The Holy grail finally found!

[cheva282]

Hi everybody here Id like to share with all 14 things that IMO make the holy grail!! some of you thought it was an indicator? or a system? a strategy? not this time

1. ?What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve? ? Napoleon Hill

This is the most important motivational quote of all time. If you haven?t read Napoleon Hill?s Think and Grow Rich Book, I suggest you do so in the near future, it?s the single best piece of motivational literature ever written in my opinion, and it will likely have transformative effects on your trading and your personal life.

2. ?I am a successful trader?

If you repeat to yourself everyday that you are a successful trader, it will make you a lot more likely to do the things that are necessary to become one. If you do not believe you are a successful trader, you will never become one, as with anything else in life, you have to believe in your cause or goal before you can make it a reality.

3. ?I am consistently following my trading plan?

You need to approach trading as a business and be strategic and logical in following your trading plan; don?t deviate. If you?ve taken the time to formulate a comprehensive trading plan based on your trading strategy, your trading will be the most effective when you follow your plan, since you were objective and clear-minded when creating it.

4. ?I have a trading journal and I use it?

If you have a trading journal and you actually use it, you will be far ahead of most traders. It?s critical to keep a running track record of your trading performance so that you have a tangible piece of evidence that reflects your trading ability or lack thereof. A trading journal will also give you something to stay accountable too and help you remain disciplined and organized.

5. ?I practice proper risk management?

It?s important to remember that trading success is defined over a large series of trades, not over one or two. This means that you should not give too much significance to any one trade, and the way to do this is by never risking more than you are comfortable with losing per trade. By that I mean, never risk an amount that keeps you up at night thinking about or watching your trades. Remember to take small losses and that you are going to have losing trades; it?s just part of doing business in the market.

6. ?I trade according to what the market IS doing, not what I think it ?should? be doing?

We want to trade what we actually see on our Forex price charts, not what we ?think? should happen or what we ?want? to happen. At the end of the day, it doesn?t matter what you want the market to do; it?s going to do what it wants, so your job is to learn how to read its price action and take advantage of it, not fight against it.

7. ?I will only take trades that give me a reward which clearly outweighs my risk?

The goal of any trader or investor is to make sure that the prospective reward of a trade clearly outweighs the risk involved. You need to gauge the market structure prior to entering a trade and make sure there is a logical reason for expecting that the risk reward on the trade is at least 1:1 or 1:1.5 or better.

8. ?I am not emotionally affected by my profits or losses?

Both losses and profits have the ability to induce emotional reactions in us. A loss can cause us to want to take ?revenge? on the market and try and ?make back? the money we just lost. A profit can cause us to become overly-confident or even euphoric, which can cause us to deviate from our trading plan and take a trade that is lower probability than what we normally would take. Either way, you have to always be on guard against making an emotional trade immediately after a trade closes out, whether it was a winner or a loser. The best thing to do is to simply remove yourself from the markets for 12 to 24 hours after any trade.

9. ?Instead of over-trading, I will be patient and let trading opportunities present themselves to me?

Don?t trade just because you feel like you have to or you want to?make sure there?s a real reason to do so and never trade when your pre-defined trading edge is not present. The downfall of most traders is over-trading, because most traders simply don?t have enough patience to trade like a sniper and not a machine gunner.

10. ?I?m a professional trader and thus I will not engage in gambling my money in the markets?

Gamblers make random bets in casinos or elsewhere, and traders who don?t have trading plans or who don?t follow their trading edge are also gamblers. It?s really easy to click your mouse and put a trade on and hope to get lucky, kind of like pulling the arm of the slot machine at a casino. The difference is that you can actually develop and implement a high-probability trading edge like price action strategies when trading the markets. So, it?s up to you if you want to be a gambler or a trader.

11. ?I will not interfere with my trades without just cause?

This one is similar to number 8, but it?s so important I wanted to touch on it again. Interfering with trades is usually an emotional reaction born out of risking too much or over-trading, both of which cause you to become overly attached to any one trade, which in turn causes you to over-analyze your trades and meddle with them once they are live. There are times when there?s just cause to interfere with your trades, such as a giant pin bar reversal that forms counter to your position, or some other opposing price action. However these instances are rare and it takes time and effort to develop your discretionary trading sense to the point where you can ?effectively interfere? in your trades.

