InnerCircleTrader said:
I think its rather rude of us to hyjack this thread with it though.
In an attempt to get this thread back on track, I'll join in on the first post:
SLT said:
To Begin this thread, i would like to ask anyone who is listening
1 : Are you having trouble as a trader? that has been trading/training for over 2 years or more...
2 : What is your worst habit? amongst trading
3 : How badly do you want this?
This thread is about honesty & reality
1. Depends on what you mean by 'trouble'.. I don't have any trouble in the 'net profitable' sense, but I totally see myself hitting plateaus in my trading that I want to bound past.
A big one for me has always been sizing up. I have a bad tenancy to get comfortable trading a specific size on given setups, so once it's time to ratchet up the risk, it takes me a while to get used to the greater size all over again. It's like going from being emotionally disconnected from a given trade setup's outcome to being far to 'aware' that you have the trade and risk in play.. and it takes a few repetitions at the new size to get comfortable again.
I don't trade for the thrills, as I strive to be entirely indifferent (in the emotional investment sense) to a trade's outcome.. so I'm working on ways to size up without the novelty effect of additional risk.
2. My worst habit is trading "flash" news. I'm simply horrible at it. I have plans for trading 'post' news on specific setups (the type of news, like earnings releases, cash rate decisions, what it means, what kinda entries I'm looking for, etc..) but when news catches the market off guard and causes all kinds of spikes, I tend to get punch-happy and dive into silly trades. (An example would be the Associated Press Twitter hack that had AP's account tweet that a bomb went off and Obama was injured... this was about two years ago I think... The market tanked hard on that news and I ended up losing both on the way down and on the way back up after they reported the tweet was fake. Or TSLA recently with the CEO tweeting that they were about to launch a new 'non-car' product during the trading session's lunch hour which that causes the stock to rally hard...)
I think this relates to the fear of 'missing out' on a good move, as I see others around me profiting from such snap reactions.. but my personal track record trading them tends to be 50/50 at best and often has turned profitable days of mine into negative days... I've been working over the last year to cut this kinda trading entirely out... At least, I want to be able to quickly classify the type of snap/flash news I want to trade vs the types I have no edge, so if I end up taking a flash news play I can have a more structured approach to it.
3. Umm... how badly do I want the answer to #2? Of course I strive for constant improvement in trading.. else what's the point? I've taken action, as I always do, to improve and I've seen results. I often get frustrated that the results don't come fast enough, but that's just my nature (be it related to trading or any other discipline.) I just started some weight training for example, and after around 2 months I'm frustrated that I don't quite look like a pro body builder yet.. lol..