Re: Section for TRADING PSYCHOLOGY

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carissimopaul wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:10 am Hello,
I'm continually flabbergasted by the continual rejection of the topic of trader psychology on various online forums and from so called educators, experienced traders will know that you're trading results will only be as good as the state of your mind.

I'm by no means a professional trader(yet), I only started trading in June 2018, started with a bang, made a killing and then kept losing money and only now (2020) am I beginning to be profitable.

I'm an IT dude, I left my job in 2016, sat at home for two years until I discovered forex, I decided that's what I'll do (who doesnt want financial freedom ? Best part is that you dont have to answer to anyone :)). Since I had no job, all I had was forex, I have a lot of time on my hands, I've spent almost 18 + hours a day on my pc, watching charts coding indicator experiments trying to find the fabled holy grail and gain a deeper understanding of what this forex thing is.

Thats all good, however, psychology is a tricky subject and thus difficult to deal with (Psychoanalysis can take years to complete for example), from a young age(10+) , I've been fascinated by the human brain and human behavior, I'm not a psychologist, just a wide reader. Its become second nature for me to probe the psychological reasons and subconscious triggers of why people say what they say and do what they do. This helped me become aware of my own thoughts and reactions to what I perceive and WHY I react that way.

I've always believed that limitations in our lives are almost always psychological and I haven't been proved wrong yet on that point.

So how does this apply to trading, I'll give a few examples from my own experience of psychology at play;

Pain of missing a trade
I missed a trade today on CADCHF and I was very angry with myself despite the fact that I'm already in two profitable trades.

Fundamentals : This piece of news on oil is worse than expected, it affects the price of oil which in turn affects the Canadian dollar inversely.
Image 2.png

Sentiment: Dumb money was also selling when they should be buying.
Image 3.png

Technicals: The technicals on the 4 Hour with my system, told me I should be looking to long, my system also tells me when I should enter and exit.
Image 1.png

I was so focused on managing my other two trade that before I knew it CADCHF had shot up more than 20 pips, I got so mad ! I missed the best spots to enter according to my system.

Why was I angry and why am I still agitated ? What effects can these emotions have on my decision making ?

I'll tell you, I dont trade demo accounts, I do all my trading and testing on live accounts, I dont backtest, neither do I keep a journal, losing because of stupid and ignorant mistakes causes pain which the equivalent of touching fire as a kid. I have been so scared by the "fire" that even when the impulse to over trade, over leverage or become impatient and open a continuation trade prematurely, it just dies down. A few months ago I would have entered a trade because of FOMO with a tight stop and held to long and eventually loose money like a fool.

This is where the proverb "know thy self" comes in, I was angry because subconsciously;
  • I believe I shouldn't make mistakes. They make me a fool and imperfect.
  • I feel I shouldn't miss any opportunities. I feel less than.
  • I feel like I will never make it because I've missed ONE perfect set up so the fear extends to the proceeding trades.
  • I feel undeserving and not good enough for anything good in my life just because of on trade
All these beliefs are bogus and illogical.

This perpetual self examination is second nature and automatic on my side, it took years to develop and its still developing.

So how does knowing the limiting beliefs help achieve better results in trading, simple, when you know what you're feeling is based on bogus psychology, it becomes easy to refrain from making bogus money losing choices.

Experienced traders.
Its imperative for psychological issues to be discussed by those of us who are still learning this business and I believe traders who have "made it" per se , can impart "psychological bug fixes" to those experiencing deep seated psychological issues. Kind of like an AA meeting for traders.

My request to whoever is running this forum is to please add sections specifically dedicated to trader psychology, no doubt you have the largest collection of USEFUL indicators, however, this forum can become better and well rounded, I'm supremely convinced that this will lead to the betterment of every trader who engages in this process.

Regards.
Sounds like a very good idea, but until we decide where to start a section like that maybe you can start here in this section viewforum.php?f=579489
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carissimopaul


Re: Section for TRADING PSYCHOLOGY

83
carissimopaul wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 8:00 am

Thanks, it will take some thought on how to begin though.
Looking forward to seeing it, too. Your post made some very valuable points and I hope we will see more of your ideas and posts here :)
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Use Fibonacci numbers for indicator settings + How to draw Fibonacci Extensions
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I hate to scroll through so much old stuff.

84
Jimmy wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 4:15 pm Looking forward to seeing it, too. Your post made some very valuable points and I hope we will see more of your ideas and posts here :)
Please, don't let pressing "Submit" accept the new post without shortening the answered post much. I hate to scroll through so much old stuff. Maybe also deactivate posting in bigger letters. I miss the important stuff by scrolling through much negative, not helping comments.

Re: I hate to scroll through so much old stuff.

85
friend4you wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 8:21 pm

Please, don't let pressing "Submit" accept the new post without shortening the answered post much. I hate to scroll through so much old stuff. Maybe also deactivate posting in bigger letters. I miss the important stuff by scrolling through much negative, not helping comments.
That's a wise idea. Yeah, I know what you mean with the "quoting". We'll get it sorted out tomorrow or on the weekend, it's definitely something that needs to be done here to keep information concise :thumbup:
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Ogee, friend4you
Are you looking for a Forex broker? FBS cuts spreads by up to 58%. Click here to begin your trading journey, today.
No commissions are earned by Forex-station.


Guide to the "All Averages" Filters (ADXvma, Laguerre etc.) 🆕
Use Fibonacci numbers for indicator settings + How to draw Fibonacci Extensions
An easy trick for drawing Support & Resistance


Re: Suggestions to improve forex-station.com site

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Hello Moderators and Coders,

I would like to suggest to implement some kind of versioning on the indicators.

In my mind this could be shown on the "About" tab of the indicator, to show the last date edited, e.g. "Updated on 12/04/2020".

Another option would be to include the version no in the filename itself, e.g. "step ehlers optimal tracking filter (mtf + alerts + arrows) ver015.ex4". Although some indicators do have this kind of versioning in the filename, not all indicators do, so it is not easy to make out which indicator (which file) is the latest version.

Thanks,
Chris


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