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market. • Trade on the path of least resistance. For intraday trading, use moving averages on 5-, 15-, and 60-minute charts to confirm the market’s short-term trend. If market dynamics are strong and moving averages are rising on all time frames, do not take
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short signals. For mixed markets, take long and short setups in line with buying/selling pressure on that particular day. Also, use a squeeze indicator to help with determining short-term market bias. If a daily squeeze exists on YM, focus on long setups and pass on shorts. • Be aware of monthly
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and weekly pressures to be on the right side of the market. • Focus on executing trades efficiently and not on P&L. • Do not trade during lunchtime doldrums (8:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific). • Minimize trading on Fed days. Maybe look
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at the first ½ hour and the last hour for any opportunities. • During options expiration week, reduce your position size to one contract and consider trading only Monday to Wednesday of that week. Do not trade on Thursday and Friday. • Trade light during the
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month of August, especially the last two weeks, as volume dries up and the trading gets choppy. Focus on preparing for September trading when volume and players return to the markets. • Consider taking time off during Thanksgiving week and during the
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last two weeks of December. W HAT TO T RACK On a daily basis, keep track of the following: • Market dynamics spreadsheet: tracks sector performance, advance/decline, breadth, and so on, of the major markets. This should be done in both
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intraday and end-of-day formats. For intraday, data will be logged every ½ hour. • Pending economic data and when it is being released, key earnings reports, and any upcoming Fed meetings. • Review major markets and key sectors on 15- minute, 60-minute, and
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daily time frames. Note position of moving averages to gauge supply/demand dynamics, oscillators, and key price levels on daily and 60-minute charts. Use monthly and weekly charts to help confirm support/resistance on shorter time frames. Look for confluence at price levels. From this
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information, a bias should be developed for the next day. • Keep a trading journal that documents each trading day’s action. This is the end of Eric’s trading plan. Summing Up the Trading Plan Eric put a lot of thought into
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his plan, and, as a result, he will not be staring at the markets each day wondering what he should be doing. This mental flailing around is what initiates most of the mistakes all amateurs tend to make. If you are a new trader without a plan, remember that you are going to be trading directly against Eric and other people like him who have put a lot of thought into their trading plan. For
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every hundred traders who are out there, fewer than five have a plan as detailed as this. Who do you think stands a better chance of winning more consistently over the long run? You can visit www.tradethemarkets.com/plan to download an updated copy of my trading plan. The fun in trading comes from the thrill of the hunt,
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the anticipation of the kill. All the research, all the work culminates into a single moment in time when a trader makes a decision to pull the trigger and is shortly thereafter presented with the results. A trader who can string together enough consistent winners opens the door to a whole new life of independence. The lure of this challenge draws people of all ages and from all walks
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of life into the markets. Those who can face up to the challenge of drawing up a plan to pave the way will have the odds of success in their favor.
