Become a Better Trader

[Mysticforex 13]

This is really meant to be a "Mindset" or in the Psychology Thread, but I was not sure if any beginners would see it there.

 

I am hoping other experienced traders will weigh in with a tip or two.

 

Never trade when you are sick, tired, or in an emotional funk.

Always, always, always use a stop.

Don't stress about trades you missed. You can't lose what you never had.

[jpennybags 11]

Practice the art of quiet observation. I've learned more (and continue to learn) from watching the market trade than from any number of books that I've read.

[MidKnight 12]

Relentless review.

 

Be honest in your review and try to put yourself back in the past. Visualize it as if its real-time. Review every day at the end of the day. Review every week on the weekend (trade log and your charts). Review your accurate trade log at the end of the month. Be sure to note what you did right as well as where you could improve.

 

With kind regards,

MK

[tradingwizzard 10]

Base your trades on your analysis and on your understanding of market movements.

 

TW

[MidKnight 12]

Find your niche.

 

Steenbarger talked about this lots in his "Enhancing Trader Performance" book and I think its important. Different markets are more favourable to different timeframes and methodologies. You need to blend them into an approach that suits you. Exploring this will take time but will be worth it in the long term. Be patient in your exploration.

 

With kind regards,

MK

[Mysticforex 13]

Find your niche.

 

Steenbarger talked about this lots in his "Enhancing Trader Performance" book and I think its important. Different markets are more favourable to different timeframes and methodologies. You need to blend them into an approach that suits you. Exploring this will take time but will be worth it in the long term. Be patient in your exploration.

 

With kind regards,

MK

 

Sorry to get off topic here, but there is a lot of truth in what you say. A friend of mine recently showed me his spreadsheets. Exact same method but 3 different target approaches.

1. had a 60/60 TP and S/l, another had a 30/30 TP and S/L, and the last had a 15/15 TP/SL.

The best was a combination of all 3 depending on market conditions ie: trending, ranging, and before a news event.

[MidKnight 12]

Develop a plan.

 

As one goes on their trading development journey and they are exploring a variety of markets, timeframes, and methodolgies - you'll need to develop a plan. The plan doesn't have to be some objective extremely specific set of rules. It can be a loose set of guidelines that makes sense to you that gets refined over time with your experience. The goal is to start acting consistently so you can get consistent results.

 

There will probably be times that you violate the plan for whatever reason and I think that is normal, especially for more discretionary plans. But the key is to consciously violate it rather than getting lost in the throws of the market or in ones emotions. If you are consciously violating the plan you will note it in your daily review and over time you will collect enough data that may or may not indicate that the violation improves your plan.

 

Develop a plan today.

[MidKnight 12]

Give yourself TIME.

 

Exploring markets, timeframes, methodologies, developing and refining a plan are all going to take time. Keep your expectations on how long it will take realistic and it will reduce the pressure you put on yourself. I've never met a self taught retail trader yet that didn't take some years before starting to turn profitable. Myself took 4 years. Everyone is different.

 

Be patient with yourself, and give yourself enough TIME.

[Guest epic research]

The risk involved in each transaction remain within this measurement precisely and accurate assessment of the size of the deal Position Size and stops Stop Loss.

[Mysticforex 13]

Give yourself TIME.

 

Exploring markets, timeframes, methodologies, developing and refining a plan are all going to take time. Keep your expectations on how long it will take realistic and it will reduce the pressure you put on yourself. I've never met a self taught retail trader yet that didn't take some years before starting to turn profitable. Myself took 4 years. Everyone is different.

 

Be patient with yourself, and give yourself enough TIME.

 

Agree 100%. but the problem is a lot of people are drawn to it as a get "Rich Quick" scheme.

It is a Craft ( I was going to say trade, but that would be like a play on words), that must be studied and honed.

[MidKnight 12]

Focus on what you are doing right, and do more of it.

 

Spend more time learning from your best trades than focusing so heavily on your mistakes. We all lament our errors and sometimes wallow in our regret to continue our theme of self abuse. Move past that. Acknowledge your errors and study them, but put more emphasis on what you are doing right. Over time, you will develop a sense of what your best trades look like and how they should/could look after entry.

 

Kiwi was persisting with me in our small private chatroom to read the book 'The Playbook' by Mike Bellafiore. Having read heaps of trading books and being a stubborn mule, I was making up excuses not to read it. "Is there anything new in it???" "Give me a summary :)" etc etc. In essence, the author is very wordy and babbles a bit but if you can get past that, the book has great content on reviewing trades and focusing on what you are doing right. Highly recommend it.

