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Zen & the Art of The Small Account


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Zen & the Art of The Small Account

  #991 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
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I am bored, my dad's still in the hospital after a 3rd procedure to fix the gall bladder and the AC is barely working. Repairman on the way between 9 and 6....so stuck at home in a very warm house....

Nothing really to do so thought I would re-read some of my thread. That was humbling, embarrassing experience.

I changed so many things so many times. I read every 10th page. Nothing was the same from page to page. I have a year of trading a different set up almost every month. Its horrible. No wonder it is taking me so long to become profitable. I had no idea what I was looking at from month to month.

To be honest, I've been using MOSTLY naked charts these last two weeks. It has made big difference in how I see price action. To be fair, my trading has not improved over the indicator based trading but each day brings me more confidence in my ability to see and feel the market. There are certain patterns that seem to repeat themselves over and over and I am beginning to see improvement in taking ONLY those trades. What must get better as I mentioned in my previous post is holding the trades. Today, I was able to hold trades much better. I think this comes from confidence in the patterns.

A buddy of mine said today, fear comes from lack of skill and confidence can breed greed. Suddenly the fear and greed syndrome crystallized for me. My fear is skill based and my greed...yes I get greedy...comes from my perceived confidence in some sort of set up.

For instance, today, I hit it out of the park. Trade after trade paid nicely. Then at the end, that little voice that tells you when you've had enough shouted at me to stop trading longs. I ignored that voice and sure enough, gave it all back in three trades. Was it lack of skill that cost me the money? Nope...the entries were ok, one was suspect to be sure but two were justifiable. What did me in was greed and ignoring that little voice that can keep you out of so much trouble if you just listen.

I had to much confidence. Each set up was working. So I figured what the heck, the next few would work as well. At this point, I became a gambler and not a trader.

This thread started as an experiment in turning a small account into a large one. That experiment has failed in the sense that I believe it is possible to do so for a beginner. Can an experienced trader do it....sure I think so. But to go from where I started to where I wanted to be in the beginning is next to impossible. Not impossible but highly improbable.

Through this journal, here are the top ten lessons I have learned.

1. Patience is king.
2. Risk control is your salvation.
3. Familiarity with a market is critical if one is to be successful. This comes only with live market screen time.
4. If you must change something, change yourself. Not your charts. Don't curve fit your indicators. It is a fools errand.
5. Keep the charts as simple as possible. To much information leads to lack of conviction in the trade.
6. Don't trade live until you have complete conviction in your trade method. If you don't, you will have fear with each trade.
7. Never look at charts historically from the perspective that you are looking for the coulda, woulda, shoulda trades. Your emotions are not the same. Instead, look at charts historically with the idea of spotting patterns you might be able to recognize in real time.
8. Don't trade scared money.
9. Play for singles and doubles. You don't need home runs to make money
10. Know when to stop.

This is my last post in this journal. Over the weekend, I will begin a new one. This one will focus on a few issues.

1. The chart patterns. I'll mark in real time. Show the trade and the reason for the trade.
2. The emotion I felt at the time. This will be tougher as sometimes price is moving kinda fast and I can't take time to identify each emotion on the fly. But I will try.
3. Statistics. Winners, losers, risk control, etc. I'll post my spreadsheet summary every day if I have time and at least on Friday's if I don't.

And one last thing, I am changing my screen name from aztrader to PandaWarrior. The reason is simple. I love the kids movie KungFu Panda. Everyone is on the search for the secret to make them the ultimate kungfu fighter. When the scroll containing the secret is finally opened, there is nothing there but a reflection of the one who opened the scroll. The realization is this, "there is no secret. It lies within you".

These last two years has convinced me of one thing. Nothing I do in regards to changing my charts, my indicators or method of trading will produce the success I am looking for. Only by looking within myself and coming to terms with the fact that I am my own worst enemy and my own best friend will this journey begin to produce the fruit I want.

I can trade successfully. It is within my ability. I know what to do. Now I must do it.


Cheers.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
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  #992 (permalink)
 
rtrade's Avatar
 rtrade 
Paradise, USA
 
Experience: Beginner
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PandaWarrior View Post
The realization is this, "there is no secret. It lies within you".
I can trade successfully. It is within my ability. I know what to do. Now I must do it.


AZ, oops I mean PW...your so ZEN Got to love it!!! Dude, I know you can trade for some time now. Relax and just let it go! Let that trader in you FREE! Don't THINK too much, JUST TRADE! It can only get better from here on...Onward and Upward Panda Warrior!

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." --- "Therefore, I Believe it and I will see it. And every day and in every way, I am healthier, wealthier, and wiser."
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal
  #993 (permalink)
 
Adamus's Avatar
 Adamus 
London, UK
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader, home-grown Java
Broker: IB/IQFeed
Trading: EUR/USD
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PandaWarrior View Post
For instance, today, I hit it out of the park. Trade after trade paid nicely. Then at the end, that little voice that tells you when you've had enough shouted at me to stop trading longs. I ignored that voice and sure enough, gave it all back in three trades. Was it lack of skill that cost me the money? Nope...the entries were ok, one was suspect to be sure but two were justifiable. What did me in was greed and ignoring that little voice that can keep you out of so much trouble if you just listen.

I had to much confidence. Each set up was working. So I figured what the heck, the next few would work as well. At this point, I became a gambler and not a trader.

My experience with the little voice in the back of my head is that it can often be misleading.

I think we traders have to learn to distinguish between the little voice that is telling us something our subconcious knows, something we've gained from experience and long hours of sim trading, and the little voice that is just saying stuff that come from somewhere else based on nothing but assimilation from our environment like our parents or our teachers or friends or partner.

In my limited experience the true voice sounds less like a voice and is more of simple expectation that something will happen.

The misleading voice is one that makes me ask myself straight away if it could be wrong.

Because basically when you told yourself to stop, you didn't know you were going have 3 losers so that's not the way to judge if it was a good decision to carry on. I'm not a fan of having daily profit targets, so I wouldn't have stopped. I feel it's best to trade a regular period every day and not to stop half way through. It doesn't make sense to me. You'll always give profits back, it's a part of trading.

Just my 2 cents.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal
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  #994 (permalink)
 
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 tderrick 
Nashville, Tennessee
 
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Good to read your observations again, my friend.

Hope your father is doing well.


AJ
Nashville, Tennessee


"Life On The Edge of SR"
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal
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  #995 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
Thanks Received: 13,404

Future posts can be found here


Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
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Last Updated on July 25, 2011


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