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25 Tips and Tricks for When It’s Not Working for You, No Matter What You Do Do not blame God for having created
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the tiger, but thank him for not having given it wings. —I NDIAN P ROVERB There is an island of opportunity in the middle of every difficulty. Miss that, though,
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and you’re pretty much doomed. — D ESPAIR.COM Will Cry for Food—Using Your Emotions to Make Money The biggest problem traders have is controlling their emotions. I see it all the time. Traders know the setup they
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are supposed to follow, but they get swept up in their emotions and blow the trade. By stepping back and examining this process in more detail, traders can learn to use their emotional reactions as indicators. Properly tuned, these emotional indicators, instead of leading to mistakes, can create great triggers to enter and exit a market. This is part of the transition from
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amateur to professional— instead of getting sucked into a trade because of your emotions, use the emotional triggers to fight back and do exactly the opposite of what they are signaling you to do. The Four Seasons Hotel Trade When I am in a trade that is going my way and I start to feel overly excited and have
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the urge to add to my position, I instead use this as my trigger to set up a “double stop order.” As an example, let’s say I’m long 10 E-mini S&P contracts. The market is screaming higher. I find myself thinking of how many nights I could live at the Four Seasons on Maui with the day’s profits. I recognize this feeling and immediately take the “Four Seasons trigger”: I place a
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trailing 2-point stop for 20 contracts, double the size of my current position. What happens is that I will stay in the trade as long as it is moving higher, but once the market turns, not only am I out of my position for a nice profit, but I also simultaneously get short 10 contracts. This process takes advantage of the market dynamics of human emotion
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in a very clean fashion. The sell-off that occurs will be driven by other traders who succumbed to their emotions and bought at the top, because of either fear of missing a move or the euphoria of having a current winning position. Once the market does reverse, it will be these traders who will provide the fuel for the move down as they start dumping their positions once they
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can’t take the pain of losing any longer. This is one example of how to get your emotions working for you instead of against you. Thank You, Sir, May I Have Another? When I’m in a trade, I visualize what a newer trader would be doing—or what I would have been doing when I first started out. “If I
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entered here, where would my pain point be?” I’ve found that on the S&Ps, a move of 6 points without any meaningful retracements is the maximum “uncle point” for most traders. When I see a 6-point move without a retracement, I picture new traders and try to imagine the pain they are feeling. After about 6 points, I know they won’t be able to take the pain any longer, and I step in and
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take the opposite side of this move, just as they are bailing out of their position and throwing cabbage at their screen. One person’s stop run is another person’s entry point. As a professional trader, you will always be using a stop, so you will no longer find yourself in this very real, very frequent, and very unfortunate position. Use
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your emotions to feel other traders’ pain and figure out when they are going to throw in the towel. When I Tick, You Tick, We Tick A more technical way to measure emotion is to watch the ticks. This is the same setup we talked about in Chapter 9 . This time, however, if you are sitting
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there and the market is running away from you, instead of blindly jumping in, look at the ticks. Are they approaching +1,000? They are probably getting close, as pools of amateur traders continue to buy at the market and tempt the goddess of good luck. The ticks are a great emotional balancing mechanism. A frequent surge of adrenaline that comes from watching a market
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that’s moving without you can be quickly tempered by a quick look at the ticks. Dive, Captain, Dive My trading partners and I run an Internet-based trading room where people log in from around the world. One of the things we all like to do is watch how the newer traders react to the market action. There are “noises”
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that the people in the room can use. One of the classic actions is that when the market is falling, falling, falling, one of the free trial users in the room posts that she is going short and initiates the “submarine dive, dive, dive” noise. Immediately upon hearing this, I know it is time to cover my shorts and go long. The experienced traders in the room also know this, and
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we all jump in and take the trade. The market usually reverses quickly, and once the newbie traders say that they are stopped out of the short trade, we cover our longs. It’s emotion-based trading at its finest. Of course, we then share this information with the newbie traders. Once they catch on, we just have to wait for the next free trial to show up.
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As a trader, if you find that you are constantly shorting the lows and buying the highs, picture newbie traders getting so excited that they are about to literally “push the dive, dive, dive button.” Do you want to be trading with or against these people? High Five, Baby Whenever traders I work
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with—or myself, for that matter—start slapping one another on the back as the result of a good open trade that is racking up profits, I immediately snap alert and close out my position. This is the result of extreme emotion, and extreme emotion is not sustainable. I call this the “high five sell signal.” Any time you actually
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utter a noise or pound on something as the result of a trade that is going really well, it’s a wake-up call for you to turn back into a professional trader. Discover Your Personality Type and Find Out If It’s Holding You Back One of the themes I’ve discussed in this book is the importance of finding the
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right markets and the right setups that best fit a trader’s personality. People view the trades they are taking through one of the three dominant personality traits that all human beings share. Some of these personality types are naturally better suited to the world of trading than others. Unfortunately, there are also personality types that will not win at trading no matter what they
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do. However, there is a silver lining here. The reason these personality types lose is that they are unaware that their personality is the very thing that is responsible for their mounting losses and continued frustration. Once a trader learns about this, he can then use this information to turn his trading around. The following 20-question quiz will help you determine
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your dominant personality type. There is no right answer, and it may seem to you that there are two right answers to some of the questions. Just pick the one that makes the most sense in terms of how it relates to you. Don’t think about these too long. The faster you can move through this, the more accurate the readings will be, and the better the information you will have to improve
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your trading. This is one of the personality profiles I have traders take when they come and work with me, so I can get a better idea of who they are and which markets and setups are best suited to their personality. Here we go: 1. When you think back to one of the best vacations you’ve had, what part of the
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vacation do you first remember? A. The sights and how the place looked. B. The different sounds you experienced. C. The way you felt while on vacation there. 2. When you think back
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to a person who captivated your interest, what is the first thing that really attracted you to him or her? A. The person’s appearance and looks. B. What the person said to you. C. How you felt being around the person.
