Trader Mindset

Subscribe to the show Avoid indecision in your behavior and don't join the crowd in theirs. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show You can adjust your bet size based upon the probabilities that you discover from your backtesting. Keeping your losses small is the hallmark of professional trading. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show You can simulate a trading model across any asset class. Make sure you test at the portfolio level, not one name at a time. Two, add back in the instruments that have been delisted or that don't trade anymore in order to help offset survivorship bias. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Setting a goal of "I want to make $1 million in my trading," is very different that saying "I want to do the daily activities that will lead to my prosperity." Make sure you goal is based upon your behavior, not the result of the behavior. Behavior predicts where you end up in life. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show When you manage your time better, your life gets better - and so does your trading. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show When you don't have a trading strategy or plan, any outside idea can look appealing. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show You have two portfolios that you're running at the same time: the risk you have and the risk you want. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Don't fall into buying pullbacks because you don't have a plan and the biggest feeling running through you is regret. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Don't be the uncertain element of your own trading. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Goal setters put their happiness in their goals and set the world on fire. Be one of them and surround yourself with them. Think like a portfolio manager and cut your allocations to negative people and energy. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Sometimes it's the things that aren't being said that have the most power and impact on an individual and organization. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show There's a trading plan and a business plan. You have to execute both. Don't forget the sales and marketing... Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show If you can't pull the trigger, you're in fear and have indecision. The best traders are leaders and leaders are decisive. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Watch your language. You can convince yourself on a whole host of things without any basis in reality or truth. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show You get to decide how you want your life to unfold. Design it. Execute it. Live it. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show All your questions about a trade are answered at this one point... Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show You need a set plan ahead of time in order to manage risk and keep your biases at bay. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Entering Stops and waiting for the market to come to you means you're not chasing the market. It also means that you have conviction about adding or removing risk at the stop price. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Be the shot in the arm that someone needs. It will be good for both of you. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Pro traders plan for success. So should you. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Uptime your charts to dailies and weeklies and stop getting knocked out of otherwise good trades. Longer term time frames are less random than intraday charts. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show If you don't address the strong feelings you're having while trading, they own you. Make them advocates, not adversaries or antagonists. You can ignore them, but they will return time and time again - guaranteed. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Reversals might happen before your ATR-based stop is hit or the structure is broken. Use these reversals to improve your entries and exits and thereby improve your P&L. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show There are many ways to trade gold or silver, for example. Here are my thoughts on the best way for you. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Let the market tell you when the move is over. Don't use price targets and stop missing out on the larger moves ahead. In the process, you'll eliminate regret. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Stop orders are like your personal sentries that do nothing but add and remove risk from your portfolio. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Go to school on yourself and learn from your mistakes. You'll be your own best teacher. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Running your screens and having your orders ready the night before stops you from getting sucked into FOMO trades and shooting from the hip. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show All you need to do is fund your account and manage the risk. Keep it simple and enter your protective stops. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Bullish chart patterns show crowd behavior, but they can easily disappoint you. This is where that saying "intuition becomes into-wishing" might come into play. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show ...your position is probably too big. Learn how to trim the hedges along the way so that any particular earnings announcement is irrelevant. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show You can fantasize about how much your account balance can explode if you get lucky. However, margin cuts both ways and you can get blasted more times than not. Protect your capital and play superior defense. Treat every trade as serious business. You can learn to do great things and grow your funds systematically. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show One bad earnings report can impact several of the other names you own. Trade your equity curve and cut your position sizes if vol increases. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Making a big bet before an earnings announcement is a gamble. You can't infer what the company is going to report because "you see something" in the chart pattern. Here are my thoughts. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show This might be too "inside baseball" for some, but you can study the simulated backtest of a model and use the insights gained to go back and adjust your rules. You can segment the winning trades from the losing trades and study both outcomes to improve your entries, bet size, and exits. By doing so, you might be able to improve either your winning percentage or the expected value of a trade for the rules you'll follow. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Trading systems have different accuracy rates and ratios between winners and losers. Knowing these ahead of time might better help you determine which is most suitable for you - at least to start with. A trend following model might have 30% winning percentage with winners being 3 times the size of the losers. A chart reading model might have a 70% winning percentage, but a winner / loser ratio that might be smaller than 3:1. Both can have a positive expected value of a trade, so they can be worth following. One might be a better fit for you although both are expected to make money. Of course, knowledge of yourself first is the best way to evaluate trading rules when determining compatibility. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Your data feed might only include what we call normal trading hours or "outcry only." For some of you, it might make sense to analyze what happens in pre-market and after-market activity. You may be able to define a small edge to either improve your entries or exits. For your exits, you might be able to effect a trade in the pre- or after-market to improve your price and limit losses or to better protect unrealized gains. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Most system traders can screen for tickers by price, volume, and volatility. You can also add some overlays if you want and test those parameters also. Here are a few thoughts on running screens. Be mindful to find the data on the securities that don't trade anymore and add that data into your overall data to screen. Else, you'll only be looking at survivors and it would be good to know how your rules would have worked if your model had initiated longs on ENE or BSC that eventually went bust, or other names that were taken over or merged. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Most system traders do not just increase their bet size on a whim. Many have their risk systematized to be a fixed percentage of their overall equity conjugated with the volatility of the instrument. They increase their risk systematically and only trade larger when their capital base grows due to gains or from adding capital to their account. Chart readers can do the same thing although they have to do it by hand. Be careful if you increase your size because you think "you are on to something..." and get too big too soon. That can come from hubris which we spoke about recently in another episode. You can look at your winning percentage and ratio of win size to loss size to help determine if/when you should increase your bet size / risk unit. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show In this episode I recall how I got stopped on CSCO for a loss and why that was a great trade. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show If someone you know is bearish and they're not short, they're full of it and probably like to hear themselves talk. Do them a favor and call them on their nonsense. Ask them where their stop orders to enter the market are. I find this happens with people who are looking for attention and trying to show you how smart they are. What a snooze. I don't care about opinions and theories. If this is something you're falling victim to, you can gauge your own level of self-deception by listing all the entries you have for your theories. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Selling short on valuation at historic highs is a quick way to lose a great deal of capital fast. Selling long on valuation is a quick way to incur staggering opportunity costs and missed opportunities. Don't try to be smart - focus on making money. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show Buying a pullback works in raging bull markets until it doesn't work anymore. Is it a 2-stage pullback...or is it the end of the trend? You don't want to be buying when the trend reverses. Know what you're going to do beforehand. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show It's easy to get blinded by our success when we're in boom times like we're in now. If you get used to it, you can lose perspective and forget that sometimes what's around the corner is going to be more than just a short-term pullback. In this episode, Michael Martin remembers what happened during previous boom times in his career for context. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.

