What makes you a good sports trader?

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ruthlessimon
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I just see it too much, :D

"discipline means taking losses & following a plan"

.. which came from the discipline of making the plan in the first place!

I'm a keen cyclist. If my training plan is crap, I can be disciplined as hell, but there comes to a point where I have to say, "I need to break from this discipline & change something here, I'm just not seeing the progress I should be seeing". I do this all the time! I'm a big zwifter, & if I see my performance dropping, I will step back & say "what can I change". Better sleep, better diet, more distance work, not enough work in Zone 4 - generating these ideas & creating a new plan is the key discipline imo - & constantly learning more about my biology & the science of cycling. Suddenly I see my performance improve, which improves my mood, which improves my motivation, which increases my discipline even further!

The difficulty with trading is it's hard to know what to change when you step back & review
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ruthlessimon
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Here's a brilliant video.

Basically, Meccano deliberately put mistakes in the instruction manual to test children's ingenuity building the sets. The most disciplined children, diligently following the plan exactly - failed. Those who saw the mistake, & were clever enough to break from the discipline of the instructions - succeeded. But learning to be ingenuis is such a rare & difficult skill - which btw isn't taught anymore. Especially my generation. We were taught - not to think, but just to memorise - which is why I believe the failure rate of trading is so high.

https://youtu.be/_fSDWwpnKWs
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ShaunWhite
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ruthlessimon wrote:
Tue Feb 13, 2018 5:20 pm
We were taught - not to think, but just to memorise - which is why I believe the failure rate of trading is so high.
Trading failure rate is so high because it attracts a high number of people who want the earth but aren't prepared to put in the effort. And that demographic is booming.

Not sure when you were educated but in the 70s thinking at my grammar school definitely wasn't on the curriculum. But the biggest difference is in the way we had to be more ingenious and creative about finding entertainment which made us better and more tenacious problem solvers.
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nikolong
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Temperament is really important, and keeping an open mind. Determination too, to get over the learning period.
Emmson
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Dedication has become my main edge, I will do what others will not.......like in cricket follow every ball of a test match or every ball of a one day international. even if they start at 3.30am.
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Derek27
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Dallas wrote:
Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:33 pm
I'm sure I have seen this quote once from a wise old man some where ;)

"I have said this countless of times on this forum, but the difference between a successful trader and a bankrupt one, is what they do when faced with a red screen"

Undercomplicated and sums it up.
I agree with that, but there's also a difference between how successful and unsuccessful traders deal with green screens.

I can't remember who said cut your losses short - let your profits run long. It takes experience and discipline to learn; greening-up for a 2 tick profit and cutting your losses at 5-6 ticks is where I used to go wrong when I started trading. It may not bankrupt you but at the very least it wipes out all your profits!
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ruthlessimon
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Derek27 wrote:
Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:26 pm
cut your losses short - let your profits run long. It takes experience and discipline to learn; greening-up for a 2 tick profit and cutting your losses at 5-6 ticks is where I used to go wrong when I started trading.
That's another statement I hate ;) because it means nothing without the %winrate
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Derek27
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ruthlessimon wrote:
Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:39 pm
Derek27 wrote:
Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:26 pm
cut your losses short - let your profits run long. It takes experience and discipline to learn; greening-up for a 2 tick profit and cutting your losses at 5-6 ticks is where I used to go wrong when I started trading.
That's another statement I hate ;) because it means nothing without the %winrate
You're taking things too literally Simon, it was just basic advice for new traders and you don't want to burden a new trader with all the complexities of trading. There's nothing wrong with backing 3-1 on shots if you have an edge, but in most instances that advice holds true. Many new traders have posted on this forum that they were doing really well but one bad day blew all their profits. There are most likely taking risks to make small profits, which could be well be cutting profits for security.
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ruthlessimon
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I'm just bored of seeing that statement on every "trader" blog/website - Come on, us at BA are better than that!

"In most instances it holds true"

& this is why that statement won't ever die!! Because it's true, for those with the certain edges (which is a massively important caveat). I'd go so far as to say, apart from psychology - trading advice cannot be given generically. It has to be tailored to the exact trader's process & methodology. To those traders who have great weeks, then crap the next. I'd say, send their methodology to a trusted pro. Mainly, to check it's even an edge. Then specific actionable advice can be given
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Derek27
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ruthlessimon wrote:
Wed Feb 14, 2018 12:51 am
I'm just bored of seeing that statement on every "trader" blog/website - Come on, us at BA are better than that!

"In most instances it holds true"

& this is why that statement won't ever die!! Because it's true, for those with the certain edges (which is a massively important caveat). I'd go so far as to say, apart from psychology - trading advice cannot be given generically. It has to be tailored to the exact trader's process & methodology. To those traders who have great weeks, then crap the next. I'd say, send their methodology to a trusted pro. Mainly, to check it's even an edge. Then specific actionable advice can be given
Nobody has an edge when they first start trading and they are not likely to find an edge if they have the mentality of cashing out as soon as they're in profit without an overall plan. The statement is just a pointer in the right direction for new traders to consider. It's not a precise instruction.

People at BA are not better than that because this forum includes people who have just started trading and are learning from scratch.
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harsh
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Emmson wrote:
Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:10 pm
Dedication has become my main edge, I will do what others will not.......like in cricket follow every ball of a test match or every ball of a one day international. even if they start at 3.30am.
+1
spreadbetting
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Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:06 pm

Only thing that makes me a good trader is the fact my edge in knowing where the market's likely to go is big enough to allow me to make plenty of cock ups but still still come out on top.
bmz4
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Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:42 am

Asociality and phlegmatism. So you can sit whole day staring numbers and wait for opportunities. For me it's easy because i'm asperger. (Slighter version of autism). I would assume here are others same kind of personalities?
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