A Clear Mind

[walterw 10]

I want to start this thread making a comment about my lately experience with complicating or simplifing things... I havent been able to introduce myself.. never took into acct there is a section to introduce yourself... made several posts etc and never did... but I am trading since 11 years now... made money... lost money... had 0 equilibrium... study study study.... started in Buenos Aires at floor, went to USA with electronic futures bla bla bla.... now the thing is, I made money during this years when I had things simple.... lost money when made things complicated.... our mind wants to cheat us telling us that if we have a more "sofisticated" aproach we will have an "edge".... well thats not true... the real edge a trader can have is "A Clear Mind" and that was what atracted me to this forum... now its true the fact that you cant go to the other extreme where you want to master the markets without any wisdom...you want to make things so simple that you get beaten by any newbie out there.... so there is some science to trading together with simplicity... The best thing I did till now has been to know something basic of almost every aproach existant out there... and try to find what is the common factor they all have.... once I detected that common factor I decided to study only that common factor from My perspective and adapt it to my style.... I like very short lived trades... no sin... makes me a nice living... its what I am comfortable with.... THE TEMPTATION is to feel with lack of satisfaction and starting again on the journey of complicating things... here is where you start losing your edge on having a clear mind.... so : be happy with your weekly performance, dont beat yourself I need more... enjoy the simplicity of what works for you... and thats it... enjoy life... cheers Walter.

[wsam29 10]

you know what, that is what I have experianced in the past as well.

 

always thinking trading was harder then it really was.

[torero 10]

Hola Walter,

 

I think we all go there from time to time feeling invincible and start to look for new stuff to add in what is already successful. Even if the new method is successful, integrating it into your own arsenal takes time because your mind has to adjust to 2 methods now instead of one. If the mind is not ready, it'll get confused and start seeing wrong signals with wrong expectations and outcomes. Dangerous. It's like finding the first method again.

[Soultrader 12]

Hola Walter,

 

I think we all go there from time to time feeling invincible and start to look for new stuff to add in what is already successful. Even if the new method is successful, integrating it into your own arsenal takes time because your mind has to adjust to 2 methods now instead of one. If the mind is not ready, it'll get confused and start seeing wrong signals with wrong expectations and outcomes. Dangerous. It's like finding the first method again.

 

That is extremely true and I had to learn the hard way. Although applying a new simple tool or methodology can seam easy, I found out that this is not. It affected the way I process information, often coming into conflict with my core trading methodology. This lead me to take trades that I would usually pass on or step aside when I would usually place a trade. In the end, I constantly go back to my own simple method. Very good point Torero and excellent thread Walter.

[brownsfan019 17]

Walter - this is a great thread, esp for those new to trading. I think most, if not all, traders go thru about the same 'learning process' if you will...

• Get interested in trading, mainly b/c of the $$$$$
  
• Start simple with something
  
• That may or may not work, but you begin to think that if you just have one more indicator or one more setting, that could push you over the edge to profitability
  
• You buy overpriced stuff, search the internet top down looking for the grail and continue to think the big money is just around the corner if you only had that one indicator
  
• Then, by this time, either: 1) you give up on trading b/c 'everyone is out to get your money' or 2) you really start the learning process
  
• Then it's simply a matter of developing your business plan and then working that plan with consistency
  

As I have shared a few times on this forum, and even posted a chart setup here: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f2/chart-set-up-1251.html that shows how simple a chart really can be. I have to say, I think some of the chart setups that were posted are very complex and for me, it is way too much in order to be nimble on my trades. Point being, that once the trader reaches the point of realizing there is no actual grail, it's a matter of time before the approach is finetuned and you start to believe in yourself and your trading plan.

 

As simple as it sounds, I think the difference between being profitable and not is proving to yourself that your trading methodology actually works. We all go into trading wanting to believe a strategy works, but until you actually prove it to yourself, you will always remain skeptical and continue looking for the next best thing.

[ezduzzit 10]

Ahhh.. someone here finally brought it out into the open. Kudos to you BrownsFan!

 

It is indeed true that until you have true confidence that your method has a tradeable edge, you will continue to search and adjust until you eventually have to scrap it all and go back to where you started.

 

Now I would say that over time, most traders have heard that already and went "yeah, we know that and agree" but then they cast it off and forget about it. At the risk of sounding dogmatic here, I am telling you it will keep showing up and smacking you in the face at the worst times until you accept it as fact and focus on it until you truly have a firm confidence in the method you trade. Without that, you are irretrievably lost.

