lord wrote:Expectations and reports of others making big cash amounts that deflates those traders who are making small cash amounts.
They can, although they can also inspire those traders.
I think it's important for traders not to worry about what other people earn or what they perhaps know that you don't, but to focus on what you can control, i.e. finding an edge and exploiting it ruthlessly.
Jeff
Your right Jeff, I'm saying 3% profit but others are saying 10% easy. Traders have been saying it's getting harder to trade i think it's because more people are trading and are happy to make a smaller percentage profit.
Over time, could be soon, 10% profits maybe very hard to get.
Stress relief? Trade through it and look for the next opportunity. It takes time to train the brain out a of destructive reactionary mentality (for some anyway, me included) but it's worth it in the long run for those who can.
I once fell into the trap of seeing other peoples blogs and what they were making and saw it as a negative, especially when I hit a bad patch, I sub-consciously went looking for other peoples success and was very bitter about it which re-enforced my feeling about myself at the time that I was a rubbish trader compared to others.
I think it is a very British thing (sweeping statement I know) to see others success and see the negative in it.
From my time living in America it was very different (another sweeping statement) people saw others having success and rather than negative thoughts they took positives and thought if they can do it, with hard work I might be able to do it as well. And that attitude was very much encouraged. In the UK we tend to look down on those that do well for themselves.
Just listen to Question Time, Any Question and the like and you soon realise how negative we are as a Country, a large part of our current problem I feel.
So don't look at blogs etc and see the negative always, look for the positives - one day you might be able to earn those amounts. If you don't achieve it don't be negative about it, look for other opportunities. That mind set will much more likely lead to success than a negative one.
Just this weekend I was beaten into second place in a half marathon by 11 seconds. Rather than look at the negative I took the positives, it helped me get a new PB and made me realise that if I try harder next year I might be able to beat him.
A negative mind set usually leads to negative results!
That is an excellent observation on the mind set of the majority of the UK population, and is something I am working hard on correcting in myself. If you open a trade with the mind set that it will most likely fail then in most cases it will as you will have taken the wrong entry point due to the way your mind is thinking.
I agree aswell with andyfuller's observations and as others have pointed out, our mindset is crucial. One of the things which interests me is how the left and right sides of our brains work differently. The left is logical and controls writing, speech etc and the right controls perception, music emotions etc. From what I have read and heard about trading and traders, if we learn to use both sides, it will be highly beneficial. Allow the brain to do what it does best!
Not easy to do but worth looking into. One of the best exercises, for those who read music, is sight reading. Read and play at the same time. Other exercises involve simply copying a picture upside down. The web will have other ideas.
Something I enjoy, which I believe may have helped me with regards to trading strategies is Chess.
I used to play it as a kid, and I mentioned this to an ex-girlfriend, so she bought me a rather nice chess set for my birthday
I play quite a bit of chess, both against a computer, and fellow players online. It's a great game for trading because you are always looking 2 or 3 moves ahead, you are analysing lots of scenarios at any given time, in fact the comparisons are endless
If you don't play Chess, I'd advise to give it a go
There are some interesting suggestions and a lot of useful information in this thread and all of them revolve around the question of how much a novice or a very experienced trader can safely take from the market with his own given level of experience and competence and how he can learn to avoid those negative moments that are either catastrophic or that can perniciously drain ones capital through steady losses.
The closest analogy to trading that I have encountered is in comparing it to learning to drive a car.
Any learner driver is initially faced with not only grasping a finely balanced feeling for and understanding of an accelerator, a brake, a clutch, rear view and wing mirrors etc (his tools) but he also has to gain sufficient understanding of all the different road systems, the traffic systems, crossings, lights etc (his signals). Even when a learner driver has mastered all the aforementioned essentials, he will then be faced over time with learning how to drive on many different types of roads, from motorways to country lanes, from lay-bys to windy and twisty B roads, from sandy beaches to hard gravel paths and even then he must master 3 point turns, handbrake spins and be able to instantly, and in advance, recognise the difference between snow, black ice and black tarmac (his playground).
