I was recently involved in an argument with a forex trader who’s focus was on day trading. He continuously pounded on me because I was long EUR/USD and emphasized that the trend for this pair was bullish. Therefore being long would be more advantageous than being short. Trend patterns clearly point higher but yet he was unwilling to look at the bigger picture.
Due to Ireland’s problems over the weekend, he was fully convinced that the Euro would gap down and collapse into a bottomless pit. Obviously, none of it happened at today’s open. When it sold off a few pips, he messaged me saying, “How is that long position going? Or are you reading the graph the wrong way round?”
I conveyed to him again how important it is to look at the bigger picture (daily or weekly chart patterns) and reaffirmed my long position. Right now this pair is exploding even higher and I see no reason for an exit. Experienced traders tend to trade in a way that is advantageous, while newbie traders simply trade in a way that is not advantageous.
Want to share your experiences where you turned out to be right?
I could have executed the trade versus let it pass by.
I could have never taken the trade I lost money on.
I could have held for higher profits versus exiting at my objective.
I could have leveraged more on my wins.
I could have leveraged less on my losses.
I could waste my time worrying about being “right”… and I’d never be profitable. What is the morale here?
Good point. Coulda, shoulda. These thoughts are not what a trader should deal with all day. By being analytical, however, they can be used productively to improve one’s skills and make better trades in the future.
The original concern was that traders are very argumentative and love to insult one another. Everyone thinks he/she is right and the other must be wrong therefore. Why this hostile environment? At the end of the day, what brings the food to the table is being right and making money off being right.
“There is only one side of the market, and it is not the bull side or the bear side but the right side.” – Jesse Livermore
The morale is if you don’t concern yourself with being “right” instead of profitable… you won’t give any concern to those that want to argue… or insist their way is the “right” way. Ego is a powerful thing and men unfortunately think Forex and their last trade is the Football team and their against the rest of the league… lol.
It’s funny if you can sit back and watch them fight like it’s their honor on the line. :rolleyes:
I like to use the big picture (daily, weekly) to confirm the small picture before I make a trade. Of course, there’s plenty of backtesting done as a double-confirmation. As long as appropriate trailing stops and other pending orders are in place, “letting it ride” isn’t a horrible idea if you’ve already secured your profit.
No point in arguing about what the EUR/USD is or is not going to do when you can just say, “We’ll see” and stick with your position.
I trade against all the rules, I open buy orders when the price action is clearly downwards, I open sell orders when the price action is clearly upwards, I trade with the trend and against it, sometimes at the same time.
I’m already up over 200 pips since last nights market open. I do this every day, well my EA does but thats beside the point, I could do it manually too if I wanted to.
The point is, dont listen to what other people say, find what works for you and stick with it.
I find it useless to even try to argue about the movement of price.
It’s almost religious for some people though. If you don’t believe as they do, you’re a lost soul. And I think there’s a tremendous amount of ego involved. I see it on other forums all the time. Guys scratch lines in the sand and try to call others out in trading matchup.
This isn’t the UFC, and it does one NO good to be so set on predicting things, that it causes them to lose money trying to be right.
I always lost money in the past, when I got stubborn, and stuck to what I thought was going to occur. As I’ve said before, the fact is, we retailers are just bugs on the windsheild here.
Nowadays, it’s just a lot less stressful to just sit back, and let it happen:)