Typical Journey of a Beginner Trader
1. I finished reading a book on technical analysis and attended a couple of paid seminars. Now I know what to do. I will just start making money from Monday. Can't wait. Don't know why this weekend is so long. I will kill the market.
2. I am shocked. This moving average worked so fine in my testing but did not work in my first trade. Let me change the parameter. Now it should work.
3. No way, this moving average is not just work the way the trainer demonstrated in the seminar. I am getting a lot of whipsaws. I think I need to add one more indicator like RSI or MACD.
4. This is still not working. I lost in 8 out of 10 trades. I can not handle volatility and can not afford wide stop losses. So, Let me change the time-frame from Daily to 30 minute.
5. Oh my God, I did 20 trades and 17 resulted in losses. Maybe this was not my week. And, I could have made so much but I missed all the good trades since I was in meeting with my boss.
6. Oh now I know, I forgot to notice the triangle. Next time, I will focus on patterns also.
7. I am missing good trades. The trading signals on my chart are not aligned well. By the time I take notice, market already makes a move and I do not want to chase the market because that would spoil by risk-reward ratio. I need a paid charting platform.
8. My new paid trading platform looks so good and I also boasted in front my trader friends and they all feel that I have graduated to the next level.
9. Shit ! I am still unable to avoid big losses and end up cashing out small profits.
10. I have lost a lot of money and confidence. I need to take a break, read more books and attend one more seminar by that new teacher. I have seen seen his Youtube videos and he is really good. Now I know what to focus on.
11. Oh my God ! I am still losing money. Nothing works.
12. I think the only way to make money is through "Algo Trading". These algo guys make all the money that poor guys like me lose. I have got to shift onto algo trading.
13. I just can't believe that I have lost more money. Actually, trading is gambling. But, I have to recover my money.
14. I lost more because in order to recover, I took bigger bets. I can not even tell my wife now as I had told her last month itself that I had quit trading. I need to close the trading account anyhow.
15. Wait ! My friend just told me that he used supertrend indicator last month and made money. I should have talked to him when I started. Nevertheless, Let me give myself one more chance and use supertrend indicator.
16. Oh, I lost more money. Now, I have to postpone buying the car (can't even buy a bike now).
17......
It can go on and on. My advice is to get out of this trap (Chakravyuh) before it leads to emotional,financial and time loss. Stop looking for a holy grail. Because, there is no holy grail. The secret to make money is not some exotic technique or some hidden indicator. The only way to make money is TRADE MANAGEMENT (POSITION SIZING + RISK MANAGEMENT + MIND MANAGEMENT). Spend your time on gaining knowledge of these aspects rather than searching for a new indicator or a new trading system or a new AFL or a new GURU. As I always say, "the only person who can help you is the one in the mirror."