 

There comes a time when you simply must call a halt to the searching, changing, tweaking and fine tuning and simply decide to become expert at your method and only tweak it once in awhile to adapt to real character changes in the market.

 

I like this thread and I must say I continue to really enjoy this forum. Keep up the wonderful postings.

 

Happy Trading

[TinGull 10]

For a clear mind...just wanted to share something I started up again.

 

My life had been consumed with trading for the past year or so, and I've gotten to where things seemed simple, but weren't as simple as they had been 6 months ago. not terribly more complex...just not as easy on the eyes. Late last week I had a bit of frustration with my trading start to creep into the ol' psyche and was asked a question by both MrPaul and my girl. "How much time do you spend with the markets in your head?"

 

I had never really thought about it. Music is what my life is about. I used to be a recording engineer in Boston and in Nashville, wrote songs, played drums for big wig jazz names here and there and I thought...what was I doing when I had my 2 best weeks this year? I was playing drums every morning!!

 

This past weekend I didn't pull up a chart, didn't read a book, didn't do anything with the markets. I spent all the time outside, tending to my seedlings for the garden and making music again.

 

Having a clear mind can be accomplished easily by having other things in your mind besides trading. I'm looking forward to trading today, as I know it's going to be great going into it with a mind filled with music instead of a mind filled with more market stuff that will start to confuse the very system I worked hard to design.

 

Just my thoughts

[notouch 10]

Work-life balance is definitely very important. They place great importance on it in economically successful European countries like Germany, France and Switzerland. In the US and UK we have the attitude that the more hours we work the better which is not true. A French worker produces more in a 6 hour day than a British worker produces in 9. I try to keep my working day less that 7 hours and enjoy life when I'm not working.

 

It's also important to take holidays. In Europe there's a legal minimum of one month paid holiday a year but many Europeans get 2 months. While traders don't have the luxury of paid holidays I think it's important to take 2 or 3 holidays a year to see the world and refresh your mind. I love traveling. It's one of the things that motivates me to make money.

[brownsfan019 17]

Good points Tin. Very important to be able to step away from your business and have a life outside of trading. I actually have found that once you have a methodology in place that you consistently use, you 'study' less and less as you have convinced yourself that what you are doing works.

 

When you are desigining your business plan, that is where hours and hours can be eaten up outside of actually trading.

 

It's a big relief to be able to wake up and realize that the plan is in place, you just need to follow it. The only problem I had was figuring out what to do with all the extra free time! Since graphic design and website design has always been an interest of mine, I am going to start taking courses at the local community college in these areas. After that, might be something with cooking.

 

It's amazing what a proper trading plan and business plan can do for you and your family. It's simply a matter of getting to that point. (I know, easier said than done). For those that are serious about trading though, keep in mind that there is light at the end of the tunnel. It's just that most people will never actually get to the light.

[TinGull 10]

If you ever wanna do anything with cooking...let me know I'm constantly in the kitchen.

[walterw 10]

very nice inputs ¡¡ think we all go thru some similar process untill estability comes in... and most of us suffer the temptation of over analisis of our methods or "perfectioning" of them.... as I stated on before simplicity by itself its an "edge"... and that simplicity ironicaly must contain a sound elaborated argument to beat our oponent... on the other side you may have the correct argument with the correct dosis of simplicity BUT you dont have enough faith on it to believe it... or did not develop enough confidence on it.... what I noticed that this lack of confidence comes from the inability to "halt" the searching as ezzudit mentions and get focused just on your stuff once for ever... I believe that succesfull trading comes (after having a defenitive method) together with some boring same thing (same method) day after day after day...... like it or not this new super things we find and get so enthusiastic many times can hurt us as we get unrailed from our estable boring and normalized succesfull aproach... mmmmm nobody likes to promote the lack of research, we humans are eternal researchers, we love to find new things.... the big question should be : is your bussiness about research or about making stable dollars every day ? lets keep this discussion alive, its very constructive to me hear your experiences cheers Walter.

[Don4 10]

WoW,Great thread!!!

[TinGull 10]

Just wanted to post a little followup. The other day my head was extremely clouded. Many folks knew about it here and many many thanks to all of you who love to help, I really appreciate it

 

I've been drumming/programming music every morning lately, and while my trading hasn't drastically improved (it's slowly improving every day) my mind has seen some great advances. Also...I re-wrote my trading plan and have it sitting next to me on paper (not just saved on my computer) so I always see it and know without hesitation if my setups are being met. This has helped the clarity in my trading the most tremendously.

 

So...taking time to not think about trading has been the best thing to help my trading. Kinda weird...but it's awesome! haha