Today we have the pleasure of introducing Dr. Barry Burns from Top Dog Trading. Dr. Burns knowledge has come through extensive study, dubious research, and thousands of his own dollars learning from professionals. His intent was to expand his knowledge and share it with others! Without further delay, please welcome Dr. Barry Burns.
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Good Morning Trader's Club Members!
Traders often get frustrated when they see the market doing the "unexpected."
This occurs because they have a pre-conceived idea of what the market "should do." And when it doesn't behave according to their Wave Count, or their Gann calculations or their Fibonacci cluster or their indicators' clear signals ... well, they just get frustrated.
This comes from a belief that the market has a pattern that is knowable and should be followed consistently.
People much smarter than I have been studying the markets for many, many years. Yet the debate is alive and well as to whether or not the market is simply a "random walk."
The fact the subject has not been settled among the greatest thinkers is significant.
My belief is ... yes, it mostly is chaotic. It is completely unpredictable. It is impossible to forecast.
But, and this is an important "but," there are times ... and it isn't most of the time... but there are times when certain patterns occur that put the PROBABILITIES of a certain action occurring.
Note that this is not predicting or forecasting. The truth is, the market can do ANYTHING AT ANY TIME.
You should never be surprised, confused or frustrated, because that indicates you had some expectation of the future.
Let me clarify ...
You should never be surprised, confused or frustrated about what the MARKET does. You should only be surprised, confused or frustrated about what YOU do. This is because you cannot control the market. The only thing you can control is your own behavior.
Therefore to master trading is not to master the markets, but it is to master yourself. And you will have done this when you only trade when probabilities are clearly on your side, as evidenced from thorough testing that you yourself have conducted to your own satisfaction.
To master yourself means (among other things):
1. Do not pass on trade setups that meet your criteria.
2. Do not trade while tired or under emotional stress.
3. Do not over trade.
4. Master money managment.
5. Keep your stops - maintaining small losses.
6. Let your winners run for big profits.
7. Don't give up on a valid methodology when it goes through a normal drawdown period.
These are just 7 of the most common psychological challenges every trader must wrestle with.
Your success or failure will depend much more on how you handle these challenges than which indicators you use or which time interval you trade.
As someone once said: "The consistency you need is in your mind, not in the market."
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BIO:
Dr. Barry Burns writes a blog and produces videos for Top Dog Trading
He offers a 5-day free video trading course which can be accessed here:
http://www.topdogtrading.com/enter.html
Give me Signal About GBP/USD
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This score was taken at 9:53am (EST) on June 12th, 2008
Let me know if you need anything else.
Best,
Lindsay Thompson
Director of New Business Development
INO.com & MarketClub.com
Thank you very much. I went right over and signed up for the free course and newsletter, etc.
I appreciate it.