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Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals and Crypto.
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Been meaning to make this comment in the "Battlestations" thread but haven't got around to it. Lots of lovely pictures of multi screen setups with dozens of charts most with several indicators. Can't see a spreadsheet anywhere. My setup is the opposite. Two tiny charts, but monitors full of spreadsheets! I'm with Big Mike and not a fan of random line theory/TA. May work for some people, but clearly doesn't work for most.
Don't think those guys are using charts either. But then again they aren't using spreadsheets either. (Or probably winning any Battlestations competitions!)
I did this several years ago although it was using daily bars rather than intraday. Proved to me that risk management is extremely important! RIsk management may not turn random entries into winning systems but it will prevent them from destroying you.
I want to test something. It's simple. Place some random lines on your chart prior to the day opening, and see if at the end of the day you feel like those lines were important (try to imagine they weren't random, but some expensive or complicated …
This is kind of off-topic from OP, but I had to ask here to keep continuity and for benefit of all others like me.
What exactly are you monitoring using spreadsheets? I mean like your trades taken? Bunch of numbers about indicator values? Some kind of VBA program that does something when some conditions are met? Something else? An actual screenshot here could help us tremendously.
I ask because modern day platforms provide a lot of things, someone new coming into the game with all these tools, may have not even considered use of spreadsheet or thought about it, and tbh I doubt even knows what to use it for.
I would agree that mindset is a large part of trading. There is no doubt. But, as usual, things can be emphasized that are not really understood. And trading, unfortunately, is not well understood in the correct way.
If it’s 90% mindset than, heck, we can just go get a massage, go to the gym, take that great walk or whatever one needs to do to get into the right mindset and then come back and have a 90% win rate since “trading is 90% mental”. No, I think this point has been misunderstood. Sure, in the beginning of ones trading, I can totally see this. It was very much the case with me as well. But, there are too many uncertainties when one is starting to learn anything, let alone trading, that do include a proper mindset.
When I look over my years as a price action trader, yes, it is very true that my mindset had a lot to do with my success or lack thereof. But, only in the phase of my learning where I was still unsure as to what I was looking for. When you are unsure about what you are looking for, your emotions will certainly kick in the hardest. After all, we are dealing with money. An emotionally charged subject all by itself. That’s why you need to learn in SIM mode first. Learn to trade properly, much less emotion, then once you’re consistent, start the move to real money, slowly. What I discovered is that, as one’s competence level and certainty increases in how they can read the prices move on their chart, it becomes more and more of a ritual of just following ones rules because, after you’ve had enough winning trades and see that you certainly can make it as a trader, the mindset stuff becomes less and less important. It never goes away and to this day, when I’m in a trade (am a scalper), if the trade starts to go into some congestion and starts taking longer than the usual 1 minute or so to complete, I can certainly feel the emotions start to come to the surface. But it is fairly easy to handle because, if one is consistent and skilled, a trader can look over their last many weeks or months of trades and see they have made the correct entry decision in the high majority of entries, and the mental aspect simmers down and gets replaced by confidence and certainty in the entry decision.
So my point is, yes, mindset is very important but gets less important as a "crutch" as one become competent and certain in their trading or motocross racing or ping pong or golfing or....
That's my take on it. I hope that helps anyone on this journey.
I would like to thank your honesty for sharing the hard truth reality of retail day trading. After 20 years of experiencing the game of trades I feel the same. Trading courses, trading software and trading books from gurus are expensive and, in some cases, unaffordable. And the benefits from them are not significant to make money in the long run.
If you look at statistics, 95% of traders lose money. I would be more inclined to think what we are being taught is useless. I am following another "guru" who keeps going back to the professionals vs the retail traders, and claims the professionals take advantage of, and profit off of, the retailers who are trying to follow all the same signals they are being taught. Im sure there is some truth to the psychological mindset of the trader, but I dont think enough to move the statistics a whole lot.
Also, there is some truth to the buy the next course mentality. It is just like marketing gurus teaching you how to make money online. They tell you enough to get you in trouble. Just enough to make you think you understand it, but not all the nuances that will actually make a difference. Everyone wants to teach a done for you program, but if they would teach effectively, you wouldn't need it done for you.
I like to think all the profits are going to the options sellers, and the outright futures contracts are just the brokers and institutions hedging off the risk from taking the other side of the options trades.
