How important is trading psychology to you?

I would say it is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING in trading.
If you don’t have the right mindset for profession gambling then you have next to no chance of success!:33:

Psychology is key and you need to stick with your strategy. Trading is emotionless and you need to set your S/L and T/P BEFORE you enter the trade and just let it go form there, do not adjust them. Before you execute the trade figure out what you are willing to accept as a profit and loss, then enter them and forget about it. Should you be tempted to adjust, especially the S/L you are most likely to lose.

The one who blinks firt is the one who loses.

Well then you lost. If you would not have blinked you would and seen you missed the s in first. What do I win:cool:

By the way, there is another book also called “Trading in The Zone” by Ari Kiev. It is much more complete, well it is for advanced traders.

Regards.

So far, in all my manual demo trading this year, it’s been me breaking my own rules with new justifications that make up the bulk of the losses.

The Robots I’ve tried have no ultimate stability. I see folks working commission rebates systems where the multitude of trades make for a small profit. It works. I see myself take $100s if not $1000s off the table only to give it all back.

I’m working on a hybrid concept where the EA makes the trade each morning before I get up and then I kill the trade if the Mark 1 eyeball pattern sensor sees what the wide stop robot cannot. The EA may trade 50 days in a row for profit and then wipe the account when I can plainly see it’s missed and the trade is possibly falling apart and needs a close stop. It’s a Work in progress.

It’s much harder for me emotionally to get out of a trade than get in, alas. I probably do gamble too much. But, let’s say I didn’t place the trade, but the EA did, I somehow find it much easier to bail out. That’s psychology, right?

I do have to disagree slightly with the gambling idea, but not the professional mindset. In Forex the odds are not fixed or rigged , really, other than the spread. So, getting stopped out on a Sunday is my fault, however. Nor do we have to deal with bluff, except bluffing ourselves with overconfidence. We do have to ante up. And, we do need to know when to fold, or hold, and when not to play. So, it is just a bit above gambling, maybe. :slight_smile:

Try to make it less complicated.

Could you be a little more helpful?

Yeah, make it more easier. Remember the KISS method.

Easier on what? My psychology? I’m not sure what you are driving at? A trading system? What can I apply with these comments, do you think? What do you apply to get simplicity of profit?

I only trade if I know I have a high probability of winning.
Psychology does not come into my trading at all.
If I alter my system based on my feelings that would be silly and would change a winning system into a loser.

I am not saying I am perfect. I will close a trade based on it not fitting my system, news, etc. But it is not fear of losing, it is just common sense.

I think if you are trading with fear you are probably risking too much and are not confident in your system and you will lose?
Although if your system is flawed, you should have fear :slight_smile:

I think if you are emotional(fearful) you shouldn’t trade until you are confident you can be profitable.
I get confident in a system by demoing it for a long time.
If you demo a system for 6 months and get a high return and a low Draw-Down and it all looks good, you should be fairly confident it will be a winner.

I am not saying it is easy to find a winning system. Just that you have to know the system inside out and be confident in its performance and know what danger signs to look for in the market for that particular system.

& I don’t gamble. Gambling is for suckers.

Hi Goldylox
You are a good trader, just keep going.

I just wish I could do more robot like trades. It is my major battle at the moment, I tend to jump in to soon and dump them to soon. It is going to be a long fight before I can stay unemotional (I just love it when my plan comes together)

…Tom

Tom, its a battle for sure…

If I was to teach someone to trade, the very first thing is the mind preparation phase… Even im lacking it still, not going to lie, its my biggest problem myself…

Just make sure you have stops, and DONT MOVE THEM…

Practice using Limit orders, write down your trades on paper, and have a set plan for the trade before you enter it…

Just what ever you do, DONT MOVE YOUR STOPLOSS, UNLESSSSSSSS, you move it into profitable territory…

See what I mean,

Just dont touch the stops PERIOD.

If your trade is thought out, and you have reasoning for profit, your stop shouldnt be an issue…

Oh, I have gotten religon on stops. The worst loss I had on my demo was when I decided thing were not moving and took a nap — and forgot to setup stop loss/take profit… Came back and it had move 60 pips in the wrong direction…

I now have a checklist and those set at the same time I setup the trade now… Can’t forget them then …

And as you mentioned, I check them frequently and only move to protect my profit.

… Tom

Good stuff, thats the game…

As far as jumping to early, and getting out to early, well, think of it like this… How do you know where the price is going? You have some sort of crytal ball? If we all knew where the price was going, we’de all be wealthy,no?

You find out after the trade is over, that, you might have been able to get in a tad later, and hold it for a tad longer, but really, Tom, we Dont know that. its just evident after the fact, which inturn makes you think," why" did you react the way you did…

We just dont know… So I have found there is little use to beating yourself up over it, and just adapt your trading plan to how you react and the production in pips your pulling…

We just dont know Bro, and if someone does, then they should be mega billionaires…

My longest win streak is like 66 trades… But they are for 1-5 pips, so I implement my plan to that.

yeah, do not sleep and forget (your stop loss). :smiley:
it does not matter if the stop is tight or wide, the important thing is to have it setup when you are away from the monitor.

There is a popular saying in the market which says that trading is only 5% technicals and 95% psychology. A trader makes more mistakes with a tired mind and losing mind than anything else.

Steve, you should have opened account with stifx.