What's the most important activity in your trading business? | Forex Factory

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What's the most important activity in your trading business?

  • #1
  • First Post: Edited 9:04am Nov 22, 2013 12:13am | Edited 9:04am
I'm very curious about the nature of how trader's approach their trading business. If you could, take a minute to think about and answer these three questions:

1) What's the most important activity in your trading business?
2) Do you have any pain associated with that activity and why? (ie pain in the ass, emotional/mental pain, time consuming, etc.)
3) What tools are associated with your most important activity and what about them do you wish were better?

If answered honestly, I'm 100% sure that there will be a lot to learn from each other's answers. Thanks!
  • #2
  • Nov 22, 2013 1:38am Nov 22, 2013 1:38am
1. identifying the proper trade direction and it's possible length.... ie, short or long, number of pips, and time to target.....

2. no associated pain at all..... actually just the opposite......

.....h
to trade and code, keep both simple... no call to impress....h
  • #3
  • Nov 22, 2013 2:02am Nov 22, 2013 2:02am
1. Identifying is it high probability trade or not.
2. Waiting
  • #4
  • Nov 22, 2013 2:05am Nov 22, 2013 2:05am
Quoting JR97
I'm very curious about the nature of how trader's approach their trading business. If you could, take a minute to answer think about and answer these two questions: 1) What's the most important activity in your trading business? 2) Do you have any pain associated with that activity? If answered honestly, I'm 100% sure that there will be a lot to learn from each other's answers. Thanks!

1. Building an inventory in a manner that makes sense.

2. Pain is a relative construct. Please eloborate.
If you are good at something, never do it for free--Joker
  • #5
  • Nov 22, 2013 2:21am Nov 22, 2013 2:21am
1. Determining correct bet size and plan before entering.

2. pain is part of my trading repertoar. Could not trade profitably without it.

what about you, JR97 ?
  • #6
  • Nov 22, 2013 2:28am Nov 22, 2013 2:28am
Making sure that I'm at my desk at the required time and in the right frame of mind to capitalize fully on the opportunities as they arise. The rest takes care of itself.

By pain, I presume you mean the emotional torment associated with loss. This is something most people risking their money in the markets will at some point in time have experienced to varying degrees. It is how one copes with this that separates those who are able to make a successful career out of trading and those who don't.
  • #7
  • Nov 22, 2013 2:35am Nov 22, 2013 2:35am
1) Making sure that I have plenty of coffee in the cupboard

2) Only if I do not have enough coffee in the cupboard

Doing what you like is Freedom. Liking what you do is Happiness.
  • #8
  • Edited 4:52am Nov 22, 2013 4:25am | Edited 4:52am
Well.. What I learned from FF the most important activity in trading business is this:

1. Planning the trade.. Charting trying to decipher the market to determine entry point:nerd:

2. Waiting for best entry (either pending or instant order)
While waiting ... Read FF.. Post a Chart.. give an argument on the direction on both Techs and Fundie views..
Get into an argument with other Professional Noobs.. Defend my views strongly and give whatever reason I think is reasonable
(ie., news article, chart from reputable financial institution etc.. etc..)
Busy defending myself... only to find that the market has moved... BIG TIME... WTF?!?!

Then...

A. If Market moves in my direction..
To myself: Oh S@%#.. I missed that chance..
To FF: .. I can post another chart to prove that my argument was Right.. yeah..

B. If Market moves in opposite direction..
To myself: Oh.. Thanks God.. I was Lucky..
To FF: .. Well this is just another correction.. My MACD, RSI, CCI, etc..etc.. shows divergence.. a reversal will happen soon... blah.. blah.. blah

Hahaha... just joking Guys.. Peace..
  • #9
  • Nov 22, 2013 6:37am Nov 22, 2013 6:37am
1. Morning meditation
2. Absolutely none.
Anything can happen.
  • #10
  • Nov 22, 2013 6:40am Nov 22, 2013 6:40am
Enter only in what I would call high probability areas. Absolute patience and discipline.
  • #11
  • Nov 22, 2013 6:43am Nov 22, 2013 6:43am
1) Enjoying myself.
2) No pain at all. I think I've been numbed to pain but not to enjoying myself.

