Truth About Trading

I'm going to be very short today and to the point. Greed sucks. Do you know why greed sucks? I have an opinion on it and I thought that since you are reading on, I would go ahead and give it to you.

Greed sucks because greed distorts reality. But what is worse is that part of the reality that it distorts is whether our actions are actually greedy or not. So we can be greedy, which distorts reality about how to trade, and not even know it.

Pretty sneaky huh?

Traders need to deal with greed every trading day of their life. I have been doing this long enough to know that I can never let my guard down with regard to greed and how it distorts reality. On any given day I could succumb to greed by making trading decisions that are not the best trading decisions.

Further, greed affects virtually every decision. For today, I am simply going to look at the reverse of what most traders view greed as. When the word "greed" is mentioned in the context of trading, it is usually thought of as being too aggressive or over trading or ignoring the real risks associated with a trade and/or trading strategy. However, greed is also a reason why traders DON'T take trades that they should take.

For example, have you ever had a trade signal in a strategy where it is important that you take every signal, only this one just doesn't look good...so you sit there and think to yourself, "I'm not going to take this one". This is normally passed off as a "gut feeling" or whatever. But the truth is, most of the time it involves greed. I've done it myself many times.

Greed is not just about gaining more and more, it is about holding onto as well. Why didn't you take that trade that the strategy called for? Because you want to hold onto your money. You don't want to lose it. Yet, the reality is, I have never seen anyone consistently make money trading by the seat of their pants on gut feelings. I have never seen anyone pick out the losing trades by their gut feelings. They may be out there, but you probably are not one of them. Making a trading decision without any evidence to support the decision other than your gut is usually greed not wanting to see a losing trade.

You have to take risks in trading. You cannot get out of it. And, if you are going to take risks, you might as well base them on evidence that supports the fact that the risks are worth taking. Otherwise, greed has distorted the reality of you ability to pick out the losing trades and you are almost assured of losing in the long run.

And that is the Truth About Trading.

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

p.s. Along with greed are two brothers named fear and ego. I discuss the reality of these three enemies extensively in my Self-Destructive Traders course and how to rule over them. This 8-hour course could change your life...

www.smarttrading.com

Posted by at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I recently received an email from a gent who had some confusion over my philosophy on trading for a living. There is a huge contingency of traders who define trading for a living the same way I do, and believe it can be done. Knowledge is key to making right decisions. So, with that said, I am going to post the comments from the email below and then clear some things up.

“It is clearly emphasized in your Trade For Life club material that trading for a living is not possible. I just wonder why would anyone risk their precious capital and time into some endeavour that one can't even make a living out of it?
The statement "Trading for life, not trading for profit" mentioned in the seminar is even more baffling. It seems that the Trading-for-life club treats trading as a hobby... or at the best as a long-term investment. If so, the term trading may be misused.”

To come to common ground here, we first need to define what "trading for a living" really is. What do you do for a living? Do you practice medicine? Do you practice law? Are you an accountant, teacher, engineer, or fill in the blank. You work, you get a paycheck, that paycheck pays this months bills. If you lose a job, you better have some back-up to pay the bills until you find another job...but if you use the back up, then you really aren't working for a living anymore, you are living from savings. Once you get a job, then you are working for a living again.

Trading for a living is trading and using the monthly profits to pay for your monthly living expenses. If you have a bad month, how do your bills get paid? Either from savings or they don't get paid. If from savings, then you are not truly trading for a living.

So, can you "trade for a living"? The simple answer is most likely not. Those who like to claim that they "trade for a living" are probably not using the correct definition if they want to be honest with themselves. Let me give you an example.

I know a gentleman who inherited $500,000. He had been trading for several years but had never really been profitable. However, according to him, it was because he never had proper funding to do it right. Now that he was properly funded, he was confident he could make a living from it. He quit his job and started to "trade for a living". And, that is what he told everyone, that he traded for a living. At the end of two years, his account had dropped from $500,000 to about $350,000 and he had used about $90,000 of that to pay for actual living expenses during that time period. His net loss was about $60,000.

So I ask you, even though he was a "full time trader," was he really "trading for a living"? The answer is no. He was not using monthly profits from his trading to pay his bills. No question, he was trying to trade for a living, but he was not successful.

