Tradewinds

I think it's worth mentioning that people are extremely bad at accepting, dealing with, and minimizing loss. This failure to deal well with loss is "hardwired" into your brain and mine. We must accept that we are extremely bad at dealing with loss. It is a weakness in our behavior. I found this interesting: http://traderslaboratory.com/forums/f37/monkey-economy-8316.html

The interesting part was that monkeys seem to engage different means of making a decision when the focus turns to potential loss, rather than the focus being on gain. The behavior of not wanting to accept loss, and being very bad at rational decisions to minimize loss, seems to be "hard wired" in both monkeys and humans.

Me, . . . I developed the Edge first. Now that I'm 1000% percent (mentally) sure that I have an edge, I'm struggling (emotionally/psychologically) to implement it. I wish I'd been working on the mental/emotional/psychological part before this. I compartmentalize things, and intentionally focused on my technical trading edge, thinking that unless I have that, everything else is pointless. But I don't think that is the best attitude to have. The mental/emotional/psychological part of my life isn't just about trading. It affects everything.

I'm using Firefox. I can see other people's Trader IQ bar, but there is none for me. So I'm not sure it's the browser.

Take EVERY setup. I believe that this is critical. I do NOT believe in "false signals". As far as I'm concerned, there are no "false signals". There are just signals. Period. That's why I talk about reversal confirmation or reversal failure. It's a "One, Two Punch". Signal Signal Confirmation / or Signal Failure If I take the Signal, then sit back and think that everything is just fine, and I don't look for the Confirmation/Failure, that's when I get into trouble. If the Failure happens: 1) I am faced with 1. Acceptance of loss. (Not necessarily that I made a mistake. I may have, I may not have) 2. Denial 2) Accept loss as a strategic move for long term success.

How do I add the Trader IQ bar under my user name? I've looked for a way to add it in my UserCP account settings, but can't find anything.

I have spent time writing out different categories of a trading plan, and it helps to organize my thoughts. It also gives structure to how I process information when I'm trading. My trading plan includes various sub categories: Determine Current Condition Trend Types News Release Times Define/Analyze Trade Signals - Specific Market Analysis My Strategy - More generic than trade signals. Decision Making Process: Take signals, Use Strategy, Execute Trading Psychology/Concentration Tactics Things I Do Wrong SUBJECT TO CHANGE: It may get changed tomorrow.:rofl: Current Condition.docx

If I click the, "QUOTE" button, then I can use the Advanced Tools in a reply. If I don't click the "QUOTE" button to make a reply, then the "Go Advanced" reply tools will NOT work. Again, If I just go to the reply box, and then click "Go Advanced", when the Message editor comes up, none of the tools work. I can't attach a file. I can't do anything. I can click all the tool icons, and absolutely nothing will happen. I tried a different browser, to see if maybe it was my browser, but that didn't make any difference. 2-14-11

I suggest that you use a special kind of trailing stop for your profit target. When the price spikes up a certain percent, take profit at a lower price. You need a broker that will allow a trailing stop to be triggered at one price, and entered at another price. For example, price spikes 3% up, so your trigger condition is hit, but you want to make sure your order gets filled, so enter the sell order at a lower price. It's a more complex order configuration, and may take some learning to figure out how to do it, but that's what I would do for the profit target. I would never set a hard profit target. Enter a trailing stop for the target that triggers at one price and sells at a different, lower price. If your broker does not offer that, look for a broker who does.

I just ran across something interesting, practice exams for being licensed as a broker. http://www.investopedia.com/professionals/

I don't watch Accumulated Volume anymore. Basically I'm trading off price levels, the TICK, UVOL/DVOL and ADVN/DECN. Those tell the main story. Anything other than those inputs is unneeded information that just clutters up the mind.

I have never read a trading book. I have never read a book about the psychology of trading. I do need to state that I don't read any books. I'm not saying it's good that I don't read books, but I would like to make one point. There are people who can figure things out by themselves, and there are people who don't seem to be able to figure things out by themselves. I want to figure things out for myself, partly, because I don't have a lot of trust that people have my best interests in mind. I definitely have learned things about trading from other people, but it was all free information. It makes me cringe a little when I read of a person who is new to trading looking for advice and help from other people. I have to wonder what these people are "in for", and what the end result is going to be. I'm not saying that a person can't learn to trade someone else's system, and be successful at it. But I hate putting my fate into someone else's hands. So you either need to be lucky and find the right system, or make sure you have some way of figuring out whether the book, or mentor, or blogger really has a viable system. My point is this: My opinion is, . . that at least to some degree, every trader must figure it out for themselves. Being really persistent and "long suffering" is probably a requirement also. If you can't do those things, I don't know how anyone could ever make any money trading.