12. ?I am happy to take a profit and I will not be greedy?

Take your profits when your targets get hit, don?t change targets in an effort to try and get ?just a little bit more? profit?These attempts to get a ?little more profit? are usually in vain, and they usually lead to you letting a winning trade turn into a losing trade. Traders with smaller accounts especially need to take logical profits as they come, in order to build their accounts up and their confidence. If you get a 1 to 1.5 or 1 to 2 risk reward, there?s nothing wrong with taking the money off the table. Don?t fall into the trap of hoping that every trade you take goes on a parabolic run in your favor, the markets ebb and flow, meaning they don?t go in straight lines for very long.

13. ?I invest in my trading education & myself?

Investing in your own education is paramount to success in any field. Trading is no different; whether it?s a book on trading psychology or the knowledge of an experienced trading coach, learning something each day to make yourself a better trader will only improve your edge in the markets.

14. ?I believe in my trading strategy completely and whole heartedly?

It?s critical to your trading success that you learn and trade with a strategy that?s proven and that you personally enjoy trading with. You have to follow it without deviation by remembering the fact that one loss does not negate the whole trading strategy. Don?t jump from one strategy or system to the next just because you stumble upon a few losing trades; losing trades are a natural part of any trading method. The key lies in losing trades properly and making sure you are trading with a strategy that is both simple and effective, like price action.

Hope it all makes sense

Rgds Esteban

[dmc009]

Great information!

[darrell]

Esteban Excellent post!!

[quote=cheva282]Hi everybody here Id like to share with all 14 things that IMO make the holy grail!! some of you thought it was an indicator? or a system? a strategy? not this time

1. “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” – Napoleon Hill

This is the most important motivational quote of all time. If you haven’t read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich Book, I suggest you do so in the near future, it’s the single best piece of motivational literature ever written in my opinion, and it will likely have transformative effects on your trading and your personal life. [/quote]

I totally agree everyone especially traders should read this book. It is the foundation of all those motivational quotes you have ever heard in your life. This is the book they actually come from. It was written by Napolean Hill who was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to study the common characteristics of those who succeed and what makes them fail as well. He did this so future generations would not have to learn the hard way. If you have not read this book you at best have been learning the hard way. All the other motivation books you have ever read are in this one book. This is not simply about “motivation” its a entire transformation of how you think.

@cheva282

2. “I am a successful trader”

If you repeat to yourself everyday that you are a successful trader, it will make you a lot more likely to do the things that are necessary to become one. If you do not believe you are a successful trader, you will never become one, as with anything else in life, you have to believe in your cause or goal before you can make it a reality.

The one thing i would note here is how we define success. Success can not be about winning/loosing profits/losses etc… It has to be defined as trading well. Not simply trading to win. We do not control if a trade wins or looses. We do control our risk management, we do control following our system from entry to exit with patience and discipline. Ultimately risk management and disciplined patient trading is what leads to being a successful trader. Just because you are doing risk management, discipline and patience does not mean you will “win” but i can guarantee you won’t win over the long term without it.

@cheva282

3. “I am consistently following my trading plan”

You need to approach trading as a business and be strategic and logical in following your trading plan; don’t deviate. If you’ve taken the time to formulate a comprehensive trading plan based on your trading strategy, your trading will be the most effective when you follow your plan, since you were objective and clear-minded when creating it.

100% agree. My worst trades are often off the cuff trades due to lack of patience. Or if risking to much then emotion comes in as it becomes about money. It can’t be about money it has to be about Trading Well which is following the plan.

@cheva282

4. “I have a trading journal and I use it”

If you have a trading journal and you actually use it, you will be far ahead of most traders. It’s critical to keep a running track record of your trading performance so that you have a tangible piece of evidence that reflects your trading ability or lack thereof. A trading journal will also give you something to stay accountable too and help you remain disciplined and organized.

Agreed this is the “survey step of s12”.

What did i do right? This is so important as you need to reinforce right decisions to keep making them. Right does not mean win or loss it means discipline following the plan with risk management.

What did I do wrong? Look at this so you can ensure you don’t repeate it. Again this does not mean you won or lost. You may have won and broke the rule. Recognize this fast or it will be your peril as rewards for breaking rules lead to false confidence and break down of your system and eventual destruction. Winning when breaking the rules is one of the worst things that can happen to a trader.

