Day Trading Tips
Mind & Money II

Newsletter for Active Traders

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Learn to use Elliott Wave in your Day Trading

Why Johnny Can't Pull the Trigger

You've spent countless hours studying the markets, learned many techniques and tricks of the trade, you're ready to go get 'em! But wait, what's happening?

Every time you see a perfect setup you're hesitating, thinking to yourself, "Maybe I should wait, this might not be correct, and what if I'm wrong?" This section will help to eliminate this vexing problem that affects most traders at one time or another.

Read and review the information presented in these pages. Study the examples and Do The Exercises. It is only be actively participating that you will overcome a "Pulling the Trigger" problem. We know, we've been there too. So now is the time to...

Take Some Action

What makes the difference between a winning trader and a losing trader? More knowledge, more money, a better computer? No, it is simply the ability to take action. The markets leave clues, we study and analyze those clues and then take action based on what we have determined to be fairly reliable indicators of future price action. Not taking action simply means you are not in the game. For some reason you believe that not taking a trade will be less painful than taking the trade.

If you want to be a trader, you must actively trade, you must leverage yourself to believe with all your heart that not taking a trade (one you have watched develop and that meets your criteria for risk) will cause you far more pain than taking the trade and perhaps seeing it become a loser. Sitting and watching another winning trade pass you by is more frustrating than a loss. So how do you leverage yourself? How do you change from fearing to take a trade, to fearing not to trade?

Leverage Yourself

Having leverage simply means it is far more important for you to work toward your goals and dreams, than not to. Many of us have habits we'd like to discard, such as overeating or smoking. Why is it so difficult to change self-defeating habits? Because you have created a world wherein your brain believes it is less painful to go with the flow, than to change. Change is difficult and sometimes painful. Many people will go to great lengths to avoid change.

To eliminate a bad habit, such as smoking or a pulling-the-trigger problem, you must create a belief that is will be more painful to continue the way you are, than to take the road less traveled. A trader that cannot execute a trade is not likely to be successful at trading.

Trading systems are designed so that the probability of successful trades and profits outweighs the probability of ruin. A system breaks down if a trader only executes some of the trades, rather than all of them. Cherry picking traders are doomed to fail. Why? Because the markets are random, certain set-ups may work today, but not tomorrow, or this trade may win, but not the next. Your mathematical probability of success is unlikely without consistency. Each time our cherry picking trader experiences a loss, it becomes more painful, until they reach a point where it is impossible to take any trades at all.