but I am learning it gradually. I have a question regarding bond trading methods. If one is bullish on the market and expects interest rates to fall in the future, a roll-over from short-term bonds to medium and long-term bonds, is said to be advantageous. Can anyone help me understand this concept? Also, why do longer-term bonds have greater price movements? Also regarding the affect of foreign exchange and overseas interest rates, how does an appreciation in yen increase the demand for Japanese bonds? Thanks.

New article that can through my email and thought Ide share with you all. Success Takes Time © Trader Insight, Mental Edge News In my interviews with traders, I've often asked them to identify barriers to financial success. Over and over again, the need to be right and the need for immediate success get in the way of trading profitably. As one trader put it, "The two most common obstacles to successful trading are ego and impatience. Ego in that no one wants to admit they're wrong, even if the market is telling them that they are. And impatience in that…most people don't engage in consistent results-producing behaviors; they go for homeruns." Another trader said, "You have to be able to be honest with yourself about what you're doing. In many areas of life, it is important to be right. In the markets, it's not about being right. It's about managing risk and making sure the odds are stacked in your favor. If being wrong about a trade hurts you personally, then you're never going to make it as a trader. You can't let errors faze you. You just can't care. It's a little bit like rolling a die. You never quite know whether the next trade is going to be a winner or a loser. But if you stick to your plan and remain disciplined through a series of trades, more likely than not, you'll be in the plus column." When your money is on the line, it's natural to want to be right. When you're wrong, you lose. But the need to be right can often get in the way of successful trading. Most people hate being wrong. They hate being wrong so much that they lie to themselves about being wrong. But seasoned traders know that if you are obsessed with being right, you will never be honest enough with yourself to hone your trading skills to the point that you master the markets. The need for perfection is usually admirable, but putting too much pressure on yourself can often spell disaster when trading the markets. The difference between the master trader and the novice is that novice traders are thrown off their game by repeated setbacks, while the master trader just brushes off mistakes and keeps going. Being wrong can hurt. It often feels like we are being punished for being a poor student, a bad child, or an unproductive worker. If you are not careful, you can imbue being wrong with too much personal significance. It can have symbolic meaning. The trick, however, is to remove the symbolism, and neutralize the emotions to the point where you just say, "So what, of course I'm wrong. That's what I expected. I'll just get over it and move on." When you are wrong and make a mistake, you need to get back in the game as soon as possible and try to turn things around. That's often easier said than done, though, especially when you have a lot on the line. But there's a lot you can do psychologically to set yourself up for success and avoid failure. The first thing you need to do is make trades, experience being wrong and see that being wrong is not so bad. The more you face the unpleasant reality of being wrong, the more you will see that being imperfect is not so bad. If you believe that you must be absolutely right and can never be wrong, however, you'll feel ill at ease. If you're wrong, you lose, right? That may be true, but the fact is that you cannot always be right, so expecting perfection will get you nowhere. You'll feel upset as you frequently fail to meet your expectations. How can you cope? First, you need to trade with money you can afford to lose. Second, you must use risk management to help you survive the learning curve. Rather than make the same mistake as unsuccessful traders who choke under pressure, remember that you don't always have to be right to make a profit overall. Even by using a very simple set of risk management rules, and following them mechanically, you can come out ahead. The lesson is not to use such rules mechanically, but to consider how some simple planning and risk management can prevent emotions, such as anxiety and fear, from negatively impacting your trading decisions. When you are first learning to trade, risk management can help you survive, stay in the game, and allow you to hone your trading skills. As you gain more skills, you can risk a little bit more on trades you have identified as high probability setups and fine-tune your stop-loss or exit rules. But in the meantime, consider keeping your goals modest, with the main goal of minimizing risks, building skills, raising self-confidence, and refining your method.

Welcome to Traders Laboratory mister ed. I look forward to your contributions here as well.

Hi timokrates, I can not update it as much as I want to so I have disabled it for now. Please visit their website directly in order to tune in. I may eventually decide to put it up again if I can figure out a way to auto update it. Thanks

Yes, very much. Thank you brownsfan.

It will require recoding Armand. Im not sure if we have any Sierra Charts users here.

You need to post the image here. No one can see it.

I dont see any pics... please attach it again.

I would watch out as there is a clear break of the uptrend. Any long position now is a countertrend trade. Im sensing lower to flush out more sellers.

I think its definitely a good thing. Especially after hearing the interview posted here: http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2007-0721-2.mp3.

He used to roam around here and often visited the chat room where I would attempt to ask him some psychology related questions. I really liked the way he thinked and approached the markets. Theres also an interesting interview he did with Traders Interview for those who might be interested.

Thank you very much. That was a great interview.

Yes very true about adapting to market conditions and adjusting strategies. This is something discretionary traders clearly have an edge over automated bots. Fund managers fear volatility while day traders crave for it. For those who havent got a chance to watch the LTCM documentary take a look here: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/videos/Trillion%20Dollar%20Bet%20Nova.wmv Its a great documentary so worth your time. If anyone else has any financial films/documentary it would be appreciated as it is relatively hard for me to obtain them here in Japan. I also want to add that learning market profile gives traders a tremendous edge even if its just analyzing end of day market action. Day by day thorough analysis gets you in the zone and alert to changing market conditions. Although candles and volume do help, being able to visualize a profile can offer clues not visible through just a volume and price chart.

Ah okay... I guess I need to be more informed with the US futures :woah: Ever since I divorced it... all I watch now is EOD charts and data.

Very nice Tingull. Pretty much identical to how I trade using candle psych and volume. Nice one.

Thank you for the comments Janice and Torero for starting this thread. I have encountered similar problems with my own trading and really struggled to determine if it was my concentration and focus or market conditions which I had trouble grasping. I do agree that health is underrated in trading. Fatigue really wears down a traders mental focus and ability to trade. I am trying to improve on this but struggling to do so as I can not simply take a day off. Are there any relaxation techniques that can help relax the mind without necessarily soothing the body?

Excellent thread... will keep following this. Out of curiousity, why does ER2 still say CME? I havent looked at a Russell chart since it moved to ICE.

A little quote from my trading friend. Always a pleasure to get these in my email. Joe's Trading Tidbits HOW DISCIPLINE HELPS IN TRADING "Discipline in executing each and every trade according to your trading methodology is the secret to your success. If you want to improve your trading, what you need to do is very simple. Before you enter any trade, imagine that you will have to explain this trade to a panel of your peers, by explaining to them the reason for your entry, your money, trade, and risk management guidelines, and why you exited the trade. Imagine having to explain why you chose this particular market and this particular time frame, along with how you set objectives for the trade, and how you determined where your initial protection would be. If you can truly do this, I strongly believe that you can be successful. Just prior to entering every trade, try to imagine yourself executing the trade perfectly. Imagine how it will feel when you enjoy having made money with your trading. Yes I know, you don't have time to do that. Why? Because you never plan your trades ahead of time. You probably don't have a strategy, and instead of waiting patiently for trade that meets your well-defined parameters and your thought-out plan, you just jump in the minute you think you see something that looks good. You need to take a lesson from a spider. The spider waits patiently in his web until some unsuspecting insect flies into the spider's trap. Have you been flying into any of my traps? I wait for trades that meet my expectations, trades that fit my plan. I wait patiently, and being kind-hearted I don't want any of my readers to land in my web. I'd rather the unsuspecting are readers of someone else's newsletter. But it's amazing how often I get to feed."

Thanks Ant. I will order it and read it over the weekends sometime.