only forehand or backend trading

trade only one side (for a day/swing/trend/day/time period) based on the judgement of the trend direction)

either buy on dips or sell on rise

avoid both side trades

nothing confuses and forces wrong trades like both side trade

losses of wrong judgement are half or less when you take trades only on one direction...

if your one side trade is failing, most likely the trend is on the other side... a good system spots that before trading. 

the sleepless trader

 looking at sgx-nifty (after market closure, late evenings, overnight, early morning) so restlessly, anxiously, and obsessively indicates that

- we don't have a method or are not relaxed with it

- we don't have a strategy and a backup plan

- we don't trade probabilities with a system

- we don't have money management

- we are in a hurry

- we don't have the appetite for loss

- we are fearful and hence won't have the appetite for profit also

before letting go

nobody likes bad experiences. nobody wants to remember painful memories.

we are often told all our lives that when you fall down, get up, dust your knees and get going.

but, so often in life, including trading, there is something different or more that cries to be done.

it is noticed that so many irritating and painful events have a tendency of repeating. one of the key reasons is that the root cause of their happening remains intact.

therefore, when anything happens that shouldn't have happened, though it is so important for you to overcome it and move forward, while you are dusting your knees and consoling yourself to move forward, you must pause for a second and do the following.

look straight into the eyes of what went wrong even though that is the thing you would like to forget and not recall. just for one last time. purposefully, deliberately and courageously dive into the details of what happened. lay it threadbare and understand it.

and don't leave till you have understood why it happened.

it hurt you by happening and now you hurt it back by understanding it. this way two benefits will happen. one, its spell would be broken and you wouldn't have to carry the mental scar of it all your life. its fear will be gone as its emotions would have burnt to the ashes in the heat of pure ruthless logic. second, you would know why it happened. you will, chances are, smile, slap yourself, shake your head in disbelief and move on with lighter feet. in the process, you would get automatically programmed to not doing that mistake again.

mistakes and pains avoided are the ones that don't go away and become cables and monsters.

the classic James-Lenge principle also underlines that - "you don't run because you fear, you fear because you run."

so, next time your trade goes wrong, before you forget it, understand it. and then, let it go.

dealing with trading loss

just like it takes different approach for a bank to recover NPA (sinking debt) than to generate fresh interest revenue, it takes different approach to recover trading loss than generate profit from fresh trade. 

a trade resulting into loss is a gone trade....over. good enough for lesson only. 

get over it. forget it. move on to the next trade. 

don't miss the newer trading opportunities constantly emerging.

why you lose

=u have been consistently losing
=despite there being more than 50% inherent chance of winning in trading
=because market can either go up or down.....
=yet u r losing consistently
=in other words, operators are consistently winning!
=isn't there, therefore, a clue in this about why?
=because u r consistently changing stance from your turn of winning to next trade of loss
=consistently changing stance because of fear/doubt
=fear of failure, fear ofloss
=ur instability is the root cause
=u have imaginations and trade as per them....
=u trade on presumptions!!!
=u don't have patience   and even when u have, u doubt it and this raises fear
=u r always reacting and always losing despite having inherent 50% chance of winning
=they want u to react
=they want you to keep behaving like that
=they want you to "act"
=they want you to see the charts etc
=they want you to kep listening to the "noise"
=they want to keep the simple setup complicated to keep you off and away
=they want you to put a stoploss
=they always want you dragged in and then thrown out
=their strength is unlimited cheap money, your weakness is v limited hard earned costly money
=your doubt and fear eats you, keeps eating you, will keep eating you...
=some statistical/probablistic/chance loss is inevitable in trading and that magnifies your fear and feeds your doubt
=so what to do?
=we should trade as per some "fixed" method
=we should trade as per some "edge"
=we should a position and "lock it"
=we should be stable.....buy right, sit tight....(even from trading pov)
=markets can wither go up or down or remain range bound.....no other way....don't let them use even these as weapons against you, including using range to "decay you"
=we are presently not using a fixed system.....we are always changing the logic of our trade
=we are not using an edge consistently and consciously
=we are not repeating it
=give surprise the chance to be pro-you....don't be always surprised and hence be  anti-surprise all the time
=u do something as per some dynamic edge repeatedly irrespective of the all the influences
=it's not about day trading strictly per se...it is more about periodic wins....it's like honey traps which u wind up after every peiod
=u can't eat every noodle bend of the operator chart unless u have unlimited money
=its not about the daily and hourly and minutewise kho-kho or running after the hen
=leave the what and how and why when of the operator acts to the operator...just remain somewhere with the net in hand and keep collecting without shaking
=decide a simple method/strategy accordingly

willingness to lose....

