Sunday 21 May 2017

Learning to Trade pt1

Recently I have had a couple of conversations that got me thinking about how we, as retail traders, go about learning to trade and the pitfalls the majority seem to suffer.

Included are few exercises that I have found helpful in developing my trading but really, this more a map of the "retail journey".

The post was getting quite long so I divided it into three posts, this is part one.

(Links to part 2 and part 3)

understand: it's just a game


Image result for billions

The TV show Billions is ridiculous, but to me, the mindset its characters encapsulate is correct: trading is just a big game of trying to fuck each other over. If you understand this and still decide to play I believe you are on the road to eventually gaining your opponents respect. While if you don't, your capital will reflect that.

Why is this important? Trading is a zero-sum game; I can only speak for myself but I have found that when I "work" at anything my mind is slow, heavy, often filled with unneeded facts and figure and not very aware of its surroundings. However, when I choose to "play" at something, my mind naturally adopts a clearer, more fluid, happy/playful state. And as such has a far easier time processing what is going on all around.

To clarify, I am not saying you should play at trading, we all know it's serious business. What I'm saying is: when in the act of making and executing trade decisions, I need the most fluid mind possible.

Personally, I find that when I tell my brain that "it's a game", almost a sport, I am far more effective in preempting my opponents actions and making my own more competitive.

I will cover more of this in part 2.


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