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The Mindset of Trading – Avoiding the Holy Grail System mentality

When I got involved in trading 20 years ago, I was convinced by many trading “gurus” that there are “Holy Grail” trading systems – i.e. ones that stand up to any market condition, and consistently generate profits through all sorts of market conditions. It has taken me many years and many hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in unprofitable systems to understand that there really isn’t a holy grail. Yes, like it or not, it doesn’t exist. Ironically, some trading systems also boast consistent track records, but when you as the trader try to follow their recommended “trade alerts” you don’t seem to get the same “incredible” results. This is due to many factors:

  • Timing – By the time you get the trade alert, the price has changed. This can also be because of the second factor:
  • Crowd Influenced Price – When the market sees a particular trade coming in, the price naturally swings via demand… the more buyers, the more the ask price will go up, when selling, the lower the Bid price goes down making your entry considerable different than the others.
  • The Type of Security – If a low volume security is used, then sometimes the bid/ask spread is not desirable resulting in poor execution of trades.

The most influential thing to consider is actually something that I think relatively few traders consider is – “Your Trading Style” – i.e. does it fit your schedule and interests and most important – your emotional state. I have found that many trading systems require either specific times to trade when I’m just busy at work, or frankly they are too difficult to trade because of many rules and legwork that has to be met before entering and monitoring a trade. Regarding emotions, most trading systems require that you place a trade and then just let it play out given the trade rules. This is almost impossible for some people as some cannot bear to watch a trade go in the wrong direction, only to recover to a profit once they have already taken a loss prematurely.

You have to know what you are getting into when you decide to be an active trader and understand how you react to all the aspects of the trading game.

At Stocktradingwithadayjob.com we strive to support you via trades that you can evaluate after hours, and with minimal homework, place for the next trading day. We also strive to reduce the amount of stress that is placed on you. Yes, there will be unprofitable trades, but that is what happens in trading. The goal is to be profitable over the long term, and make is enjoyable to participate in the trading market.

If you are interested in joining our service please click here for more information about our service https://stocktradingwithadayjob.com/membership-account/membership-levels/

Why we don’t like Credit Spreads…

Credit spreads always sound super attractive… earn a consistent x% per week, month etc but what few realize is the risk levels associated with these trades. We’ve traded these before and the same thing happens… weeks go by with a consistent 4 or 5% return but then the unforeseeable happens… the market drops and you take a max loss of 100% of your risk which wipes out months of gains. The risk reward of the trade is typically something like this: you risk $2500 for a gain of $100 and win lets say 80% of the time (depending on how far out the money you are selling your short calls). Well for every 5 trades you lose 50 to 100% of your risked capital. Does that sound like a deal? Stay away from these and the folks that hawk them. We’ve been there done that. Stick with our program and over the long haul you’ll do much better and will sleep at night.

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