Invisible Hand That Limits Your Tradingt

[Invisible Hand That Limits Your Tradingt]

Sounds to me like you have demons. Try an exorcism. LOL:haha:

 

 

"There seems to be an invisible hand that is guiding my trading, and I don't seem to have much say-so in the matter," a trader laments to me. She continues, "I'm buying your book because I do not understand why I keep on doing the things that I do, when I know what I am supposed to do. But it is not what I'm supposed to do that I do. Rather it is what I'm NOT supposed to be doing that I do.

 

I hold on to trades too long in both directions. I know what my rules say about my stops and my targets. But I'll be there one second, then my evil twin takes over my mind. And I do things that I know are not good trading. It's almost like I get possessed, and when I wake up from the trance, all I can do is kick myself for not following my plan.

 

What's going on? Don't lecture me about discipline and putting my emotions down at the door of my trading room. I've heard all that, but this invisible hand seems to creep in and all the discipline I have in other areas of my life seems to vanish in the mist."

 

The Elephant in the Living Room

 

Have you ever experienced what this trader is describing? She knows how to trade. She has a deep background in finance and accounting. She doesn't experience debilitating fear in her trading. And she is a moderately successful trader. She makes money. But she recognizes that she is hitting an invisible glass ceiling that is stopping her from moving to the next level. And she can't see what she can't see. She suspects that there is an elephant in her living room, that if she only had the eyes to see, she would be able to see what is limiting her and her trading.

 

Trading, History, Biology, and Mind

 

Taking a step beyond quick fix, short term, solutions to self limiting patterns is the first step. Understanding emotion as far more than feelings is the head knowledge that you will need to cultivate. Fundamentally emotion is about the way the organism you are builds predictable responses to the uncertainty of adapting to the circumstances of life.

 

The brain is what directs this process of adaptation and it is emotion driven. Feeling is merely the subjective experience of an emotion. It is like seeing an iceberg -- the vast majority of it is below the surface. Feeling is the tip of the iceberg. If you remain ignorant of the power of emotion, then you put yourself in the same situation that the Titanic found itself.

 

It is the genesis and stability of neurally wired patterns of responding to environmental cues that is at the crux of understanding (and managing) emotion. In essence, your brain is a pattern-making machine that is mandated to avoid threat. And your brain cannot separate uncertainty, worry, and fear from one another. This is exactly what the trader quoted above is stuck in.

 

Now, let's add one more element to our trader's dilemma of her invisible hand guiding her trading. She's right. She was born (actually her brain) into a soup of beliefs, biases, and perceptions (called her family circumstance) and her brain incorporated these "stories" into a narrative that became "her". This is the environment into which her brain adapted her. And it happened long before she could think or question the assumptions that organized the way she perceived her environment. This became her "invisible hand".

 

In her world, she organized herself into a narrative that avoided uncertainty. It was what her family did and "what monkey see, monkey do". The assumptions became her beliefs. Until she got into trading, there was no reason to question these assumptions turned beliefs in her brain/mind. Life was pretty good.

 

Her trading has forced her to bump up against her comfort zone (known as a perceptual map to the neuro-science minded). Now the internal guidance system that was so successful in producing adaptive survival is no longer functioning effectively in this new environment called trading where working with uncertainty is a required operational skill.

 

Now her job is to de-construct the old money/risk narrative that she was born into and adapted to (her invisible hand). And she will need to construct a new narrative where the brain adapts to uncertainty as an element of her environment to be embraced. And mastered.

 

Biology Meets Mind

Our family histories get embedded into our belief systems in the organic substrate called your brain. Your job as a trader is to become the designer of the beliefs that drive your trading. Otherwise you will stay stuck in the self limiting beliefs that your brain adapted you to -- designed for a different environment and a different time. The Invisible Hand will remain a force that drives your trading until you develop the mindfulness and the skills to "re-develop" the narrative that you confuse with "your thoughts".

 

Those thoughts are not yours. They own you. They are the histories of family narratives getting wired into your brain. They become your blinders. You see only what they allow you to see. Breaking out of this invisible prison opens you to see a new kind of freedom. A freedom to " become". A freedom to become the beliefs that drive peak performance trading.

 

With this in mind, what were the stories and narratives about uncertainty, risk, worry, and fear that you were born into? How did they shape your world? And how are these long hidden narratives embedded in the neural pathways of your brain impacting your trading today?

 

Rande Howell

[Forex Behind the Computer]

thanks the big man to share such a great information, i really find it very help full and i hope that you will keep it up and will share more information as like this

thanks

 

URL Removed by Moderator

 

I found more information than I wanted to. There are brokers who were sued for manipulative practices. Take a look at the attachments.