What did i learn? When news happens this happens, when deviation sare hit this seems to happen. This insrument is better than this one because this. Whatever the new ah hah if any or even if several right them down.

Take screenshots (use jing) mark up your charts. Visual with the above question and a trade log is huge.

Do this every day for 1 month see what happens. How much you grow. Just watch…

@cheva282

5. “I practice proper risk management”

It’s important to remember that trading success is defined over a large series of trades, not over one or two. This means that you should not give too much significance to any one trade, and the way to do this is by never risking more than you are comfortable with losing per trade. By that I mean, never risk an amount that keeps you up at night thinking about or watching your trades. Remember to take small losses and that you are going to have losing trades; it’s just part of doing business in the market.

Another part is to stop looking at profit as “winners” and losses as “loosers”. It is just inventory. I am here to buy inventory and sell inventory (not saying buying and selling a instrument). Meaning i expect to have to pay for that ice cream that i want to sell at a higher price. There is a cost of business. “losses” as we often call them are a cost of business. Its expected. No one expects to run a business without expenses and neither should you as a trader. Expect expenses. Just keep those expenses in check so the sales exceed them. I even go so far as to think of 10 boxes in 5 boxes out 5 boxes in 10 boxes out breakeven on inventory. Get away from win loss… expense and income is a much healthy frame of mind. You can control your “expenses” you can control your risk. You can’t control your win/loss. Focus on what you can control versus what you can’t you will be amazed the difference it makes in your trading and y our emotions while doing so.

@cheva282

6. “I trade according to what the market IS doing, not what I think it ‘should’ be doing”

We want to trade what we actually see on our Forex price charts, not what we “think” should happen or what we “want” to happen. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you want the market to do; it’s going to do what it wants, so your job is to learn how to read its price action and take advantage of it, not fight against it.

I can’t agree more. Everyone has an opinion… (i will let you fill in the blanks). Drop the opinions. Learn to read price action. YOu can be aware of things see things happening. Think hey i think this will happen. But at the end of the day you have to follow the price action no matter what your opinion is. I talked to one of the largest forex brokers in the US and he told me that most retail investors lose because of 1 main reason they fight the trend over and over and over they fight the trend trying to pick reversals all the time and not taking losses. They are not following just the charts. Follow the charts.

@cheva282

7. “I will only take trades that give me a reward which clearly outweighs my risk”

The goal of any trader or investor is to make sure that the prospective reward of a trade clearly outweighs the risk involved. You need to gauge the market structure prior to entering a trade and make sure there is a logical reason for expecting that the risk reward on the trade is at least 1:1 or 1:1.5 or better.

I sort of agree. It depends on the type of trade being done. If you are talking a 50/50 trade at the market buy/sell yes. But if you are taking into account in the money options, spreads, binaries, where premium is collected then probability can outweigh risk reward ratio.

In all cases you need to having a “winning” % that is greater than your risk amount

Win 85% make $15 when i win. Lose 15% of the time lose $85 when i lose OR win 15% of the time make $85 Lose 85% of the time lose $15

In both cases of the above with a much better and a much worse than 1:1 risk reward radio i am breakeven(not account for bid/ask fees etc…) Increase the win% or decrease the loss amount and you move into net profitable territory.

[darrell]

@cheva282

8. “I am not emotionally affected by my profits or losses”

Both losses and profits have the ability to induce emotional reactions in us. A loss can cause us to want to take ‘revenge’ on the market and try and ‘make back’ the money we just lost. A profit can cause us to become overly-confident or even euphoric, which can cause us to deviate from our trading plan and take a trade that is lower probability than what we normally would take. Either way, you have to always be on guard against making an emotional trade immediately after a trade closes out, whether it was a winner or a loser. The best thing to do is to simply remove yourself from the markets for 12 to 24 hours after any trade.

If you find yourself not being able to follow your plan within your risk management guidelines with the discipline and patience required. The cheapest thing to do is walk away and go spend some money at the mall go on vacation or whatever as if you trade without (discipline, a plan, risk management) you will lose more than a vacation and have nothing to show for it.

@cheva282

9. “Instead of over-trading, I will be patient and let trading opportunities present themselves to me”

Don’t trade just because you feel like you have to or you want to…make sure there’s a real reason to do so and never trade when your pre-defined trading edge is not present. The downfall of most traders is over-trading, because most traders simply don’t have enough patience to trade like a sniper and not a machine gunner.

