Trading Psychology
Apr 16th, 2013 |
By bruce.bower |
Category: Bruce Bower, Guest Blog, Trader Development, Trading Psychology
Trading is inextricably linked with money. You are taking risk in the markets because you want to make money. If you trade well over a long period of time, then you will make lots of money.
We all know what the results of trading success can look like, and that motivates us—the cushy bank balance, nice house(s), etc. Most traders are a competitive lot and they want to outdo themselves and others.
Less understood are the interactions between traders’ psychology and money. Traders, like anyone else, have a certain emotional relationship with money, and that can affect their trading for better or worse. If trading is all about “planning the trade and trading the plan”, then you’ll
Read more [...]
Tags: poor, rich, trader Posted in Bruce Bower, Guest Blog, Trader Development, Trading Psychology |
2 comments
Mar 12th, 2013 |
By bruce.bower |
Category: Bruce Bower, General Comments, Guest Blog, Trader Development, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology
It can be a rough and cruel world out there in the markets. The competition is high, people are cutthroat, and the markets are never easy. Sometimes it can feel like a feral jungle, with danger lurking everywhere.
You want to give yourself every edge and extra chances to succeed, but what really makes the difference?
Simple: A mentor.
In his classic Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis referred to a mentor as a “jungle guide”, implying that he helped you navigate the savage environment of Wall Street. While the word “mentor” may not be as colorful as "jungle guide", it doesn’t diminish the need for a mentor. As traders, if we want to succeed or just get to the next level, then we
Read more [...]
Tags: finding, guide, jungle Posted in Bruce Bower, General Comments, Guest Blog, Trader Development, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology |
No Comments »
Feb 17th, 2013 |
By bruce.bower |
Category: Bruce Bower, General Comments, Guest Blog, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology
Maybe it’s the bubbles in champagne, or the sound of the cork popping, but New Year’s always brings out a rush of emotions.
The end of one year naturally lends itself to reflection on the past. As the calendar turns over, people wax lyrical about another year passing. Taking stock of the past year, people figure out where they are – and then dream of where they want to be. The gap between those – and there is almost always a gap-- can spur us on to change for the better.
Yes, the dreaded New Year’s resolution.
I can hear the skepticism already.
We all know about the person who swore up and down that one year was “’the year’ that they finally got in shape”, only
Read more [...]
Tags: resolutions, years Posted in Bruce Bower, General Comments, Guest Blog, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology |
4 comments
Jan 16th, 2013 |
By sspencer |
Category: Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs, Technical Plays, Trading Psychology
I don't hate Goldman Sachs in the Matt Tiabbi, vampire squid kind of way. Most of the people I've known over the years who have worked there are good people (including Gman, who did a one-week stint right out of college before he realized he was a squid out of water :). My distaste is for the Goldman stock GS. And more specifically its history of erratic trading intra-day. I don't know if it is because the GS algos are not allowed to be involved in trading their own stock or it is just all the other algos having a field day at their expense, but rarely does GS trade cleanly.
As an intra-day equities trader my ability to make money depends largely on stocks that I identify as strong or weak
Read more [...]
Posted in Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs, Technical Plays, Trading Psychology |
1 Comment »
Nov 25th, 2012 |
By bruce.bower |
Category: Bruce Bower, General Comments, Trader Development, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology
In my senior year of college, I hit the jackpot.
No, I didn’t win the lottery.
I did even better-- I got the job I wanted in the markets.
Let me repeat: *the* job.
Note: the lesson is that if I can do it, then anyone can!
Ever since I was 14, I knew that I wanted to be a trader. One day, I was in my dad’s office and pulled a book off his bookshelf about famous investors—and discovered a world that I barely knew existed. The stories of making great fortunes through one’s intellect drew me in and I was hooked. Ever since then, I knew that I wanted to be a trader.
In college, I naturally looked for trading jobs. The single most coveted one amongst my classmates was one
Read more [...]