: t harv eker's rule that "comfort zone=wealth zone" applies to trading.....self talk

: it requires more guts to win than to lose.....self talk

: come to trading not just the money to trade but also some to lose....self talk

: come to trading with not just the money to trade but also some to lose....self talk

: if u don't bring some money to lose, u lose all in the casino and win nothing.....

: a bait is a must to catch the fish.......no bait, no fish.....and u got to have some guts to lose the bait occasionally.....otherwise remember that fish also have some brain

: u have to be more than half mad to be a big success in anything.....self talk

: to be extraordinary, u have to be, do, give that "extra"

Guru Mysore: Losing small bait many times makes to wonder is it a bait or good fat dinner to operators 😁

: If one is not willing to tolerate loss then winning is a suicidal endeavour....that is what I mean by bait, or amount to loose

Guru Mysore: I got it ji...jus joking around

: o ic....its ok then......otherwise, i usually get chhoooo when i or anyone is reluctant to lose.....to be willing to loose (ofcourse, intelligently) is the first sign of deserved profit

: afterall, any money you lower in the market has to be left alone for whatever period it is there in the market......and for all that time, it is closer to others than you......it is potentially lost....it is unsafe....so, if u r not mentally prepared to lose the money u have already betted by entering the trade, u will be nervous and so fearful that u will snatch it back, take it out at the slightest of noise....this is a big disadvantage in trading....nobody can think of making big money this way in trading....and not making money consistently in trading is akin to failure.....therefore, IMO, willingness to loose (intelligently and incidentally) is a very important essential quality an aspiring trader must have

The butcher house

: Stock market is a butcher house in the garb of casino under the license of trading.....self talk 

: For profitable trades, traders don't have to or need to do anything.....Operators do what all is to be done....traders just have to choose the direction, trust the method and hold tight....self talk

: operators are nice people.....they never hurt anybody's sentiments.......they never make any budding trader feel outrightly that trading may not be his or her cup of tea......they bleed them like leeches...till they understand.....self talk

: stock trading is not a nice thing from both sides......only from the winner's side....and winners are generally by rotation......

: there are two types of traders.....amateurs and professionals. the day all amateurs are gone, there will still be two types of traders....amateur professionals and professional professionals.......till u approach trading with professional approach, u stand little chance.....self talk

: there may be a simple way of trading but there is no easy way....avoiding the basics of trading is only to prolong the already bleak chances of success.......because any budding trader has only limited mental strength and peace of mind to spend, let alone money to lose......

: a software is the surest way to commit trading suicide if the algorithm is wrong.....and to get the right algo u have to know the game itself......off-the-shelf algorithms are poison

: a trading software is not an alternative to learning trading.....it is complementary to trading.....

: a good software can multiply ur trading success, a bad one can divide it....

: i have seen most of the traders trade just because they don't have access to any other form of "kick"

: trading is a wonderful entertainment provided u just quit when the ticket money is vasool......don't sell yourself

: bring yourself back.....

: trading is the most difficult and least paying business in the world if you don't know how to.....and the most easy and highest paying business in the world if do learn..... 3:52PM, 28/02/2015] Jagmohan Singh: For profitable trades, traders don't have to or need to do anything.....Operators do what all is to be done....traders just have to choose the direction, trust the method and hold tight....self talk

: operators are nice people.....they never hurt anybody's sentiments.......they never make any budding trader feel outrightly that trading may not be his or her cup of tea......they bleed them like leeches...till they understand.....self talk

: stock trading is not a nice thing from both sides......only from the winner's side....and winners are generally by rotation......

: there are two types of traders.....amateurs and professionals. the day all amateurs are gone, there will still be two types of traders....amateur professionals and professional professionals.......till u approach trading with professional approach, u stand little chance.....self talk

: there may be a simple way of trading but there is no easy way....avoiding the basics of trading is only to prolong the already bleak chances of success.......because any budding trader has only limited mental strength and peace of mind to spend, let alone money to lose......

: a software is the surest way to commit trading suicide if the algorithm is wrong.....and to get the right algo u have to know the game itself......off-the-shelf algorithms are poison

: a trading software is not an alternative to learning trading.....it is complementary to trading.....

: a good software can multiply ur trading success, a bad one can divide it....

: i have seen most of the traders trade just because they don't have access to any other form of "kick"

: trading is a wonderful entertainment provided u just quit when the ticket money is vasool......don't sell yourself

: bring yourself back.....

