"The worst trading habit that makes you the most money"
The above post from Boris Schlossberg is fantastic and here's why
I have a great deal of time and respect for both Boris and Kathy. They've been in the game a long time and you can't buy experience like that
This line from Boris is my main mantra in trading;
"Because successful (day) trading is not about making money. It's about NOT LOSING money."
Now if someone thinks like me then that's someone I want to listen too
I like Boris and Kathy because they do sometimes help with my trading purely because they often have a view or reason for and against a trade that may be something that strengthens or weakens my view on a particular trade. Let me be clear though, I don't I blindly follow, I use it as part of my decision making process, and at the very least for something that makes me think
Thinking is the key process in trading. Trading should be black and white but it never is. It should start out black and white, have a strategy, an entry, an exit, a stop, but it's after you trade that it suddenly turns grey, or more likely every colour of the rainbow, and that's what Boris is making sense of;
"You got out of the trade a bit early and gave up 10 more pips of upside? Who cares. There is another trade right around the corner. In the meantime, you know what you also did? You got out of trade that could have turned sour and made a 5 pips instead of losing 100. You know what you also did? You freed your capital to look for other opportunities instead sitting in front of the screen paralyzed like a deer in headlights, hoping -- nay praying -- that you can get back to even while other traders are banking profits elsewhere."
The issue Boris highlights is one I touched on two weeks ago with Morgan Stanley and their EURJPY short, and what they should do with the profit they already had vs their target level. That's when black and white becomes Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat
The issue on whether you agree or disagree with Boris isn't the point and I'm not writing this as a defence or endorsement of him. The point is that none of us who have been in this game a long time can suck out our experience, bottle it up, give it to you and make it work. Trading is about evolving and honing your style to suit you. A trader should never blindly follow anyone else and that includes us on ForexLive. All we can do is provide you with the experience bricks that help you build your trading career. Which bricks you choose to use comes down to what ones work for you and what ones don't. You may use some that start working but then don't later as you evolve. There's always a lot of trial and error. What we try to do at ForexLive, and particularly with our courses, is help you build the foundation to lay your bricks on. Remember, a building is only as strong as its foundations
There is no one single definitive way to trade, the comments on the post are testament to that, as is the different ways all of us at ForexLive trade. So how do we know what is worth using and what is not?
Never dismiss anything
If one person reads Boris's post and at the very least comes away thinking "you know what, I've read something that I haven't thought about before but I'm going to think about it in the future", then the post is a winner all day long. If the post means nothing to you that's fine also. The fact that you've read it shows that you have an open mind and that's one of the greatest assets for trading. The list of people I listen too doesn't just contain Boris and Kathy. It contains Greg, Eamonn, Mike, Adam, many ForexLive readers, the other people I speak everyday to in markets, the people who taught me, the list is endless. I've picked the experience bricks that work for me but I'm still flexible and willing to learn and evolve
We all have our trading styles and what works for one person may not work for another. In this business it is a very easy to fall into the pitfall of blindly following because it's easier to do that, and feel like someone is holding your hand, rather than taking the steps needed to make your own way
If Boris's post has offered something that can help you trade then what more can you ask for? If it hasn't then thanks for taking the time to read it anyway
Someone in the comments asked if we endorse the post. What we will always endorse is bringing our readers what we feel is content, views, ideas and thoughts that you can hopefully use to make you better traders. If it helps one single person then that's mission accomplished. If it doesn't then maybe next time it will. We will never stop trying though
If you want to build a successful trading career make sure you build it on solid ground
