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What are the mental traits a successful trader must posses?
I've been debating about a week to ask this question in the forum, hesitating because i wasn't sure how to ask, or explain the question. So here goes:
About three weeks ago i got my first live demo account. The experience was totally absorbing for me. I did nothing else except eat-breathe-live paper trading for 8 days straight. Every day was an intense learning curve, my interest intensifying with each session. I went through a whole range of emotions, i can't even name them, but it was a full spectrum. By Friday of the first full week, I completely fell apart. I was ten times worse at trading, than the first and second day. Over that weekend i came to the painful conclusion that i was not cut out to be a trader; that i could never master the art of trading, and i was just going to lose a bundle of money trying. I was mentally crashing. I felt like a loser and felt really bad about it, because i enjoyed trading so much. Then the following Monday came along and something different happened. If you traded that day you will remember it well, the Market crashed, DOW giving up 200. I was paper trading NQ. That day I entirely threw out the window any system, and rules i had been using and just shot from the hip. No rules. If it felt good, i did it. The market that day was volatile, fast and furious. I ripped through about 8 trades in the first hour and hit every one, and for good points too. The rest of the day went about the same. Toward the end of the trading day it was like shooting ducks in a barrel. I had the zen of what i was doing, i saw and felt the big picture intuitively, as though i knew exactly what the herd was going to do, before they did it and i acted each time, pulling the trigger with confidence.
At the end of the day i tallied the score, i was up over $12,000 in paper value, of the 88 trades i did 79 trades were positive, averaging over 5 points per trade. After 6 previous days of losing paper money to the point where i turned into a basket case over my failure an inability to win, this one single day of complete turn-around success belonged in a different universe, like maybe the trading-twilight zone.
After that day, which was over week ago, i completely sat out. I had to think this over, and see what conclusions i could draw if any. I have no idea what happened that day, or how to get back there.
Thanks for reading this. My question is, has anyone else ever experienced something like this? or, does everyone? I'm kind of lost at what to think. I'm going back at it tomorrow.
Take it slow. This is a game for the long haul...not like a bottle rocket that sphewwwwssss and then POPS!
I did something very similar on a demo account. I make 5 trades or less now each week on a live account.
Completely different. Stay humble. The moment you think you know, you have no idea.
Great and honest post. Thanks for sharing your experience. To be a profitable trader and make consistent income, one MUST be able to successfully navigate the action. By action I mean the price that is being constantly offered to you then pushed or squeezed against you.
Very few think about the person on the other side of their trade. This is the single most important factor in trading that will decide your outcome. The bars, indicators, patterns, systems, structure, and action are all driven by what the other party is doing. The other party is the cause and everything else is the effect. I started a thread about it which has unfortunately only received generic and funny comments.
This is why some of the best "setups" you see still often fail to produce winning trades. We use tools and visuals to have context in what we decide to do relevant to direction and timing but the outcome after the entry is made is driven by the other party.
There are no "winning" entries. There are no winning trades that are decided in advance as many would like to believe.
It is a game of who has the will to hang in there and who will push the other out. It is a game of poker and a game of chicken. I best compare it to a tennis match in which one player will wear the other down to the point that an unforced error is made.
Many of us are correct in direction and premise on our winning trades but still end up donating to the market. This is the a result of the trader on the other side having the ability to wear us down and force an error.
Most beginning and many intermediate traders are chasing fixed "setups". However, what they don't realize is that the market is not static. The pace and the structure of the market changes over time. What you witnessed was one market environment - call it a high volume, fast paced, trending market and found that you can trade almost any with the trend "setup" and make money. This type of market doesn't come along every day. But when it happens if you can identify it, it can be the single day that makes your month. Now see if you can observe some commonalities of other more common days (like wide ranging, tight ranging, etc.). What type of trading works well in those market environments?
Congratulations btw on making an observation that few traders ever notice.
Hi Don,
Perhaps this is your forte! ..being in the zone and shooting from the hip. If you can replicate this experience and build confidence in your intuitive abilities fantastic! Perhaps you are a natural champion trader.
Some people are expert surfers with native intuitive ability riding the flow and the motion of each wave.
(If you asked them to explain every detail they would probably fall off the surf board. )
My thought is don't overthink it. Don't kill it with your left brain.
Thanks eudamonia for taking the time to explain that. I especially relate to this statement: => " call it a high volume, fast paced, trending market and found that you can trade almost any with the trend "setup" and make money." I suspected that was the case, and hitting those trades constantly was not genius, but exactly what i was supposed to be doing, given those conditions. Right, got it. Now i have to identify and learn to classify the other trading-day environments. This is reminding me a lot of how wind conditions and tidal action work on the water to produce a certain type of sea. Thanks again for the insight.
Hi Aquarian, I just noticed you are from Point Roberts, one of my old friends lives there also, a Canadian. A great place to live, indeed.
Yep, I think that's what i discovered, over-thinking. This experience probably saved me from quitting, and giving up on trading altogether. I'm going to press on, knowing that i got up on the surf board one time, and that it can be done. Damn, this is a hard nut to crack. I know, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.. lol. Thanks for the advise, it helps.
Cheers guys!
Yes it certainly is - at least for me. However, I doubt there are many who have cranked out a $12,000 day - sim or not. Perhaps for you the easy route is the best route. "Go with the Flow - bro!"
