The one thing you wished someone had told you

Trading Discussion
#1

This is a quick question to answer and the results will be interesting…

Looking back to when you were learning to trade / still a beginner, what is the ONE thing you wish more than anything that someone had told you / that you knew?

I’m still a noob, but for me, the one thing that’s really helped me a lot is: “Don’t focus on picking tops and bottoms!” (I come from stock trading where that is what you do).

#2

Good question!

I would have liked to have been warned away from scalping.
Too time consuming and stressful for noobies. Great buzz when you win, slashed wrists time when you’re on a losing streak.

#3

A great question, and I agree with Eddie; I would also add:

TRADE CONSERVATIVELY.

Basically, get raising capital and then trade mini- or standard lots

with no more than 2:1 leverage, let us say…

Trade one trade at a time, no more, and follow a theme all the way,

unflinchingly, tolerating drawdown and periods of your trade doing nothing

much, for the prize of greater return of investment (R.O.I.) over time…

BE PATIENT, or, as I called it on some of these threads,

[B]
DEVELOP BUDDHA BUTTOCKS
[/B]

:slight_smile:

#4
  1. Don’ t trade the news when you start!
  2. Never think that the price can’ t get lower or higher!
  3. Cut yourself out of the deal and automate your trading where you can!
  4. Stick to the plan!
  5. Don’t over-analyze your broker when you are not even making consistent profits!
  6. Don’t scalp, too much trouble and only good for you broker.
#5

This is interesting! Here’s my responses to your points:

  1. learnt this one the hard way…
  2. This is also what I mean about tops and bottoms. If I’m on the right side of a trade now I scale out as I reach each S/R level.
  3. I’m working on making my system fool proof and easy with a set list of rules.
  4. This is probably my BIGGEST issue… sometime’s I jump into a setup because it looks good but not necessarily one in my plan and often it goes against me.
  5. I did this at the start but ended up just going with a broker who had good reviews.
  6. I found scalping far too hard. Moves to quickly for me to keep up!
#6

not in specific order

  1. dont trade news
  2. votality is not good - its bad
  3. scalping sux
  4. patience is the key
  5. dont look for bottoms/tops
  6. go with the trend dont look for reversals
  7. money managment is 90% of a sucessfull traders ability
  8. indicators and oscilators are reserved for loosers and empty accounts
  9. dont start with 100.000 on first account - first try (’! god that was fuqing retarded !’)
  10. dont read experts advices
  11. follow dont try to lead
  12. patterns are useless
  13. signs and patterns dont mean sh!it if noone sees them (only the ones that jump you in the face and every idiot sees are usefull)
  14. if the masses things it must go up itwill go up, no matter how much of fundamentals and reasons YOU got that the mass iswrong
  15. the mass is usally wrong but it doesnt mattr if youre right when you make no moneyon it by standing on the railroad track of the “MASS-TRAIN” onto everyone jumped
  16. dont trade to tight
  17. when you made 500% gain on account in one day, usually the next day you will giveit all back if you THINK you can repeat it immediately again
  18. trading is like beeing a preyer looking for meat. dont chase any rabbit, youll loose your energy (account) by the time the big prey comes in like a dear or a mammoth, chase the ones that come into your proximity and are easy to catch or wait for the ones that are worth beeing chased long.

no clue atm, ill edit when i remember more

#7
  1. Don’t invest a large sum of money right after you stop trading on a demo account.
  2. Be disciplined above all else and always have a contingency plan.
#8

I’m still a beginner but mine would be don’t trade Monday morning. (NY) So much weird stuff happens.

#9

That it could take years to become profitable. :stuck_out_tongue:

#11

Yes…so, one should not start in their eighties :stuck_out_tongue: Starting young, unfortunately, also means having a more risk-prone attitude to life, sometimes, which in trading terms translates into overtrading, overleveraging, revenge trading, and failing to just calm the hell down haha

#12

All that information (news, forums and twitter opinions) is soooooo overrated. :slight_smile: It is so much eassier to act on what you see. Good that you found your way in PA.

#13

i sooo agree to this

#14

I agree! I’m in New Zealand so markets open here while US and the rest of the world is sleeping. I found it’s better to let the market open while I sleep, do their thing then check out my charts Tuesday morning (Monday night US-time). It’s made such a difference in my trading wins/losses!

#15

I’ve always had mixed results with PA. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong so now I’m testing a new sytem that aims on holding positions during larger swings between 1day-2 weeks. Wish me luck!

#16

2-weeks! :open_mouth: Hmmm, I like the M1 chart, so 2 weeks is like looking at grass growing to me. :slight_smile:

Good luck! Have a good look at your fake stop outs, where they just testing the last high/low? Is the market ranged?

When you need an extra brain, PM me. I might know someone who has a brain :slight_smile: