crusso

I think that if people are telling you you're "gambling" and it's all "luck", they're thinking that trading is like playing the slot machines in Vegas. They think that there's nothing you can do to improve your odds of being successful. So in that sense, trading is NOT about gambling and luck. Unlike at Vegas, you can give yourself a statistical advantage so that you make a positive cash flow. It's not easy, though. You have to be very disciplined, analytical, and adaptive. You're in for a lot of hard work in learning how to be successful. If you think this is a get rich quick scheme, you should save your money and quit now.

MadMarketScientist, that's an excellent list of resolutions. Personally, I don't need to add or remove anything for it to apply to me. After feeling untouchable for my first month or so of trading, I jumped head first into a different-looking market in the new year yesterday without any regard to my plan. I broke most of my most important rules - I traded too many contracts, I moved my stops, and I swam against the market current because I "thought I was right". Oh, the friggin' pain! I deserved it, though, for getting cocky and thinking that I could freestyle. Now I have to go re-read my plan and get back on track.

I just skimmed and didn't see anyone answer the original question. The reason why more buyers drives the price up is due to the mechanics of the market. Imagine that your ES matrix looks like this Price Short Contracts Available 1240.00 25 1239.75 19 1239.50 22 If market participants think that the market is going to go up, they establish position at the current level. Let's say they buy 40 contracts at market price. Suddenly, all the contracts at 1293.50 and 1239.75 have been snapped up and the only available contracts are at 1240.00. The price has gone up $.50. The dynamics get complicated, but imagine that general sentiment/momentum is positive... lots of triggers will get fired because they see the move up and more of those shorting contracts will get bought. The price continues to rise. When demand from buyers increases, supplies decrease, prices go up.

Interesting topic for me. I've been trading for only a few weeks, in addition to another few weeks of paper trading. The first week of staring at the tradestation matrix window, wishing for the little price indicator to go in the direction I wanted was really stressful. I had a stress headache every day that first week and I wondered if I could handle the pressure long term, despite the fact that I've made money fairly consistently. Since that first week, I've made it a part of my trader development to actively control my stress. I try to keep other things to do during the trading day so that once I set up my entry, stop, and target... I look away from the screen and wait to hear my audible alerts. In the meantime, I learn more about trading by reading, I write software, I even watch hulu if I really need to distract myself. Maybe I should set up another computer for World of Warcraft. As I get more comfortable with trading and practice keeping myself distracted during the actual trade, I find my stress levels going down. I haven't had a headache in about a week, so that's a good sign. I mean, what good is the money you make if you have a heart attack or stroke within 5 years?