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Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cvn2 who wrote (10566)	8/18/2000 1:32:37 AM
From: Ian McGuire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49816

Christine.. you broached an important issue ...the monitoring of our individual trading performances..... something that i make use of every day is an equity curve..i plot my net account equity into a spreadsheet and display it as a barchart. It allows you to view your performance without excuse or embellishment, if nothing else it makes you stop and consider your trading techniques; I also find it excellent for quickly catching underperformance against your norm.Added benefits are motivational, we all love great looking charts! It's a rather simple tool, but one i find very useful......ian

To: cvn2 who wrote (10566)	8/18/2000 8:49:11 AM
From: Jazz102	Respond to of 49816

I also look back upon my March high with disbelief. Why didn't I take at least 1/2 my profits off the table. Cause we were caught up in a euphoria. The market was THE ONLY place to be. Was thinking, hey if I could run up 55% between January and March on top of 300% the previous year, anything was possible - right? Wrong!!! I need to practically double my money to get back to last Jan 1 status, let alone March. But, you know what, just as year 2000 gave us a good run last quarter of last year, the elections may give the market an equivalent boost this year. I too, like Mike held on too long in Mar-Apr expecting an iminent comeback in the internet highflyers. Even though I have vowed to cut losses quickly now, I still hold on - one more day will do it - and it doesn't. We are all human and we all have our shortcomings to work on. JAZZ

To: cvn2 who wrote (10566)	8/18/2000 9:04:17 AM
From: bobby is sleepless in seattle	Respond to of 49816

From Pristine... I was talking with a trader friend of mine last week who was having difficulty deciding whether to go long or short in this erratic market. For weeks, my friend was trading scared, a sure sign that he was eventually going to lose money. When he finally couldn't take it anymore, my confused and anxious friend made an appointment with a psychiatrist to try and get to the root of his problems. After a couple of appointments, the woman psychiatrist finally came up with an analogy about trading that seemed to help him, so I thought I'd share it with you today. As a short-term trader, you are forced to make split-second decisions on a daily basis. These decisions can cost you money or even knock you out of the game completely. Often, you don't have enough information to make a completely risk-free decision, but yet, you still must act--and act quickly. Making one of these decisions, says the psychiatrist, is like looking at a slice of Swiss cheese: There are so many empty holes--or missing information--that you can't help but wonder if you're making the right decision. Unfortunately, this can sometimes lead to an inability to make any decision at all. At the root of most indecisiveness is the fear of losing. In a perfect trading world, you would act decisively with all the information you need to make an intelligent, moneymaking decision. But in the real trading world, like a piece of Swiss cheese, you aren't privy to all the information you need to be 100 percent sure you are right. You have to fill in the holes with your insights, hunches and tidbits of data gleaned from a variety of sources, knowing that it's impossible to be completely sure. The key is to make the best decision you can with the information you do have. Then, you need the confidence and courage to execute the trade based on that information. If you are the type of person who needs to be 99.9 percent sure of making a profit before you make a decision, then you will probably think that trading is too risky. And if you have trouble making split-second trading decisions based on limited information, by all means put your money in a mutual fund. Then you can pay a pro to make mistakes on your behalf. You'll also have someone else to blame when you lose money. As a trader, you have to face up to the fact you will lose money when you participate in the stock market. Of course no one wants to lose money, but to be a successful trader, you must learn to lose before you learn to win. It doesn't mean that losing money will be a permanent condition. It just means you will learn to accept losing as part of the game. In time, you will gain the confidence you need to take action and become a more successful trader. Ideally, as a short-term trader, you want at least a 75 percent chance of success for every trade you make. For some people, the fear of losing can be extremely debilitating. When I first learned how to be a day trader, for example, I remember one woman at the training center who could never bring herself to make that first trade. The idea of losing money, even a few dollars, was so difficult for her to accept that she chose to study rather than trade. Although learning everything you can about the stock market is essential to your success, eventually you have to step into the ring and pull the trigger. You know the old saying that he who hesitates is lost. In the trading world, he who hesitates loses money. Another psychological danger signal is when you are confronted with a losing trade and you freeze in fear. As the losses mount, some people can't find the courage to cut their losses and move on. I know of one trader who literally picked up the mouse of his petrified partner and forced him to press the sell button. Of course, you can make the best trading decision of your life based on the right information at the time and still lose. In trading, as in life, there are no guarantees, and anyone who tells you differently is a cold-calling liar or a cheater. However, the best of the best traders and investors have an uncanny amount of self-confidence bordering on blind faith. It is this kind of faith that leads the top traders and investors to take positions in IBM when it was $40 a share, or Intel when every analyst abandoned it a few years ago and most recently, Amazon, Microsoft and Nokia. Sure, these traders will make mistakes and lose money once in a while, but their goal is simply to win more times than they lose. And what happens when you win more than lose? That's right, you make a profit! There are no easy answers in this game we call the stock market but if you remember to put the percentages on your side by filling in the holes, you can be a winner. With experience, you will eventually learn to trust your own judgment and trade courageously and decisively. . Michael Sincere Long-Term Day Trader Only $9.95 -Click Here Book Review - Click Here The Executioner Click Here Pristine Seminars Click Here Pristine ESP Click Here