Matt -- I agree with you completely -- the more I work at
creating specific notes ahead of time for actions to take if
certain things occur, the better I do in the heat of the moment. I
do keep a trading journal and I find that when I get lazy about my
journal I usually regret it. Thanks for talking about this!
puma - one thing we've all learned about trading is that since
we are humans and not robots, a huge part of trading is emotions,
discipline, etc. The charts and technicals are actually the easy
part, I'd say the emotional aspect is actually the biggest limiting
factor for most people after they initially learn some rudimentary
TA. I've seen so many crazy smart people, genius IQ's who
just can't trade, they understand the charts and technicals, but at
the end of the day can't trade worth a damn) because of their
emotion and/or lack of discipline. And I see average Joe or normal
smart people who trade very very well. Trading is not about
how smart you are guys!!!
While this site focuses on charts and TA, this other side is
just as big. I remember one website (the guy was nuts though
Steve remembers him) had a trading psychologist who would do
articles for his site.
over the years I've written various rants on this subject, I
should one day put them together into a series.
Even though systems have their limitations, especially coded
ones because it's very difficult to code what one sees on a chart,
systems generally do better than most folks because they do have a
discipline to them, stops, targets, entries, vs trading willy nilly
like so many do.
Most great traders I know, even if they scoff at systems,
actually trade their one system in a way even if they don't know
it. They have set things that they look for, set conditions,
and good risk management, repeatable things they have noticed over
the years that work for them - that's a system. You don't
trade successfully without a systematic approach. Steve here
for example I know he says that he's not a systems guy, but I
guarantee if you were to examine his trading during the day, you
would find it very systematic.
There's clearly an art to trading as well, the art comes in
after having looked at many 1000's of charts over many years, you
start to develop a feel, or six sense for a chart that you can't
always easily explain to others, but you know it and use it in your
trading. For example the Stochastic trades that I have been
showing, the entries are very methodical, however the stops at
times can be adjusted slightly depending on how the overall chart
looks like, and for targets, same thing, there are times when you
want to trailing your stops up and give a little room and other
times when you hit and run take little profits.
anyway enough of the Frailey rant, I need to get back to
newsletter
Matt, I agree with you completely on the psychological issues
being the biggest. We're on the same page. Ultimately we all
integrate the technicals with our own psyches and come up with ways
to trade that work for US. It's always personal in some way or the
other, how we each do this thing. There are no magic formulas, just
helpful patterns that repeat often enough to give us edges.
Matt -- I agree with
IWM Resistance (Seems like)
Posted by puma on 18th of Apr 2016 at 05:18 pm
Matt -- I agree with you completely -- the more I work at creating specific notes ahead of time for actions to take if certain things occur, the better I do in the heat of the moment. I do keep a trading journal and I find that when I get lazy about my journal I usually regret it. Thanks for talking about this!
puma - one thing we've
Posted by matt on 18th of Apr 2016 at 07:49 pm
puma - one thing we've all learned about trading is that since we are humans and not robots, a huge part of trading is emotions, discipline, etc. The charts and technicals are actually the easy part, I'd say the emotional aspect is actually the biggest limiting factor for most people after they initially learn some rudimentary TA. I've seen so many crazy smart people, genius IQ's who just can't trade, they understand the charts and technicals, but at the end of the day can't trade worth a damn) because of their emotion and/or lack of discipline. And I see average Joe or normal smart people who trade very very well. Trading is not about how smart you are guys!!!
While this site focuses on charts and TA, this other side is just as big. I remember one website (the guy was nuts though Steve remembers him) had a trading psychologist who would do articles for his site.
over the years I've written various rants on this subject, I should one day put them together into a series.
Even though systems have their limitations, especially coded ones because it's very difficult to code what one sees on a chart, systems generally do better than most folks because they do have a discipline to them, stops, targets, entries, vs trading willy nilly like so many do.
Most great traders I know, even if they scoff at systems, actually trade their one system in a way even if they don't know it. They have set things that they look for, set conditions, and good risk management, repeatable things they have noticed over the years that work for them - that's a system. You don't trade successfully without a systematic approach. Steve here for example I know he says that he's not a systems guy, but I guarantee if you were to examine his trading during the day, you would find it very systematic.
There's clearly an art to trading as well, the art comes in after having looked at many 1000's of charts over many years, you start to develop a feel, or six sense for a chart that you can't always easily explain to others, but you know it and use it in your trading. For example the Stochastic trades that I have been showing, the entries are very methodical, however the stops at times can be adjusted slightly depending on how the overall chart looks like, and for targets, same thing, there are times when you want to trailing your stops up and give a little room and other times when you hit and run take little profits.
anyway enough of the Frailey rant, I need to get back to newsletter
One thing we've learned is...
Posted by stevieb294 on 19th of Apr 2016 at 07:21 am
"Trading is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical." - Yogi Berra
You should rant more often
Posted by payday on 19th of Apr 2016 at 05:11 am
You should rant more often Matt. Very well said and unfortunately, most newbies won't get this. In fact, I think most people won't get this.
Matt, I agree with you
Posted by puma on 18th of Apr 2016 at 08:14 pm
Matt, I agree with you completely on the psychological issues being the biggest. We're on the same page. Ultimately we all integrate the technicals with our own psyches and come up with ways to trade that work for US. It's always personal in some way or the other, how we each do this thing. There are no magic formulas, just helpful patterns that repeat often enough to give us edges.
Nicely said, Matt.
Posted by stevieb294 on 18th of Apr 2016 at 08:14 pm
Thanks!