[MadMarketScientist]

As we've been discussing silver in the other thread an interesting question was asked to me:

"Originally Posted by BlowFish
Are you anticipating $32 ? Just wondering why you would hold long through such a dump?"

My reply was something like

"when I am long something, I never sell all with the intention of buying more later. Instead I will sell some of the position, hold the rest, and buy more when its lower. I know mathematically this is not the 'optimal' trade but it works for me mentally. I think it has to do with the 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality I have. So if I'm out of a position I tend to not watch it anymore and move onto something else. Maybe I'm watching too many things? "

It appears I may be lacking focus and always jumping onto the next thing? Instead of being an expert in EUR\USD forex, emini futures, etc., I'm just trying to find trades everywhere. What does everyone here do? Are you focused in a niche and dive deep into it or are you scanning for trades everywhere?

MMS

[emg]

learn to spread trade.

[Mysticforex]

90% of the time I trade only GBP/JPY...
I will trade GBP/CHF, and AUD/USD. Mostly to prevent myself from becoming too myopic.

[zdo]

Preface: The perspective from which my response is coming = ADHD. Don’t know which type or mixture of types of ADHD it is and it’s not serious enough to require medication (which I would resist anyway), but it does result in tendencies that I have had to grow and develop. I used to ‘fight’ with it. Then I started to see the advantages and opportunities nascent in that cluster of traits. That’s how I relate to “It appears I may be lacking focus and always jumping onto the next thing” . The best thing I can say is that’s just the way some people are! Find a way to leverage it! Also, it mellows with age… instead of forgetting a mkt when I took a position off, hell I used to put positions on and then forget them - for weeks once when I had originally planned to hold it for less than 24 hours.

Over the years, a rough schedule evolved to accommodate these tendencies and roughly 2 hour ‘focus and energy’ limits in my trading.
Early AM – Forex ‘scanning’ (your word not mine ~16 instruments on .5 to 4 hr charts
9 – 11 AM – my am daytrading session in ndxs. Only work one mkt, but sometimes add NQ trades
11 - whenever – typically ‘scanning’ / working longer term trades unless conditions are compelling to stay in the daytrading session all day… I can enjoy two or three of those a month, then it gets old.
2 - 4 PM If I’m still around, more day trading. Always seem to “jump onto” looking at financial for good setups
After 4 PM + if I open a platform, it’s usually to lift FX trades or move orders, but occasionally will trade for a while if it happens to be a particularly active asian session. Post Japan earthquake good recent example of that...

For most traders, the stock advice would be to focus on one niche (and maybe automate the 'scanning')

For you , re “Are you focused in a niche and dive deep into it or are you scanning for trades everywhere”
my answer to you is Find a way to do BOTH! Hope this is helpful...

[iwshares]

I started off with the intention of only day trading EUR/USD. However after spending some time doing that I realised that it wasn't working so tried switching to daily chart based trading which is more profitable and better psychologically for me. However as a result I found it very boring to just analyse one pair once a day so look at 8 pairs to keep mentally stimulated, placing trades that fulfil enough signals. The downside of this I discovered today when I managed to miss the massive moves in eur pairs because despite seeing the same move in different eur pairs, I didn't place even my "best option" trade, due to a lack of confluence in signals on individual charts. Still wondering if this was a wise move. Would the trades have been impluse trades?

N.b. MMS despite not being able to afford silver trades I'm still analysing it daily...

[Wyckoff Trader]

I now almost exclusively daytrade the ES - however this doesn't mean I have to trade every day.
If nothing sets up in my trading window of 9.30am > 12.00am est, then I don't trade.(Unless I stray from my plan with an impulse trade - fortunately happens rarely) I don't look across different markets trying to "find a trade".

My background is in FX and running (daytrading) positions in several different ccy pairs wasn't really an option due to another trader running that book (eventhough it was often said "feel free to take a position in my ccy if you have a view" it never really happened), plus lack of focus etc.... so I've continued to focus on trading in one market.

Each to their own.....

Cheers

[SIUYA]

I trade a lot of stocks, and a few futures and FX (trying to automate these a bit more) there is also an essential element that you have to aware of and I would say guard against.
If trying to cover a lot of instruments, you need a filter to only take the best of the best when the trade arises, and limit yourself to how many new and open positions you have. Too often I have woken up and found I have 30-40 positions on, and thats usually when you loose.
A friend (and something I should theoretically do more of) just limits himself to a maximum of 6-7. The difference in PL shows whats happens - when times are good, I make more money as I have more positions, more exposure and less individual instrument risk, when times are bad I give more of it back usually due to high correlation of stocks, while he is far more consistent.
2-3 months ago was great .....Presently I wish I had more consistency...

(I know where this mentality for me comes from - as a market maker you might have done 100-200 trades a day of varying sizes, and other days you would struggle to stay awake....so I prefer to be either on or off - I am with Zdo - accept who or what you are and work with it)

[Tradewinds]

Think up a list of possible things and ways to trade. List the PROS and CONS. Narrow the choices down to 3 of the best possibilities. Then scrutinize the 3 best possibilities. Compare and contrast the detriments and benefits.

• Effort versus Benefit
• Opportunity Costs
• Potential Dangers
• Potential Opportunities
• Personal Limitations
• Personal Abilities

As with anything, there will be trial and error. Each person probably processes information differently. Trading is about processing information, and filtering for possibilities. Ultimately, I look for why the price did what it did.

I do not like looking for something to trade. I want to know everything I can know about what I trade. I'd rather trade a slow moving market, with little profit potential, and know what I'm doing, than trade something I know nothing about.