Drawing trend lines, and following waves patterns by drawing trend channels is more an art than a science.
Drawing trend channels or indicators on multiple charts, and trying to anticipate how all the many channels will interact with each other, is like watching, a constantly moving game of billiards. That'll can make you dizzy. A computer can do that. The art form is much more enjoyable when you study the charts and ask yourself, which wave patterns are others seeing, and... with what they're seeing, what are they most likely to do? That's when the games gets interesting. When you start seeing the other players.
I've been staring at these live charts for so long-- now-- when I look at any chart, the dominant channels just jump out at me. But... I'm still a lousy trader. While I faithfully update the lines on dozens of charts every day, I rarely take a position. AND sometimes I STILL make mistakes due to some emotional gut reaction. That's very amateurish.
The part I'm having trouble with is the actual trading. That's the time after you've discovered a predictable situation, where you have to attentively watch and wait for an entry position. Once you know what to look that part can be easy.
I had a friend a few years back. He knew nothing about trading. He didn't even have a computer. I lent him a computer, and showed him how to buy and sell along trend channels. He easily understood these concepts when I spoke to him, and once I got him set up, we'd only spoke once a week or so. Well... dang. His first year he made 40K. And I lost a 2K. That was embarrassing.
So... This year I've made some money. Not much. But way better than last year.That's my saving grace: day after day, week in and week out, the more I watch these charts, the more I learn, the better I get. It's like a never ending football game. Until you're making money, all you can do, is just make sure you learn something new each day. THEN once you are making money, you work just at at becoming a better trader, each and every day... and the process continues.
My point is this. You need two skills to make money. 1- You need an analysis ability to understand what's going on. 2- And you also need to be focused, to take advantage of unfolding situations. Then finally, you need to be able to do them together, as situations change, often rapidly.
Save yourself the mistake I made. Don't get too comfortable with demo money. It's taken me about a year to break all the bad habits I developed using demo money. It's tempting, I know. Sure. Using demo money while learning, saved me tons of cash. It's a great realization-- that you can trade every day, continue to learn, all without loosing any real money. Be careful though.
When you're learning and trading with demo trading, it's good that you can trade often, experimenting and seeing results quickly, so you can learn quickly. But if you do that too long, you get lax about jumping in and out of the market, overtrading, and worst of all, not caring about looses. That's the worst habit you can develop.
My advise to you is to use the demo money while you're learning, BUT make believe it is real money. Every day you trade, print out a statement. Better yet, print out the charts on each of your trades. Draw in, where you entered, where you exited, and why. And most importantly print out your monthly statement, and hang on to them to monitor your progress.
Drawing trend channels or indicators on multiple charts, and trying to anticipate how all the many channels will interact with each other, is like watching, a constantly moving game of billiards. That'll can make you dizzy. A computer can do that. The art form is much more enjoyable when you study the charts and ask yourself, which wave patterns are others seeing, and... with what they're seeing, what are they most likely to do? That's when the games gets interesting. When you start seeing the other players.
I've been staring at these live charts for so long-- now-- when I look at any chart, the dominant channels just jump out at me. But... I'm still a lousy trader. While I faithfully update the lines on dozens of charts every day, I rarely take a position. AND sometimes I STILL make mistakes due to some emotional gut reaction. That's very amateurish.
The part I'm having trouble with is the actual trading. That's the time after you've discovered a predictable situation, where you have to attentively watch and wait for an entry position. Once you know what to look that part can be easy.
I had a friend a few years back. He knew nothing about trading. He didn't even have a computer. I lent him a computer, and showed him how to buy and sell along trend channels. He easily understood these concepts when I spoke to him, and once I got him set up, we'd only spoke once a week or so. Well... dang. His first year he made 40K. And I lost a 2K. That was embarrassing.
So... This year I've made some money. Not much. But way better than last year.That's my saving grace: day after day, week in and week out, the more I watch these charts, the more I learn, the better I get. It's like a never ending football game. Until you're making money, all you can do, is just make sure you learn something new each day. THEN once you are making money, you work just at at becoming a better trader, each and every day... and the process continues.
My point is this. You need two skills to make money. 1- You need an analysis ability to understand what's going on. 2- And you also need to be focused, to take advantage of unfolding situations. Then finally, you need to be able to do them together, as situations change, often rapidly.
Save yourself the mistake I made. Don't get too comfortable with demo money. It's taken me about a year to break all the bad habits I developed using demo money. It's tempting, I know. Sure. Using demo money while learning, saved me tons of cash. It's a great realization-- that you can trade every day, continue to learn, all without loosing any real money. Be careful though.
When you're learning and trading with demo trading, it's good that you can trade often, experimenting and seeing results quickly, so you can learn quickly. But if you do that too long, you get lax about jumping in and out of the market, overtrading, and worst of all, not caring about looses. That's the worst habit you can develop.
My advise to you is to use the demo money while you're learning, BUT make believe it is real money. Every day you trade, print out a statement. Better yet, print out the charts on each of your trades. Draw in, where you entered, where you exited, and why. And most importantly print out your monthly statement, and hang on to them to monitor your progress.