Now, imagine that with only a $50k account. If you believe that you can take a small account ($50k or less), trade it and consistently pay your living expenses from profits in that account without ever having to dip into some back up funds, you are in for a HUGE shock.

So that brings us to the concluding question..."I just wonder why would anyone risk their precious capital and time into some endeavour that one can't even make a living out of it?"

The answer is to accumulate enough profits over a 5 - 10 year period to either retire early or build up enough reserve capital so that you can afford to go through the drawdowns not having to worry about how this month's bills are going to be paid...that's why.

I'll go one step further than that...it is a foolish waste of capital and gross misunderstanding about trading in general and certainly one of the keys to ultimate success in trading...compound profits, i.e. money management.

That is the Truth About Trading.

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

p.s. Anyone who has the goal of accumulating enough profits over a 5-10 year period to either retire early or build up enough reserve capital to go through the drawdowns without having to worry about this months living expenses should SERIOUSLY consider joining the Trade for Life Club. Find out more about it at:
www.smarttrading.com

Posted by at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The expectations in this industry are out of this world. Dan Marino never won a superbowl but he will be considered to be one of the best quarterbacks to play the game.

In this industry, I do a LOT of testing of different strategies. I try all sorts of things from time to time...the real proof is in the pudding. There is only so much you can test before you actually implement. A lot of the stuff that I have tested in the past have not worked out in real time trading. Some of the stuff I have tested continued to work in real time, as expected. However, even the stuff that works out real time doesn't always work continuously. Everything has its good streaks and bad streaks, both are unavoidable in trading.

In 2006, I started a 3-month venture trading a $5,000 account. The purpose was simply to produce a solid return during the 3-month period focusing on selling 2 or 3 very low volatility options and throwing another trade opportunity in here and there. However, during the 3-month period, we did not have a single low volatility option selling opportunity present itself. Accordingly, the other opportunities were not enough to reach our goal and in fact ended the 3-month venture at a loss.

As a result, several traders concluded that nothing I have works and I can't trade. Like I said at the beginning of the email, the expectations in this industry are out of this world. For some traders, every season should be a Super Bowl, every touch of the ball should be a touchdown. This is a huge, huge mistake that we all should be very diligent to avoid. For the traders that do not avoid this mistake, they will never find any one or anything that meets their expectations. They will spend countless dollars and years looking in vain.

Like a good counselor once said...don't marry someone because of your expectations of their potential...because you will ALWAYS be disappointed sooner or later. Same with traders, when you trade, trade for good or for worse, knowing that there is going to be bad. If you only trade due to the potential, you will be disappointed sooner or later.

Anyone that concludes from a failed attempt at a few trades across a 3-month period that the strategies used don't work is making a premature conclusion.

But the mistake goes both ways. A few years back, I turned a $15,000 account into over $107,000 in less than 90-days. But I didn't do it every 90-days. In fact, there were some watching during that year and at no time after the event did the method come close to providing the kind of winning streak that occurred during the first 90-days. (most of the profits were from the money management strategy being applied, not the entry and exit strategy being used).

Regardless, many traders looked at that 90-day period and were calculating the profits for the next 3 quarters...prematurely.

When someone actively trades, trades are usually short-term compared to buying and holding stocks. As a result, it lulls traders into thinking that success should also be experienced over the short-term on a consistent basis. This is NOT the proper way to view trading. You MUST view trading from a longer-term perspective. You MUST look at the next 5-10 years, not the next 3-months.

And that is the Truth About Trading.

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

Posted by at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There are two certain risks involved in trading, both being misunderstood by many traders. What are these risks and how do you deal with them? We'll start with what each risk is, and then explain how to deal with them.

1. Unexpected risks are certain.

Everyone knows there are capital risks, as well as time risks in trading. These are certain as well. However, most traders do not account for the unexpected risks that will occur at some point once trading has commenced.

Unexpected risks can be anything from a certain size loss or a certain size drawdown, to a certain length of stagnation in the account, to the true risks of slippage or illiquidity.

The answer:

Preparation.

Yes, we are back to that word again. There really is no way to account for every possible situation you are going to face in trading. However, you can eliminate a vast majority of these "unexpected risks" by simply better preparing yourself.

