DislikedMark Douglas...the guy admits he can't trade - how can he then set out on a career as a trader mentor and coach?Ignored
For those in the know, is van Tharp in the same camp as Douglas? I didn't like his books because they were childish (the cartoons really made me doubt everything) and full of references to god (what is it about people that they so badly need to prove others of their faith?) and really didn't help me. I didn't think there was much to learn and didn't read past the first 30 pages. If Douglas is a fraud then comparing those two, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Tharp is a fraud too.
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It's good to see that you've brought up the topic of preparedness. Over the last 8 months or so I've paid way more attention to being prepared than I used to. This has paid off very well in terms of profits, but it has also introduced me to the 'dark' side of myself. That dark side is the uncontrolled emotional animal and I'm working on that. I have to work on my ego, sloth and greed, but that's another story.
It is interesting to think that there are so many fields in life where being prepared is the difference between success and failure but most traders never really get to the point of even thinking about it until they've spent at least a year clicking away the mouse (and losing). Firefighters, police officers, top athletes, stunt doubles, special units in the armed and civil forces....they'd all be dead or very at least complete failures without their training and preparations, mental as well as physical. Something to think about.
One part of being prepared you already mentioned, that of doing mental work to figure out why, why not, how and such. However, I'd also be interested to hear what are your daily preparedness tasks or in other words, pre-trading chores to get to ready for the day. Do you do review your rules, write down important data release times, do yoga (or something else to get your body physically ready for the challenge)? It'd be very interesting to know, maybe there's something we can all learn from you.
If you don't risk, you don't ever have to lose.