Think Like A Trader Blog

Wednesday 26 October 2016

NEW Feature - Blog Posts From Beginner Traders - The T Model Trader

Today we continue on with the new blog feature, whereby I hand the proverbial mic over to beginner traders and let them share their experiences. Rather than having me simply post every week, I thought this would be a good way to let you see that as you strike out on your own trading journey, there are also others walking the same path.

Trading can be a very solitary endeavour and especially when times are tough, the disquieting voice can often chirp up and whisper 'you can't do this,' or 'just give up.' I hope these blog posts help you, even if only in a small way, to continue to strive toward your trading goals.

This week we introduce the second trader who will be contributing to the posts. Due to a wish for a certain level of anonymity, this trader has styled himself as the T-Model Trader.

I hope you enjoy the post and I hope you've all had a great trading week!


T-Model Trader Blog Post 1





It is not my intention to offer technical support here as I am in all honesty, not the person you want to listen too in this regard. Every day, as a subscriber to Decisive Trading (DT), James offers up a wonderful platter of technical appraisals and insights, so I will leave this area well alone. I will instead set off by dusting down the trading journal at chapter 1 and speak about the enormity of facing that vertical wall to ascend where I could potentially say… “I am a trader”, with all the connotations of success that go with it. Am I at that point yet? Well, no. There is still some distance to go.
I do not want to just produce articles about trading either and talk about the hottest pin bars (or the like) in the latest hip zones to be seen at, nor a “you should have seen the set up on this chart….woo” sort of thing. And given that my “curly toped galactic black hole star bar” global trading system is still a few light years away from being perfected and released publicly, I am hoping, this might also give you some indication as to where my technical prowess may take you!
I will introduce myself as a “progressing beginner trader”. This offers up the acknowledgement that much has taken place in my learning this year, whilst still bowing humbly to the fact that there is far to go in my development. I have at times quietly paused with a growing sense of joy upon the realization that I have indeed shown signs of evolving as that trader. Yet, unfortunately, that pause can often feel like the precarious balance upon a thin white line separating the motoring mayhem during an ill- timed road crossing. If I can get to Xmas without being run over, I believe that I will have done well for the year, albeit bruised, but certainly a tad wizened.
It is thou, truly wonderful to say that I have experienced the delights of having strung together winning trades. So very cool indeed. But before my trading modesty begins to slip inappropriately and reveal a touch too much bravado, I also know the feelings of despair regarding the dusky clouds of dud trades. For many reasons, I have gathered way too many entries on the now heavily laden loss column of the ledger. However, in these 9 months, the machinations of the DT methodology have slowly begun to make greater sense to me. I do ask you here, to seriously note the significance of the word “slowly” and the use of the “present tense” in that last sentence. Maybe I could call myself the T-model trader, a slow horse indeed.
Given my work in the past as a counseling therapist, I am now seeking to turn the spotlight back upon myself here and do a bit of digging and a spot of probing. Just as my complete lack of hand eye (or eye foot) co-ordination left me as the perennial drinks carrier at sporting events, I feel trading must have a close genetic resemblance to that of bat and ball, as it seems every bit as challenging.  What I allude to, is that parts of my trading haven’t been a dream journey.
As I am southern hemisphere based, trading the Ftse 100 is for me an evening affair. When I turn off the computer at night from trading, it is usually to head to bed and sleep. I would willingly take a polygraph, confessing to you the truth when I say that I have taken much trading trauma into that sleep and continued to trade well into the realm of the mythical with candle stick nightmares, where the demons of the dud trades have returned for a second bite. It can be hellish I tell you.
I also have a background in what I call “creative construction” as I have been a sculptor, designer and artist. There is a connection between these two lines of work and will delve into this over the course of these blogs, illustrating how my previous experiences and work have had bearing upon my trading.
What I didn’t realize at the time was how confronting trading would be for me. There is something about it that has challenged me to the core week after week. I have surged forth, recoiled back, zig-zagged one way then the other, tumbled, rolled, wept and sat staring blankly at times out the window wanting to be a cloud on a windy day and just disappear over that trading horizon.
I once heard the description called a “crocodile trader”. It is about having the patience and skill to set up a trade as the croc does in a hunt for food. I kind of get that. I like the analogy too. However, for much of this year all I could see was me being taken as easy prey by the crushing jaws of the market and put into a death roll. The crocs, I am sure, all had a good giggle when they saw me dipping my toes into the charts. Somehow I don’t think that was the underlying intention of the meaning.
As I have a large thick tatty eared trading journal to trawl through by my side as a write, I hope to condense all big black arrows pointing to big black capital letter words, much of which is seriously unfit for publication, into a coherent review of what has occurred this year. I have several important trading experiences that I want to speak about over the series of this blog. I am sure that I won’t be the first or last to have had these “trading woes”, so in blog 2, I will start to tuck into and clarify the main issues that have been my trusty (or should that be crusty) trading companions this year.

So, as I sit here finishing up this introduction to the opening blog, an intense weather front has blown in from the expanses of the southern ocean bring driving rain and winds. This has got me thinking as to where the readers of this blog might be living in the world. For us south of the planetary waist line, it is soon time to get out the swimmers and prepare for the heat that will surely come our way. For those of you in the DT community, north of the equatorial bulge, I am picturing that you are out chopping wood, finishing off the harvest and preparing to bring the livestock into the barn for the arduous winter ahead (ok…I fess up to having watched way too many seriously stereotyped and homely movies as a kid). And for those of you in between….well…..no doubt that you are watching the market, swinging in your  hammock whilst the tropical breeze gently drifts on by (lots of South Pacific movies too)
So, from the urban tree tops of some great city to the countryside and everything in between on this planet where you may reside, I wish you well and a successful journey in your trading development.
I also want to acknowledge James, in creating this community and education and for all the effort that he has made in assisting me from falling off the edge of the trading world into whatever it was that was supposed to be over that brink  (the mythical remains of many dud trades no doubt).
Till next time….
The T-model Trader (I just had to use it).
 

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