It is common, even with my strategies, for traders to look at the performance statistics and begin trading. I cannot tell you the number of emails and phone calls I have received over the years from those who traded one or more of my strategies and quit because they were surprised by this or that, or took a larger hit than they should have. Why? Because they were not expecting certain risks. I am patient because I went down the same road for the first 4 or 5 years of my trading career, but that doesn't change the truth...almost always the end result was a direct result of their misunderstanding of the risks involved.

This is why I have a 10 hour course in Smart Trading, and a 14 hour course with my Options for Profits strategy...I want to make sure that traders can be as prepared as possible for the risks involved, to eliminate as many "unexpected risks as possible.

Bottom line, unexpected risks can mean the difference between making money and losing money (by quitting when you should not). And, that being the case, you handle them by better preparing yourself.

I've changed my mind. The importance of this one certain risk is too great immediately turn your attention to the next certain risk in trading (which is equally important). Accordingly, I will end with this today and encourage you to really ponder whether you have truly prepared yourself for the risks associated with what you are trading right now.

And that is the Truth About Trading.

Visit My Website For More Truth!

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

Posted by at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was searching through some old emails on the topic of trading for a living and found this one in the archives. Considering the recent topic, this is a good one to add to the discussion. Enjoy.

I was talking to a trader a few months ago who was in a couple of positions that concerned him. His concern was valid, but not yet. He had not suffered a loss in the main position and had just pocketed about $10,000 in the other position. After discussing the situation for a bit, it became glaringly obvious why he was concerned before he really needed to be. He stated to me that he needed to make about $8,000 in profits every month and this position could potentially prevent him to doing that this month.

His first problem is that he 'needed' to make money this month (and every month). For those who will hear, this is a very, very dangerous position to be in when you are trying to properly execute any trading strategy.

What happens if you 'need' to make money from trading every month?... outside of the sky-rocketing blood pressure, intravenous coffee intake, loss of sleep (whether you inject the coffee or not), sweaty palms, quick temper, Laryngitis from screaming at the screen, aches and pains in the spleen, the occasional heart attack and loss of a limb, one should consider the overwhelming number of mental mistakes made when trying to force the profits.

Before I get to that, what do I mean by need? If you are counting on profits this month to pay your bills, and if the profits don't come, your bills don't get paid, that is need. This is the most accurate definition of 'trading for a living' as discussed in previous emails. Someone comes to me and says 'I want to trade for a living', I usually tell them, 'no you don't, at least not until you have built up your trading account.

Back in the early 90's, I traded for a living for a short-time. My bills got paid through trading profits. After those 6-months of horror, I vowed I would never put myself in that position ever again. The mistakes I made under that kind of pressure were and are still embarrassing to this very day.

If you want to 'trade for a living', then it is NECESSARY that you redefine the term. Your bills have to be paid by an outside source of cash flow while you build your account up. Once you have created a healthy nest egg, then and only then should you consider switching to the possibility of paying your bills from trading profits. That way, when you suffer a down month or two (and I promise you, I don't care who you are, how great of a trader you are, you have a 99.9% chance of going through one or two down months in a row), you can simply pay your bills from the nest egg you have built up. I strongly suggest that someone have MINIMUM one to two years socked away AND you should still be able to continue trading.

That removes the immediate 'need' for profits each and every month.

Mistakes... oh man. Ever try day trading cocoa? You think I'm kidding. Amazing what you will try when you 'need' those profits. There is a saying I heard recently that fits well. The instinct to survive is natural. The things you have to do in order to survive are not. In other words, the simple fact that you 'need' to generate profits is not going to be enough to actually generate them. But the need will cause you to not accept losses, change your strategy because of one experience, interpret market action irrationally, predict market action and cause you to fail to properly prepare for every circumstance... and make many, many more mistakes.

The irony is that most end up losing more, faster because of this 'need' than they otherwise would have.

Bottom line, if you 'need' to generate profits, get yourself into a position where that is not a need and then start trading again. If you have falsely created a need to generate profits, i.e. you "need" to buy your pet dog a yacht for Christmas, get rid of that need mentality!

And that is the Truth About Trading.