[Forex Behind the Computer]

I am aware in equities that you are dealing with a computer program (Black box) when you trade stocks. At one time it was a specialist (Human) All order are routed through various exchanges.

Now with forex, there is no centralized location. Therefor you are trading with just the people that go through that clearing house????? In addition, most small forex brokers are not really brokers but just websites. (Middle men)These brokers really just support you and some hold your trade if you loose all the time and keep your money. That is why it is difficult to get paid if you are a winner.

 

Can someone shed some light on this. I am trying to figure out how the forex chain really works

[Zulutrade]

Yeah but it is not web based, so you cant access it from anywhere...plus I dont understand how do they get paid?

 

They get paid by pips. I don't remember exactly how much. I think it was an 1/8 of a pip per 4 or something like that.

[Wikileaks]

I got this idea from another forum. Someone suggested that we try to stay on top of and share any new found info on this Wikileaks guy. He claims to have vast information on banking/The markets in the US. After he let that information out they came down on him like a ton of bricks.

Personally I couldn't care less. I am concerned with my account coming down like a ton of bricks.

Please post any new found information or any new websites for this guy so if he does drop a financial bomb, we can all respond quickly and save hopefully all our money before a landslide.:crap:

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/series/us-embassy-cables-the-documents

[SpeedTrader]

Does anyone know why SpeedTrader no longer offers automated trading?

[Fap Turbo]

Indeed, to get the fantastic results they publish the systems are usually hugely curve fitted to historical data. There are lots of 'tricks' that the less scrupulous can use to produce fantastical results on historic data sadly things will unravel going forwards.

 

I don't know. I do think that with Forex, successful automated trading is possible with controlled losses..

[Is Day Trading Dead?]

Someone should tell the hedge funds, investment, and commercial banks that day trading is not dead, so that they stop wasting their time on insider trading, front running, etc.

 

They probably don't day trade because they don't know which is the best time frame to use and which indicators give the best signals. Or, possibly, they are too overwhelmed by fear and greed to trade properly during the day time frame.

 

Wow this post above was made in 2008. A full two years before these guys got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

[Fap Turbo]

If you want to make some money, its generally a good idea to ignore most of what other people say !

 

Does that include you(Just kidding) But that is also true. Actually as a equity trader I have tunnel vision. price & volume is pretty much just it.

[Fap Turbo]

Yes, I have used these -- quite a few I have tried. I kinda knew better intellectually but had to prove it out myself.

 

I can tell you I've never had success -- and certainly not even close to what is advertised.

 

With Fap I actually found it worked ok for a while but seems like the brokers sniffed it out once they must have sold thousands of them and they basically "broke" the strategies effectiveness. I'd say in my experience they were the closest to actually working and they just way oversold it. Not sure about newer version.

 

In general, there is a group of developers/marketers who keep cranking stuff out under different names - always with super slick websites - it's an arms race.

 

I would suggest you instead look for trading strategies where you know the rules - the "why" it's taking the trade and ones that rely on at least some small portion of subjectivity and trading skill. Those are much more likely to have a chance of working for you.

 

Then, use automation how it should be intended, to help you manage these type of trades - maybe moving stops or locking in profit, etc...

 

Just don't expect your computer to turn into a cash machine no matter what the ads say

 

I did hear that but also some folks said it was the setting which needed readjusting along with the currency pairs you chose. Those two things had a great impact on your outcome.

[Fap Turbo]

Does anyone use automated software to trade Forex, I have been reading about many automated programs with grandiose performance being promised. I have come across about six. However, very little is being written from objective people about results.

[Stuck in a Bad Position]

Don't feel bad. You have a lot of company in that boat. I have and I am sure many others if not all have done it. Cut your losses. The time you have your capitol tied up could be time spent recouping your losses on new trades. Look at the 28K loss as tuition in the school of (What not to do in day trading 101)

When you get sick, you go to the doctor to get an injection. After you take the injection, you then begin to get better. TAKE THE INJECTION.... The full needle 28k worth. You will feel better a week leater when you have made up most of your losses and trading with a more level head.

[I'm An Idiot]

I think we have all been there... Look at it as an additional tuition in the school of day trading...

[Is Day Trading Dead?]

What are people's thoughts about this article?

 

Here's the Proof Day Trading is DEAD (SPY, QQQQ, IWM, DIA) | Wall St. Cheat Sheet

 

When I read statement #4 I instant came to the conclusion that his was a bs. article. The movement of the market due to upward or downward pressure is natural and quite common. We see it every day weather stocks go up or down they do it in a zig zag pattern. He said "Yet once again, computers replaced humans in exploiting this edge, thus rendering the strategy ineffective." That is how most traders make their money.....:crap:

[Does Anyone Truly Make a Living Solely Trading the E-minis???]

This post does not make sense.