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3. When you are driving, how do you get around? A. I look for road signs or follow a map. B. I listen for familiar sounds that point me in the right direction. C. I follow my gut and get a sense of where I am.
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4. When I play my favorite sport, I really enjoy: A. The way the sport looks, and the way I look playing it. B. The way it sounds, like the bang of the bat hitting the ball or the cheering fans. C. The way the game feels, like holding
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on to a tennis racket or the feeling of running around the court. 5. Making a decision is easier when: A. I can see all the choices in my mind’s eye. B. I can hear discussions from both sides in my head.
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C. I can sense how I would feel if either option came to fruition. 6. From the following list, I would say my favorite activities are: A. Photography, painting, reading, sketching, and films. B. Music, musical instruments, the
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sound of the sea, wind chimes, concerts. C. Ball games, woodworking, massage, introspection, touching. 7. When I am shopping for clothes, after seeing the item for the first time, the very next thing that I
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do is: A. Take another really good look at it or picture myself wearing it. B. Listen closely to the salesperson and/or have a dialogue with myself about the pros and cons of buying it. C. Get a feeling about
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it and/or touch it to see if it’s something I’d enjoy wearing. 8. During the times I find myself thinking of a former lover, the first thing that happens is that I: A. Visualize the person clearly in my mind. B. Hear the sound of
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the person’s voice in my mind. C. Start feeling a certain way about the person. 9. When I am at the gym or working out, my feeling of contentment comes from: A. Seeing my reflection in the mirror improving.
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B. Hearing compliments from people around me about how good I look. C. Feeling my body get stronger and sensing that it’s more in shape. 10. When I’m doing math, I check my answer by: A. Viewing the
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answers to see if the numbers look correct. B. Counting the numbers in my mind. C. Using my hands and fingers to get a sense of whether or not I am right. 11. When I write out words, I verify the correct spelling by:
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A. Seeing the word in my mind’s eye to see if it looks right. B. Pronouncing the word out loud or hearing it in my mind. C. Getting a gut feeling about the way the word is spelled. 12. When I love someone,
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I get an immediate experience of: A. The way we appear with each other through the eyes of love. B. Hearing or saying “I love you.” C. A warm feeling toward that person. 13. When I do not like someone, I immediately
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experience dislike: A. When I see that person coming toward me. B. When that person starts talking to me. C. When I know that person is around. 14. When I am at the beach, the initial thing that makes me happy to be there is:
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A. The look of the golden sand and the beautiful sun and placid water. B. The sound of the thrashing waves, the howling winds, and whispers from afar. C. The touch of the sand, the salty air at my lips, and the feeling of
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calmness. 15. With regard to my career, I know I’m on the right path when: A. I see myself clearly in one of the executive offices. B. I hear the president say, “You are one of the company’s stars.” C. I feel satisfaction
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in getting a promotion. 16. In order for me to get a good night’s sleep, it is critical that: A. The room is dark, with little or no light coming in from outside. B. The room is quiet, without any distracting noises. C. The bed feels
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incredibly soft and comfortable. 17. When I get anxious, the first thing I notice is: A. The world seems slightly different to me. B. Various sounds and noises start to irritate me. C. I no longer feel a sense of ease and
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calm. 18. When I get focused and motivated, I immediately: A. View things from a brand new and positive perspective. B. Tell myself that this new state of being is going to open up new doors.