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

p.s. Reminder - The Trade for Life club was designed to give traders everything they need to build their trading account so that they can at least have the option of attempting to "trade for a living" without having the immediate need to produce profits each and every month. www.smarttrading.com

Posted by at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the last few years, my trading friends have seen very little information from me along the lines of various technical indicators and oscillators. No doubt, there is more than enough commentary on the subject. However, there is good reason why I do not spend a great deal of time focusing on them.

I'll never forget reading a pretty basic book on technical analysis written by a fairly well known author. The purpose of the book was to simply introduce a number of popular technical indicators and the author's favorite use of them. It was pretty boring stuff for the most part and stopped reading through it after the first chapter. However, I did skim a few chapters and began to notice a very odd pattern within the book.

There was a chapter dedicated to the use of stochastics and then another chapter dedicated to the use of another similar indicator. The main difference was that the stochastics were based on looking at 14 bars while the other indicator was based on looking at 7 bars. Outside of that one factor, the two indicators are almost exactly the same thing.

Now, before I get to the really odd part about this, I want to point out that most technical indicators are virtually the same thing. For the most part, technical indicators are, in some way shape form or fashion, showing you where prices are compared to where they have been. I'll get to this in a second.

Nonetheless, despite the extreme similarity in the two indicators being discussed in the book, the author provides his favorite use of stochastics. Then, in the second indicator, he provided his favorite use of that as well... except it was almost exactly the opposite of how he used stochastics!

It seems to me, had this author known how similar the two indicators were, he would not have stated that his favorite use of them was exactly the opposite. But that drives home a problem that I have seen with many traders. There is a misunderstanding of exactly what technical indicators are doing. One of the best ways to explain this is to explain what technical indicators are NOT doing.

95% (or more, there are exceptions, such as volume) of all technical indicators are NOT giving you any information that is not already available from the chart action itself. In other words, technical indicators are NOT giving you any new information whatsoever. Technical indicators are simply focusing on one aspect of chart information that is already their. They simply make it easier to see a certain characteristic of market action that may not otherwise be quite as obvious. That is it.

And, a majority of the time, the focus, or the aspect that is being made more obvious is where the current price is compared to where it has been in the past.

For example, in a nutshell, stochastics are simply showing where the current price is compared to the 14 day range on a percentage basis. If the range is 100 and the price is in the upper 10% of that range, the stochastics are going to show a percentage of 90% or more. There are various things that are added to
this, such as taking a 3-day range of this level instead of the raw and exact number itself, but you get the idea of what it is focusing on.

Now, is this information anything that is not seen from the chart itself? Of course not. It is simply not as obvious to the eye, and that is the benefit of the indictor.

One thing is for sure though, technical indicators tell what is and what has been, but not what is to come. There is nothing magical about them, there is nothing new that is provided through them. So be very careful in how much emphasis you put on them in your trading.

And that is the Truth About Trading.

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

Posted by at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I hit a nerve with my recent TAT about an overemphasis on technical indicators. Normally, I receive one or two emails in response to any given TAT, but I received several in response to this one, most simply saying that they disagreed because they made money using technical indicators. This email pretty much represents what I received:

"I hear what you’re saying but I must disagree. I have made a ton of money using my two favorite indicators and yes to me there are very important and magical."

So, based on this, I want to make a few clarifications, because never did I not say that there was no benefit and never did I not say that traders could not make money using them. Read that blog over again...you won't find that. In fact, it was the use of technical indicators that helped me to turn $15,000 into over $107,000 in less than 90 days. But that same strategy went into a drawdown for the rest of the year and did squat. So, it has its place in trading.

In fact, the email topic was not even hinting that traders should not use technical indicators. In a nutshell, I was simply stating that many traders assign to technical indicators characteristics which are not, in fact, characteristics. I ended the email simply stating that indicators are only showing what is already present in the chart itself and that they show where the market has been and where it is, but NEVER where it is going to go.

I want to expound on that last statement with this email. The trader who sent me the email above says that his indicators are 'magical'. I'm quite sure 99.5% of everyone reading this knows he is full of it. But the one thing that I want to make really clear with this email is that the indicator doesn't tell anyone anything about the future...YOU, as a trader, INTERPRET what you think the indicator is pointing to.

For example: If stochastics moves above 80%, here are two very common interpretations:

1. The market is over bought and should come down.
2. The market is in a strong up trend and should continue moving higher.

