Trading outlines

Managing risks is in many ways the foundation of the entire process. Managing risk comes down to two things. First is how you are going to place your stops. That goes back to cutting your losses short. Consider trading as a business venture. Managing risk means recognizing what the costs of trading are. Make a comprehensive plan. Winning traders always treat their trading like a game, but they also look at the whole thing as a money-making business. – GLEN RING


Most aspiring traders underestimate the time, work, and money required to become successful. To succeed as a trader, one needs complete commitment. Just as in any entrepreneurial venture, you must have a solid business plan, adequate financing, and a willingness to work long hours. Those seeking shortcuts are doomed to failure. And even if you do everything right, you should still expect to, lose money during the first five years – losses that I view as tuition payments to be made to the school of trading. These are cold, hard facts that many would-be traders prefer not to hear or believe, but ignoring them doesn’t change the reality. – MARK D COOK


Consistent success is difficult to achieve because the trading environment differs in almost every way from the environment in which we live our everyday lives. For example, in our everyday lives our fears help us avoid unpleasant or painful experiences. In the trading environment, fear colors our perception of market information thereby influencing our actions. As incredible it may sound, fear of making a mistake, losing money or missing an opportunity, will actually cause us to create the very experiences we are trying to avoid. Consistency as a trader does not depend upon your knowledge of market behaviour, but rather upon a very unique mind-set. – MARK DOUGLAS


We know that the random element in the market represents at least 40 to 60 percent activity. Therefore, it’s not logical to look at every tick or to think that every tick or every chart formation has meaning. They don’t. There are too many traders trying to look at the markets from too stringent an analytical viewpoint. Most of what happens in the markets is meaningless. Why try to interpret every little movement, every little reversal, every little tick? In trying to do too much, they’re actually paying too much attention to the market. You have to keep a distance from the market. Only then will you have the psychological resources to let your profits ride. You won’t be looking at every tick and interpreting it in a fearful way. – JAKE BERNSTEIN