MoneyTec 2.0 - Online Forex Traders & Brokers Social Networking Community » Trading Talk » General Trading Forum

[Joe Ross]

To become a truly successful trader you must become a truly committed trader. How do you get yourself to be in control?

Statistics and society may predict, but you alone determine whether you will succeed or fail. You alone are in control. You alone must take responsibility for your performance and your life. There are always tremendous opportunities in the markets. It is not what happens; it is what you do with what happens that makes the difference between profit and loss.

Many eventually successful traders move from trading method to trading method until they find one that suits them… one that is comfortable to run, and tests well first by back-testing, then forward testing and finally by real testing.

Some traders never stop looking for the “right” way to trade. THAT is a problem. There are many ways to trade that can generate nice profits over time. To settle on a right way for you to trade:

• First, you have to believe in the process which leads to the generation of your entry signals. Does that process make sense to you?
Maybe you’re a visual sort of person and you are drawn to Candlestick charting. Take the time to understand why the patters mean “reversal” and not just accept the “picture”. Go deep.
Choose a guru to follow. Maybe you learn best from mentoring. Choose wisely.

• Second, back-test and forward-test the method you decide to go with. In today’s modern world of software, there’s no excuse not to run all the back data you can through your method and see what the results would have been. Then forward-test to see how the method works out as each price bar appears on your chart. Be sure to use a statistically valid sample of trades for doing this.

• Third, THINK about the process you are choosing and why it’s right for you. THINK about the results you get from your back-testing and real-time testing of your system.

• Fourth, BE A MACHINE (DON’T THINK) when you are trading your method.
This is why I am a huge proponent of mental training for traders. Unless you can control yourself, you can never control your trading. In order to control yourself and your emotions, you have to believe totally in the way you trade. Do the work. Do your thinking before you trade. Then don’t think—just follow your plan.

[pinalli]

Nice to read it. Thanks for sharing. Joe i think thraders need to execute their trading strategy with discipline and money management through long periods of losses which may last weeks. They shouldnt think they will have a long period of losses?

They will, all traders do, even the top traders. This doesn't mean they don't win long term - they do but short term they ride out these periods with discipline.

Another big myth about Forex trading is drawdown periods don't last long and it's again put around by vendors selling junk products. Drawdown periods do occur and how you deal with them is the key to your success.

You must keep going executing your trading signals, as the market takes your money and makes you look stupid. You are going to have to stay on course and we all hate losing and have egos but losing is part of winning and you need to understand this.

You can enjoy online forex trading success but you must keep losses small and stay on course. This is the hard part of Forex Trading and separates out the winners from the losers.

[LastShadow]

Thanks for sharing

[MarioX]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

To become a truly successful trader you must become a truly committed trader. How do you get yourself to be in control?



• Fourth, BE A MACHINE (DON’T THINK) when you are trading your method.
This is why I am a huge proponent of mental training for traders. Unless you can control yourself, you can never control your trading. In order to control yourself and your emotions, you have to believe totally in the way you trade. Do the work. Do your thinking before you trade. Then don’t think—just follow your plan.

Agree. I would add to it "be process oriented". When you have a plan, all you have to do is to execute it. No time for emotions or goals. You have to have some kind of general "goal" in the back of your head but not on the specific level. If you set a goal " I must earn on this trade" you will end up without money. Because in next trade you will want to take revenge, in next trade the same and so on.

[trader2009]

Thanks for sharing .

[pinalli]

Guys just dont post "Thanks for Sharing"..... Atleast share your views, your likes and dislikes etc... So that there is something to discuss... This way you ends the thread. :O

[niceguy777]

I know you are trying to be helpful, and good for you, but:


Statistics and society may predict, but you alone determine whether you will succeed or fail. You alone are in control. You alone must take responsibility for your performance and your life.

Absolutely true.


There are always tremendous opportunities in the markets.

No, there aren't always, and it's a big mistake to trade when they are not there!


It is not what happens; it is what you do with what happens that makes the difference between profit and loss.

Duh....?


Many eventually successful traders move from trading method to trading method until they find one that suits them… one that is comfortable to run, and tests well first by back-testing, then forward testing and finally by real testing.

Another myth. Back testing and forward testing may or may not give you useful info. Personally, I have found something that makes this laborious process completely redundant.


Some traders never stop looking for the “right” way to trade. THAT is a problem. There are many ways to trade that can generate nice profits over time.

How does it help to say this? First, they don't find a way, and then there are lots of ways......


To settle on a right way for you to trade:

• First, you have to believe in the process which leads to the generation of your entry signals. Does that process make sense to you?
Maybe you’re a visual sort of person and you are drawn to Candlestick charting. Take the time to understand why the patters mean “reversal” and not just accept the “picture”. Go deep.
Choose a guru to follow. Maybe you learn best from mentoring. Choose wisely.

It may make sense to you that pigs can fly, but it won't exactly help you. How on earth do you 'go deep'!? Choose a Guru!? Why not become empowered yourself then you don't have to rely on anyone else - snake oil salesmen, expensive never-ending learning, nutters etc....


• Second, back-test and forward-test the method you decide to go with. In today’s modern world of software, there’s no excuse not to run all the back data you can through your method and see what the results would have been. Then forward-test to see how the method works out as each price bar appears on your chart. Be sure to use a statistically valid sample of trades for doing this.

