Friday 18 April 2014

Five stages of trading

To be breakeven over a certain timeperiod (like half a year) it's the beginning of a hopefully great future. I am referring once again to the five stages of trading: https://www.geekstoy.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1589

I am (almost) at the fourth stage:

You are making trades whenever your system tells you to. You take losses just as easily as you take wins. You now let your winners run to their conclusion fully accepting the risk and knowing that your system makes more money than it loses and when you're on a loser you close it swiftly with little pain to your account.

You are now at a point where you break even most of the time - day in day out, you will have weeks where you make 100 ticks and weeks where you lose 100 ticks - generally you are breaking even and not losing money. You are now conscious of the fact that you are making calls that are generally good and you are getting respect from other traders. You still have to work at it and think about your trades but as this continues you begin to make more money than you lose consistently.

  • After 68 trades with the new system I have a ROI of -1.2%. That's more or less a single stake I use. So I am definitely around breakeven.
  • When I am on a loser, I close the trade as good as possible. It's still tempting to stay in (and hope for a turnaround), but in general I am now more comfortable now with redding and scratching.
  • I have still not the balls to let run the good trades enough long. Today I was on Ferrer, but even when he was looking great, I went out a lot too early. Okay, probably is not the best example... I think not even the best punters had the balls to hold it until the very end (or at least until 5:3). I mean it's Rafa on clay against Ferrer :-).
  • I definitely still have to work on my trades. If I can handle the topic with the green trades better I am up to the fifth stage of trading.

The in my opinion better trade possibilities for today are gone (lay Stan and Rafa). I am quiet sure that Fedex and Djoker will pass to semifinals without many problems... so my trading day is probably finished for today.

2 comments:

  1. Hello I've just start reading your blog, I've found it quite interesting I only started trading on April 19th after about a month on training bank, I try all markets to see which one I found best and I must say I was crap at horses, ok at football (but then am mad EFC fan)
    and finally tennis. which I always like watching.... my tennis trading has been ok until the bad days started. really gets to you and you think spending 8, 9, 10 hrs. at this for what a mere £10 profit... arghhh however you then after get your mind-set back inline and think its learning time and instead of thinking profit.. think more about the learning curves and not chased loss, double sometimes even triple stakes ( which too be fair I have done well at )
    however in the end it catches up.

    Anyway apologies for my ramblings... what I wanted to say? I notice you have been a member of trade shark tennis ( me too I think its good) I just wanted your opinion on this sultan academy and is there much difference between the two?

    Also I got out early on, come on its nadal after all and @ £70 green I didn't wont to push anymore luck ( although I did and ended with £47 green)


    good work and keep it coming :)

    regards

    Stephen

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    Replies
    1. Hello Stephen

      Thanks for reading my blog and the great feedback. It's hard to spend ten hours and more in front of the computer/TV for 10 Euros, but this stage is necessary. Professional traders say that you need around 5'000 hours to understand the markets and patterns. Until this point it's really important to stake low, because the probability that you lose more money than you win is high. I am now at around 1'000 hours at the ladders and I start to be a bit better than breakeven. Everybody likes quick and big profit since the start, but it's unrealistic. You have to go through your apprenticeship. Even they very best ones lost money at the beginning. They just made it because they worked harder than the most other people. 10 hours in front of the computer/PC for 10 euro or pounds profit it's the sad truth in the beginning...

      Tradehark? It's good to learn to analyse matchups. He gives good info why he picks this player and not the other. The strategy paper I read, but I work with the approach of Sultan. How I heard there are three available spots. I wrote a lot about Sultan's academy at my blog. If your read this posts, you will see what you get and what not. Tradeshark delivers picks (I have only this package... I don't know if he also makes consulting of trading) and Sultan helps me improving my trading skills. I think both of them are good investments. Right now I am capable to make my own research (and I often see the games different than Shark), but at the beginning was great to see how and where he spots value. If you have further questions you can contact me with email: grandslamtrading@gmx.ch

      Regards,

      Brulati

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