Category: Trading Journey

Many of us as traders had probably gone through a long , tough and dark journey , before we see light. Trading needs lots of hard work as well as commitment. As a trader , I have learned to be both optimistic and pessimistic , depending on situations. It is all about how we handle changes.

During time of setback , many fellow traders and friends were telling me that there is light at the end of the tunnel. In the early days of learning to trade , that light never seemed to appear at all , for a long time , at least …

The answer to successful versus painful adjustment to change lies in the differences between an individual’s expectation for the future and the way he or she interprets the cause of the change. This is the difference between the optimistic versus the pessimistic personality. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about what you are doing now - be it trading or your current career ?

Based on research conducted …

Not long ago , my wife bought a high pressure cooker during our trip to China. This cooker can do the job at less than half the time needed for a normal cooker. Many countries banned this item , probably due to safety reason. I had advised my wife not to use it , after seeing how the pressure builds up inside the cooker. My blood pressure builds up too when I see her using this device. If you do not see any new update in this trading blog for months , you probably can imagine what happened to me .. touch WOOD !!!! …. I have another 50 thousands blog posts to share with you , and I need to live long to tell you my whole trading journey …

I am seeing the price we may need to pay for speeding up job. Many traders friends of mine like to think that ” trading is a get rich overnight job “. I always like to reverse this …

What creates loneliness in a trader ? The answer is in these 2 four-letter words - Draw Down.

As human , we tend to talk more about our winnings than losers. That is quite natural , probably we want to maintain face value. This “keeping to ourselves” behavior is stressful and may be a time bomb to our health and psychology …

The loneliness of trading is a painful reality for traders , regardless of their level of success , their experience or their personal relationships. Trading is the most lonely job in the world , probably. The stresses built into the profession of trading isolate traders from their natural , emotional supports and outlets.

Large losses , competition , and the built-in psychological and physical demands of trading create a perfect climate for traders to learn how to repress their day-to-day feelings of fear , guilt , sadness , isolation and boredom in order to keep going.

Unfortunately , it is this survival pattern of blocking and not communicating feelings which can make a trader feel …

I love watching Formula One racing. This is the highest class of Grand Prix racing , I guess. The ” formula ” in the name is a set of rules which all racing participants and cars must meet.

I am trying to relate Formula One or F1 , to our trading world. That is right - we have Rules to follow in trading too. We set our own trading rules. We need only One Formula ( correct one ) to be successful in trading.

I am not sure how many of my fellow traders would agree or disagree with me …

Trading is all about focus. We cannot do anything well without being totally focused. Focus means you must first get rid of distractions , and annoyances to your goal or lifestyle. Then you need to continually define and redefine your formula so that you can work on focus to and fro for that formula.

As traders this means we need to identify what our personal market focus is. We need to define what our formula is …

Almost everyone who gets involved in trading does so with the objective of making money. Most people also have the dream of becoming such a great trader that they can purchase or have anything their heart desires. Some of these folks dream of managing money and collecting 20% of the profits on hundreds of millions of bucks of capital. Others dream of breaking Larry Williams’ record of turning ten thousands into over one million in twelve months. Still others dream of taking their small amount of capital and , over the years , turning it into tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Sounds familiar ? You could also be one of those dreamers , like me before …

Whatever the dreams , the question becomes : What separate those who reach that dream from those who fail ? Believe it or not , it is the same thing that separates the successful people from the masses in other fields. The successful ones have a plan for success and they follow it. Another …

Online trading attracts us with the promise of financial freedom. If you can trade , you can live and work anywhere in the world. You have no boss to answer to , no necessity to answer to customer complaints , and no reports to write. Isn’t that wonderful ?

If you are currently employed , think of this … Are you making a living out of your job , or are you making a dying ?

Consider the average working class , the alarm clock rings at 6:30am and our working man is up and running. Shower and wash up. Dress up in your professional attire or overalls. Breakfast if there is time , otherwise grab your laptop carrying case and join the rush hour and traffic jam. This is a daily punishment for the working people , unless you commute by helicopter , if you are the CEO of a large corporation.

On the job from nine to five - deal with the boss , deal with colleagues , and exercise a little bit of office politics , if necessary. Deal …

What are your top two goals in your life at this point of time ? Security and Sex ? Health and Security ?

Success and Happiness for me at this point of time as a trader. Many traders never achieve success and happiness simultaneously. Key reasons are :

We worry constantly about losing in the markets. Fear and confidence factors.
We need to feel excitement , which tends to create losses. Many people pay to get excitement from the market.
We set conditions on our happiness. Do you do that too ?
We focus on what we do not yet have. Day dreaming too much …

As traders become more successful , they have more to lose , more to worry about and more to achieve before they can become happy. Misery-thinking too often becomes a way of life for traders. Then they can never be happy …

Yes , this potent combination of trader success and trader happiness is rare. That is because so few traders understand the underlying forces in their profession which work against their happiness as they propel themselves toward success….

I am doing daytrading. I trade both forex as well as SP500 E-mini futures. For forex , though the trading duration is round the clock , there are realistically only 3 periods that are most active : London open , Asia open and US market open. For SP500 , the window of opportunity is even shorter. I found that once there is hesitation in any trade decision , then I miss the opportunity for the day altogether. As such , trades execution must be flawless.

What flawless execution means is acting on an opportunity ( either getting in or out of a trade ) the moment you see that it’s an opportunity without hesitation. Once there is second thoughts , then game over …

 Flawless execution does not mean having the perfect trade. Many traders want a guaranteed outcome. And that is the reason why many people hesistate when it comes time to put on a trade or cover an open position. They want the guaranteed outcome , but they realize there isn’t a guarantee , so they fail to be …

Habits shape and mould our lives. Everyone has his own habits in daily chores as well as in work and other things we do. What we do every day is what we build on and if the habits we develop are good ones , we will have a solid foundation. Our successes in life or trading are rarely the result of luck. They are more likely to be the result of good trading system and good personal habits , which support success. Trading is all about consistency and practicing good habits will ensure consistency and is the key to success.

On the other hand , our losses and failures are often the result of our bad habits. These negative and sabotaging habits will surface when we are under stress and our bad behaviour becomes automatic. At that point , we will resort to our everyday behaviours or had habits. At the very moment we need to be at our best , we may find that we are guided by the actions that we never …

Trading is a tough journey. We need serious personal commitment to transform our Dreams into Reality. Nothing jump-starts us on our roadmap to success quicker than making a solid commitment to our goals. When we commit ourselves to a desired result , we are like aiming or zooming our rifle to the ” bulleye ” or ” target ” . Then , magically it seems , we proceed on ” auto pilot “. Our brain gives us the signals and appropriate actions to pursue the target , no matter how it tries to elude us ! It is just so amazing … have you ever felt or experienced that before ? It is sort of difficult to express in words.

Without a firm commitment to a goal , our autopilot remains in the “off” position ; there is no basis for any action since we are not even taking any aiming onto any target at all. Perhaps only a hazy idea meanders in and out of our consciousness. …