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The obstacles to trading

  • #1
  • First Post: Apr 18, 2011 12:29am Apr 18, 2011 12:29am
What are YOUR obstacles that you think is holding you back from trading? im sure everyone shares something similar? and how are you going to work around it? are you planning to work around it? it could be anything.. discipline, dont have time to trade, haven't found the right.. system for you, greed, other life activities that end up being an obstacle to YOUR trading, etc.

Just be honest, and.. no need to be philosophical on other peoples answers.

i'l start, money and family. family thinks i should focus more on my degree incase if i fail i'l have something to fall back on (but il do it regardless). so even though i feel ready, they will always think im going to be gambling. money.. i need money to trade so iv just been on a chronic budget and slaving my ass off to build capital.

would like to hear whats holding the rest of you back

yes iv read other SIMILAR topics. like losers anonymous, i dont want to know why your losing, i want to know whats holding you back from winning.

Ish
  • #2
  • Apr 18, 2011 1:18am Apr 18, 2011 1:18am
Quoting ishii1
What are YOUR obstacles that you think is holding you back from trading? im sure everyone shares something similar? and how are you going to work around it? are you planning to work around it? it could be anything.. discipline, dont have time to trade, haven't found the right.. system for you, greed, other life activities that end up being an obstacle to YOUR trading, etc.

Just be honest, and.. no need to be philosophical on other peoples answers.

i'l start, money and family. family thinks i should focus more on my degree incase if i fail i'l...
What held me back was the following: ignorance, laziness (though not perceived as such at that time), unrealistic expectations, misinformation on the net / forum, immediate gratification,...

Once I realized that, I was able to cross the road.
  • #3
  • Apr 18, 2011 1:32am Apr 18, 2011 1:32am
experience

but i will get this eventually.
AVT INVENIAM VIAM AVT FACIAM
  • #4
  • Apr 18, 2011 2:17am Apr 18, 2011 2:17am
Quoting Custos
What held me back was the following: ignorance, laziness (though not perceived as such at that time), unrealistic expectations, misinformation on the net / forum, immediate gratification,...

Once I realized that, I was able to cross the road.
i agree.. unrealistic expectations got me at the start.. i think it would be alot of peoples case aswell, as it has been marketed by those bs marketers like "i made $12,000 while at a bbq with friends"
  • #5
  • Apr 18, 2011 3:41am Apr 18, 2011 3:41am
Quoting ishii1
"i made $12,000 while at a bbq with friends"
Shouldn't that read "I made friends while at a bbq with $12,000"?
  • #6
  • Apr 18, 2011 3:45am Apr 18, 2011 3:45am
Quoting hanover
Shouldn't that read "I made friends while at a bbq with $12,000"?
Lol!
  • #7
  • Apr 18, 2011 4:20am Apr 18, 2011 4:20am
Quoting ishii1
What are YOUR obstacles that you think is holding you back from trading? im sure everyone shares something similar? and how are you going to work around it? are you planning to work around it? it could be anything.. discipline, dont have time to trade, haven't found the right.. system for you, greed, other life activities that end up being an obstacle to YOUR trading, etc.

Just be honest, and.. no need to be philosophical on other peoples answers.

i'l start, money and family. family thinks i should focus more on my degree incase if i fail...

FEAR.. i could paper trade well enough. have a fantastic system. but just cant seem to have the balls to make real decisions real time.
as for getting around the problem, i am still working on it. i sit down at the comp waiting for the setup, and everytime i miss it, i say to my self 'not next time buddy!' i have managed to take a couple of trades using this approach.
  • #8
  • Apr 18, 2011 5:21am Apr 18, 2011 5:21am
Quoting Kt100
FEAR.. i could paper trade well enough. have a fantastic system. but just cant seem to have the balls to make real decisions real time.
as for getting around the problem, i am still working on it. i sit down at the comp waiting for the setup, and everytime i miss it, i say to my self 'not next time buddy!' i have managed to take a couple of trades using this approach.
how much are you risking? maybe the amount you are risking is outside your comfort zone?
  • #9
  • Apr 18, 2011 5:47am Apr 18, 2011 5:47am
Quoting ishii1
how much are you risking? maybe the amount you are risking is outside your comfort zone?
it is not with the amount that i am risking. its just a fear of losing. being wrong. i know i am in a market where even the best of brains can be wrong at times, still this fear keeps me at bay. gotta read some books on fear.maybe that'll help.
  • #10
  • Apr 18, 2011 8:50am Apr 18, 2011 8:50am
Quoting Kt100
it is not with the amount that i am risking. its just a fear of losing. being wrong. i know i am in a market where even the best of brains can be wrong at times, still this fear keeps me at bay. gotta read some books on fear.maybe that'll help.
im just saying that trading outside your comfort zone could create that fear, why dont you try and lower the lot size and try to think that what are u afraid of? its only... how ever little it is.

you are right though, no one is perfect, but fear takes time to overcome, i traded the s&p500 first along side with my dad. the bad thing about the s&p was u had to trade with contracts and each contract was $1000, i lost $100 once and i was panicking crazy, each movement was $12.5 and it moves way way faster than the forex. now seeing that you can trade the forex with 1 dollar or less seems like nothing.

just a suggestion to how you may overcome that fear
  • #11
  • Apr 18, 2011 9:04am Apr 18, 2011 9:04am
Im not new to trading but new to this forum. Trying to get some post to start a thread. What i can tell is what i have stuggled with from the start is trying to complicate things to much. I was looking to deeply in finding the correct system that i have looked past very important things like money management. Trading also differs from person to person and what works for someone else does not mean it will work for you. At the end of the day it all comes down to hard work in finding what works for you. This is just my view on things.
  • #12
  • Apr 18, 2011 9:42am Apr 18, 2011 9:42am
My hardest obstacle to overcome-

