Brian Lund: 10 things I wish I knew when I started to trade

Brian Lund - a longtime analyst and trader on Wall Street:

We all want to go back in time and to live his youth, but the advantage of knowledge that we have at this time. I at least want just that.

There are so many things I would do differently. For example, I would not drink these additional shots of school party when he vomited guts into the toilet. And definitely would not blow off that awkward Papular 16 years Sofia Vergara ever called me "the cutest boy in the world."

But what to do ...

In an effort to help traders avoid some of the mistakes in the trade, and because I like to give of yourself, here are ten things that now I want to know ever when I started to trade:

Complexity is our enemy

Look at almost any trading platform or software for graphics and will see a lot more performance than a trader actually needs. In the end, all indicators are derivatives of price and volume, so why is it necessary to be so fussy? After years of trying to find the "ideal indicator" found: price, volume, S / R levels trendline, and several key moving averages.

95% of the other indicators are the result of the narcissism of pseudo-experts who had to justify their existence. Unless you work for Goldman Sachs, or have your own hedge fund, stick to simple things.

Specialize

When I started to trade I thought I should be able to trade with it. For me it was the definition of trader. Some people can trade cotton or cross dollar / yen. I can not, and it took me a long time to realize this and to shake the dogma that himself was imposed.

Become good at trading with particular asset class, a tool and when you improve, then add something new to his repertoire .. Or maybe not. I know people who only deal in shares of Apple Inc. and earn quite well.

There is nothing wrong to ask for help

At first glance, share trading seems like a solitary pastime for people who want to sit in a room and stare at charts for hours. But if you shake the vision of "serial killer" that have most traders will find people who not only like to talk about trade, but they crave.

Eight years after it made its first deal I have not spoken to anyone about what I do. Only when I came across the Money Talk BB in the early 90s, when I started to communicate with people who knew what I was doing. Even then, I was too modest to ask for advice.

Everyone knows that there is no generally accepted rules for market success, but I believe that what most close to them is the ability of a trydar to exchange ideas with other traders. The more you do, the more you build their own knowledge and develop yourself as a trader.

Learn to ignore the hype

I recently saw a presentation of Barry Ritholts. Besides said he believed George Bush was the greatest president in the last century, the other thing that impressed me was his theory that we as human beings we need stories, such as there was in the past, before all the technologies and before we had today's knowledge transmitted from generation to generation.

This phenomenon happens in the market. Participants love to attach stories to share to justify movements up and down, or why not move at all. These stories can only make you lose money as a trader and the sooner you learn to not be influenced by them, the better.

All or nothing
I've read all about trade and nowhere written that you have to put all your money on one position at the same time. Or you have to download all your money at once.

You will make mistakes, and very

Ted Williams is one of the greatest striker in the history of baseball, but could not hit the shot 60% from the time that he was with the bat. The hardest thing for most traders is to realize that you are wrong most of the time was part of the game.

Going wrong. Will very wrong. Pretty much. Accept it. Learn to take it easy. If you can reduce your losses quickly and maintain good risk / reward will earn over time.

Everything revolves around money

This may seem obvious, but when I started to trade me it was more important to show how smart I am doing something that most people do not understand. I spend a lot of time telling people who are not traders in the markets, which made me feel important.

Buy books, software, seminars went on because I thought it was cool to be a trader. Actually at that time I lost money.

Ask yourself, but be sincere. Which is more important for you, because you are a trader extol, but to lose your money, or you think about a loser who works in the shop, but actually you make a lot of money in the markets?

Trade is only be "making money". If you can not do it regularly, you are not a trader. Everything else is fudge.

You will not find the answers in books

Books trade in rare exceptions only for fun. Read no how others deal because never trade like them. Another thing, any ideas, concepts or techniques which teach in books are usually already outdated because of market dynamics. It changes constantly and as flowing river, will never step into the same stream.

I can certainly say that my progress rapidly began the day I stopped buying books and razyaitam that will teach me something.

The reality is that you simply do not exist

We all have egos. All suffer to some extent from the illusions that are very significant. The problem is that markets do not just consider us important, but not even imagining for our existence. Nothing that happens to us has no meaning for the markets. Whether you are good or bad, whether you have a lot of money or are wondering how to pay the rent, high, low, ugly, beautiful, absolutely no importance.

Else you can drink with friends until late last night? Your mother is dying of cancer? All this is absolutely insignificant for markets, I repeat again. If any of these things are very important to you, and the way in which trade, then the market will go through you like heavy train.

Everything you know about life, will help you trade

From the time you learn the meaning of "value", since you knew that the cheaper, the better. If you want to buy a new refrigerator, waiting for reducing it. Then wait to cut it because it will stop from production. Then wait decrease because it is an old model. We want to pay as much as possible because less is lost asset.

Market exactly what is the biggest mistake. Share, option, or a basket of currencies worth as much as the next buyer is willing to pay. You will buy strength and sell weakness will. Will sell at good news and will buy in bad.

You'll need to understand that when you enter the world of trade, generally accepted rules of value no longer apply.

I hope that these rules will be useful in your endeavor to be a successful trader.