Believe me, you don't have to waste time on this.


• Third, THINK about the process you are choosing and why it’s right for you. THINK about the results you get from your back-testing and real-time testing of your system.

I think a lot of traders spend time thinking, before and after they have trashed their accounts. And at the end of it, they are still in the dark!


• Fourth, BE A MACHINE (DON’T THINK) when you are trading your method.
This is why I am a huge proponent of mental training for traders. Unless you can control yourself, you can never control your trading. In order to control yourself and your emotions, you have to believe totally in the way you trade. Do the work. Do your thinking before you trade. Then don’t think—just follow your plan.

I am a Dalek. I am a Dalek.
Doesn't work. Sorry. You don't get total control from blind belief in something that you happen to like and have chosen because you know no better. What you actually have to do is find a way to address the subconscious programming that has been running your life ever since you were little, and change it, so you are in control and you are not sabotaging yourself as you try to trade through a haze of concepts, mis-information, feelings of worthlessness, complicated methodologies, your angry girlfriend, or what ever else is getting in the way of you being clear and present.

[pinalli]

Hi Nice guy,

You seems frustrated or annoyed by forex trading. Well may be because you faced some odds in life. Well, i think anything you do in life without training will most probably end in failure. Same goes for forex trading. Most of the people lose money in forex trading because they don’t bother to get the right education when they start trading.

[niceguy777]

Originally Posted by pinalli

Hi Nice guy,

You seems frustrated or annoyed by forex trading. Well may be because you faced some odds in life. Well, i think anything you do in life without training will most probably end in failure. Same goes for forex trading. Most of the people lose money in forex trading because they don’t bother to get the right education when they start trading.

I cannot imagine how you came to that conclusion. Completely wrong! I was simply saying that the previous post was misleading in many ways, especially for those just starting out.

[pinalli]

I am sorry if i am wrong, I got this illusion Because of "I am a Dalek. I am a Dalek.
Doesn't work. Sorry. You don't get total control from blind belief in something that you happen to like and have chosen because you know no better. What you actually have to do is find a way to address the subconscious programming that has been running your life ever since you were little, and change it, so you are in control and you are not sabotaging yourself as you try to trade through a haze of concepts, mis-information, feelings of worthlessness, complicated methodologies, your angry girlfriend, or what ever else is getting in the way of you being clear and present."

Cheers

[niceguy777]

No problem. It was just by way of illustration.

[MarioX]

Originally Posted by pinalli

Hi Nice guy,

You seems frustrated or annoyed by forex trading. Well may be because you faced some odds in life. Well, I think anything you do in life without training will most probably end in failure. Same goes for forex trading. Most of the people lose money in forex trading because they don’t bother to get the right education when they start trading.

Yeah - that is true. I would add that education is valuable - but there is like 80% of guys who are "educated" BUT they still do not work/trade as they were educated.

Just imagine - how often we read that one should cut loses? Hundreds of times? All people know that...yet nobody works that way. People want instant results..instant gratification.

[niceguy777]

Originally Posted by MarioX

Yeah - that is true. I would add that education is valuable - but there is like 80% of guys who are "educated" BUT they still do not work/trade as they were educated.

Just imagine - how often we read that one should cut loses? Hundreds of times? All people know that...yet nobody works that way. People want instant results..instant gratification.

Quite right. People hope things will go their way, rather than having the ability to know where they are going. It's something I was just warning about for someone who took our course today.

One of the things the Framework gives you is all the barriers, and lets you know how strong they are. That's useful!

[pinalli]

Originally Posted by MarioX

Yeah - that is true. I would add that education is valuable - but there is like 80% of guys who are "educated" BUT they still do not work/trade as they were educated.

Just imagine - how often we read that one should cut loses? Hundreds of times? All people know that...yet nobody works that way. People want instant results..instant gratification.

Thats right!! but one you follow are happy and satisfied and one who just read then as a piece of education and doesn't follow them are left with dis satisfaction and frustration.

I think it depends person to person and how he carries his/her trading career.

Regards

[niceguy777]

Originally Posted by pinalli

Thats right!! but one you follow are happy and satisfied and one who just read then as a piece of education and doesn't follow them are left with dis satisfaction and frustration.

I think it depends person to person and how he carries his/her trading career.

Regards

It does depend person to person. But there is a sort of acceptance in this industry that 'life is a lottery' and if you happen to find a system that works for you, you are lucky.

The real solution is deeper than that, but traders are generally carried along by this thinking that the industry and forex forum owners are happy to perpetuate for obvious reasons.

I think Forex must be the only business where people seem to go into it believing in a culture of regular loss rather than overwhelming wins. I think if I offered this kind of thinking as a business plan, I would be laughed at.

The currency movements are fluid, and as human beings we also go 'up and down'. It doesn't make sense to me to try and be some sort of machine, rather than being in tune with the currencies as well as myself, to maximize positive opportunities as they present themselves. Even robots are unreliable, because they cannot be sensitive, like us, to the subtleties of some of the movements.

Not only that, but actually choosing the 'right system' can be fraught with complexities - both from the Forex world as well as our own internal dynamics and belief systems. Choose the wrong one, and you are automatically setting yourself up for failure.

The answer starts with you, not systems or charts or techniques etc. And there are ways you can pinpoint these issues and put them right before you start trading, and there are ways you can pinpont trades.