Dear Fellow Traders,
Welcome!
| Symbol | Price | Change | % Chg |
| $INDU | 9,908.39 | -103.84 | -1.04% |
| $GB:UKX | 5,092.33 | 31.41 | 0.62% |
| $DE:DAX | 5,484.85 | 50.51 | 0.93% |
| /USDEUR | 1.37 | 0.00 | -0.03% |
| /USDGBP | 1.56 | 0.00 | -0.06% |
| /USDJPY | 0.01 | 0.00 | -0.09% |
Quotes are by IDC Comstock and are delayed 20 minutes.
Fund prices are from Morningstar. |
This site is for traders both new and intermediate. You may be just starting out or you might be quite experienced but find you continue to lose more than you make at your trading or perhaps you continue to break even not really getting anywhere with your trading.
Trading the markets to riches and financial freedom, the dreams of many, but the downfall of a great many more.
Left drifting in the wake of the financial markets. Distraught, disengaged and deflated.......... and back at work 9 to 5........ or with a dream now in pieces and the effects of cynicism creeping in. I have been there! But the hobby I am most passionate about is my trading. Cant quite say why. I see it as a challenge. I love to learn and the markets always have something new to teach you.
This site provide reflections on lessons learned from my own personell trading, what seems to work, what doesn't and what will definately LOSE you money!
STOP PRESS - the best tool I have come across for training as a trader. You don't hear of world class sports men and women not spending hours and hours of practice and training. The same is needed to succeed at anything in life.
Have a look at this piece of amazing software...
Forex Tester Training Software
So, who am I? Nobody in particular but somebody who works 9 to 5 – well not really, I am a consulting engineer in construction and 9 to 5 doesn’t exit. It is more like 8 to 7 when things are quite and when there is a project design due out the door, it is 8 till 10 or 11. Since I can remember I have been fascinated by the financial markets. I have always dreamed of making a living from trading. I have tried many different means, methods and markets. Buying shares short term, long term buy and hold with a margin loan, trading futures (mini DOW contracts) and spreadbetting on both stocks and shares and also on the leading world indexes such as the FTSE, DOW and DAX.
Most recently I am trading foreign exchange for FOREX. My prefered currencies pairs are the EUR?USD and the GBP/USD. I use the CHF/USD for risk protection against EUR/USD positions from time to time as they are nearly 100% negatively correlated - a little way of hedging against an open position that may go against you.
I have learnt a lot and lost a lot. But through that process, I am now trading happily and freely and making consistent profits. What have I learnt along the way? A lot about my personality and a lot about what is important in being successful as a small time trader who wants to make a second income on the side.
In this site I provide some enlightenment on what I feel I have learned in my time trading as a small part time trader. I dream of earning more from my trading than from my day job. The dream of financial independence and being free of the day to day traps of the rat race keep me at it. Now that I am consistently making a profit, I have a healthy feeling of empowerment - it makes for a good combination - a job that I enjoy and allows me to interact with others in the industry and a healthy little second income on the side that keeps my excited.
Take the personality test...... a little mind teaser! See how you perform. The test is based on actual experiances from my own trading with actual outcomes. Try going through it twice and see where you end up if you made a different decision........
What is presented here?
- What causes most people to lose in trading (around 95%)
- How trading can be improved by recognising the traits of about ones personality
- Trading methods and personalities
- Ups and downs of trading - the ego
Here we go..............
On to the nitty gritty. I believe there is a holy grail to trading. It resides on ones shoulders. Your own mind and personality I feel are the keys to success. I don’t mean intelligence. I am no genius, far from it. I mean diligence, I mean commitment, I mean desire for success, I mean being responsible for ones actions, I mean cognitive thinking, I mean self-control, I mean self-awareness and focus. Strict money management and discipline. Oh and having a system that gives you and edge is also helpful. What I have found is that if you are around the markets long enough you get to know how to read the markets and where and when to get in to trades that will quickly become positive allowing you to then set your stops quickly to break even so that you have a free trade - all reward and no risk.
It is regularly stated that 95% of people who try their hand at trading lose their money or lose enough that they fear losing any more and quit. Why? Fear, greed, lack of self control and discipline, no trading plan and no system that give thems an edge.
No doubt if you have found this page, you are on a mission, perhaps a journey, the journey of developing into a financial market trader. A journey that I can well empathise with, a journey that I am part way through and I wish to be further along, a journey that seams to be 3 steps forward and 5 steps backwards.
Read on and I will give you what my understanding of the Holly Grail of successful trading is. Is there such a thing? I believe there is, but it is not found outwith, but within ones self, in the mind. The mind controls the key to success in this industry. Control the key to your mind and you will control the key to be successful in trading.
If this sounds familiar or indeed you have not even reached this phase in your trading career yet, then please read on.
Am I a successful trader - by no means. Am I a believer? Yes. Do I have a dream? Yes. Have I come upon insurmountable setbacks? Yes, again and again. Do I forge on? Yes. Am I slightly mad and a little bit Obsesive/Compulsive - probably.......
Trading Traps - The trading mindset, as listed below, WILL mean you lose everytime you attempt to trade. Well you might get the once in while lucky trade but they are few and far between.
- Not having a trading plan
- Not trading to your plan and trading rules
- Not sticking to a system once it is profitable and providing you with an edge
- Not having a system with an edge
- Trading a timeframe that does not suit your personality type
- Trading defensively after a loss
- Not following initial reasons during trade
- Not using your rules for stops
- Not taking action after analysis complete and opportunity presents itself
- Not keeping a Trading Journal on all trades and lessons learned
- Letting others' opinion affect your analysis of the trade's actionability
- Thinking the new matters
- Feeling out of control while trading
- Fear of missing out
- Fear of losing
- Fear of leaving money on the table
- Cutting wins short
- Letting losses run....
Handling losses is the key to being effective. Many traders hold on to losses too long and gets out of winners too quickly. The result is that you have larger losses than you have winners and even if you have an edge on the number of winners you have, statistically you will lose. We spend more energy on not having a loss than we do on having a winner.
If we get into a losing position, our mind play tricks on us. We believe that we can engineer our way out of the position or that by sum miricle the markets will swing back in our favour. I know ALL too well. I can guarantee the trade will continue to go the other way to spite us - the Pros controlling the markets will be looking through the crystal ball laughing at us as they wipe our trading accounts out.
See what happened to me in the Brain Teaser Trading Test - take the test below.
The average person's ego does not want to admit to being wrong. A common error for people trying to learn to trade is to hold onto a losing position hoping that it will turn around and thus avoid being wrong on the position. We lose our objectivity about the trade and become subjective. Reasoned or cognitive thinking goes out the door. We close profitable trades quickly in order to prove to ourselves and our egos that we were right. To get around this mind set takes development in a number of areas. You must trust your system. It must give you an edge. You must be trading at safe levels so you do not feel you have to let a loser run. The system must be mechanical in both entry and exit. This is critical. You have to play your exits just as well as your entries.
Take the personality test...... a little mind teaser! See how you perform. The test is based on actual experiances from my own trading with actual outcomes. Try going through it twice and see where you end up if you made a different decision........
A lot to take in, but what the above list comes down to is attitude, ego and personality. Ones on trading psychology. If you concentrate on having the above right then you will succeed.
Best of luck with your trading,
Michael Still