{"id":15599,"date":"2011-11-15T17:43:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T22:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=15599"},"modified":"2011-11-15T17:43:13","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T22:43:13","slug":"a-path-to-profitability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-path-to-profitability","title":{"rendered":"A path to profitability"},"content":{"rendered":"

“If I increase my stop then I will start making money.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This just might be the single silliest thing I have ever heard a trader say.\u00a0 No “trading is in my genes” is.<\/p>\n

I will offer a path to profitability to consider.\u00a0 Look there is no one right way to achieve your goal but there are definitely wrong paths.\u00a0 Adding risk when you are losing money is such a path.<\/p>\n

I was talking to a group of trainees recently about the power potential of building from a positive base.\u00a0 If you can create a PlayBook of profitable set ups that make sense to you then there is so much to work with with this trader.\u00a0 If you are just losing money week after week there are many issues that need resolving before we can even construct a PlayBook.\u00a0 Impatience.\u00a0 Overtrading.\u00a0 Lack of discipline.\u00a0 Work Ethic.\u00a0 At one point I went so far to proffer that believing you can go from consistently negative to decidedly positive is delusional.\u00a0 How about first just stop losing money?<\/p>\n

Michael Martin wrote in The Inner Voice of Trading<\/a> <\/em>that you are not going to be great at this game called trading for many years so you might as well enjoy the journey. \u00a0 In the unpublished paperback of Denise Shull’s Market Mind Games<\/a> <\/em>she talks about reality of one technique being gamed out of the market\u00a0 and the psychology of finding that new edge.\u00a0 The single greatest failure in trader education just might be the unwillingness of teachers to share realistic learning curves<\/a>.\u00a0 As Dennis writes even when you get “there” what do you really know.\u00a0 So where are the new and developing traders think they are going so quickly?<\/p>\n

Skill survives.\u00a0 Trading plays come in and out of favor.\u00a0 We all do not know all that much about the markets, even after 12 years of trading, since the data is always changing. \u00a0 With all that then isn’t it best to pick a path that is most responsible. \u00a0 Think about this path.<\/p>\n

Lose money<\/p>\n

Lose less<\/p>\n

Flat<\/p>\n

Slightly positive<\/p>\n

Find more plays that make sense to you<\/p>\n

Build from this positive base<\/p>\n

Focus on getting bigger in the plays that make the most sense to you<\/p>\n

Bella<\/p>\n

One Good Trade <\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If I increase my stop then I will start making money.” This just might be the single silliest thing I have ever heard a trader say.\u00a0 No “trading is in my genes” is. 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