I’ve been taking a minor natural break in trading over recent weeks, and in the meantime I’ve been pondering the power of the “WHY” I have when entering trades. You need a good why, no matter what you are doing in life, but especially when you walk into one of the toughest and most volatile markets in the world and put your money on the line.
What’s your WHY?
I can see looking back that the vast majority of my trading had a feeble why behind them; no wonder I lost cash hand over fist. Really my reason for entering was that I just wanted to enter, thats all. The second problem most likely is that even when I THOUGHT I had a good reason, the idea behind it was faulty.
So you can have no reason to enter, or you can have a wrong reason to enter.
Also I notice on the forums that the VAST MAJORITY of newbie / semi newbie traders there are trying to formulate their own personal why. Their own UNIQUE system, inventing unique indicators.
They think that the idea of the game is to outsmart everyone else in the market; to be unique. The obsession with system creation or inventing new indicators has being unique and outsmarting everyone else behind it as a hidden motivation. The thing with markets though is that its not about you, its about consensus. If you invent your own amazing oscillator and you are the only person in the world looking at it, then how good a reason is this to enter the market? How much consensus do you have behind you? Who supports your decision? Who agrees with you?
Probably nobody, except a handful by pure chance.
There’s more to say on this, but ponder your WHY when you pull the trigger. How good is that why?
How does basketball exactly relate to golf and perhaps trading successfully? Well, you’re going to soon find out!
In this article, Michael provides 10 rules for maximizing competitiveness and if you’ve been trading for any period of time, you’ll instantly recognize their value to trading successfully. In fact, here’s my personal take on how Jordan’s rules directly relate to making us all better traders:
Focus on the little things. It is true, if you focus on the little things (finding and exploiting attractive entry points, proper position sizing, sticking to stop loss levels, unbiased chart analysis, etc.) they’ll all add up to contribute to your big picture success and bottom line. When the pressure is on and tension and stress is high, traders must rely on the basic skills they’ve developed through constant practice to make the tough trades. That practice and constant dedication to improve oneself will make a world of difference when opportunities are the most plentiful.
Have total confidence in what you can do. As Michael says “If you have 100 percent confidence that you can pull off a shot, most of the time you will.” I couldn’t agree more. While we all make trades based on imperfect information and conflicting data, at all times we must be 100% confident in the trades we make. There’s a good reason why so many traders say you must always “trade to win” instead of “trading not to lose.” There’s a huge difference. In addition, the only way to have confidence you really need in the trades you make is to actually do the work the leads up to making those trades in the first place.
Don’t think about the prize; think about the work. Novice traders focus on how much money they stand to gain or lose from trading while great traders focus simply on the process of trading well and to their best of their ability. That’s a key difference. Sometimes a good trader will be very unhappy even if they make money in a particular trade because they didn’t trade it well or the trade violated their strategy and they got away with it whereas a novice trader will simply focus on the profits or losses no matter how and why they earned them. Money, and the rewards the flow from successful trading, are a low priority to the successful trader – instead trading well and trading even better the next time are the two top priorities. Read more…
Trading hours and decision making
You should make your overall (long or intermediate term) decisions before the trading hours and you should not change your general overview of the market during trading hours. Look at the bigger picture.
Breaks & presents
Take breaks from trading, don’t trade every day – after couple of weeks, make presents to yourself if you have been successful, go abroad or something like that. If you haven’t made profit, just take a couple of days off.
Crowd is wrong
Don’t follow the crowd, historically the public tends to be wrong. If everyone are buying, it might be good idea to start thinking of going short. If 85% of the market analysts are bullish, the market is most likely overbought, if less than 25% are bullish, it’s probably oversold.
Bets are bad
Don’t make bets. You don’t have to make trades multiple times a day or even every
day. Make trades only when you have a good reason to go into the trade. Wait for
an opportunity. If in doubt about the trade you have done, reduce the size or get out
of the trade.
Nicolas Darvas has inspired traders for many generations. His book, “How I Made 2,000,000 in the Stock Market” is one that you’ll find on many recommended reading lists including my own. While some have argued that much of Darvas’ success had to do with lucky timing, his books are still widely read and for good reason.
A lot of traders can identify easily with Darvas because he went through the process of learning how to trade much like most people do today. Darvas began by first looking for the “secret” to the market. And, just like all of us have found, after finding no success from trading on the stock tips of others including brokers and expensive newsletters, Darvas figured out that he ultimately had to develop a trading system on his own. He accomplished that feat by committing himself to years of study of the market and from learning from his own mistakes. His determination, perseverance, and constant self-evaluation offers an excellent model for all traders to follow.
In continuing a series of posts where I share my notes I’ve taken (and refer to from time to time) after reading the books and methods of others, here are some things you may find of interest about Nicolas Darvas and his approach:
Trading Lessons From Nicolas Darvas:
- There are no good or bad stocks. There are only stocks that rise in price and stocks that decline in price, and that price is based on the laws of supply and demand in the marketplace
- “You can never go broke taking a profit” is bad advice that will result in overtrading and cutting winners short. Selling winners and holding losers is to be avoided at all times Read more…
Many times, you won’t feel quite right about a buy or sell decision. If this feeling persists after you have done all your research and you have followed the rules to this point, don’t take the trade. Too many times, individuals try to rationalize a decision. Don’t try to find a good reason for making a bad decision. Your decision must be made with confidence.
Just refresh your memory and click here and see with your naked eyes…What I had written about 
.
From Rs.1367 to 1520 in just 8 sessions only.My triangle breakout target was of 1536.Already kissed 1520.
-Yes ,Our Susbcribers sold 70% holding.
Always remember :Successful traders have a well scheduled planned time for studying the markets.
Continually strive for patience, perseverance, determination, and rational action.
Never change your position in the market without a good reason. When you make a trade, let it be for some good reason or according to a definite plan; then do not get out without a definite indication of a change in trend.
Updated at 12:30/1st Sept/Baroda