In my opinion learning to drive a car is one of those complex tasks that utilises almost every human capability (right and left side) but once you have learned the rules, almost anyone can drive proficiently enough to get a licence but that doesn’t preclude him from ever being in an accident; he is, after all, a human being.
Novices that want to learn would be foolish to consider a Maserati, a car that take you from Edinburgh to Lands End in the blink of an eye but only in the hands of an expert driver whose knowledge of the roads is such that he knows every turn, every shortcut and every pothole of the journey. To extract £100 from trading that expert may be travelling in the racing car at a speed that is very comfortable for him but to a novice driving a Fiat Panda it would appear that the madman is travelling at breakneck speed. A novice may take 10 times longer to travel the same distance viz in trading terms earning just £3 for the same trip. There is no average and no right or wrong answer in how much capital you need to make X amount of money since the range of knowledge and experience between a novice and an F1 driver is immense.
The most important factor in an expert drivers favour is the fact that he has travelled many different roads, many times and instinctively knows when to brake and when to accelerate; he knows when it is safe to manoeuvre and when he needs to check his mirrors; he can beat the lights time after time by being in the right place at the right time and he can see a roadblock and instantly take evasive action. In the hands of a novice a Masarati can be a lethal weapon especially when he has little or no experience of the road ahead and can easily become reckless behind the wheel of such a car.
My advice to novices in this thread is to learn how to drive every type of car, safely on every road, in every condition and then do it again and again until you can afford to change your Fiat Panda for a Masarati.
P.S. Euler can drive any road, anywhere and in any driving conditions and also boil a kettle for tea at the same time. That is the level you need to aim for.
“I'm unusual in that I've got so natural at it that I trade in-between doing other things. But that's just a function of practice: -“
James1st wrote:
My advice to novices in this thread is to learn how to drive every type of car, safely on every road, in every condition and then do it again and again until you can afford to change your Fiat Panda for a Masarati.
P.S. Euler can drive any road, anywhere and in any driving conditions and also boil a kettle for tea at the same time. That is the level you need to aim for.
“I'm unusual in that I've got so natural at it that I trade in-between doing other things. But that's just a function of practice: -“
James1st wrote:
My advice to novices in this thread is to learn how to drive every type of car, safely on every road, in every condition and then do it again and again until you can afford to change your Fiat Panda for a Masarati.
P.S. Euler can drive any road, anywhere and in any driving conditions and also boil a kettle for tea at the same time. That is the level you need to aim for.
“I'm unusual in that I've got so natural at it that I trade in-between doing other things. But that's just a function of practice: -“
A top of the range panda would be very nice
I can scratch my arse and trade at the same time.
Boiling a kettle then making tea is out of my range!
Not took part in this thread as felt I wasnt experienced enough to say anything sensible about how to chill out after things go wrong. I am still at stage of hating everyone, everything and wanting world to go in reverse when things go t*ts up. HOWEVER, couldnt resist making a remark following the synogy of 'driving every car in every condition', which incidentally I thought was great.
We recently had our village xmas quiz in our one and only boozer. Just a fun quiz for locals with plenty of beer. This year we decided that the tie breaker should be a bit different and decided that we would have something based on one of the villagers. You guessed it - me! Since being in the village (12 years) I have had the pleasure of owning a lot of cars and motorcycles. These have ranged from the wifes car of a focus, vans, Mercedez and dare I say upto a Maserati Gran Tourismo, and including numerous Range Rovers etc etc. Also to include bikes such as Hyabusa's, a Ducati, a Harley, a track bike etc etc. The total came out as 37. The roads/lanes around here, particularly in winter are treacherous and I also used to go on track days. The question in the quiz was how many vehicles have I owned since arriving here - my question to you lot is how come I cant trade