Another good word for patience is “long suffering” get used to it. Being a sniper is not comfortable but your safer, and more accurate.

@cheva282

10. “I’m a professional trader and thus I will not engage in gambling my money in the markets”

Gamblers make random bets in casinos or elsewhere, and traders who don’t have trading plans or who don’t follow their trading edge are also gamblers. It’s really easy to click your mouse and put a trade on and hope to get lucky, kind of like pulling the arm of the slot machine at a casino. The difference is that you can actually develop and implement a high-probability trading edge like price action strategies when trading the markets. So, it’s up to you if you want to be a gambler or a trader.

Agreed, professional or gambler. Know your stats, know y our risk management, no your ratios, know your plan, follow your plan, know when to walk away and come back.

@cheva282

11. “I will not interfere with my trades without just cause”

This one is similar to number 8, but it’s so important I wanted to touch on it again. Interfering with trades is usually an emotional reaction born out of risking too much or over-trading, both of which cause you to become overly attached to any one trade, which in turn causes you to over-analyze your trades and meddle with them once they are live. There are times when there’s just cause to interfere with your trades, such as a giant pin bar reversal that forms counter to your position, or some other opposing price action. However these instances are rare and it takes time and effort to develop your discretionary trading sense to the point where you can “effectively interfere” in your trades.

Totally agree. The chart needs to tell you when to do something. What should never tell you do to something is your Profit and loss. That has nothing to do with the chart. Usually interferance happens as you put on to much money and are worried or because you are watching the red/green p/l and emotions are on a roller coaster. You will make a tons of mistakes doing this. Hide your p/l. Focus on the chart and don’t risk to much.

@cheva282

12. “I am happy to take a profit and I will not be greedy”

Take your profits when your targets get hit, don’t change targets in an effort to try and get “just a little bit more” profit…These attempts to get a “little more profit” are usually in vain, and they usually lead to you letting a winning trade turn into a losing trade. Traders with smaller accounts especially need to take logical profits as they come, in order to build their accounts up and their confidence. If you get a 1 to 1.5 or 1 to 2 risk reward, there’s nothing wrong with taking the money off the table. Don’t fall into the trap of hoping that every trade you take goes on a parabolic run in your favor, the markets ebb and flow, meaning they don’t go in straight lines for very long.

Base hits are how the game is won. Home runs are fun but not to be counted on.

[quote=cheva282]

13. “I invest in my trading education & myself”

Investing in your own education is paramount to success in any field. Trading is no different; whether it’s a book on trading psychology or the knowledge of an experienced trading coach, learning something each day to make yourself a better trader will only improve your edge in the markets. /QUOTE]

Agreed. I read books constantly watch videos. Study all the time. Never Stop Learning. I would add to this ask questions. Lots of questions, In the rooms, in the forum, ask them. Don’t be a lone ranger. A wise person learns from other peoples mistakes, a foolish one learns from their own. Which will you be.

@cheva282

14. “I believe in my trading strategy completely and whole heartedly”

It’s critical to your trading success that you learn and trade with a strategy that’s proven and that you personally enjoy trading with. You have to follow it without deviation by remembering the fact that one loss does not negate the whole trading strategy. Don’t jump from one strategy or system to the next just because you stumble upon a few losing trades; losing trades are a natural part of any trading method. The key lies in losing trades properly and making sure you are trading with a strategy that is both simple and effective, like price action.

Agreed. Risk management helps you believe a lot more also Also backtest it where possible. Then forward live test it in demo with proper rules and risk management,. then when you go live use even lighter risk management and work your way up to normal risk management. Big part of the game is survival. Don’t hop strategies every 5 minutes, Don’t over risk, don’t over trade, don’t rush it. Pick a strategy or 2 master them and then add trades/plays to your playbook. Don’t feel like you need to master every system to do anything or that if one or 2 does not work out to move on.

[quote=cheva282]

Hope it all makes sense

Rgds Esteban[/quote]

[njfbinary]

What the mind of God can conceive, will happen.

[kalebskalicky]

I love Napoleon Hill! I have read “The Law of Success” and I highly recommend it to anyone! Very enlightening read and can change a person whole perspective and attitude about everything.