Regards
The Hard One
Nothing worth having is easy.
  • #12
  • Nov 22, 2013 6:51am Nov 22, 2013 6:51am
Making a detailed plan in accordance with proper money management and working the plan exorcizing patience and discipline

Only pain is when you don't follow above
Nobody ever went broke closing a trade in profit
  • #13
  • Nov 22, 2013 6:55am Nov 22, 2013 6:55am
Quoting Patience
1) Enjoying myself. 2) No pain at all. I think I've been numbed to pain but not to enjoying myself. Regards The Hard One
Nice picture, going for the Daffyd look from Little Britain?
  • #14
  • Nov 22, 2013 7:12am Nov 22, 2013 7:12am
The most important activity for me is one thing with 3 parts - 1) what's the market doing 2) what does it mean for me 3) what must i do

The pain comes from not being in the right frame of mind to objectively perform the activity above because of distractions... the inevitable result is that i'll neither follow my system nor go through my process and when there's a drawdown in the position i won't have the confidence to wait for it to adjust, and if the position ends up a loser i'll berate myself for being distracted in the first place :-)

You?
Coz$FX bringing you the good word from RaBiTFX
  • #15
  • Nov 22, 2013 7:45am Nov 22, 2013 7:45am
Quoting GDR3k
{quote} Nice picture, going for the Daffyd look from Little Britain?
I thought my avatar was appropriate because a poster couldn't tell if I was male or female. It was either that or this one. I didn't want to get hit on too much
Nothing worth having is easy.
  • #16
  • Nov 22, 2013 8:35am Nov 22, 2013 8:35am
Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess I could have worded the questions a little different. I'm mainly interested in seeing what essential things you do (or should do but don't) that are cumbersome, you wish was easier/quicker/better, etc. For example journal entries, money management, size management, post trade analysis, back-testing, etc. and why they're a pain. Maybe painful emotionally but mostly why they're a pain in the ass.

What I'm curious about is seeing if there is a common thread in terms of procedure/routine/etc. that is or isn't being done by traders in comparison to what is considered "best practice".

For myself:

1) What's the most important activity in your trading business?
Pre and post trade journal entries.

2) Do you have any pain associated with that activity and why?
Journal entries are a pain because it can take quite a bit of time to enter the details of every trade if I'm trading multiple instruments. Even though I trade longer time frames and time isn't really of the essence, journal entries are something I skip because or don't do consistently because I'm not a sit in front of the chart type. Doing data entry of numbers is something I can't stand doing. I don't mind writing my pre and post analysis, though. Go figure.

And a I guess I have a 3rd question.

3) What tools are associated with your most important activity and what about them do you wish were better?
I had developed an online trading rule analysis tool and journal to handle the 3 trade instruments/trade types I do. Retail spot forex, Nadex binary options, Nadex bull spreads because I couldn't find anything out there that suited my needs, could track the things I wanted to track, and included a way to store screen shots associated with the trade. It works ok, but I wish I it could be tied to my trading platforms are automatically populated with the entry/exit/initial stops/etc. As mentioned, data entry of numbers is something that I'd rather not do.
  • #17
  • Nov 22, 2013 8:40am Nov 22, 2013 8:40am
Quoting ddinnov
1. Morning meditation 2. Absolutely none.
high five. I'm deep into mediation. (bad pun) Can you be more specific about what type of meditation you do? I typically meditate once a day which is at night between 10-11 pm before the euro/brit markets open. I just go through some guided stuff. I don't trade every day so on the non-trade days it's deep alpha or theta programming. On trade days it's just simple relaxation, clearing, visualization, and re-affirming. I also do a meditation before I play hockey which follows the same pattern.
  • #18
  • Nov 22, 2013 8:42am Nov 22, 2013 8:42am
Quoting oakinogundej
The most important activity for me is one thing with 3 parts - 1) what's the market doing 2) what does it mean for me 3) what must i do The pain comes from not being in the right frame of mind to objectively perform the activity above because of distractions... the inevitable result is that i'll neither follow my system nor go through my process and when there's a drawdown in the position i won't have the confidence to wait for it to adjust, and if the position ends up a loser i'll berate myself for being distracted in the first place :-) You?
Can you elaborate #2?

What are the distractions that you feel keep you from or take you from being in the right frame of mind?
  • #19
  • Nov 22, 2013 8:45am Nov 22, 2013 8:45am
Quoting gp00053
Making a detailed plan in accordance with proper money management and working the plan exorcizing patience and discipline Only pain is when you don't follow above
Do you have a process or procedure in plan formulation? Do you write your down your plan? Do you have or follow any specific steps in your plan?
  • #20
  • Nov 22, 2013 8:50am Nov 22, 2013 8:50am
Quoting Rf7
Well.. What I learned from FF the most important activity in trading business is this: 1. Planning the trade.. Charting trying to decipher the market to determine entry point:nerd: 2. Waiting for best entry (either pending or instant order) While waiting ... Read FF.. Post a Chart.. give an argument on the direction on both Techs and Fundie views.. Get into an argument with other Professional Noobs.. Defend my views strongly and give whatever reason I think is reasonable (ie., news article, chart from reputable financial institution...

Curious... why do you feel you need to defend your views? I know you say you're joking but I kinda think you're not. And you wouldn't be the first. Hell, this place would have closed down 10 years ago if it weren't for people defending their views.

Do you have a planning process? Is it written or entered anywhere?
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