Quizz me this...

[HannesJoubert]

Hi Dudest, others. Many thanks for the varied replies. My apologies for not getting back to you all earlier, month end in my business is hairy...

After reading my own questions again, and reading the kind replies, I think that Dudest has come the closest to answering my questions...and, of course, I knew it all along.

The reason why two different traders going in opposite directions on the same pair can both make a profit is MINDSET. Yes, we all have the same knowledge, more or less. Others have more, others have less. We all have intuition that comes with experience (much like muscle memory?), some more, others less. We all have our own convictions etc etc. It all still comes down to open trade management as that is where the rubber meets the road ito P/L. But, open trade management is a function of your mind set, as that is where all of the above comes to a point and where you make your decisions...and no, it cannot be 'taught', that is why Dudest's and Captains' suggestion of "getting dirty" is all the more important. I think that without us even knowing it, FEAR plays the biggest part in our mindset by far. I know it does for me. I am otherwise / different from the herd (I think) in that I do not fear a losing trade, I fear losing PROFIT. That is the only reason how I can explain that I am willing to let a trade go into deep drawdown, but not willing to let a trade that is say 100 pips in the green run even further and close it out...not quite as simple as that but that is the basics.

Case in point, I had an EJ buy earlier in the week, it went south, so I let it run into drawdown as I was confident of a retrace back into the general level of my entry. Lo and behold the price turned around and came back, so, as a happy little camper, I closed out the trade for a small profit to cover swap and commission costs. I considered that it might run further, but I chose to close out fearing the loss of covering my costs...well whaddya know, the price has continued to move up, by around another 200 pips...and at the moment that is where I am, not making so many losses any more, but not making enough profit to cover the losses when I do make them, so equity is going down. Mind set my friends...for me at least.

So, I am now going to attempt to force myself to trade with another mind set. I do not have the time or inclination at the moment to psycho analyse myself, so forcing myself it is...I hope that I can improve my mindset and that the mindset will stay improved even when larger trades are on the table...

H