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C. Feel my body and mind getting excited. 19. When someone tells me, “I love you,” my first reaction is: A. To form an image of the two of us being together or of that person loving me. B. To hear my soul saying something
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like, “This is amazing.” C. A feeling of great satisfaction and contentment. 20. Dying, for me, is closest to: A. Seeing no more or seeing things in a brand new fashion. B. Hearing nothing ever again or hearing things in a
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brand new fashion. C. Feeling nothing ever again or feeling things in a brand new fashion. Once you have completed this test, add up how many times you answered A, B, or C. For example, you might have A: 6, B: 4, C: 10. These results will give you an idea about your dominant
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personality type. People generally react to and interpret the world around them through this filter. Get your scores together and we’ll move on—you’ll want to have taken the test before we proceed so that your answers aren’t influenced by what you read next. The goal here is to get an honest assessment of your personality traits and then learn how to best utilize
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those traits in your trading. Personality Types and Trading—What You Don’t Know About Yourself Can Hurt Your Trading Nearly 60 percent of the population will have “A” as their highest-scoring trait. This indicates that a person’s dominant way of viewing the world is visual. It’s not really
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known why this is so, but experts feel that it has to do with sight being our strongest sense, and that the majority of us were taught from birth to depend on our eyes in order to make our way through life. Also, in today’s world, our input is largely through television, movies, computer screens, and printed copy—all of which are heavily dependent on the eyes.
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Visual people like daylight and are extremely mobile, and it’s easy to find them in professions that allow them visual expression. Nowhere is this more observable than in the entertainment industry. Visual people are generally “movers and shakers” and like to move fast. They are drawn to this industry and its related fields as a natural expression of who they are.
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These types of people naturally gravitate to professions such as painting, photography, and design. They also make great marksmen, firefighters, and pilots. In terms of trading, visual people adapt most quickly to this profession, as they depend largely on what is happening visually in front of them on the computer screen
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to make decisions. This doesn’t mean that they will make the right decisions, but they are most naturally adapted to the world of trading. If they are untrained in how the markets work, they will make the same mistakes as everyone else. Once they get some experience, however, they tend to be good at waiting for the charts to set up before taking their entries. Yet, only
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experience teaches them how to manage their exits. A visual’s biggest weakness is watching the P&L fluctuate throughout the trading day. It would be better for her to cover that up (a business card taped to the corner of the computer screen works well) and just focus on the setups. Also, visuals tend to laser in on a price chart and ignore everything else, which can be a detriment to their trading.