Taking small profits and large losses.
  • #13
  • Apr 18, 2011 9:49am Apr 18, 2011 9:49am
the ones that i faced were always missing the right opportunity and entering hurriedly when there were no oppportunities ......others include taking small profits and huge losses and getting over confident ....and of course there r circumstantial problems like the pc crashes down after having taken a trade ........
  • #14
  • Apr 18, 2011 4:39pm Apr 18, 2011 4:39pm
Quoting JFogel
My hardest obstacle to overcome-

Taking small profits and large losses.
to be realistic if your success rate outweighs your losses, you can still benefit from a small profit, but the psychological part will be alot harder.

i.e risking 100, 75% to gain +50, 25% to lose 100, even though if u lost once you would have to win twice to break even.. in the long run you will be up.

just a thought
  • #15
  • Apr 18, 2011 4:48pm Apr 18, 2011 4:48pm
Quoting 4xsa
Im not new to trading but new to this forum. Trying to get some post to start a thread. What i can tell is what i have stuggled with from the start is trying to complicate things to much. I was looking to deeply in finding the correct system that i have looked past very important things like money management. Trading also differs from person to person and what works for someone else does not mean it will work for you. At the end of the day it all comes down to hard work in finding what works for you. This is just my view on things.
im in the same boat, welcome. im new to the forum aswell , yea although i think the system part is overrated. at the end of the day if its a shit system then.. theres not much you can do with it.

what i have faced with systems is that the most obvious systems dont work.. so keep it quiet. i also find the moving average cross overs to be deadly for my trades.. whenever i see it about to happen i stay away from trading that pair. just from my experience
  • #16
  • Apr 18, 2011 4:57pm Apr 18, 2011 4:57pm
Mathematically:

1) Spread
2) Negative Compounding Effect. e.g. losing 1% and gaining 1% afterwards will not result in break even. Same thing the otherway around.
This will get worse the more you risk.

Psychologically:

1) Letting winners run
2) Cutting losses short

It's true that you can be profitabel with any winrate but frankly in over 5 years of trading I have never ever seen anyone making profits year after year on high winrate and ~ 1:1 risk reward ratio on average. Spread and compounding will have dramatic effects if you trade like this and will make it extra hard. You can only overcome those factors with trades that aim for highest possible yield. All profitable EA that I have written share a ~20-30% winrate. Same goes for my manual trading. I started beeing profitable once I aimed for extreme RR in my trades.
  • #17
  • Apr 18, 2011 5:09pm Apr 18, 2011 5:09pm
Quoting TJPLD
Mathematically:

1) Spread
2) Negative Compounding Effect. e.g. losing 1% and gaining 1% afterwards will not result in break even. Same thing the otherway around.
This will get worse the more you risk.

Psychologically:

1) Letting winners run
2) Cutting losses short

It's true that you can be profitabel with any winrate but frankly in over 5 years of trading I have never ever seen anyone making profits year after year on high winrate and ~ 1:1 risk reward ratio on average. Spread and compounding will have dramatic effects if you trade...

are u saying that in relation to my other post? im just saying it as a possibility (basic probabilty) it would be 75% = 3/4, 25% = 1/4

outcome is 50, 50, 50, -100 = 50
  • #18
  • Apr 18, 2011 9:33pm Apr 18, 2011 9:33pm
New obstacles every week...lol! When I find a way to overcome one, the next one springs up!

So...the major one was not having a decent system. When I finally got a good system, I realised what a good system looked like (when you haven't found a good system your biggest problem is even knowing what a good system should look like).

The next one was becoming methodical, keeping good records and doing methodical analyses. Once I realised that was my problem I just restructured my approach to overcome it. Then my trading just zoomed up into profitability.

The most recent obstacle was jumping in too early. The way I have tried to overcome this is to list all the reasons why I think I did this (I had to list 10, according to one website on the Law of Attraction). Then when I could see these reasons in black and white, I could easily see how they could be made invalid. It's working so far....

and then once that's done with there'll be another few obstacles I'm sure...
  • #19
  • Apr 18, 2011 9:37pm Apr 18, 2011 9:37pm
Quoting Kt100
just cant seem to have the balls to make real decisions real time.
Try listing on paper all the reasons (limiting beliefs) why you think you don't make these decisions in real time with real money. Don't stop at 5 or 6 reasons, keep digging till you get 10 reasons. Then zap each one with clear headed reasons. It may work for you as it did for me!
  • #20
  • Apr 19, 2011 12:31am Apr 19, 2011 12:31am
Quoting hanover
Shouldn't that read "I made friends while at a bbq with $12,000"?
LOL. What that "marketer" failed to mention was later that night (after the bbq) he lost $30k while at dinner with his wife.

Anyways, I think before someone begins trading they need structure. This isn't so much an obstacle, but it's important to put yourself in best position to overcome the obstacles of actual trading. Just like the human body needs essentials (vitals), a trader needs to have their basic essentials before even trading. A desk, computer, nice comfortable chair, charting software and time (schedule). They need to decide what pair(s) they are going to trade, which times and with a set strategy. One thing I read recently from someone on here (don't remember who, so forgive me for inability to credit) was the importance of mastering one strategy before attempting to trade another one. Once you have the routine down, then think about trying out another one. But first be sure to get the routine and essentials in order. Good luck.
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