Friday, April 29, 2011

Lesson No 4 - Characteristic of Successful Traders

Found it printed and pasted in front of a trader in our room. Are they relevant? Are you able to follow each and every one of them? Will you read them everyday before the start of trading as a reminder?

Important Characteristic of a Successful traders:

1. Successful traders do not blame. They accept the losses they have, and they don’t dwell on them, or blame other people or conditions. They learn from their mistakes and move on with their trading.

2. Successful traders have a system. They stick to their system of trading religiously.

3. Successful traders have patience. They know that most positions will not be profitable the minute they are opened.

4. Successful traders do not overtrade. They realize that overtrading puts their account at risk, and they know that not every day is a day for trading.
They wait for high probability opportunities.

5. Successful traders realize that nothing is 100% foolproof.
They trust in their indicators, but they are aware of other factors that may influence their trades.

6. Successful traders do not stay in a losing trade. They honor the stop losses that they set, and they do not hold their position in the hopes that the market will eventually “go their way.”

7. Successful traders do not rush into trades. They take their time while selecting trades and they are picky about which trades to jump on. They don’t place orders just for the sake of having a position in the market every second.

8. Successful traders stick to a successful strategy. They have one to three techniques that really work, and they use them over, and over, and over again.

9. Successful traders have the ability to adapt. They adjust their trading methods and decisions to changing market conditions.

13 comments:

coconut said...

no it will not work.

better to know "Important Characteristic of myself" rather than important characteristic of someone else.

coconut said...

don't misunderstand, its good to know about others characteristic but it is your characteristic thats matter.

like it or not, your true characteristic will comes alive when trade long enough even if you want to hide it.

coconut said...

so one of my outstanding characteristic is my ability to blow up account, done it before and will happen again.

did i change, actually not. i done it before means i can do it again. i only hope is to avoid doing it again.

Fat88Trader said...

Successful Traders are role models for a newbie to learn from. If one think that it will not work, try doing the opposite, that's what most newbies are doing.

In lesson no 3, I have emphasise the need to understand yourself, asking those criticals questions listed as important.

There is a hard way to learn; that is learning it yourself or a easier way to learn; from someone who have made it through all the mistakes. That's the reason why we go to school.

Yes, it's your characteristic that matter, but you can make a change knowing that it's the wrong way to trade, not hiding and running away from it.

Traders themselves have to decide how they want to trade, the bottom line is, as long as tehy make money, they are doing it right.

A blogger boasted that he used only one screen to make money trading, put in on order, then a stop loss and an profit target, that's it, shopping time and later in the afternoon, check how much he makes.

He has been trading for years and has matured in the way he trades from home, very relax, suits him well, good luck to him.

coconut said...

my apology for seeing only at my view point and my experience, yes we can learn from others too.

in fact i've been trying to help others too not too much on trading but on others matters like managing finances and personal matters.

tough nut to crack and lots of setback.

i think for traders too, learning start from everyday activities and not just restricted on the trading desk.

every point you listed are valid but we should apply to our living as well. if you can see and reflex from your daily activities, it should make trading a lot easier.

bottom line. i agree we should learn from school.

coconut said...

my golden words for trading is:

"know yourself, know your opponent, you will win all battles".

yourself means who you are and whats your abilities, your opponent is who your are not and your inabilities.

Bala C said...

well said, coconut !!

coconut said...

oh thanks bala, but i think most people will think it's piece of crap.

this one i really like to share, i'm not a tv fan but these 2 programs really caught my eye not too long ago.

1, the american pickers and 2, the pawn stars (when i was young i was very interested in pawn shop business) on history channel.

they are all in business of buying and selling stuff and they are real professional in their own right. all the good characteristic of traders can be found in them too including humber.

if you are a trader you will love to watch, the most impression i heard from both is this, "you must not get emotional with the stuff you buy, otherwise you will soon go out of business", great stuff.

KAW said...

A quick link for those who want to catch a short clip on both the tv series coconut is referring to; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEjWJQ_mDk8 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmtN-yIWXe4

Singapore Man of Leisure said...

Hello Fat88Trader,

I like the way you put lesson 3"Understanding Yourself" before lesson 4 "Characteristic of Successful Traders.

Just sharing I learnt it the hard way.... I jumped in trying to emulate certain "gurus" only to discover that it's not for me.

Yes, I should have asked myself all the questions first - even if it's investing.

Although I am not an active trader, reading your posts helps me to understand the interesting world of active Trading!

Cheers!

Fat88Trader said...

Well, there are many "Gurus" around, they are well versed with all the principles of trading and knowledgeable on A to Z strategies, they can only teach but can't trade. Why? Because emotions are involved.

Trading is tough even for a old timer, just following lesson 4 is already an uphill task.

Bala C said...

Dear FAT & Coconut,

Inspired by FAT's blog, I have started writing a blog w.e.f 1-may-2011.
Please do spare sometime to give your expertise comments. Thank you,

coolsupertrader.blogspot.com

coconut said...

another place to write my thoughts thanks.

believe me or not, the first person who benefit from my grafity (my writing) is myself.