Not another blog post of some glorious trading rules. But, here are couple of things that I have learnt (some of them, in the hard way) from the past. So , this blog post is really meant for myself as constant reminder, and maybe, help some of my 13 readers.

Stop Changing approach, Give yourself some time.

I shall admit that, I had this problem.  One of the key “discovery” of mine was really to stop changing, stop trying to “improve” something. Stick to one, during good time, and bad, master it, journal, repeat and repeat. You need time to master a skill, you need time to master a strategy, in other words, you need time to be a master of something. Stop changing approach, get good with it. You need data to analyze, you need trading records to evaluate, constant changing your approach gives you nothing to work on.

Journal it. Give yourself a chance to grow.

Face it, your memory sucks. You thought you have learnt the lesson, but after a couple of weeks, or months, memory fades. Write it down, record them, like it or not, just do it. You will need it later. Again, you will REALLY need it later. Be as detailed as possible.

Stop micro managing your position. Give your position time to work.

Give your trade time and space to develop. As matter of fact, in my day trading, I prefer let the target hit, or let the position stopped. Taking partial profit, move stop to break even etc hurts your long term expectancy if you don’t know what you are doing. Do your math, before implementing these strategies. “Feel better” is not a position management strategy. You can do better than that.

When you are not a master, stick to one market.

Even a season professional focuses on limited number of markets during the session. Face it, if you can’t make money focusing one market, your can’t make money looking at 2 at the same time. The “afraid of missing out” symptom will make you miss out more. Stay focus.

That’s it. You can always come out with another long list of rules (who doesn’t love trading rules? They are cheap), the key is really be a master. Start with the simplest thing and master it.  To end this blog post, here is the quote from Bruce lee:

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Good trading.

I have been putting in a great deal of time and effort in futures trading lately. From refining strategy, writing plans (scrapping plans), back testing (not your fancy automated testing, I basically replayed markets), setting up accounts, negotiate commissions etc.

The intensive process has almost burnt me out sometimes, but it is also a good chance for me to refer back to my old journals, some worth-reading trading books, and also do some deep thinkings about things.

So if you start reading some random short posts with some trading Craps/Wisdoms from me, you know I am working hard.

Anyway, here is something in my mind when I was back testing.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

In case you haven’t noticed, trading is very similar to property purchase or development, it about Location, Location, Location. (Of course, during crazy market cycle, like what is happening in Australia right now, properties at some waste lands, or crappy locations, can also be sold for a couple of hundreds thousands, who are those buyers?!, really.). But, we are looking for consistent result, and long term prospect, then location is a key consideration. This is common sense.

Would you build a house without considering the location and the surroundings?

The same applies to trading. Why would you want to trade your freaking, holy-grail like pattern in any place? Do you wonder why did your favourite chart pattern stop working? Maybe a quick refer back to your trading journal might help. Pull out the charts, figure out why it failed.

Sometimes, when things get complicated, I like to refer back to the basic. How to make a trade? The simple rule on the first page of my trading journal is Location, Path, Management. I think you can guess what are these 3 words referring to. If not, you need to spend sometimes to think about them before making your next trade.

I hope this short post gives you some food for thought.

Until next time, trade well.