Which is right? The truth is, sometimes the first and sometimes the second. The truth is that you are the one that makes the statement about where prices should go, not the indicator. Now, having said that, you may make your statement based on historical statistics. If when stochastics is above 80% and a few other things line up, the market very well may have moved higher 65% of the time. But even then, it still says NOTHING about the future. It is still only telling what has happened in the past. You choose to assign credibility to those stats or not. But, there is nothing inherent about them that FIXES the probabilities at 65% in the future. And that is fact.

Finally, I also want to mention that there is another factor that plays an important role in the INTERPRETATION of technical indicators. When and where a trader decides to place the exit point (either profitable or at a loss) can dramatically affect whether the trader is profitable or not. Even if the market moves higher 65% of the time in the future, the degree higher is another variable as is the degree that the market moves lower first. Where you get out the 35% of the time that the market went lower can cause you to ultimately lose. Combine that with getting out too soon before the market has a chance to move up, or getting out too soon after it moves up, or getting out too late after it moves up, all of these are major determining factors to your overall success. I don't care how accurate the market has moved higher or lower based on the indicators.

And that is the Truth About Trading.

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

Posted by at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the last few years, my trading friends have seen very little information from me along the lines of various technical indicators and oscillators. No doubt, there is more than enough commentary on the subject. However, there is good reason why I do not spend a great deal of time focusing on them.

I'll never forget reading a pretty basic book on technical analysis written by a fairly well known author. The purpose of the book was to simply introduce a number of popular technical indicators and the author's favorite use of them. It was pretty boring stuff for the most part and stopped reading through it after the first chapter. However, I did skim a few chapters and began to notice a very odd pattern within the book.

There was a chapter dedicated to the use of stochastics and then another chapter dedicated to the use of another similar indicator. The main difference was that the stochastics were based on looking at 14 bars while the other indicator was based on looking at 7 bars. Outside of that one factor, the two indicators are almost exactly the same thing.

Now, before I get to the really odd part about this, I want to point out that most technical indicators are virtually the same thing. For the most part, technical indicators are, in some way shape form or fashion, showing you where prices are compared to where they have been. I'll get to this in a second.

Nonetheless, despite the extreme similarity in the two indicators being discussed in the book, the author provides his favorite use of stochastics. Then, in the second indicator, he provided his favorite use of that as well... except it was almost exactly the opposite of how he used stochastics!

It seems to me, had this author known how similar the two indicators were, he would not have stated that his favorite use of them was exactly the opposite. But that drives home a problem that I have seen with many traders. There is a misunderstanding of exactly what technical indicators are doing. One of the best ways to explain this is to explain what technical indicators are NOT doing.

95% (or more, there are exceptions, such as volume) of all technical indicators are NOT giving you any information that is not already available from the chart action itself. In other words, technical indicators are NOT giving you any new information whatsoever. Technical indicators are simply focusing on one aspect of chart information that is already their. They simply make it easier to see a certain characteristic of market action that may not otherwise be quite as obvious. That is it.

And, a majority of the time, the focus, or the aspect that is being made more obvious is where the current price is compared to where it has been in the past.

For example, in a nutshell, stochastics are simply showing where the current price is compared to the 14 day range on a percentage basis. If the range is 100 and the price is in the upper 10% of that range, the stochastics are going to show a percentage of 90% or more. There are various things that are added to this, such as taking a 3-day range of this level instead of the raw and exact number itself, but you get the idea of what it is focusing on.

Now, is this information anything that is not seen from the chart itself? Of course not. It is simply not as obvious to the eye, and that is the benefit of the indictor.

One thing is for sure though, technical indicators tell what is and what has been, but not what is to come. There is nothing magical about them, there is nothing new that is provided through them. So be very careful in how much emphasis you put on them in your trading.

And that is the Truth About Trading.

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

Posted by at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm going to be very short today and to the point. Greed sucks. Do you know why greed sucks? I have an opinion on it and I thought that since you opened the email, I would go ahead and give it to you.

Greed sucks because greed distorts reality. But what is worse is that part of the reality that it distorts is whether our actions are actually greedy or not. So we can be greedy, which distorts reality about how to trade, and not even know it.

Pretty sneaky huh?

Traders need to deal with greed every trading day of their life. I have been doing this long enough to know that I can never let my guard down with regard to greed and how it distorts reality. On any given day I could succumb to greed by making trading decisions that are not the best trading decisions.

