I get quite a bit of criticism sometimes for repeating advice that some people view as "obvious." The longer I am in the business of trading and teaching, I realize that the most important advice is the "obvious" advice because it's the advice that the least amount of people actually pay attention to. Tonight I received an insightful email from a good friend who is still on his journey to become a successful trader. Here is what he wrote to me. I sincerely appreciate that he gave me permission to post his thoughts here:
As I was coming back from my night job, I was on the top deck of the bus slumbering. I suddenly woke up with the fear that i had missed my stop, but i did not. Then the thought creep into my mind again - forex. I had a kind of dialogue within myself.He: Hey! Tell me for how long are you going to do this.
Me: What do you mean?
He: Doing what you don't like, not having enought time to rest, going home at the odd time, not having enough food and no cloth on your back!
Me: Well i don't really know. I have tried to change this buy doing forex.
He: But do you ever succeed?
Me: NO!
He: Why?
Me: It's not because I don't have a good system; I am not discipline.
He: Why are you not discipline.
Me: I don't want to talk about it!
He: If truely you don't like what you are doing then you will follow the rule of playing the forex game successfully. If not, you will keep doing the same thing the same way and achieving the same result.
Me: Whatever!My response to the questions i received through the dialog shows that i am fretting over my failure. I keep thinking, why am i not successful. Why do I put aside my plans and do something else? Why do i keep making money on demo and not in live account? When i do a backtesting, i don't look at the news, why do i look at the news when it's time to trade this system live? Why can't i just listen to my inner mind? Why do i refuse to take little money off the table. Why don't i stick to my plan?
Have you ever asked yourself these questions?
Comments
Yes,
I do this all the time,
I said to my self that I will stick to a plan ( 10 pips a day , don't overleverage) but then I get sticky fingers and starting opening position and ignoring all of my rules. Why I do it? I don't know. But the honest truth is that it's a vicious cycle and end up in losses every time. I am not sure if I want to continue trading. It's not that I have given up, it just that I can't disciple myself. I know for a fact I can get 10 pips on any given day but I just can't follow the rules. Until I take trading seriously, I will alway end up playing it like a game. A losing game.
Posted by: Raj | January 18, 2007 07:09 PM