Trading Guidelines

June 14, 2009

I’ve put together what I’ve learned from experience and from others about what I think are important elements which will make your trading experience better. These are:

1. Have fun!
2. Follow a system thoroughly and stick to it if you believe in it.
3. Absolutely trade with money you have already lost in you mind (it’s spent already, ok?)
4. Consider the profits (or losses) as pips or points or whatever, but never as “money” while trading. You’re making “points” here for the moment.
5. When your boyfriend (or girlfriend, of course, or whomever happens to be watching your trades while you’re sleeping) wakes you up at 4am with a totally panicky look and announces in a freaky voice “YOU’RE NOW DOWN XXX PIPS!!!!!!!!”, tell him to breath slowly. Then immediately turn on the side and go back to sleep, pushing him/her out the room with a annoyed gesture of the hand. You’re in control.
6. Never nurse your trades – go to a game site/install a game and go play games or go do something else. Let your trades breath.
7. Enjoy your learning – small seemingly meaningless building blocks will eventually start making a heck of alada sense.
8. Did I mention BE PATIENT?
9. This is my favourite: Believe me there WILL BE another (many, many others in fact) great trading opportunities tomorrow, next week, and the week after that, really!
10. I truly love robots (EAs or Expert Advisors) but you still need your brain to make decisions about market direction. So a good partnership between bots and personal decisions is the way to go.
11. Trust your judgement – don’t hesitate, and be responsible for the consequences.
12. Totally enjoy your gains – you made them happen. You’re the one trading and the markets absolutely don’t care about you. YOU ARE ALONE! So tap yourself on the back for making such great decisions and having a great time.
13. Go slowly. Take the time to analyse the situation. Don’t rush decisions only to regret them afterwards.
14. Be grateful for the fact that you have this great privilege of actually being able to trade.
15. Try to be nice to others as much as possible and don’t forget to give back as much as possible.