Integrity

Beginning of a new day, I took some time to browse thru my favorite website – The Daily Motivator by Ralph Marston. Today’s article is good… let’s share a few lines.

You can read the complete version here: http://greatday.com/motivate/120204.html

The vision inside
Achievement flows from the inside out. To experience an exceptional life on the outside, you must nurture exceptionally positive values on the inside.
You cannot be angry, resentful, envious or cynical on the inside and expect to achieve anything of value. No matter where you might attempt to direct it, your negativity hurts you more than anyone else.

The great thing is, you can experience an outstanding life if you will constantly and persistently envision an outstanding life. That positive vision will itself drive your actions to ensure its own fulfillment.

...

Being a trader, we need to make decisions, long or short, now or later, and often when market is volatile and moving, we need to decide on the dot.

We are not able to guarantee the result or outcome of our trading decision, like what Dr Van Tharp says, we don’t trade the market, we trade our beliefs.

Take full responsibilities of our own action, take the losses when it has reached our stop loss, be it a mental stop loss or pre-set value; when it has reached our profit, adjust it to higher profit target, or just take the profit, and be happy of the money made today.

It will be another day.

Money Management

I was reading the money management by Brent Penfold; it’s from the book “The Universal Principles of Successful Trading”.

Shy… cuz I have been reading this book from early of the year, initially I was reading fast… but this chapter stopped me from moving forward. To me it is very academic and it involves many many mathematic calculations, some strange terms... standard deviation, drawdown, catastrophic losses, value payoff…

I will only bring the book out with me whenever I go to the hair saloon, and friends… who goes to the saloon every day? I go there may be once every three months = (

This chapter although is tough for me, yeah, I always thought money management is tough, although I know how to calculate my risk, risk 50 pips, risk 2% of my capital… it is a very very straightforward thing, but I always telling myself, Money Management is not as simple as that… to be honest, I think I am constantly sending the wrong message to my mind.

Finally, I have chosen William Fixed-Risk Money Management, yet arrive higher profits, but with higher volatility too… whatever. Key: Trade more contracts when you are making profits, and trade less when you are losing. Van Tharp share the same thought. Super Trader is another great book that keeps me on track.

However, in turns, by completing this chapter, it gave me insight.

Compare to my past trading experience in Stocks, when I start trading FX, I abandon what I have learned in the past, and re-learn this new market. No matter what market it is, survival is always the main topic. How do we protect our capital and survive in the market is a very important practice, it requires discipline, patience, and courage.

I love my new hair color, and my short fringe.
Ayumi

You may want to read this:

Tharp Trader Test

It took me 1 hour to finish doing my PnL and calculation of Risk:Reward, expectancy.
And after months and months of work, I am making my expectancy higher by tightening my SL and controlled emotions.

I did a test just now by answering 35 questions in less than 5 mins.

Tharp Trader Test

Simple and Consistent

I was reading and clearing my mailbox while waiting for my turn to submit a registration form.
The Registration office is packed with Chinese, Malay and Indians... this multi-racial country is a beautiful place, everyone of the nation will know 2 languages, minimum.

I come across Dr. Van Tharp's newsletter, and this topic is : Simplicity and Consistency as an Individual Trader, by R.J. Hixson.

quote the final line of this article:

Moving Forward with These Themes in Mind
So simplicity and consistency are the themes for me this year. As I rewrote my trading plan, my individual trader identity helped me keep simplicity and consistency front of mind as I changed my combination of trading systems, wrote rules on when to start and when to stop trading systems, fleshed out my position sizing strategies and set my annual goals. If my plans are simple and my execution is consistent, I believe I will see better results this coming year.
Not surprisingly, my goals this year are very simple and require consistency. They are simple in that each of them is done on a daily basis and none of them need much time, strategizing, or complex planning. They require consistency in that I do them every day. The approach reminded of my son’s karate kata.

Kata is a choreographed series of moves that martial arts students practice and perfect. They are not necessarily complex movements (although the complexity or length increases by level) and the focus is on perfect execution. I never gave kata much credit until I saw my son’s sensei perform one. He is an advanced degree black belt and never before had I seen a human move so fast or with such precision. I watched with amazement, and a bit of fear, as I gained a newfound respect for my son’s sensei that day. I also learned to appreciate the impressive results that can come from practicing a humble kata.

This year for my annual goals, I’ll be practicing a set of katas of sorts every day with a focus on simplicity and consistency.
Take care and trade well.

Van Tharp interview

Howdy! It has been another great trading week, we adhere to our plans, we take profit, we take losses as well :)

Today, I would like share what i read from Van Tharp's newsletter... read the last paragraph with highlights!

What was the intent of your 131R goal?
To pull me out of my comfort zone.
Was that a success?
It was! I made a number of changes from the year prior and gained some very good trading experience doing things I would not have done otherwise (e.g., trading one minute bars and some new systems). And I got out of my comfort zone for gains with a +35R month.
Does not making 131R by the end of 2010 mean you won't make 131R, now, next year, or ever?
Not a bit.
If you didn't get to 131R this year, could there have been something more important that you were supposed to achieve and did?
Getting my family settled in a home, and gaining a much better understanding of myself and how I want to trade now.
Are those are more valuable than 131R?
Yes.
If you think you are not attached to a goal and then you don't get it but find yourself upset, were you really not attached to it?
No.

How do you reconcile desire/commitment with non-attachment?

I didn't have an answer for this one initially. After some reading and thinking, however, here is what I would say.

Desire and commitment help motivate me to fulfill my purpose. It's possible to use them to move away from my purpose but not useful—regardless of the goal. Goals aligned with my purpose merit my energy and commitment.

Non-attachment is the ability to let go, and it means I have trust in a Divine plan and a bigger picture. With non-attachment to a goal, winning means I may or may not achieve the goal.

Achievement is not my job; my job is to do my very best with the tasks at hand and not worry about meeting the objective. There is a dance here among desire, commitment, and non-attachment that I am still learning.

Van Tharp's Workshop : go to this Link