Good trading in stocks, futures, forex or options, whether it is long term or short, should be pretty boring. If it is “exciting,” my guess is that it is stimulating your brain in a manner similar to gambling, which for traders who want long term success is VERY bad. As casinos will tell you, when people get excited while gambling, they tend to make poor decisions. The same holds true with trading … Read more at TraderPlanet.com

We live in a world of polarities – good vs. bad, up vs. down, young vs. old, happy vs. sad. The “win vs loss” polarity is just one example of many. In most cases, we tend to judge the polarity in that we prefer one side and dislike the other side. However, one of the secrets to life is to make both sides of the polarity okay. But, what does that mean? … Read more at TraderPlanet.com

Typically, I teach people to think about two kinds of risk in a trade: the risk in your stop and position sizing risk (or the total risk to your portfolio). However, there are many other types of risk in a trade, especially in these market circumstances. I thought this would be a good time to detail all of them … Read more at TraderPlanet.com

You’ve heard of the power of positive thinking. The glass is half full. I’m all about optimism when it comes to life. When it comes to trading, however, you must think negative. Expect the worst! … Read more at TraderPlanet.com

In any endeavor in life, you have up and down periods. Dealing with the market has many such up and down periods. In order to profit from the up periods, you have to tolerate or even “enjoy” the down periods … Read more at TraderPlanet.com

Many mental health professionals define an “uncertain” condition as being stressful. Uncertainty occurs because of too much information or because of too little capacity. The very fact that we cannot deal with available information is stressful … Read more at TraderPlanet.com

People generally are programmed to do everything the wrong way. They have internal biases that seem to lead them to do the exact opposite of what is required for success. For example, if you are the most important factor in your trading, you should spend the most time working on yourself, but the majority of people totally ignore the “you” factor in their success. Read over the checklists in this part that deal with good trading. If you’ve worked extensively in all the areas listed, you are probably very successful and are certainly a rarity … Read more at TraderPlanet.com