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This is why it is helpful to have auditory alerts on things like high tick readings and to listen to pit noise in the background so that visuals don’t get sucked into the extreme price action they are seeing on the charts. If your highest score was “B,” then your dominant personality trait is auditory. My accountant is highly auditory, and I’ve noticed
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that the sounds around the office occupy most of his attention. Auditory personality types relate to the world through the way things sound and in many respects are more sensitive to sounds than visual people are to sight. Auditory people can be easily distracted by the most inoffensive sound, which can make it seem as if they are not paying attention to you during a conversation. In
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reality, though, they are strong verbal communicators — it’s just that they hear every sound coming their way, and sometimes it distracts them. They enjoy both talking with others and just talking out loud to themselves. Because of their innate internal ability to put thoughts into dialogue, experts believe that most loners have this dominant personality type. Because of
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their heightened sensitivity to sound, auditories don’t tolerate harsh or disharmonic noise as well as others do. Fire or ambulance sirens are major offenders, and you can spot an auditory easily by observing who on a street corner is holding his ears as an ambulance screams past. Also, they have an incredible ability to listen so thoroughly and with such intent that data are absorbed and processed
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in their minds very quickly, without needing to be translated into pictures. Because of this enhanced ability, auditories tend to gravitate to areas in life that permit the use of such superb listening and communicative talents. With regard to trading, this personality type has one strong advantage— the ability to sit alone in front of
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a computer for days at a time without going crazy. That is an important part of trading, and this ability to be patient and wait and not feel isolated is a necessary trait to have. The downside of this personality type and trading is that a chart isn’t really much use to an auditory, and such a person will frequently miss setups simply through not paying attention. Whereas a visual can stare at
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a chart for hours because the red and green lights are fascinating, an auditory personality needs additional input. Audio alerts and pit noise are important tools for auditories, and I know some of these personality types who don’t even look at price charts. They just listen for audio alerts and then place their trades. If your highest score was
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“C,” then you relate to the world around you by how you feel. People with this dominant personality trait long to be understood and respected for being so in touch with their feelings. They tend to like a person because of how they feel when they are around that person, or they like a movie because of how it made them feel when they were watching it. When they
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laugh, they let themselves go and really feel the laughter, giving the person they are talking to a sense that they totally understand and agree with what was so funny. Type C personalities are able to translate visual images and acoustical data into feelings that are pertinent to them and those around them. Type Cs enjoy conversations, but not for the same reason that visuals or auditories do. They
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use dialogue to translate words, sounds, and images into feelings. While visuals and auditories are busy communicating with pictures and sounds, the type C personality is busily running through her vast storehouse of feelings and attaching sensory meaning to what the other person has just said. Because of their heightened ability to feel,
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you would assume that type Cs are introverts. However, the opposite is true. Moreover, because of their superior sense of touch, type Cs make superior athletes. Any occupation that requires manual tasks is just plain easier for people with this personality type. Typical occupations that are tailor- made for them usually have hands-on or feeling parameters. Psychologists,
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woodworkers, potters, surgeons, actors, all types of mechanics, and other feeling- or sensory-based occupations are common among them. For traders, people with this type of personality have the biggest struggle, and they usually don’t make it until they figure out how their personality is working against them. A trader with a type C personality will wait
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until he senses that things are good or bad, or wait until he gets a sense about whether what he is doing or is about to do is good or bad. Such a trader will literally get into trades when it feels good to do so, and get out when it feels bad. This almost always puts them in just as a move is ending, and gets them out just as it is turning. For people with a type C personality, it feels bad to
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buy a market that is selling off into a pivot level. They would rather wait to see a bounce so that they can “feel good” that the trade is going to work out. Of course, by the time this happens, they should actually be closing out a position instead of initiating a new one. The solution to this is hard yet simple. If you are a type C, then just acknowledge that your feelings need to be
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faded. If you are excited and feel good about going long, then you should be looking at the short side, and vice versa. If you are a type C, don’t despair. A type C who masters this will have a distinct advantage over other traders. A type C who is unaware of this will always face an uphill battle when it comes to trading. In terms of personality, no
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one is going to be 100 percent anything. I am primarily visual, then “feeling” is not far behind, and finally auditory makes up a small portion of my overall personality profile. I’ve learned to set up my charts to take the best advantage of my dominant visual personality, listen to my feelings to get an idea of what the amateur traders are doing and thus “fade my
