 |
October 21, 2015, 12:21:04 PM |
|
Some words of advice for the begginer crypto-currency traders.
Will be happy to expand these topics if there is interest.
Feedback from other traders is welcomed.
Good luck with your trading.
Competitive environment
There are thousands of other traders in the markets, trading the same instruments and using the same technology. In order to be profitable, the trader needs to better than others at their game, or better still, come up with his own game that will give him an advantage.
Training process
Learning to trade is a hard work and requires a lot of sacrifice – it will take a long time before the trainee will start to notice the results.
There is no a single secret of being a successful trader – the success means being consistently profitable over the long run and comes from never-ending learning process and self-discipline.
The trader needs to analyze both his winning and losing trades – the former are often overlooked.
Things to include in the trade analysis: winners/losers ratio, the size of the winners and losers, number of consecutive winners and losers, time in the positions, time between the trades.
Keeping a trading diary to keep track of the reasons for opening and closing of the positions – over time, some patterns should emerge.
Constant change
Markets always change and to stay on top, the trader has to keep changing with them. The trader needs to be flexible, keep an open-mind and continuously learn new things.
A trader who doesn’t adjust quickly enough is like a football player, who is still trying to play football, when everybody else on the pitch starts to play rugby.
Dealing with losses
A trader needs the self-discipline to stick to his plan and not be overtaken by the emotions of greed and fear.
When the trader expects the market to behave certain way, enters the trade and the market doesn’t perform as expected, the only correct course of action is the exit the trade.
Having to take losses is an integral part of trading – what matters is taking them early and not letting them to run away.
The trader cannot be stubborn or too proud – being right can never be more important to him than being profitable. Being a trader means being honest with oneself and being able to admit to being wrong.
Unlike in most of “ordinary” professions, in trading, there usually is not much grey area between being wrong and being right and little opportunity to blame the bad decisions on external factors – even though it’s tempting to look for excuses, the trader should always take full responsibility for all his decisions.
The trader has to remember that the market is always right, even if it’s behaving irrationally from his point of view – “markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent”.
Staying in a losing position, apart from everything else, carries an opportunity cost – instead of hanging on to a bad trade, the trader could possibly use his skills and capital to generate profits from another trade.
The trader needs to learn to recognize the emotions he feels when he incurs the losses: they may range from self-pity to anger. When the trader is experiencing these emotions, his critical thinking is usually impaired and he might be not best placed to enter into another trade, even though this is often what his emotions are telling him to do (“revenge trading”). That is when taking a break usually is helpful and beneficial to the further performance of the trader.
No person is ever going to be able to completely eliminate emotions – one should be aware of them and learn to use them to his advantage.
Patience
Again, unlike in most other professions, where spending more time at a given activity leads to producing more output, spending more time trading will most likely not lead to generating more p/l (important disclaimer: does not apply to market-maker’s activity).
The trader needs to understand that he can earn money only in certain conditions, same as the sailor cannot sail without the wind, no matter how skilled he is. The trader needs to observe his market, learn to recognize these right conditions and only be in the market when the odds are in his favour.
Flexibility
The trader has to keep an open mind, learn to recognize quickly when the market conditions change and react accordingly. This applies both to the market conditions intra-day and the market cycles happening in the longer term.
Flexibility means not only recognizing the changing trends in the market, but also adjusting the position sizing and profit expectations, in accordance to the current market volatility.
|
