Wisdom Dump

This is a dump as the title suggests, storehouse for random wisdom that gets lost in the clutter.

Trading is Easy

Trading successfully is difficult, very difficult



Anyone can trade
But only a few trade successfully, very few

Another very important one

The elements of good trading are: (1) cutting losses, (2) cutting losses, and (3) cutting losses. If you can follow these three rules, you may have a chance.
Ed Seykota

Thanks

CV

A quote from Linda Raschke which I think is very important

You have to put indicators in context. They’re background information — never the primary reason for a trade.


CV

Quotes from Richard Wyckoff

Figuratively speaking, . . . the small trader should imagine himself as a hitch-hiker in the market. For the ordinary hitch-hiker, someone else supplies the car, chauffeur, oil and gas. When he thinks the car is about to go in his direction, he jumps aboard and rides as far as he thinks the car will go. When he notices the machine has been stopped by a red light, or is about to turn a corner and go in some other direction, or that the car is running out of gas, or the brakes failing to work properly, he steps off and figures he has secured about as long a ride as he may expect. All he has supplied in this transaction is a modest commission and whatever brains were necessary to observe and recognize the opportunity when to get on and off.



. . . the experience of the past few years has emphasized the value of disregarding all considerations except those which relate to price movement, volume and time. If one is endeavoring to realize profits from the principal swings in prices of stocks, it is my opinion that he should disregard fundamental as well as corporate statistics relating to the stocks in which he is trading, stick closely to a study of the action of the market and become deaf and blind to everything else.



Your judgment will become poorer from the very time when you decide that you know more about the market than the market is telling you. From that moment your results will be unsatisfactory, for in this trading business the tape is the boss. You must learn to obey its orders, doing exactly what it tells you. When you can accomplish this, you are on the high road to success in your stock trading.



CV

By Brett Steenbarger

1) Situation-focused talk vs. Emotion-focused talk - Traders who talk trading situations out loud--shifts in prices, looming exits, etc.--perform much better than traders whose conversations are ventings of emotion (positive or negative). From the vantage point of cognitive neuroscience, this makes sense: when we're problem-focused, we're activating frontal regions of the brain associated with the executive functions of planning, judgment, and decision-making. When we're in the throes of emotion, those same regions, key to trading behavior, are deactivated. Gladwell, in Blink!, points out that our access to the brain's frontal regions decreases dramatically as our heart rate elevates. Emotion-focused talk sustains physiological arousal, which impairs cognitive functioning.

2) "I" talk vs. "Me" talk - I'm convinced that this subtle measure may be the best gauge of trader self-priming of all. Traders who are more likely to be successful talk about "I". Traders in trouble refer to "me". The reason for this is that "I" reflects an active tense: "I" do things in relationships, in markets, in life. But things happen to "me". When I'm in the "me" mode, I'm the passive recipient of events; circumstances influence me. When I'm in first-person mode, I am the author of life's events. Successful traders experience themselves as efficacious; they prime themselves to feel in control. Unsuccessful traders exhibit an external locus of control. They are primed to feel that situations control them.

3) On-task talk vs. off-task talk - Successful traders, I've found, display tenacity and a superior capacity for concentration. They can focus on markets from opening bell to the close. Unsuccessful traders lack this intense focus. Much of their talk is off-task: it has nothing to do with markets. Less successful traders IM during the trading day, surf the Web, chat with buddies on bulletin boards, e-mail, and engage in a host of activities that take them away from the flow of market activity. Successful traders talk the market: who is in the market, how the market is trading, how they're adapting their strategy, etc. They are primed for trading and competition; the less successful traders are primed for avoidance.



CV

You will always be your worst enemy in futures trading, not your luck, not other traders, not unexpected news events and not the "markets." But this is actually more good news. Because you cannot do anything about luck, other traders, the news or market behavior; but you can do a great deal about yourself. - Chick Goslin

Futures trading can be a very brutal business. If you let it, futures trading has the potential to destroy you. Fortunes far, far greater than yours have been lost in this business by individuals at least as clever as you. Never, ever underestimate the dangers of trading the futures markets. They are populated by people and organizations who will not flinch in the slightest as they take everything they can from you. Futures trading is for consenting adults only. A passion for the truth is the essential element of a sound approach to trading. - Chick Goslin

Historically, beliefs have served to justify specific rules of conduct. Fallibility ought to foster a different attitude. Beliefs ought to serve to shape our lives, not to make us abide by a given set of rules. If we recognize that our beliefs are expressions of our choices, not of ultimate truth, we are more likely to tolerate other beliefs and to revise our own in the light of our experiences. But that is not how most people treat their beliefs. They tend to identify their beliefs with ultimate truth. Indeed, that identification often serves to define their own identity. - George Soros