If you could do one thing better - what would it be?

Everyone has weaknesses. Things we should be doing better. Some recognise them and attempt to work on them. Others perhaps do not see the problems, which could be a bigger issue then the problem itself.

So in your trading - what's the one thing you could do better?

What are you doing to improve this part of your trading?


My weakness is losing faith in my systems. I can historically test and know bad periods can occur, but when it is real money which is being lost I can begin to doubt my system and look to tinker with it.

While tinkering and (hopefully) improving can be good in itself, I have in the past dropped systems after a rough patch, missing the upcoming good results.

To help me against this I have better defined the expected 'down periods' so when they occur I can compare them to what I expect. If they are within expectations then I can 'not worry' knowing that the expectation is that they will soon come good. I can not worry because I know at which point I should become concerned - and logically if that point is not reached then I need not think something is 'wrong'.

What are you looking to improve on in 2011?

TulipFX said:

Everyone has weaknesses. Things we should be doing better. Some recognise them and attempt to work on them. Others perhaps do not see the problems, which could be a bigger issue then the problem itself.

So in your trading - what's the one thing you could do better?

What are you doing to improve this part of your trading?


What are you looking to improve on in 2011?

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My weakness and what I need to improve in 2011 is, learning to hold my open profitable trades longer at times.

good thread TulipFX.

I want my foresight to be as good as my hindsight.

Patience (discretionary).
Both on the entry and exit sides.

>Apocalypto< said:

My weakness and what I need to improve in 2011 is, learning to hold my open profitable trades longer at times.

good thread TulipFX.

Click to expand...

tech/a said:

Patience (discretionary).
Both on the entry and exit sides.

Click to expand...

A good thing to improve exits is to use the coin flip to practice. It helped me a lot.

Flip a coin, heads go long, tails go short.

Manage the trade. See how well you can do.

Obviously use paper-trading to do this. Many people concentrate on entries, but it is only half a battle. Exits are 50% of a trade, but attract only 5% of the attention.

I should stop watching the DOW and sleep at night ... like normal people

burglar said:

I should stop watching the DOW and sleep at night ... like normal people

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Set your trade and go to sleep.
I do it every night with the FTSE and DAX.

Impulse Buying:
Has this ever happened to you? You visit your favourite Forum and read an entry about this new stock that had escaped your attention. (most likely for a very good reason...) So you bring up your chart - or whichever crystal ball does "it" for you - and try to find what this writer sees in it. Sometimes, you can see a little silver lining here or a half-hidden suggestion of a promise there - and you buy a few. Alas! you soon find out you shouldn't have.

So, my New Year's Resolution is this: If it's a stock I've never heard from, and if it doesn't tick all the boxes in the checklist I'm using for all my own regular trades :::

Pixel, are you saying to stick to your trading strategy, no matter what?

pixel said:

Impulse Buying: Has this ever happened to you? ...

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When a friend asks if you've missed this one, you probably already have !

TulipFX said:

Pixel, are you saying to stick to your trading strategy, no matter what?

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in one word: Yes.
But I said it with more words

I just posted up a blog relating to this situation:

I have something weighing on my mind...

‘I have something weighing on my mind’. An interesting saying, and one which many traders can relate to. When the mind is pre-occupied by worry it is distracted, instead of operating in a clear and rational way with all senses operating logically emotion begins to take hold.

The two most powerful and diametrically opposed emotions are love and hate. In a trading sense it comes down to money. You love trading when you are making money, and hate it when you’re losing it.

[continued here]

Gotta work harder. Always behind on paperwork and training. Look, I'm here right now and I was going to do some backtesting.

Right, off I go.

My weakness is helping others learn how to trade. I do this all for nothing. My time skills and knowledge are open for those who know me, they just have to ask, and I'll help them get on track. I probably should start charging people, but I can't bring myself to do it, so I don't. I've got enough, trading for me is a pleasure, and even after 20 years, I still get a thrill, it's never boring, always changing. I get an even bigger thrill seeing others growing and learing and becoming self sufficient as traders. And that is payment enough for me.

Spend more time with family and friends.

Market Depth said:

My weakness is helping others learn how to trade. I do this all for nothing. My time skills and knowledge are open for those who know me, they just have to ask, and I'll help them get on track. I probably should start charging people, but I can't bring myself to do it, so I don't. I've got enough, trading for me is a pleasure, and even after 20 years, I still get a thrill, it's never boring, always changing. I get an even bigger thrill seeing others growing and learing and becoming self sufficient as traders. And that is payment enough for me.

Click to expand...

Do you mind giving me/us a short history of your trading experiences?

TulipFX said:

Do you mind giving me/us a short history of your trading experiences?

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What would you like to know?

Market Depth said:

What would you like to know?

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How did you start? What have you traded? Who for? Just things like that. From the days before retail, do-it-yourself trading.

Market Depth said:

What would you like to know?

Click to expand...

I am a qualified Carpenter and Joiner, as well as a qualified bricklayer/Tiler/Renderer. I did two trades, finished my first one in 1990. I began trading as a postion trader with my first pay cheque in 1986. I would invest 50% of my pay in good sound companies, or what I thought were good and sound. I lost most of it in 1987. This hit me very hard, as I'd basically given away half of my money to the markets. I was angry, I was sad, I was an emotional wreck. I took solace in a good friend of my Father. He was an experienced investor, Trader, and managed to weather the 87 crash very well. If he didn't he sure wasn't showing it. Not only that but he was buying up BIG! He told me that the best time to buy is when there's 'Blood on the Streets'. So I considered myself a fighter , and decided then and there that I had to get all my money back. I worked my guts out, putting money away on stocks my Dad's friend would advise on. Slowly this started to build back my capital. Then once I'd made it all back and some, I sold out. Again a BIG MISTAKE!! as the market just kept rolling along. I became more selective at this point and started to learn more about how the markets worked. In about 1992 I left my job as a Carpenter to work at a Stockbroking firm, and this is where my real learning began, How trades were placed, how to read the tape and understand basic technical and fundamental analysis. What I really enjoyed about my time there was learning how to understand Market Depth information in 'Real Time'. I just got a 'Kick' out of staring at numbers all day, and thinking how I could make money out of it. The company moved me up to their trading floor, where I got to learn how to trade for real, with real money, the companies money. Under supervision, I learnt how to identify opportunities, like what stocks to trade, they were called 'Thick' or 'Thin', how to trade stocks that had 'Relative Strenght' to the market, how to position size and manage a small trading account. This carried on for about 2 years, at which time they moved me up to the overseas trading room. This is where I learn about other markets and they way they acted on our home market. I didn't stay there long as this wasn't really for me, so I moved back down the the local trading desk, and carved out good returns for the company day in day out, til such a time that my trading account had grown. I was now in control of very large sums of money, and would manage that for the trading firm. For me back then and now and after the losses I made in 87, I realized that cutting losses early was the way to move forward. This has stuck with me ever since, and today if a stock moves against me, I'm out, it's as easy as that. Sure I miss some opportunities, all the time. I don't beat myself up over it, I just move on, or re enter at a better time. The stock has to make me money from the moment I buy it. That's it for me, that's a rule I live by everyday. It takes real skill to lose small amounts of money often.

End of Part 1

Hope you enjoyed the read. It was some time ago, and allot has changed since then. It's a work day tomorrow, and I'm up at 5 everyday, for the market news.

To stop looking for the perfect setup................