Tags: citibank, learned, trader Posted in Bruce Bower, General Comments, Trader Development, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology |
6 comments
Sep 23rd, 2012 |
By bruce.bower |
Category: Bruce Bower, General Comments, Guest Blog, Trading Psychology
If you hang around long enough in the investing or banking communities of New York or London, you’ll soon hear the infamous question: “What’s your number?”. The first time, you answer by rattling off your phone number; then you realize that the question has nothing to do with speaking on the phone.
“Your number” is usually the number at which you have made enough money that you can safely retire and/or leave the business. Once you’ve reached “your number”, you have enough money for a place to live while earning a passive income that covers your expenses and funds a good lifestyle.
At first glance, it would seem that this is a brilliant concept for traders. After all, most
Read more [...]
Tags: n Posted in Bruce Bower, General Comments, Guest Blog, Trading Psychology |
1 Comment »
Jul 29th, 2012 |
By bruce.bower |
Category: Bruce Bower, Guest Blog, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology
We’ve all heard the sad excuses after a bad run. The lame rationalizations.
“I know it was through my stop, but I thought that it would come back”.
“Yes, I saw the signal, but I just didn’t believe it”
“I don’t know, I just froze”
When someone is struggling, one way to lessen the pain is to rationalize it away. That’s understandable. After all, no one wants to wallow in pain and suffering anymore than necessary. But these sure are annoying to listen to.
If a friend or colleague is struggling and in a bad place, then the last thing anyone wants to hear from them is some BS. What’s even worse is when we catch ourselves making these excuses. We all
Read more [...]
Posted in Bruce Bower, Guest Blog, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology |
1 Comment »
Jun 14th, 2012 |
By sspencer |
Category: General Comments, Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs, Trader Development, Trading Psychology, Trading Theory
I have noticed recently a lot of money being made on the desk via reversal patterns. A reversal pattern is when a stock that has trended in one direction stops trending and then begins a new trend in the opposite direction. Reversal patterns can be much easier to trade than the initial trend as they usually unfold over a longer period of time and may present several consolidation areas allowing a trader to build a larger position with well defined risk.
Let's take a look at two stocks that offered reversal patterns this week. I was involved with both stocks and each of them presented very clear clues that a new trend might be forming. The first is NAV which I blogged about last week here.
Read more [...]
Tags: day trading, trader education, trader training Posted in General Comments, Steven Spencer (Steve's) Blogs, Trader Development, Trading Psychology, Trading Theory |
4 comments
May 14th, 2012 |
By bruce.bower |
Category: Bruce Bower, General Comments, Trader Development, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology
This is one blog post that I hope you never have to read.
Why? Because it’s all about failure.
The word “failure” has tons of connotations. Shame. Guilt. Disappointment. Anger.
These are things that we try to avoid at all costs.
If the world were perfect, you would never run into failure in your trading career. I hope that you will never be in a hole that you have to struggle to climb out of. I sincerely wish you a phenomenally successful career where you have a continuously smooth, upward-sloping equity curve and you become superbly wealthy.
As for me, I know all about failure because I have failed—spectacularly, actually. When I started my career, it was in one of the
Read more [...]
Tags: bounce, failure, trading Posted in Bruce Bower, General Comments, Trader Development, Trading Lesson, Trading Psychology |
6 comments
Apr 26th, 2012 |
By jeff.white |
Category: Trading Psychology
Over the past 10 days, there have been two occasions where I hit my daily loss limit. Sounds like a tough stretch, but on a net basis it's actually been positive thanks to some other good days.
Mind you, I'm generally a disciplined trader, and in a dozen years of full-time trading I have broken my discipline countless times but have never truly gone on tilt where it's account life or death.
That said, I do not have a broker-set cutoff. That's where you specify a dollar amount, which when hit will lock you out of making more trades. It's still your account and you could call in and override that I suppose, but it's at the very least a break in the action for you, and a very good thing
Read more [...]
Tags: l Posted in Trading Psychology |
No Comments »