Subscribe to the show You want to trade rules that are robust. That will give you a better chance of surviving when the markets inevitably change. Backtest your rules with a minimum of 10 years of historical data. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook

Subscribe to the show I don't worry about trying to make realized gains each day. It's not my goal to reinvent myself each day - I want the market to do the work for me. Focus on process and the results will follow. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook

Subscribe to the show Raise you hand if anyone from your clearing member has called you when you're in a protracted drawdown or are overtrading and they tell you to stop... Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook

Subscribe to the show You can count on "the other guy" to do the wrong thing most of the time. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook

Subscribe to the show So let's say you get five signals. You don't know which one to take. Will you take all of them with the requisite amount of risk that you're willing to take, then you let the market activity unfold. The market will tell you which one's going to be the best one. You can count on it. So if you're taking it home with you, you have your protective stops, whether you're trading off of a reversal, or whether you're doing some kind of swing trading technique, or whether you're trailing with ATR or whether you're trailing with structure, there's a whole bunch of ways you can offset winners which are hard to visualize on an audio only format. So I'm not going to get into it here, but the market will unfold accordingly in ways that you can maybe predict - maybe you can't. But the point is that if you sit on your hands and let the auction process work, the market will let the individual name one of the five, maybe even two of the five, raise their hand and say, I'm the biggest winner. Now, maybe you'll be lucky enough to say, Hey, that was the one that I was going with. But you don't know. There were times when in the mid 2000s, when China was buying up as much of the commodity markets that you could possibly get, you'd get signals on the same day in tin, zinc, nickel, high-grade, silver, and gold. And you'd be sitting there saying I got the entire metal complex is firing longs, which ones do I take? What do you think you should do? Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook

Subscribe to the show Focusing on your process can keep you placated as we said yesterday. It can also help you improve your attitude. When you're not chasing your tail or going outside the boundaries of your trading rules, you're conserving a great deal of energy. When you don't react, you develop of quiet sense of confidence about you. It doesn't mean you're infallible, but you're in control. You can take that feeling of being in control of your behavior and repurpose it. Then it begins to compound. Day after day, week after week - after a few months you can look back and see an change in yourself. Click here to get your free copy of The Inner Voice of Trading audiobook.