Every day money flow from trader to trader, from market to market. Many traders are just happy to dip their bucket in and take a share each day for themselves. But where does the money flow? Every day options lose time value, options sellers blow up, shorts cover for a loss, trends take place, people lose, people win, but who walks away with the pocket full of cash. When the stock market crashes their are people sitting in cash that kept their profits and short sellers making more money. On the day options expire there are many option buyers that are holding worthless options and others forced to buy them back for a loss. Opportunities abound, who are the 10% who consistently capitalize on these opportunities?
- Capital flows from those who fight trends to those who follow them.
- In the long term money flows to those who manage risk and are able to hold on to their profits from those who don’t manage risk.
- Traders that persevere through the learning curve stick around long enough to make money from those that just trade with no understanding of what they are doing.
- Robust systems take money from traders with no edge over the markets.
- Traders that trade price action take money from those that trade opinions.
- Traders that enter a trade based on a reversal signal make money form those that stubbornly hold on to a losing trade and hope.
- Money flows to those who let winners run from those that hold losing trades and hope.
- Capital flows from those that trade a winning methodology from those that trade on emotions.
- Those with big egos pay a price to try to prove they are right by holding a losing trade those that admit they are wrong quickly keep hard earned profits.
- Money flows from those who do not know how to trade to those who do..
Complacency
When I think of complacency two major things come to mind:
Often a traders biggest loss comes after a string of winners. This is well documented and suggests to me that complacency is present. The ‘every swing I take is a home run feeling’ or the ‘I can do no wrong feeling’. Sure enough when in this state the market is all too willing to smash you back down hard as a reminder of your mortality.
The other thing I think of are traders who have taken their foot off the gas. Who have decided that their approach is the only thing that works and will never need changing. You have to stay on your toes. The chances of the same approach working over and over ad infinite are slim. It may not need a complete overhaul and rather only subtle changes but it is complacent to believe something is a sure thing.
Exhaustion
Most traders are imminently aware of their account balance – what I think many don’t think about is their emotional balance. Trading can take a serious toll on your emotional balance. It is a competitive endeavor that requires decision making under stressful conditions. Each trade you chose to assess and then take uses up some of this emotional capital. You need to be aware of this. Not doing so leads not only to exhaustion but possible burn out.
As I said I’d love to read some examples from you on these points as they pertain to trading in the comments section. If you’d like maybe we can go into these areas in more detail in the future.