It might be hard but the temptation to trade can be great. However, discipline is all part of it. No discipline eventually leads to a losing account. Try this:
Think of yourself playing blackjack at a $10 minimum table and you've got three $10 chips. Would you rather play once and walk away or play three times knowing the most you can lose is $10 (as long as you don't split or double) and the most you can win is on a black jack pending the house pays 3:2 or 2:1, or a push. The majority of us would probably want to play three times thinking that the more times we 'play' the better are odds are of at least breaking even during one of those three hands.
Ok, the ticker you are following is that blackjack table. One of the traits of successful traders is the ability to wait for the best set-up and take action. Sometimes even the best set-up fails us, that's trading. However, if we were a little too early on our entry on the first try and we lose one 'chip', we still have two more tries to beat that dealer. Jumping to another table or in this case, a different ticker does nothing to improve your odds so why not just stay at that same table and stick you your plan with that ticker?
You've done your homework and data-mining on that ticker and you know, or think you know, at some point during the day it's going to make that move. The chat room can be a major distraction sometimes when other people are posting about the bank they made and you're still waiting on your turn to play.
I've experienced and have seen it play out over and over and over....I've got my handful of stocks to follow and let the chatroom posts pull me away from my plan only to find that sometime during the day if I would have stuck with my tickers there was more than likely a move that would have paid off.
You MUST learn to be self sufficient trading. You MUST find you way. You MUST do your own homework and not copy from someone else.
Follow your tickers, unless maybe 70 or 80% of the chatroom posts are about the same ticker, then it might be worth trying to find a ride on that train. But, this does not happen every day so it pays to learn how to be independent in this game.
The manual is 'getting there'...
Peace
Excellent post!
Good analogy there
I thought you were going to say just go start another trading account with 3 more trades...lol This was a great Blog. Very Very true and well said. In fact, I create my own list every morning but Ive been swayed more than once to enter something else from the chat room. Just jump in and ALWAYS the wrong move. I tend to get in to late on those. So I'll stick to my plan as you said !!! Awesome Post !!
Jules: Yeah, gotta stick to your plan. I mean like today,it doesn't hurt to take a look at MCUR but still have to be disciplined and not chase things. Determine if there is anything left in the trend and wait for a pullback. Don't buy at resistance, buy on the move back up to it for potential breakout. Opposite for shortys...
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