: trading is the most difficult and least paying business in the world if you don't know how to.....and the most easy and highest paying business in the world if do learn.....

knowing is power

self talk....if u don't know why u lost,u have lost more than u think....if u know why u lost, u have actually gained proportionately much more....

if u don't know why u profited, u have not profited in reality.....if u know why u profited, u have gained much more than u think...

knowledge is power...

trading light

"travel light"....thus goes a maxim

this aptly should be translated as "trade light" in trading!

eg. lets say u short nifty at 8150 and it falls all the way down to 8000! u r sitting on a profit of 150 points. u start fearing the loss of the accumulated profit. so, how does this effect ur trading behavior? u start bearing the burden of this fear, magnified if their is volatility and chicken out of the trade even if u know that there was no need to do that, on the basis of the technical indicators.

had u not been carrying the weight of those 150 points, u would have probably checked and obeyed the technicals without any pre-conception, without any influence, without any stress. u might have taken a fresh short position happily!

the beauty of the situation is that the market doesn't know whether u r carrying a profit or loss and how much! it is you yourself who is conscious of the "profit" you have stolen!!!

drop that burden and trade light!!!

"hone ko to bahut kuchh ho sakta hai?"

"hone ko to bahut kuchh ho sakta hai?"
(as it is, anything can happen)

market can rise unexpectedly, market can collapse.....

that u can come to know only once it has happened! u can ofcourse wait to see what happens and then come in the trade. but then what's use? what was to happen has happened? u were not in the contention for the possible rewards.

trading and fishing are rarely meant for those who intend to keep sitting at the shore waiting for the absolutely calm sea......which anyhow, as they say, never makes a skillful sailor!

"hone ko to kuchh bhi ho sakta hai!"

but u can't make a living out of trading like that! u can't realise ur dreams like that!

here, probability comes into play.

trading, as i always say, is probabilistic and not deterministic.

there are times when the market's move in a particular direction high probability and then there are times when the said probability is low.

a good trading method + trading judgement is the one which can segregate the low prob opportunities from high prob ones.

a trade can never be assured. otherwise, all trader universe will jump in that direction and there will be no buyers for sellers or sellers for buyers! market will vanish!

probability is the sister of opportunity.
sensing the probability is like spotting the opportunity.

with time, practice, experience and learning, probability picking skills can be astonishingly honed!

and the beauty of the probability going wrong (mostly initially, rarely later) is that a trader anyhow always has the brakes and steering in his/her hands.....isn't it?

u can always stop and turn!!!

indecision is dangerous in trading. doubt freezes ur ability to act.

it is the indecision which causes loss in trading.

3 possible strategies for the trader who gets stuck

there are 3 possible strategies for the trader who gets stuck in a bad situation:

1. i am gonna win everything even if i have to risk losing everything
2. i am gonna save my capital substantially even if i have to forego quite a bit of profits which become subsequently possible
3. i am gonna save every penny of my caiptal even if if have to forego all the profit which subsequently appears quite possible.

the first one u can afford if u r an advanceed player and what u risk is much much less than ur total kingdom

the second one is a wise but defensive approach somehow hinting that either ur money management or ur method hasn't yet come of age

the third one is the best remedy for the trader who has got it all wrong

depending upon which one u choose, u need to build ur gameplan around it.

remember, the market doesn't know what ur position is, what ur size is. markets are like politicians. a poor individual doesn't matter or interest them. they are interested in the masses.

market will do what it has to.

so, u do what is in front of u. bat technically correct. trade ruthlessly unemotionally, like an intelligent algo. 

never try to recover the loss

dear A

u are holding 8000pe lots @ 95
right now, it is around 33 (loss of 62)

now, u have to recover 62 points, that's obviously ur first aim

well, here is my first, off-the-cuff frank advise

"never try to recover loss, try to gain if there is a possibility

that gain will automatically bridge/erase/cover the loss

but never trade with negative mindset

that fills u with nervousness/fear/anger/frustration leading to wrong decision and lot of stress

if a loss has come, it won't go away just because u need it to

prayers don't work in the market because god's men are on both side of the trade, including those of operators!

while a loss can't be erased per se, profit can definitely come

assume u were not in loss, then what would u have done?

if u knew it might fall, u might take fresh short position
or if u knew it is likely to rise, u might take fresh long position

--

so, if i were in your situation
i would square 8000pe's straightaway (money saved is money gained)
tomorrow morning i might get atleast 30 bucks for it.

putting 35 bucks more, i would have bought 8100pe lots

right now
8000pe=33+
8100pe=62+
8200pe=111

if (and everything depends on this if)
the market falls another 100 points

8000pe will become=30+ (surprising)
8100pe will become=100+
8200pe will become=170+

ur loss of 62 can be recovered only by 8200pe
that comes with condition of "risking"/putting more money on the table!!!

alas, there is nothing called free lunch!

sorry, for ur loss. take it, as of now, as price u pay for learning (i  used to assume losses as fees for my MBA (Trading) from the University of Operators!

pardon my language!

best wishes!!!