If you want to avoid data feed charges, you can open an account with thinkorswim, and trade their "Paper Money" account. That is what I would suggest. Thinkorswim has no data feed charges. I don't see any point in paying data feed charges while you are learning about trading. For a beginner, this is where I would start. It will take you at least a few months to learn the basics about trading, and get accustomed to a trading platform. You can always change brokers later if you want.

There is also a "Reviews" section in Traders Laboratory. Under "Reviews" there is a section for Books. The reviews can be sorted by their rating, or the number of reviews.

I really like the point you made about people being able to avoid their flaws in many areas of life, but we can't do that in trading. I guess it's the difference between watching the game, and playing the game. I'm not sure that everyone should play the game. I will say this though, if you want an adventure that really tests you, trading can do that.

The issue of doing what you know you shouldn't do, is not just a trading issue. It's a basic human flaw that plays itself out in every aspect of life. Typically, traders talk about the fear and greed problem. But how do we stop the fear, greed or any other emotional, or automatic response that causes a bad decision? In order to deal with this problem in real time, we must recognize the thoughts and feelings that trigger the break down of our rational thought, and the recognition needs to be instantaneous, . . . as it is happening. Then you must intentionally go against the influences that you know are wrong. Think of what it must be like for a bird to jump out of the nest and fly for the first time. So you must intentionally step into the fear, and depend upon your strengths. It's all about where your focus is. Don't deny your fear, greed or any other feelings or issues; but don't focus on them and give them your energy. We must practice where we are going to put our energy and what our focus is going to be.

24. As we trade we still have a tendency to violate our rules and our results are still erratic. 24.5 We swear at the "top of our lungs", and want to break all our computer equipment. 25. We know we are close.

My first question to you would be whether you want to use someone else's system for the basis of your trading, or do you want to create your own unique system. It's about whether you want to trust someone else's system, or you are the kind of person who must do it your way. That's a personality consideration. The next thing I would advise you to do, is to make sure you have trading software, and a data feed that will allow you to to some good back-testing. It's not that back-testing is the perfect answer to trading, but at least it will give you an idea about whether your ideas about trading have any real value or not. Third, don't expect other trader's to give you their hard earned trading secrets. They may point you in the direction that they think is the right direction, but that may be about it. It's easy to spend massive amounts of time on a certain trading style or strategy, only to find out it just isn't working for you. So there is no substitute for the amount of time a person needs to invest in order to learn the trade. Personally, I think that the concept of "opportunity costs" is critical to understand when trading. It's all about how you deal with taking a loss, and what you do when your order is loosing money. If you wait a long time to take a loss, and you could have made a couple of other trades in that time that you were waiting for your trade to come back from the loss, then you missed out on an opportunity. So there was an "opportunity cost". You not only lost money, but you lost out on a possibility to make another trade or two, and those trades could have actually made money. It's like a double loss. There is the "technical" side of trading, . . . indicators and plot lines. Then there is the side of trading that deals with valuation, based upon a companies sales, balance sheet and profits. There is also the overall outlook of the economy. Day trading is really about the technical side of trading, the overall economic news, and news that deals with the particular stock you are trading. If you want to avoid searching for a particular stock to trade, you can trade futures contracts. But whatever you decide to trade, make sure you learn it well. You might be interested in the thread: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/208/breakthroughs-led-trading-improvement-success-9057-2.html#post110117

First of all. Thanks for starting this post. As I was reading this thread, I realized that I once had some anxiety (not related to trading) that I was able to overcome. Like the original poster, I also have a fear of trading live. But I just had an insight while reading this thread. I had another anxiety in the past that I overcame. I just made the connection while reading this thread between my other anxiety, and how I was able to overcome it. Wow! I feel like a piece of the puzzle just fell into place. Anyway, here is what helped me overcome my other anxiety. I would simply tell myself that it was uncomfortable, but in 15 minutes, or half an hour, my anxiety would go away, and everything will be fine. My anxiety, and uncomfortable feelings are just created by to much adrenaline, and it will work through my system in a few minutes, then go away. So, it's just a irrational, learned, automatic, chemical reaction that I can retrain. Eventually, my fears went away. The point is, I had to engage my will, and force myself to simply endure the uncomfortable feelings, and trust that they will pass. There is a big difference between trading, and the fear that I had. I would get an anxiety attack, just getting in my vehicle to drive somewhere. There is risk in driving, but it's a different risk than trading. Almost anyone can safely drive. Not just anyone can safely trade. That's the difference. But, with myself, I've proven way beyond any doubt that my strategy works. So the only thing left is my emotional state to implement it. Now I must do the same thing, will myself to endure that uncomfortable feeling, but know that it will pass. The first step is to just accept that you are going to suffer a little bit, and be willing to feel it. But, and the same time, force myself to focus on something else other than the fear. That is the key part. It's not denial. It's very similar, but subtly different. Denial is lying to yourself. It's living a lie. Denial isn't what I'm proposing. What I'm proposing is to focus on a positive end result, and force myself to "know" that the end result will be positive. It's an act of the will. I goes beyond any mental process. I don't know of any other way to describe it other than "faith". But as I stated before, I already have a strategy that I've tested many, many times, and proven it to work way beyond any doubt. So, you must have something that is verifiable to begin with.

