Nice thread. Surely very advantageous for beginners . Great effort.
After consistently profitable, will you become boring? 26 replies
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Your consistently profitable trading style 37 replies
Consistently Profitable Signal Journal: Simple, Low Maintenance Gains 0 replies
Disliked{quote} ... No one armed with a clear objective winning system will mess it up with money management or develop psychology issues of patience, discipline or fear. Money naturally ensures that - we are at our best. Both become relevant when the systems fall short. And yes they all do.Ignored
I'm sure you can think of more, but there is one thing that is clear. You must have a good sampling of your trading activities...I always tell my students, minimum of 100 trades. You cannot draw any conclusions or make any decisions without at least that much data to document the actual outcomes of your trades. 100 trades MINIMUM!
Why? This exercise forces you to do several things with your trading while you are recording the data...not the least of these is to try and trade the same way each and every time to keep your data integrity. If you can't do that for at least 100 trades, how on earth are you going to do it as a business? This, together with your trading journal documenting your thinking process, will give you 100 outcomes to evaluate if your current methodology really works, and more importantly if it really works FOR YOU. Be prepared to question EVERYTHING you "know" about the markets and your trading beliefs.
This is the longest and hardest part of forming your trading strategy and methodology...trading it for 100 trades, documenting 300 trading decisions (one for entry, one for stop, one for exit...each is a decision). Keeping your date intact and studying not only your method, but yourself. I'm willing to bet that when you are done, you will find many things that don't work well, and some things that actually work better than you anticipated.
This brings me to a famous quote from Dennis Gartman: "Do more of that which succeeds, and less of that which does not." Get rid of anything that does not help you trade well, and keep/add those things that do. All of the sudden you will find yourself with a very lean trading belief and methodology to go along with it. This will be your starting point...
Adjust, clean house, and start again!! Yes another 100 trades...rinse repeat. By the time you have done this 5-6 times you have a very good idea of what YOU believe about the markets and how YOU can use that information to your advantage. In addition you will now also have an extremely good idea of how YOU react to just about every market condition out there...and again...because you've documented those reactions...AND now how solid data to show the results, you now have the basis for the next step in this process...which I will address tomorrow (time permitting).
Just let me clear up something that I hear many times...This journal and spreadsheet data is NOT taken from your past trading activities...where you were floundering around with no real clear direction. This is 100 DEMO trades (forward testing) any system or method you think is your best bet...RIGHT NOW. Don't go to your MT4 platform and start downloading the data from your trades...those are past and now useless...start NEW, and demo trade 100 trades and keep you best foot forward with each and every one. Try to trade each trade the same way, and document, document, document. Once you have completed 100 trades in your spread sheet, AND you have the journal of your thinking process for each of those trades...you now have the basis to take an entire week (or two) to look at those trades, correlate them with your journal and again WRITE DOWN your trading and market beliefs.
Disliked"Do more of that which succeeds, and less of that which does not." Get rid of anything that does not help you trade well, and keep/add those things that do. All of the sudden you will find yourself with a very lean trading belief and methodology to go along with it. This will be your starting point... Adjust, clean house, and start again!! Yes another 100 trades...rinse repeat. By the time you have done this 5-6 times you have a very good idea of what YOU believe about the markets and how YOU can use that information to your advantage.Ignored
Disliked{quote} I could not agree with this more. Testing and measuring everything, and documenting it all with spreadsheets and a journal has by far been one of the best moves I've made in my trading journey. I realize that there will always be uncertainty in the markets but by thoroughly testing and documentation of my own decision making process, I can gain a level of confidence that allows me to be comfortable enough with uncertainty that I can trade my plan with real money.Ignored
Dislikedu would all be more productive doing a mass circle jerk with each other...ok go ahead and ignore me, wtf do i careIgnored
DislikedIt has more to do with most trader lack of or misunderstanding of the principles the methodology or system is built on. Admittedly the designer probably had a very clear idea of what he/she was trying to accomplish but not anyone else. This is why I always advise people to design their own methodology based on their own beliefs about the market. Each of us has our own unique view of the world and therefore the markets. These views create different beliefs, which then express themselves in each person uniquely. ...Ignored
DislikedLearn to ask the "right" questions: A big part of gathering data on your trading is knowing which data points you want to see. Admittedly this is also a subject with many points of view, and it is really up each individual to decide which data points are most relevant to help decide what is needed...so that brings me to the title of this post...Learn to ask "the right" questions. Asking the right questions about your trading may be simultaneously one of the most frustrating AND revealing to your success. When trying to gain consistently, it is more...Ignored
Disliked{quote} What a nice post, and not just something that will help in trading, but in life too Thank you for including it in your thread. I found out about better questions through trial and error, with truck-loads of errors lol. Hope others can take note if they want to collect meaningful data.Ignored
Disliked{quote} Thank you for your kind words...I hope you find something worth while that will assist you in your trading quest to become profitableIgnored
DislikedLearn the True Nature of "Risk": This term "risk" is thrown around often and most feel they really know what it means, but a few questions about what risk actually can reveal that most are really unaware of its true nature. Most of us equate risk to monetary loss. That is a very small part of it, but what most people consider the most important part. Yet these same people will think nothing of climbing onto a 2.5 ton machine and hurl themselves at 115 Km/Hr and risk the lives of themselves, and any friends and family members that may be accompanying...Ignored
Disliked...Unfortunately driving risks and trading risks do not equate in my view...Ignored
Disliked...To be consistently profitable you have to start today and every day you need to be profitable? Or every week/year etc?...Ignored
Lets try not to get too sidetracked on whether my metaphor/analogy was the correct on for you...