---

alternatively,

if market opens gap down tomorrow, or slipss too fast at opening, u gain some crucial points

i expect market to be volatile thereafter till expiry, which is quite away

u will get opportunities to make money

just need to keep ur calm

such experiences help in thickening of skin (which lady traders can't avoid) which helps u gain with less pain

winning is not a big thing

so many times i see traders jump at small or big profits which they themselves know was more of a fluke or stroke of luck.

one way to know whether any profit was a fluke or pre-conceived is to ask oneself - will i fear in the similar trade next time? would i enter another trade with the same logic/method/reason? did i have one?

if u r fearful, in most likelihood, u were lucky. it was  chance that trade went right.

if it is not repeatable, it is a fluke, or to put in more respectfully, a lucky trade.

this is precisely the reason why we see traders make money in a trade and lose it all (if not more) in the very next.

winning an occasional trade is good enough motivation for amateur traders to keep losing!

many times we don't even come to know that the winning trader has lost it all, because while the winning trader is a "news" and hence visible, the same trader doesn't hit the limelight when he/she loses. rather, he/she consciously goes off the radar (not for hiding, probably, but to recuperate)

so, winning is not a big thing (certainly losing is neither) but winning repeatedly is! in other words, knowing that you are going to win is a sign of having made it!

when winning is surprise, it is surely not a surprise!

this is precisely the reason why i repeatedly felt bad at making money because in heart of hearts, i knew the reality!

losing, for a learning trader is an honest friend! it tells the truth.....in face.....and leaves no false images (misconceptions) in one's head!

winning, if not with a solid foundation, is a treacherous friend! never believe it! never be befooled by it!

surviving "heavy loss" phobia

4 things that can help u protect yourself from crippling effects of "heavy loss-phobia"

a. sound trading system which goes right around 7 times out of 10 and has well defined point (call it stoploss or SAR) where it auto signals reversal.

b. psychological strength to stick to the method.

c. enough buffer funds to keep you going in case of those 3 odd failures or unforeseen situations including circuits.

d. continuously improving the trading system.

e. not trading your own trades. asking someone to trigger those on your behalf so that you are psychologically free to focus on trade signals without bias. not counting lost pennies everytime of those 3 out of 10 trades.

similar situation, different decision

http://www.mudraa.com/trading/143227/0/btst-30july-js.html

dear murliji,

thanks for asking and sound like the echo of my self talk.

1. why i terminated both calls of yday in 10-15 points

= there was a strong "undercurrent" signals for slide down. so i took the intraday downward position. but as is often possible near sma 34 lines, those strong signals are bulldozed. for 1-2 hours, it seemed that the upward movement was a bluff. so while i let the first short position drift without sl, at sufficient high intraday position, i gave my shorts a second shot but this time with stop loss. i went for a stoploss for 2 reasons - a)second trade was more in-the-money and costlier, b)if the market was to still continue to drift up (as it eventually did), i didn't need longer signal to accept that the "undercurrent" was false and an upward rally was in store. therefore, the second short trade was with a tight (but well thought of) 10 point one. the first one was costlier @ 15

2. why i let today's trade ride the roller coster

= yesterday's bulldozing of "short" signal was enough signal of an upward rally. so i had little doubt of going long for overnight. 1% asian market buoyancy in morning hinted that i was right. but the rbi policy was a factor that stood in-between. besides the overnight bullish hints, there were enough signals in the morning that hinted that upward movement was inevitable. i was jittery to see the markets dip in the pre-lunch session, but frankly, i was not surprised. i rechecked the signals and saw buoyant forces again. and i was sure that operators / market forces couldn't bulldoze opposite side signals on consecutive days. plus there were 1-2 more reasons. by now, it was obvious that market forces had used rbi news to play the intraday game. buying and adding to the long positions at the intraday lows was an excellent idea (which i decided against, for some reasons).

i checked signals again after 3 and saw clear btst invitation.

so while squaring yday trades was the acceptance of the limit of adverse trade setup, not squaring today's intraday adverse trade was a tough put-my-foot-down deliberate decision to stick to my understanding.