Further, greed affects virtually every decision. For today, I am simply going to look at the reverse of what most traders view greed as. When the word "greed" is mentioned in the context of trading, it is usually thought of as being too aggressive or over trading or ignoring the real risks associated with a trade and/or trading strategy. However, greed is also a reason why traders DON'T take trades that they should take.

For example, have you ever had a trade signal in a strategy where it is important that you take every signal, only this one just doesn't look good...so you sit there and think to yourself, "I'm not going to take this one". This is normally passed off as a "gut feeling" or whatever. But the truth is, most of the time it involves greed. I've done it myself many times.

Greed is not just about gaining more and more, it is about holding onto as well. Why didn't you take that trade that the strategy called for? Because you want to hold onto your money. You don't want to lose it. Yet, the reality is, I have never seen anyone consistently make money trading by the seat of their pants on gut feelings. I have never seen anyone pick out the losing trades by their gut feelings. They may be out there, but you probably are not one of them. Making a trading decision without any evidence to support the decision other than your gut is usually greed not wanting to see a losing trade.

You have to take risks in trading. You cannot get out of it. And, if you are going to take risks, you might as well base them on evidence that supports the fact that the risks are worth taking. Otherwise, greed has distorted the reality of you ability to pick out the losing trades and you are almost assured of losing in the long run.

And that is the Truth About Trading.

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

p.s. Along with greed are two brothers named fear and ego. I discuss the reality of these three enemies extensively in my Self-Destructive Traders course and how to rule over them. This 8-hour course could change your life...

www.smarttrading.com

Posted by at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I want to continue my analogy between golf and trading. Certainly, there are many similarities that really are surprising between the two. For example, no matter how much you want to, no matter how hard you try, no matter how much education or physical strength and athleticism you have, you will never be perfect in golf. You will never shoot an 18. The course is designed that way on purpose. Likewise, in trading, no matter how hard you try, no matter how much education you have, no matter what kind of degrees and no matter what your IQ, you will never be able to avoid drawdowns, losing periods or be able to consistently pick the high and low of the markets. You will also never be able to consistently place your stops and just the right level or your profit targets without leaving money on the table. Like golf, trading is an endeavor of management, not perfection.

And, if you strive for perfection in this endeavor, you will drive yourself insane and probably lose a lot of money.

I'll never forget one hole in the British Open a few years back. I believe it was Thomas Bjorn who had the lead in the final round and, barring a disaster should cruise to victory. Then disaster struck. He hit the ball into one of the bottomless sand pits that the British Open is known for. Long story short, he
hit the ball out of the pit, but not far enough and it ended up rolling right back down into the sand. If I remember correctly, he did that twice before he decided to hit the ball in the opposite direction because the 29 foot wall was facing the hole and he just couldn't get it out of there because of the height. In other words, in order to go forward, he had to go backward. It was too late though, he lost the lead on that disaster hole and lost the Open.

Aren't we sometimes the exact same way as traders? We try and try and try to force our way to perfection and by the time we realize we aren't going to achieve it and realize that we must first go backwards, it is too late, and we have lost too much already. I know exactly what I am talking about here because I am one to strive for perfection and it drives me nuts sometimes, on the golf course and in trading. I am probably a little slower than most, or stubborn, one or the other, and it took me a while to be able to accept losses and drawdowns as a part of reality.

I say that because it was not like I was doing this as a hobby for 10 years, I have been doing this more than full time since about 1992. Since that time, I have never had a job doing something else and there have been years where I have easily poured an average of 70 hours a week into this thing called trading. It probably wasn't until the late 90's that I finally started to consciously accept the fact that no matter what I did, there would be drawdowns, losing trades and losing experiences and that it had to be in order to succeed.

Like golf, the quest for perfection is a foolish quest. Learn to properly manage the course, accept what is available and what is not and the enjoyment of this endeavor increases geometrically.

And that is the Truth About Trading (and golf again).

Sincerely,
Ryan Jones

P.S. In order to manage a golf course, you have to prepare yourself mentally as well has have a proper strategy. My Self-Destructive Traders course is designed to give you an exact PLAN for the mental preparation it takes to manage your trading. www.smarttrading.com

Posted by at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)