Personally, I would not pay for this trading course. Take the money that you would have spent for the course, and open a trading account. Then do some practice trading. There is all kinds of free information out there that you can explore. The problem isn't finding free information. The problem is figuring out what is worth anything, and what isn't, or what suits you and what doesn't. But every trader goes through that process. You just don't want to use up all your money on education, and still not have any trading experience. Do you want to trade for a living? Do you want to trade for your investment account? Do you have the time to trade when the market is open? Are you going to trade part time or full time? What do you want to trade and why? Have you read any trading books? Do you know the basics of support and resistance? Do you know what good news sources are, and how news affects the market?

I have a Verizon wireless 4G MiFi 2200. Here is a review of it: Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot Review - Cell phone and smart phone accessories - CNET Reviews It is a secure connection, and requires a password to log in. There is an option to automatically sign in after the first time you have entered the password. I have never had my connection drop. But the review points out that your connection is dependent upon how good the signal is at the location where you are using it. So, when looking for a wireless internet connection through a cell phone signal, I suggest that the most important consideration is what company has the best signal in the locations where you will be using it. Especially if your priority is a reliable connection to enter and exit a trade. Just by doing a web search, you may find a web site that compares Internet Service Providers in your area.

One of my breakthroughs came when I stopped using the typical trend lines. I decided quite early that I didn't like moving averages, or anything similar to a moving average, but then I started using Parabolic SAR's. I wasted a lot of time on that, and just confused myself. When I just started looking at the current and recent price high's and low's, then things started to change for me.

Thanks for the chart example. To me it looks like a volume histogram, with up volume positive and down volume negative. I've attached a .jpg file of a lower study that shows volume in green histogram bars, and then a red line. The red line has much lower highs. It fluctuates much less, but it still maintains it's respective ratios. If a spike is higher, then the red line is higher. All I did was raise that data to a fractional exponential power of 0.75. So instead of the power being squared, 2, or cubed, x^3, the exponent is less than 1. If you look at the attachment you will see that the red line does a very good job of compressing the spikes down and squeezing the data into a much tighter range.

I know what you are talking about, and I've programed code to deal with situations like this. What trading platform are you using? You could set up a counter to hold you signal as valid for a certain number of bars. So as soon as that big spike happens, it would show a signal for a certain number of bars, according to the counter. Count 5 bars after the signal. I don't know if this is a good solution for you, but I'm just trying to do some "brain storming" here. If you want the most current spike to be proportionate to the last spike, you could hold the value of that last spike in some variable, and then make a comparison. So it seems like you want to know if the signal had a higher high, or a weaker high, etc. Maybe you need a way to keep track of the current highs and lows. I'm just guessing here about what your indicator might look like in a lower study/sub graph. Sounds like you need someone who can make the programing happen. Is there a programing group you could join for the language that your platform uses? You could ask the customer service support for the trading platform you are using if there is any programing help "out there" somewhere. Basically what you need is to find some appropriate ratio that condenses things down to make the data easier to "read". But the ratio may need to be dynamic, as the data is cycling through large ranges. This is really a math problem. Let's see, I wonder if a fractional exponent would somehow help here. If you could make the small values bigger, and the big values smaller, it could smooth the data. So you are looking at a, sort of inverse relationship. You could experiment with a spreadsheet, and feed different exponents into the formula to see how the numbers react. Put a bunch of numbers into a column in a spreadsheet that are representative of the data you might have. Then write a formula for the output in the next column and copy it down. Have the formula reference a cell that you could change, that would affect all the formulas. If you looked at the graph of the curve for something like x^2, (x squared) it would be a curve getting steeper and steeper as "x" gets bigger 2x2, 4x4, 100x100. But you want the big numbers to get smaller. When you get a real big spike, you want that number to be cut down to a smaller size. I think a fractional exponent will do that x^1/3. Something to think about.

This site has a nice option for your own blog. You could blog different trades that you have made, explain the logic behind the decision, and post whether it was successful or not.