Human nature is to be right all the time. Nobody likes to be wrong even in petty/useless arguments. This particular thought process is one of the primary reasons for many opting for methods that shows high winning percentage with abysmal Risk:Reward ratio. Many of the world’s renowned traders are trend followers and trend following usually delivers something that human brain is not used to – More losers than winners with superior Risk:Reward ratio.

Introduction

In trend following type of trading, the usual combination is low winning percentage with high Risk:Reward. This requires a trader to get comfortable with the fact that we will most likely be wrong more often than we are right.

That concept is tough for a lot of traders,as many of us believe that to be profitable we need to be right more than we are wrong. but nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, for scalping that is partially true, but for swing trading, with the proper risk to reward ratio, we can be profitable even if we are wrong more than we are right.

We just need to have the patience to wait for a trade to come, and also patience to wait for a trade to work.

Here is a blogpost on patience –

Deliberate practice and patience

Trend following and surfing

Unlike surfing, we don’t get the luxury of knowing which direction the WAVE we are on is headed, but trust me, it is going somewhere and is not going to sit around in any one place for very long. This is the one and only guarantee in stock markets ?

We may spend days watching for a sequence of events, enter a trade and get stopped out in minutes. But if we are a trend follower, we have to just get back up and start watching again. That is tough to swallow for traders who enjoy the adrenaline of a fast-paced trading environment

Trading and action

If a trader cannot wait and always in need of action, trend following will never work for him. For that matter, any kind of trading would be difficult.

Many traders love the frequent adrenaline rushes that come with trading. And, the more frequently they trade, the more they feel that they are hitting the fast forward button on their way to riches.

By the way, most successful traders and investors are systematic. Systematic sounds technical or quantitative but that’s far from the truth. All it means is that there is a process to guide proper decision making. When A happens they do Y, when B happens they do Z. Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham has a very systematic process in searching for their stocks. Ray Dalio from Bridgewaters Associates has a very systematic fundamental approach to capital markets.

Trading and drudgery

Many a times, people ask this question to me. It always pops up in different ways –

Should i pursue the dream of becoming a successful/consistently profitable trader in spite of all these drudgery?

I remember a movie honcho once said that when people asked him if they should continue to pursue their dreams of movie stardom, he would always tell them ‘NO’. His reasoning was simple – no one destined for success would be dissuaded by him anyway, nor for that matter would they even have asked the question in the first place.

It’s that solitary “march to your own drummer” mentality that mark those ordained for success 🙂

Trading and negativity

So, to be effective in trading (and anything in life), kindly distance yourself from negative energy – no matter where it comes from. Let negative thoughts roll over like water. Negative thoughts, emotions, energy is destructive multiplier. It kills creative uni-directional thinking. Detach yourself from things, other people and immerse yourself in the price. Lose sense of time and space.

Think of an activity that you enjoy, we lose sense of time and space when we get involved right? So, let me ask this question then –

Why does trading have to be stressful, painful, edgy all the time?

Get comfortable being wrong and detach from negativity

Happy trading all !!