Archive for the ‘Trading Psychology’ Category:
Video Lesson: Fear
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Thus spoke Franklin D. Roosevelt 75 years ago.
Looking back on Roosevelt’s speech in 1933, 4 years after the infamous crash of ‘29, he was referring to the economic conditions of the time — better known as The Great Depression. In essence he was saying that if we can’t shake our pessimistic economic outlook, it will be tough to turn things around.
The question is… are things different this time?
The answer is yes and no. People are still fearful of what the future holds and they have very little confidence in the economy. The big difference between the crash of ‘08 and the crash of ‘29 is that we now have India and China on the world stage. Back in ‘29, both of these countries where not on the radar. In fact India was under British Rule.
Both India and China’s economies will suffer with the turn down here in the US. They are now going to have to generate their own domestic consumption patterns for the goods and services they formally sold to the US. This is going to be hard to do as so much of their economy is based on exports which are evaporating quickly.
The fact of the matter is that the markets are extraordinarily turbulent. We do not expect, even with the worldwide bailout, for things will be rosy again anyt ime soon. However, that does not rule out some extraordinary trading opportunities in the markets. This is a time for rational thinking. It is also a time to eliminate fear from trading.
There is no need for fear in one’s trading plan if you’re running with a diversified program that has proven to be successful over time. What I mean by overtime is not just the last six months, or six years, but over a long period of time I mean as much as 30 years.
When you have a program that puts the odds on your side, you can trade with confidence knowing that you’re going to lose some small skirmishes in the market, but overall you will make money based on your own trading decisions.
Many of you know that we trade using MarketClub’s “Trade Triangle” technology. This approach has proven successful in all types of markets, including the one’s we are in now.
I’ve put together a short 12 minute video to show you how we have fared in three different markets us ing this technology.
For a small percentage of you, this video will be an eye-opening experience. For another percentage of you, you are already fearless MarketClub members. There will also be some of you that are successful traders using your own system, and there is probably no need to watch this video.
Trading should be an unemotional experience. If you are trading for the excitement, odds are you’re going to lose. If you are trading just to say that you trade, you’re probably going to lose. If your trade for any other reason than to make money, you’re probably going to lose.
The possibility of successfully trading any market is out there. This video will show you how our unemotional, time tested approach to the stock, future, forex, etf, and mutual fund market will put the odds in your favor that you are on the right side of these extraordinary trading times.
“The only limits to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Every success.
Eerily similar S&P500 chart action…
If you’re scared or confused about what’s been happening in the market and the economy over the past week…
-then you need to see this brand new trading video…
* It shows you what usually happens when the market is gripped by fear, like it is now… and how smart traders can pounce on the coming profit potential…
-You’re walked through the current S&P500 chart, and then you’ll see an eerily similar situation that happened a few years ago. You may be surprised by what’s going on…
As a bonus, the video starts with 3 recent trades that set up this past Monday as the market plunged. 2 of them hit 10% profit targets already last week, and 1 didn’t enter into a trade at all, so you can see the importance of having step- by-step ‘risk rules’ to keep you out of the trades you shouldn’t even be considering.
I hope you enjoy the video.
Coping With Losses: A Major Key to Successful Trading
Be warned.
“Part of overall winning is taking losses along the way.”
“If you have 55% winning trades, you’ll win in the long run.”
We’ve heard it said a million times in a hundred different ways.
In any trading system, we will experience losing trades as well as winning trades. We know this.
So why is it that as we moved forward from trade to trade, we become frozen with doubt when the losing trades appear in bunches?
If you think about it, when winning trades appear in bunches, we get motivated and we look for reasons to find the next trade. We’re on a roll and we love it. We’re on top of the world.
The words “genius” and “professional trader” seem to fit us perfectly.
Conversely, when losing trades appear in bunches, we become fearful of the next trade and look for reasons to shy away from following our system.
We become filled with doubt and the words “gambler” and “loser” seem to describe us best.
OK, so why?
It’s because you’re are viewing our trading outcomes as reflections of you as a person.
This leads to the destruction of virtually all failing traders.
Negative personal evaluation leads to your being emotionally out of control, which leads to straying from your tested trading system … and the result…
you’re trading by the seat of your pants (which should be pulled down and you spanked!).
You see, you must develop the mindset (and the true under-standing) that you are a winning trader whether you are experiencing a run of losing trades or winning trades.
Your self-image of a winning trader allows you to glide through losing streaks so you can be there for the winning streaks.
Most new and “intermediate” traders do NOTHING about their mental trading fitness. They are willing to spend thousands of dollars on “holy grail” systems and out-of-town seminars, but are totally neglecting mental conditioning.
You should be training as hard on your mental fitness as you do on preparing your trading signals.
As a broker/trader/CTA for 21 years, I have probably seen 50+ trading systems that were money makers, IF you had the mental/emotional strength to follow them!
You need to find a system that suits your personality (more on this next week), back-test the system, appropriate the money to trade the system, and then GO FOR IT.
The “go for it” part won’t actualize without the mental strength to take the good with the bad.
RECOMMENDED: TradingMind Software
**Norman Hallett spent 21 years as a successful trader and CTA before starting Subconscious Training Corporation. His company developed TradingMind Software, the industries leading mental/emotional training tool for traders who understand the importance of being disciplined and focused in their trading.