and all this time, i was almost ready with the backup plan. 

how to lose money the right way?

http://traderfeed.blogspot.in/2009/05/how-to-lose-money-right-way.html

key to profit lies in the heap of losses!

many of you
must have been in stock market
since many years.

if i ask you point blank
"what would be the rough total of your winning trades?"
what figure would you give?

and then if i asked you
"what would be the rough total of your losing trades?"
what figure would you give?

chances are
that the sum total of the profitable trades will not be zero.
some decent figure would be there.

and the sum total of the losing trades will be huge
much more than the sum total of the winning trades.

and what would be the net total
(after combining the two figures).

again the chances are
that you would have slipped non stop
in all these years!

well, what's my point?

its plain and simple.

the above facts contain
two part-solution to your problem.

first,
if you were to only reduce and minimize your losing trade frequency and size
especially the size,
your balance sheet will dramatically improve!
who knows, by now, you might have been only marginally in the red, if not in the green,
with a treasure of experience as the base for the final flight!!!

as dr. brett steernbarger says
"If there is a holy grail to successful trading, it probably is risk management."

and now
the part-two of the solution-

why and when did you book the profit
of your few profitable trades?

was it fear of losing the profit
or was it a clear red signal to the rally?

again, chances are
you have a habit of
blinking first!

the cause of fear of losing the profit
like the cause of any other fear
is
darkness
and excitement.

darkness caused by absence of a method
and excitement caused by desperation.

think about it!

anything to lose!

want to be successful in trading?
here is a simple way.
"make mistakes!"
but you won't.
so i hereby, change my wording
"stick to your convictions of a trade"
only 2 things are possible
- either ur conviction will be proved right
- or ur system's chinks will be exposed, hence paving way for improvement.
--
in his masterpiece
"6 success forces"
 joseph sugarman had included one success force as
"do anything to fail"
--
if , however
you don't believe in admitting the mistake
and don't believe in improving your trading system
or,
don't have a trading system in first place
i have only one advice
"don't make mistakes at all!"
there is only one way of doing that
don't trade.




(niftyshots.blogspot.com)

secret of day trading success

which of the following trading scenario would you prefer
A. (total 375 points profit in 7 trades) + (total 95 points loss in 8 trades)
B. (280 points profit in 7 trades with no loss)
(*brokerage adjusted profit and loss)
well, on the face of it
both the above scenario look same.
rather, scenario B looks better than scenario A which looks scary!
but, the reality is
that
1. scenario B is just a mirage....it doesn;t happen pratically.
2. scenario A is not only practical but is the best way to be successful in trading.
3. even scenario A doesn't happen
instead scenario C happens as below
C.  (total 175 points profit in 7 trades) + (total 375 points loss in 8 trades)
why?
cutting winning trades early
and cutting losing trades late!
------------------------------------------------------
there is nothing called opportunity without risk.
and where risk is there, there has to be loss.
"cutting loss early, letting profit go on till max possible and trying to increase percentage winner trades"
is the secret of trading success.
------------------------------------------------------

in the above example (scenario A) which is close to reality, you will notice that trade success ratio isless than 50% but the net result is good! this fact speaks volumes. traders are so scared of loss as well as losing trades that they miss the real thing....the net profit!

same thing happens in life. we are so obsessed with the hardships and troubles that we miss the real things.........!!! 

(niftyshots.blogspot.com)

a bad day at trading?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH476CxJxfg
Where is the moment we needed the most ?
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
You tell me your blue skies fade to grey
You tell me your passion's gone away and I don't need no carryin' on
You stand in the line just to hit a new low
You're faking a smile with the coffee to go
You tell me your life's been way off line
You're falling to pieces everytime and I don't need no carryin' on

Because you had a bad day, you're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know, you tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day, the camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day, you had a bad day

Well, you need a blue sky holiday
The point is they laugh at what you say
And I don't need no carryin' on

You had a bad day, you're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know, you tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day, the camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day, oh... Holiday...

Sometimes the system goes on the blink
And the whole thing turns out wrong
You might not make it back and you know
That you could be well oh that strong and I'm not wrong, ahhh...

So where is the passion when you need it the most ?
Oh, you and I, you kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

'Cause you had a bad day, you're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know, you tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day, you've seen what you like
And how does it feel for one more time
You had a bad day, you had a bad day

(Oh, yeah, yeaaah, yeah) Had a bad day
(Oh, had a bad day) Had a bad day
(Oh, yeah, yeah, yeeeeah) Had a bad day
(Oh, had a bad day) Had a bad day, had a bad day...
- Daniel Powter