THE TRADER'S JOURNAL

I’m a big believer that you need to know how to trend trade first and foremost. But by definition of a trend trade you need to know what a counter-trend is also. A trend trade is a trade taken in the same direction of the next higher time frame, and a counter-trend trade is one taken against the direction on that next higher time frame. Three Things a Winner Knows 2009-10-21T09:12:26Z 2009-10-21T09:12:26Z http://www.tradersjournal.com/component/content/article/28-trading-psychology/238-three-things-a-winner-knows Jay Morris jay@tradersjournal.com

Trading= Risk The winner understands and accepts risk. This gives him the most important quality he can have: a trader’s mindset. His trader’s mindset insures he does not hesitate to take trades. Fear & The Trader’s Mindset 2009-10-21T09:11:15Z 2009-10-21T09:11:15Z http://www.tradersjournal.com/component/content/article/28-trading-psychology/237-fear-a-the-traders-mindset Jay Morris jay@tradersjournal.com

Trading is much simpler than we all initially make it out to be. One of our instructors, Teresa Bell, summed it up best when she said “trading is simple, following the plan is what’s difficult”. And what makes “following the plan difficult” has nothing to do with the market, and everything to do with your preconceived notions and previous experiences regarding money. Repetition To Intuition 2009-10-21T09:10:15Z 2009-10-21T09:10:15Z http://www.tradersjournal.com/component/content/article/28-trading-psychology/236-repetition-to-intuition Jay Morris jay@tradersjournal.com

The ultimate goal for traders is to get to the point where our intuition is contributing to the trading process. And to get to that point takes work.

The ultimate goal for traders is to get to the point where our intuition is contributing to the trading process. And to get to that point takes work. Being Honest With Yourself 2009-10-09T14:27:36Z 2009-10-09T14:27:36Z http://www.tradersjournal.com/component/content/article/28-trading-psychology/215-being-honest-with-yourself Don Dawson don@tradersjournal.com

Many times people come into trading because they lost a job, are looking to supplement income or think that trading is an easy way to make money. Trading is much like any other business in the sense that you get back what you put into it. I feel that those who come into trading treating it as a part-time job will struggle. In a business that has an approximate 90% failure rate in the first 6 months, you must work very hard to survive. If you decide to take this on as a part-time career, just be prepared to work as hard or harder than you would a full-time job. This is no place for slacking or taking for granted attitudes.

I am a Winner My whole life, I have been involved in sports. Ice hockey, soccer, golf and tennis are the sports I loved to compete in. Playing hockey at a high level, I learned to win consistently. There were always teams in the league that would win consistently while others lost. When we played a team with a bad record, they would sometimes be ahead for a while but I never worried. It was almost like we could be down in a game, but we knew that we were going to win. This is because of attitude. Most of the time, no matter the score during much of the game, we would come back and win. The winning attitude almost always beats the losing attitude. Winning teams play with one thought, that is “to win.” Losing teams also play with one thought, “not to lose.” This equates to a lack of confidence and fear and is a recipe for consistent failure.

How many people do you think would attend a trading seminar that advertised teaching to lose small? Or, how popular would a workshop be that was dedicated to extolling the virtues of preventing big losses in the financial markets? My guess is that unless there were a lot of incentives (perhaps a free trip to Las Vegas or a flat screen TV), not many people would show up for these events. The reason – no one likes to hear about losing. Handling Trading Pressure 2009-08-13T23:45:17Z 2009-08-13T23:45:17Z http://www.tradersjournal.com/component/content/article/28-trading-psychology/177-handling-trading-pressure Don Dawson don@tradersjournal.com

As traders, we tend to put ourselves in pressure situations more often than we would like to admit. For most of us, this has been going on for so long that we feel there is no way to eliminate the pressure situations. But, there are many ways to successfully react to the pressure. In this article, I would like to help you recognize these potential pressure situations and prepare you in advance before they actually occur. More to Trading than the Charts 2009-07-13T14:43:06Z 2009-07-13T14:43:06Z http://www.tradersjournal.com/component/content/article/28-trading-psychology/170-more-to-trading-than-the-charts Don Dawson don@tradersjournal.com

I would like to discuss getting inside the head of a winning trader and seeing how they think. Do you ever ask yourself why others seem so successful while you continue to struggle? Usually, the answers may be something like “they are just lucky, it will run out” or “they know somebody who told them the secret about the Holy Grail.” Your Belief System is Your Trading Style 2009-07-13T14:21:51Z 2009-07-13T14:21:51Z http://www.tradersjournal.com/component/content/article/28-trading-psychology/165-your-belief-system-is-your-trading-style Sam Seiden sam@tradersjournal.com

Moves in markets are the result of mass psychology. Money is made in the markets by becoming a master of human psychology and supply and demand. It is well-known that trading is 90% mental. Winning in the markets is more defined by your mental make-up, than your trading style. Understanding how people think is more important than chart reading.