 

Do more of what you are doing right.

 

Agree 100%. but the problem is a lot of people are drawn to it as a get "Rich Quick" scheme.

It is a Craft ( I was going to say trade, but that would be like a play on words), that must be studied and honed.

 

Yep, exactly. All trading is a craft that takes time to develop. Even system traders, learning how to develop systems is a craft that involves discretion.

[handle 10]

Keep a trading journal and rate yourself on how you feel each morning before you start trading. Evaluate your state of mind: what has affected you recently, how much sleep did you get, did you drink the night before, etc. Then keep track of that rating to see the correlation of your trading and your emotional state score. Don't trade when your emotional state is below a certain score. That has helped me.

[ereanoraella 10]

Update your Forex news daily... Learn more speculation....

[MilaRose 10]

Understand the Forex strategy/technique in business systematically. Just learn the Currency Pairs, Forex Technical Analysis, chose your Trading Plan, Multi-Asset Trading- between Forex and equities trading.

[ereanoraella 10]

I forgot to mentioned that crucial step... Patience..

[Patuca 13]

Keep a trading journal and rate yourself on how you feel each morning before you start trading. Evaluate your state of mind: what has affected you recently, how much sleep did you get, did you drink the night before, etc. Then keep track of that rating to see the correlation of your trading and your emotional state score. Don't trade when your emotional state is below a certain score. That has helped me.

i don't like journals...i don't need to rate myself..i already know i am going to feel bad when i get my carcass out of bed...my state of mind is almost continually pessimistic..rarely do i get much sleep...i am not a heavy drinker...so basically everyday is the same for me. I pull my boots or shoes on and make the best of it enjoying life as much as i can. In others words...one journal entry would suffice me for 5 years.

[Patuca 13]

I would say to become a better trader study the concepts of price action (good source may be brooks:rofl:..IF you can handle it:haha:) and volume as it relates to price (volume spread analysis ...mr wyckoff and disciples...) tape reading concepts...mr george taylor ..iffin you can wade thru it :helloooo:, THEN pick one or two instruments and watch PA for a year so seeing how learned concepts apply...THEN sim it for 6 months...THEN if profitable simming live trading may be next. If not profitable simming then rinse and repeat until profitable simming. :rofl: IT IS A PROCESS. AGAIN, IT IS A PROCESS, FINALLY, IT IS A PROCESS and THAT process must become second nature to oneself. :helloooo:

[Tradelikespock 10]

Start Journaling. It really helps.

[fxeconomist 11]

When I started to trade with Hotforex I was totally newbie. But patiency and a lot of spare time have done their part. Just don't give up and don't hurry.

[davidblack 10]

Every trader should keep their emotions in control during the trade and also if a trader is tired or in stress and difficult to control his emotions then he should stop the trading and should relax a bit.

[alizabailey 10]

Hello Guys..

Firstly you should start trading with your own and analyze what is happening because if you not put yourselves into trading you can't be able to understand. Then analyze the market. you can also take advice from advisory firm to become great trader and make huge profit as well.

[SurtiTrader 10]

I guess the better trader is that who keep good amount of patience in any situation. There are many traders who simply never have patience and because of that they loose money.

[Dahan 10]

Very honest advice for trader. Never trading under bad mind, always get patient and make strictly risk management plan.

[barako 10]

well said, the mind set and the emotional status are important!! if you trade under stress you are bond to fail.

[Tradaholic 10]

I agree with what most people have said, Ive been in the industry for about 10 years now and its been a pain for most of the time because its never easy.

 

I recommend you trade things which you have insight about or at least understand. If you trade anything you dont know anything about it is always more likely you will loose control and money.

 

As mentioned by others it is crucial to stay patient, just because today you might be in the red does not mean that tomorrow it wont look better again. However do not confuse this for the fact that you gotta stick in, you should know when to cut a loss and move on as else you will have dead money in your portfolio which only knows a downwards trend.

 

Overall at the beginning of my trading career I found that it was helpful for me to work with programmes which help me evaluate and analyze things that I was planning on trading. If you guys aren't to sure what to use this one helped me out a lot and still keeps raking in the profits for me on a daily basis:2c:, its as simple as it can get and will bring you a long way with its analytic s tools: AutoBinarySignals.com | Binary Options Trading Solution