“Burn the boats.” I cannot stop thinking about this video introduced to us by crosshairstrader. If you are a serious market participant please watch it.
There is a lot of this market is too hard out there.
When I first started trading we had one CRT monitor. We had no charts. There was no newsfeed. Our trading system would go down for hours regularly with no help desk to close out our positions. We could only trade NASDAQ stocks. We were in the middle of the Asian Financial Crisis. I personally was new to trading with my account negative $38k. I was just out of law school and needed to make money immediately. Twelve years later I have learned one simple truth about the market: YOU either find a way to succeed or You find a way to fail. Burn the boats.
Andre Agassi hated tennis. Older than most retired tennis players he faced a career crossroads. Retire or find a way to motivate himself. He envisioned an academy that offered the best of education to those less fortunate. Tennis would help him raise the money for his dream. He ran and lifted and hit and practiced to build this school. He went on to amass the most amazing close to a career in the history of tennis. Burn the boats.
On Thursday BIDU opened at a long term technical resistance level of 76.50 and steadily traded down four points on the open. That was your opportunity. Burn the boats.
On Friday AMZN gapped down and bounced 13 points holding a most gorgeous intraday uptrend. That was your opportunity. Burn the boats.
If you have the privilege to hit a buy and sell button in the market then that is more opportunity than most. Burn the Boats.
Mike Bellafiore
Author, One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading (Wiley)
4 Comments on “Burn the Boats”
Great post, great link. The only way to succeed in trading. Burn the Boats!!!
Good stuff.
I clicked on a daily chart AMZN 106 was a long term level. 106 and 106.50 was soaking up the bids pre-market. I got long 106 a whole bunch of times. Some stupid news came out about the EU bank stress test which dropped it to 105.30’s. Before the bell rang I gave up on the play, I got back on the boat. BURN THE BOATS!
Great post. I agree with what you said 100% #ChannelGuyTrader. Bella I need you to write a post on holding to targets or something a long the lines of feeling confident in your trade after entry that it can reach your target. Market factors are to be considered of course, but I’m talking about the mental thought process involved after getting in a good trade and not holding it to target. Maybe because I see the money ( PnL trading no good). IDK