When I was a kid, I would dash around in my eagerness to grow and learn new things. My dad would always caution me, "Don't rush it. Take your time and do it right the first time. You can always make the time to go back and do something a second or third time if it's important, but it's a lot easier just to do it right the first time." Truer words were never spoken and in trading there is far too many folks starting over or giving up altogether. Hardwired to Mess up All your life you have been conditioned to be tough and strive to win. That will work for you in life but it will fail you in the market. Being tough, optimistic and hanging in there when a trade is going against you is not a good thing. And being right is not the measure of a good trader. A good trader is ambidextrous. Upside and downside moves are seen as equal opportunity. A good trader appears fickle and almost too willing and eager to leave trade that is not going as planned. A good trader never loses. A good trader sees the small amount of money associated with being stopped out as a cost not a loss. The good trader sees that cost as the price to find out if a potentially big move would happen. A good trader knows when a stock / index has reached a Pivot Point and sets up entry and exit points that make sense. A good trader knows that with proper reward risk ratio, more than 1/2 of the trades can go off base and profits can still be made. Contrary to popular wisdom, being successful in the market has little or nothing to do with winning. In fact trading, which is often compared to warfare and battle, is not about winning and losing at all. If it rains on your picnic did you lose? Hey it looked like a nice day. Was it your fault that a sudden storm showed up and your picnic was washed out? Since you can have nothing to do with the direction of a stock or the market, how can you win or lose? The market is going to do what it is going to do whether you play or not, all you can do is to act and react so as not to get run over. If you have taken a position and it moves against you, it is not your fault unless you did not anticipate that possibility and have an exit strategy in place. Well it may not be your fault but is still your problem. Ok, so if you can't dictate the outcome, then your odds are 50/50 every day that you are in the market. 50/50 you say??? Yes 50 / 50. Time and time again the market moves the opposite way that was expected. News stories can reverse the direction of a stock or market and the market often reacts the opposite way the news might suggest. Trading must involve a comprehensive plan for a move in any direction. My Bracket Trading™ process is the vehicle for properly setting up the trade. It keeps you Calm, Confident, Consistent and Profitable. This is done by taking a tactical approach to the trading. You identify all the relevant price levels and targets along with the pivot points. Knowing how to do this correctly will identify the right expectation of a trade, the cost if it turns against you and the reward if it moves in your favor. It lays out the instructions for every "IF - Then" scenario that might happen and sets the follow though and execution. A broker, either live or online is charged with the job of follow through so you don not have to stare at the monitor all day. It is truly liberating and removes your opinion and ego from the trade. As a bonus, bracket trading creates a perfect journal record of you thought process as well as the trade. Bracket Trading removes the burden of being right or wrong in a trade by keeping your opinion and ego out of the process. It's about doing what was appropriate not being right or wrong. BLENDING In the market, blending is the magic bullet not attacking. Blending requires balance and perspective. A trader must be able to set criteria and act on it like merging onto the freeway. When the time is right you go and you don't stop and don't back up. The destination is clearly targeted and so is the exit ramp if something goes wrong. Maxim's to Live By You are not in the game, you are in the bleachers. All you can do is enter and exit. If the market goes with you, all you can do is try to go with it and jump off quick if turns against you. If you think in terms of winning and losing, you have already lost. Your goal should be to make good trades not money. Good trades will make money often enough. Strive to have a 4 to 1 reward risk ratio. Trade criteria, trade neutral; your opinion + your ego + your money = Disaster on a stick. When you make money on a trade, you have not beaten the market, you have blended with it. Good Trading is about doing it right not being right. There is a price that one may pay to never again be wrong in the market. It is expensive and many cannot or will not pay it. To never be wrong, you must give up ever being right. Doing it right can take care of your financial needs and objectives. Insisting on being right is like dancing with a gorilla and insisting on leading. Oooh. You are not going to beat the market. You can however profitably and peacefully interact with it. It is not about being right. It is about doing it right. by Ryan Litchfield with BetterTrades
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