The New Trading for a Living: Psychology, Discipline, Trading Tools and Systems, Risk Control, Trade Management ---Alexander Elder (2014).
- 1.The goal of a successful trader is to make the best trades. Money is secondary.
2. Beginners focus on analysis, but professionals operate in a three dimensional space. They are aware of trading psychology their own feelings and the mass psychology of the markets
3. Amateurs look for challenges; professionals look for easy trades. Losers get high from the action; the pros look for the best odds.
4. The market does not know you exist. You can do nothing to influence it. You can only control your behavior.
5. Remember, your goal is to trade well, not to trade often.
6. Successful trading depends on the 3M's - Mind, Method and Money. Beginners focus on analysis, but professionals operate in a three dimensional space. They are aware of trading psychology their own feelings and the mass psychology of the markets. Each trader needs to have a method for choosing specific stocks, options or futures as well as firm rules for pulling the trigger - deciding when to buy and sell. Money refers to how you manage your trading capital.
7. To be a good trader, you need to trade with your eyes open, recognize real trends and turns, and not waste time or energy on regrets and wishful thinking.
8. When a beginner wins he feels brilliant and invincible Then he takes wild risk and loses everything.
9. Losers bring money into the market which is necessary for the prosperity of the trading industry.
10. Every winner needs to master three essential components of trading; a sound individual psychology, a logical trading system and good money management. These essentials are like three legs of a stool – remove one and the stool will fall, together with the person who sits on it.
11. The markets are unforgiving, and emotional trading always results in losses.
12. Many traders ride an emotional roller coaster and miss the essential element of winning: the management of their emotions.
13. Most private traders on a losing streak keep trying to trade their way out of a hole. A loser thinks a successful trade is just around the corner, and that his luck is about to turn. He keeps putting on more trades and increases his size, all the while digging himself a deeper hole in the ice. The sensible thing to do would be to reduce your trading size and then stop and review your system.
14. Traders lose because the game is hard, or out of ignorance, or lack of discipline or because of both.