The pack fo dogs that had taken up residence across the street appears to have moved on. It’s much cooler here now, and the majority of Mexican families enjoying the last of their summer vacations, are also leaving – in exchange for the steady stream of “sun seeking retirees” now seen dotting the beach. There are fewer children now…their playful laughter will be missed.
My mother tells me that I need to find balance, and not spend my life staring at this confounded computer…she always knows best. Over the years I’ve come to recognize the importance of this – despite having incredible difficulty putting it into practice..I do try.I do try to find “balance”.
Often trading can become “all-consuming” for those of us who so enjoy the challenge. Day after day the constant battle, the math, the pressure, the flood of emotion accompanying every success or failure. The joy – the pain. So the importance of “getting away from it all” and clearing ones head – cannot be understated.
The sea turtles are waiting. Their calming presence – a gift.
Find the time to get away from the screen – as we all know – come Monday…….the wolves will be waiting.
I am new to your site, courtesy of the link you left at SMT. I would like to acknowledge that I enjoy all of your posts here and at SMT. The bluster that follows some of your posts at the former are quite invigorating and give the comments some depth.
I have been trading for just 3 years and have made some and lost lots. Needless to say the curve of learning for me is still steep. The knowledge gained here and there are valued greatly and much appreciated.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Graham..and thank you for the support.
There is no question it takes alot of hard work and perseverance – I would suggest sticking to it – but trading small (very small) while learning.
Yes the SMT crowd is a complete and total anomaly to me – so totally defensive and even hipocritical considering the postion they are in. I’ve really only tried to help but….when people are in such losing postions – emotions really do get the better of them.
Lets hope we can keep the dialoge here “constructive”. Feel free to chime in any ol time Graham…all questions / views / opinions welcome!
Hello Graham,
I find the3 most important aspects to successful & profitable investing/trading are the following.
• Plan
I find that most traders do not have one, they do all the homework related to chart & trend analysis confirm a good entry point and Boom enter a trade. I myself have made this error earlier in my investing career. Plan out your entry or target price, set stops based on asset volatility, and exit price or trailing exits. Put pen to paper before placing a trade and follow it!! I find this approach removes all the emotion ( I’ll get to that later) that can creep in on any given trade. ( stops – review asset volatility so as to not get stop out just on normal asset movement)
• Emotions
I think this is one of the most challenging aspects of this business & if you are successful in managing your emotions then the trades will fall into place. Greed can ruin perfectly good trade trying to squeeze every last penny out of any one trade ( Plan & Targets ). Fear works in the same fashion fear of losing money when a trade goes against you holding one trying to recovery. A silver 1-2 thousand loss can quickly ruin ones PF adding pressure to all following trades trying to recover losses adding fuel to the fire. ( Stops – set them and follow ) the next trade is around the corner.
• Risk-Management
I find that this helps with overall PF performance & longevity, remember your trying to extract from the market. The longer your around the more trades you will be participating in and increasing you chances. Yes the large one time trade that pays off feels great but at what risk to you PF? You would be surprised that you’ll actually make more money with smaller controlled trades IMHO. Leverage is a wonderful tool to have in your box and can maximize your profits – however as in life things work both ways. Be prepared when using leverage of the amplified losses – most novice traders only look at the possible gains while missing the risks they place their PF in.
I think if you learn to follow these three basic investing rules you will in a very short time period fine your PF growing on the positive side.
Thanks Schmed….
Schmederling……thanks for the input. Of course I have heard all these points before…….my gambling nature however has driven me off the road to understanding the importance of these three points on occasion. Since I am now long PM’s to not only follow my plan but to recover some of my profit loss I do intend to pullout at the next ICT and regroup which is precisely why I use SMT.
I also appreciate the words you contribute at these sites and of course will use them wisely now and onwards.
Cheers
Thanks as well Schmed….your input here is appreciated.
Graham…..I think you’ve got the right idea in considering “pulling out/going to cash” in times of indecision – another cliche…but all to true – “sometimes the best trade is no trade at all”.
Im at odds with how you would consider timing the next “ICT” thru SMT as the timing of this “ICL”..and the trade advice recommended has been so…well……u know. In my view “hope” is not part of a successful trading strategy -so you’ve got it…….get to cash as fast as you can and regroup.
Thanks for the list, Schmed. Stops are something that are difficult for me too, but stripping the emotion of a loss is something that just has to be done, like you’ve said.
The fear of losing money or more so being wrong on a specific drives one to hold on, you have to emotions in this situation. With stops you remove this out of the equation completely. Just make sure your stops are placed accordingly to the asset & or risk tolerance. For example SLV – silver is a very volatile commodity – coal is up there as well perhaps even more so. you can have .30 to .60 swings at time and they can get even greater. The last this you want is to be stopped out of a good trade because of the assets natural movements. Early in my learning period I was in a situation where I was in a trade that went the wrong way & was in the red 2k very quickly – needless to say I did not have a plan nor and exit plans or stops. I held on in the hopes of a recovery… within 48hrs the trade moved to 14K to the red leveraged. I continued to hold and was lucky that an positive earnings report came out driving the asset back to recovery and make some scraps. This was very lucky and I learned a priceless lesion only costing me some stress and a couple gray hairs….
Cheers…