Great Article

Love this article, simple but sums up trading in a nutshell. Love the setups too they're exactly my favourite setups nowadays - Pin bar (Hammer/Inverted Hammer, Upthrust/Spring, they're all the same thing) at confluent support/resistance, especially if it is a with trend setup.

Another Great Article

Here is another article which contains many gems of wisdom: http://www.learntotradethemarket.com/forex-currency-trading-blog/why-your-not-making-money-trading

I can particularly relate to this excerpt:
You have a very nice trade that hits your profit target almost exactly, you feel good, the market feels ‘easy’, you start looking for your next trade right away because you’ve got a little more money to “throw around” now. Before you know it, you’ve entered the market on what was not a very good signal and your trade is negative, it continues to go against you turning into a loser. After it’s over, you think to yourself, “That was a stupid trade and I knew it, why did I enter it?”

Indeed I've committed that trading sin before, in fact just last week. The trades I had then were profiting nicely so I made some sub optimal trades with the mentality that "It is ok, my risk is well managed, at most I'll lose that trade but I'll still be in profits overall." Lets just say the outcome wasn't too pretty... :P So yep, it takes a conscious effort not to over trade and take inferior setups, as doing so is natural to our human psychology.

Great Article

http://www.yourtradingcoach.com/Articles-Learning-To-Trade/The-Three-Steps-from-TA-Amateur-to-TA-Professional.html

Trading Psychology

Recently a lot of the things I read in books start to make sense. No I'm not referring to trading strategies, I'm referring to the psychologically aspect of trading. I've talked about the mistakes and things I've learned in the previous post. I'm sure there will be many more mistakes and heartaches in the days ahead, but these are inevitable and I have to embrace them and grow from them. I still feel the sting today and I know that to a certain extent it is affecting my courage to take new trades. However I must get over it, still look for good setups, and most importantly not trade for the purpose of taking revenge on the markets. Honestly a lot has went through my mind, and I'm so grateful that I've read "Trading In The Zone" before so I know that the thoughts and emotions I'm experiencing are not common to myself but to all traders.

I guess trading psychology is something that can't be learned through books, you have to experience the ups and downs of markets and master yourself and your emotions through it all. So anyway, I chanced upon this article today and feel that it is a good read. I especially like the following excerpt - "Sometimes the market will randomly reward you for such behavior. This reinforces our emotional reactions and tricks us into thinking that this kind of behavior works." It is precisely because ruinous behavior sometimes rewards us that we continue doing it. An example would be to ignore a stop and have the trade go back in our favor. As a result we ignore our stops in future and you know what the outcome is.

Useful VSA Video

Just want to share a VSA video which is actually a free weekly video newsletter from Traders Code. This video talked about absorption volume, test of prior supply area, and shakeouts. I really encourage signing up for this newsletter as it is free and so far has been really educational with no black box proprietary software or hard sell. Here is the link, enjoy!

Great Video By "Market Wizards" Author

Just want to share a video by Jack Schwager who is the author of Market Wizards. This book is one of the most popular books on trading, and is basically a series of interviews with some of the world's best traders.I really enjoyed the video, it is filled with gems of wisdom and is pretty entertaining too, do watch it!

Here are some of the key points of the video:

• You must find a trading system that suits your personality.

• The curious thing about trading is that it is the only craft where an absolute beginner can step into and have a 50/50 % chance of being right.

• Trading should be effortless. The hard work comes during the preparation. It’s like a poor runner; he spends a lot of effort running, while a pro does it effortlessly. However the pro got there through hard work and preparation.

• Never listen to opinions.

• The best traders are very confident.

• Professional traders understand that losses are common, and have no problem taking them. Amateurs however want to get out even because it feeds their ego and their need not to be wrong.

• Patience is essential to good trading, wait for only the best setups and not over trade. Also, stay with the best trades and not get out too soon. The big money is in the sitting. We need patience both in getting in, and in getting out.

• A good trader does not have loyalty to his positions. He has immense flexibility and is able to switch his bias immediately.

• Trading is like a game to the best traders, they have great passion for it.

Great Article On Exit Strategy

Alright I seriously love discretionary trading because I believe it is the way to really get a feel of the markets and be a top notch trader. Even Alexander Elder noted that the best mechanical traders are often very discretionary. They may have a computerized system which generates buy/sell signals, but the signals they choose and the way they manage their trades are often based on their years of discretionary experience. Of course I must submit that discretionary trading is something amateurs will have difficulty with due to their more often that not incorrect assessment, and there will definitely be tuition fees paid to the markets for it. However I take it as a necessary part of progression to the next level.

This brings me to the point of this post. I've been digging into this blog for the past few days, and man there are crap loads of useful information in it. The owner Lance Beggs is a discretionary price action trader, and his methodology is partly VSA influenced too. I wanted to share some of his articles, but I realized there are so many great ones that my post will be flooded with links :P

So anyway almost everything Lance teaches really resonates with me, I find him very humble, genuine, passionate, and willing to share. I just want to share one of his free ebooks called "The Importance Of Exit Strategy" which is filled with golden nuggets of useful information and is very timely for me. It is about exit strategy, something which I'm really lacking in now. And I really like that his methodology of exits is discretionary and totally commonsensical.

It is a well known fact that most amateur traders focus on entries and not exits, despite the fact that exits are actually far more important that entries. I really got to let it sink into me. World class traders are up there because of their ability to minimize losses and manage a trade through its lifespan. I was also very blessed when I learned that our exit strategy has to fit our psychology too! Adopt a strategy we're not comfortable with and we'll most probably fail and get stumbled in the long run. Argh I've so much to say but its all written in the ebook, please do read it and all the other articles in the blog!