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One of Trader Psyches coaching clients traded in a pit for many years. Over the years, he netted anywhere from a few hundred thou to seven figures.
Then it came time to switch to the screen - or what used to be called "go upstairs." Despite his previous clear success, he, like many floor traders, struggles with this new environment.
How can that be? How does a guy go from winning at the trading game for many years to sometimes not being sure which way is up? Let me tell you - in no particular order except for the last - and most important one.
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The incoming information about what the markets are doing - and why - is arriving at his brain in a different (foreign) language and he needs a translator.
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He doesn't have the same expenditure of physical and emotional energy while sitting at a desk as he did on the floor so any frustration has basically one outlet - push the mouse button and enter trades.
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As a result of #2, he accumulated a literal boat-load of pent up frustration, disgust and despair and lacks the know-how as to what to do with those feelings.
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In trying to solve this problem, he talks to many other traders - some of whom have made a successful floor to screen transition - and everyone has a different piece of advice.
- stay in front of the screen all the time
- let your stops and targets remain the same no matter what
- trade on a longer time frame
- .....
Which one of his friends is "right"?
Would you believe NONE of them!
Markets have personalities because they are the collective reflection of hundreds of thousands of human traders all over the globe. Traders bring their own personalities - outgoing, emotional, stoic, shy - to a relationship with those markets.
As such, each trader has to negotiate his or her relationship with the price action (other traders) in a way that makes sense to him or her. People ask why trading is so hard? This is why. It takes time to develop, understand and nurture that relationship. Most of all, just like a fingerprint, the ultimate result is unique to each individual.
There is no one right way to trade. There are some principles and concepts and personalities of markets one can learn but the dialogue any trader has with the prices is entirely a production of the trader's own personality and psychological interaction with that "other person" in the relationship.
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