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feelings,” and set up audio alerts to make sure my eyes aren’t the only thing that are responsible for my trading decisions. Learning this about myself made me a better trader. Trading Really Isn’t That Easy—Alternatives to Consider for Jump-Starting Progress The harsh truth is that trading
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isn’t for everyone, but the problem is, you won’t know whether it’s for you or not until you give it a shot. It takes guts, courage, and years to become good enough to do it for a living. My advice is to start out small. Whatever amount you start with is your tuition money—you are going to lose it, and that is your educational fee for entrance into this world. Do yourself a
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favor and trade small until you start getting consistent with your setups. If it still isn’t working out after a few years and you are getting ulcers, or if you figure out that you’d rather be playing golf, there are other options. First off, learning about trading by reading a book is about like learning about golfing by reading a book. Both require what are called
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complex execution skills. Reading will help in the understanding, but not the doing. Other examples of this are: • Learning a native language or a second language • Driving a car • Playing a sport (baseball, football, hockey, and so on)
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• Snow skiing or water skiing • Playing a musical instrument • Math • Morality • Computer programming • Playing poker or bridge • Flying a plane and getting a pilot’s license • Trading and investing
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• Tuning a piano or working on a car engine • Being a doctor or a lawyer Activities that require complex execution skills are learned by 99 percent of the population in exactly the same way. How is that? They have to have at least one other human being physically beside them teaching them
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for an extended period of time. For trading, this often isn’t practical. It’s easy to practice in isolation. It’s hard to find someone who (1) can really trade and (2) will let you sit next to her for an extended period of time. This need to have someone with you is why the Stockholm syndrome happens. Physical contact with kidnappers
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changes the perspective of those who are held in captivity because the captured feel what their kidnappers feel and end up mimicking their kidnappers’ rules, sentiments, actions, and so forth. It’s the way human beings learn and operate. Humans see others around them and discover what, why, and how they do things, and this is how humans learn and start to
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mimic. Those who don’t have physical contact with kidnappers may read and understand what the cause of the capture is, but that pales in comparison to the changes that are taking place in the minds of the victims who are being held hostage. For me, I had to spend time and sit side by side with other traders before I turned the corner to consistency. In
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sitting beside these traders, it was helpful to hear them talk about what they were doing and why, but that was only about 40 percent of what I learned. The rest of it had to do with what they weren’t saying or doing. They weren’t getting upset if they missed a move. They weren’t answering the phone when it rang. Also, there were many things they did and habits they had that they weren’t
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even aware of until I pointed it out to them. It was these unconscious trading habits that I picked up that really helped me out as well—just observing and absorbing how a professional trader spent his day. To that end, if you really want to do this, I would encourage you to find an experienced trader and just spend a week sitting next to him. That was what turned the corner for me. If you
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can’t find anyone, there are a few times a year when we will hold weeklong “mentorships” at my trading office (see Figure 25.1 ). Traders can sign up to come and spend time side by side with me and some of the other traders I work with and just watch what we do. After a few days, we will then have the visiting traders start making trades while we observe and make comments.
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If they do a good job following their own rules, we’ll let them make some trades in one of the various funds that we run. Part of their homework while they are with us is to develop a full trading plan like the one I shared earlier. The goal is that when they leave, they will never again have to wonder what they should be doing when they are staring at the charts. They will have
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a plan to follow, and they will just wait for specific things to happen “according to plan.”
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Figure 25.1 John Carter (outset) and Hubert Senters (closest in) showing Bill Shugg (center) how they trade. If that’s not an option? Then one thing you can do is record your trades while you do them in a program like Camtasia. This allows you to go back and review your trade “live” as it unfolded. This is like a quarterback
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watching the game films, trying to better understand what he and his players did and how the other team tried to work against them. This is great information to have as a trader: to be able to go back, look objectively at your own mistakes, and see ways to improve. Be more patient? Don’t chase? It’s a great way to get to the next level.
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There are also programs available in which specific setups can be auto-traded by a number of brokers. There are brokers who do this with my own setups and newsletter plays. However, the setups I use are shorter- term in nature, volatile, and not appropriate for everyone. There is no shame in throwing in the towel when it comes to trading. For many,
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quitting trading is the best trade they ever made. They are not stressed out, they let someone else manage their accounts, and best of all, they understand what is going on because they have already been there themselves. Visit www.tradethemarkets.com/tips for updates and ideas on how to work through this journey called trading. Practice does not make
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