 

You believe that the markets are random and that there is a 50% probability that it will go either up or down? Flip a coin?

 

Then you say that "as you hone your skills you will become more proficient....."

 

Which is exactly the point emg was making. It takes time to learn trading and the failure rate is high.

 

Markets can go up, down AND sideways. Add commissions and slippage and it is easy to understand how someone who is not "proficient" can quickly become broke, especially trading leveraged instruments like futures.

 

 

In that regard, yes you are right.

[Is 100% Mechanical Trading Possible?]

The term programing when it relates to Tradestation is really just logical expressions. It is just like MS Excel when implementing formulas. If this, then do that, if this number is greater or less than , then do...... etc. You will pick it up quite quickly.

[Tradestation Disconnects - Solutions Anyone?]

I'm running Tradestation and have it connected to Ninjatrader/Interactive Brokers.

 

It has been suggested already that I give Multicharts a shot - which I'm planning on.

 

In the meantime something happens with Tradestation that for me is kinda shocking - given they don't have a solution. They advertise all over about their strategies and how TS can auto-trade your strategy. What they don't tell you is if you lose your internet connection - maybe it goes down, maybe your wireless drops the connection with the router for a bit, or even the router hiccups -- that Tradestation will not automatically reconnect - in fact it will pop up the username/password box again. Which kisses goodbye your automated trading as it sits there waiting for a long -- which means you have to nurse it or you could be in for a shock.

 

Now, at the time same time, Ninja and IB recognize that it goes down but both have no problem reconnecting as soon as the internet comes back online and it detects it -- haven't seen any issue with that.

 

Called Tradestation - they say if the problem was on their server causing the disconnect it will retry the login but if it was on my end as described above - out of luck. Seems crazy that this is the answer - how can one auto trade and not be right there monitoring it with this answer?

 

Anyone have a solution? Something that would alert me if it happens? Something that could log it back in?

 

Thanks.

 

If you are doing automated trading and letting it run alone, wouldn't have a battery backup regardless of who you are using?:crap:

[Does Anyone Truly Make a Living Solely Trading the E-minis???]

To become a full time traders, it will take years. Full time trader is smiliar to becoming a lawyer, Doctors, etc. The problem is many people believe day trading es is "get rich quick." If it takes 5 yrs to become a doctor, it will take 5 yrs to become a full time trader. I have no clue why people believe they can become a full time trader less than 1 yr. If that is true, why does it take a long time to become a doctor, lawyer, etc.

 

According to the Gov report, 97% of the people lose trading in the futures market. One of the reason they lose is, they failed to understand trading futures involves substantial risk and only risk capital should be used. All brokerages and few trading school websites have those risk disclaimer. But for some reason, most people FAILED or ignore the risk disclaimer.

 

For those who are a successful full time traders took them yrs to get there. Plus, they fully understood that trading es is NOT A GET RICH QUICK and trading futures involves SUBSTANTIAL RISK!!!!!!

 

hope this help

 

I have to respectfully disagree. With stocks which is all I know about, your chances are 50/50 In all fairness to that, you can throw a dart and you have a fifty percent chance it will go up. There is no other places for it to go. Up, Down... That's it. Now if you incorporate stop losses, when you lose you don't lose much. Sure that is in really simple terms but it is the truth.

Now as you hone your skills you will become more proficient and therefor increase the amount of profitable trades.

[Does Anyone Truly Make a Living Solely Trading the E-minis???]

I traded for a living about nine years ago. I started with Datek which is no longer in existence and then I went to Speedtrader. My success was due more to common sense & luck because my knowledge was minimal at best. I made about 150K in 13 months. I then became a landlord. I plan on returning to Trading come the first of the year as soon as I settle on the sale of my apartment building. Now I will be playing with between 3 & 5 hundred K. I am taking these couple of months to reacquaint myself with the market by learning the routine of the ten stocks I will play with.

I must admit it is very scary and there is so much information out there to interpret. :crap: The benefit I have is that a can stay away from the smaller stocks which tend to have more volatility in them. I don't even plan on using any margin until I feel comfortable with the way things have changed and work now.

 

If anyone has any help, suggestions it will be appreciated.

[PROS RESPOND: Best Market Scanner?]

Yeh. I'm impressed. I very well may go that route. Only problem, I trade with IB. I could open a TS account but I dont want to be paying $100/month just for the market scanner if I don't need to.

 

You know of any other alternatives? thanx for the response btw.

 

 

I hope someone can help me understand this. I am just getting back into Day Trading. I have been reviewing this and other sights for general information.

The question is, if you are trading and making money, a $100 or $500 payment to improve or increase your profits should be insignificant. Therefore, what are the average folks around here making from day / Swing trading. Or is it something that most do for a hobby?