{"id":1325,"date":"2009-07-03T10:54:55","date_gmt":"2009-07-03T15:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2009-07-05T21:50:59","modified_gmt":"2009-07-06T02:50:59","slug":"perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/perspective","title":{"rendered":"Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

One advantage of trading experience is perspective.\u00a0 There are ebbs and flows to the market.\u00a0 There are natural periods where we slump.\u00a0 And there is a learning curve<\/a> that the new trader must overcome.\u00a0 Let’s discuss.<\/p>\n

In the book that I am currently writing for Wiley, I start a chapter explaining that there are way too many people walking around the streets of NYC thinking that they can become the next great trader on the Street.\u00a0 The truth is because of many factors, temperament, lack of passion for the markets, lack of history of success, etc., they are unlikely to become a consistently profitable trader unless they make serious life changes.\u00a0 But what is also true, and this is more important, is that there are so many who can become great traders who never do.\u00a0 Many do not give trading enough time.\u00a0 Some are not trained well.\u00a0 A minority do not do the work necessary to become successful.\u00a0\u00a0 And it is also partly because they lack perspective.<\/p>\n

There are ebbs and flows to the market.\u00a0 When I started I met the Asian Financial Crisis.\u00a0 For the first time in our firm’s history people were being fired.\u00a0 This was after a few years of the median trader making 250k plus.\u00a0 And I had to survive this period.\u00a0 That year there were three great months of trading and 9 poor months.\u00a0 I did.\u00a0 After the internet bubble bursted I needed to remake myself as a trader and grind it out for 5 years.\u00a0 And I did becoming a more well rounded trader during this period.\u00a0 And then came subprime and the near recent collapse of our banking system.\u00a0 This was a great trading market.\u00a0 And now a new market has premiered.\u00a0 This is still an excellent trading market, ripe with opportunities, but our trading requires adjustments to capture these trades.<\/p>\n

And these adjustment are simple.\u00a0 What patterns are working best for you in this market?\u00a0 Spend this weekend making a list of the patterns that are working best for you.\u00a0 And then spend next week executing on those set ups.<\/p>\n

There is nothing a firm can do to eliminate the learning curve.\u00a0 Most struggle at first.\u00a0 You will have doubts that you can make it.\u00a0 This is natural.\u00a0 Your numbers most likely will not reflect your true potential when you start.\u00a0 And this is just the way it is.\u00a0 Focus on getting better everyday and not your P&L.\u00a0 Understand that your are developing trading skills so that in Year 3 you can make a killing.\u00a0 Because the first year will be challenging, the second better but still difficult, and only the third where you will start to recognize your potential.\u00a0 Crunching your trading numbers after 6 months and making conclusions about your trading ability is not in your self-interest.<\/p>\n

And then we all slump.\u00a0 One of our most competitive traders met with me a few weeks ago apologetic about his recent slide.\u00a0 I laugh thinking about how many slumps I have been through in my trading career.\u00a0 How many times I have wondered if this was the end for me.\u00a0 This is a healthy process.\u00a0 It forces you to focus on what you do best as a trader and then execute.\u00a0 You either get better or go home.<\/p>\n

So for this most competitive trader I suggested that he only make his best trades for the next week,\u00a0 set a goal to just be positive, and lower his tier size.\u00a0 He went right back to making money.\u00a0 This did not surprise me in the slightest.\u00a0 I have 12 years of trading perspective.<\/p>\n

Apparently the prop trading public did not do as well in June as the Spring given the emails sent to me, phone calls I have received, and anecdotes shared by other firms.\u00a0 Sometimes a trading year only offers 3-4 excellent trading months in a year.\u00a0 The other months you grind it out and pay the bills.\u00a0 Look if you have made money trading in the past you will going forward.\u00a0 If you are a new trader and you do the things required you will be fine.\u00a0 And this is a market still ripe with opportunity.\u00a0 Anyway I thought I would just offer my perspective.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One advantage of trading experience is perspective.\u00a0 There are ebbs and flows to the market.\u00a0 There are natural periods where we slump.\u00a0 And there is a learning curve that the new trader must overcome.\u00a0 Let’s discuss. In the book that I am currently writing for Wiley, I start a chapter explaining that there are way too many people walking around … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[4676,30,18,301],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-comments-2","category-mike-bellafiore-bellas-blogs","tag-day-trading","tag-prop-trading","tag-smb-capital","tag-trading-blog","no-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"\nPerspective | SMB Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/perspective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perspective | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One advantage of trading experience is perspective.\u00a0 There are ebbs and flows to the market.\u00a0 There are natural periods where we slump.\u00a0 And there is a learning curve that the new trader must overcome.\u00a0 Let’s discuss. 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