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November 22nd, 2005 by eyal | Filed under Personal development. |
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Consistency is often mentioned as a key criteria for successful trading, and rightly so. But what does consistency mean? Consistency in what? This is where every trader or aspiring trader (like me) need to evaluate where they are along this (endless?) continuum of trading learning experience.
Possible areas are:
- Consistency in trading rules
- Consistency in adhering to trading rules
- Consistency in putting efforts to improve
- Consistency in mechanics such as execution
For me consistency means:
1. Showing up for the game – I find it increasingly challenging with my day job ramping up on a number of projects and also after-working hours commitments.
2. The light switch – I went back and read some previous posts I made, particularily those of humble1 and it (finally) struck home the concept of treating trades as a light switch. I still miss out on opportunities and second-guess some of my triggers and that has had a cost associated with it.
Overall showing up for the game is a top priority for me at the moment, I may not be able to get it 100% but that’s the target I’m striving for.
Anyways, for today’s trades. I’ve had a loser, a couple of duds and a winner, in corresponding order: ERTS, MTXX, FRED and COO. Overall an okish day with a positive yet somewhat anemic P&L looking to be in the region of 3R.
AKAM and CHINA run away from the open and by the time they setup for me I thought they’ve run out of steam more or less. Another miss-out was BKD – see priority number 2 above. I haven’t looked at final charts yet but that’s my initial analysis of today.
There were some very good trading days over the last 4-5 sessions, unfortunately I missed out on them – hence see my priority number 1 above.
Good post. I agree with all those factors being keys for consisteny. I know one I’m consistent at, is leaving a lot on the table.Not a good one to be consistent at. :-) working on it .
To follow up on Doug’s comments … one more consistency … profits !
Yeah that’s what we’re here for after all.. and if all other consistencies are in place the profits will follow. In humble1 words: “I try not to think in terms of making money, but always think in terms of what I have to do to take a postion without risking much for the reward that is there.”
Just a thought – I wonder if people sometimes say ‘consistency’ when what they mean is something along the lines of ‘excellence’. The two do not necessarily go hand in hand.
Hi Riz, Possibly. In my case I mean consistency in its traditional sense. There is a lot of value in consistently following a system which doesn’t work – until you figure it out of course. At least you know that that method doesn’t work and you need to move on. But if someone doesn’t follow a set of rules in a consistent way then they’ll never be able to learn from it, adapt it, execute it properly or move away from it if needed.
I agree that ‘consistency’ without a context can mean excellence in putting together everything that’s needed in order to be a successful trader. And that’s of course a highly desireable qaulity.
Thanks for the comment.
Eyal
So true eyal, I suppose even if a person has a system that is inconsistent but profitable (ie the system churns out a high % of losses but has a few very big winners), then they need be to consistent in the application/running of the system. Other wise they may disregard the system to early or tweak it unneccesarily.
all the best on you future trading
: )
[...] P.S.S The internet technitian came over today. Said there’s nothing wrong with the line, both outside and inside. “Great”. He did redo some connections in the socket to make sure contacts are clean and dry. Will see whether that helps. Probably not at tomorrow’s session, as I have another client function, sigh, Xmas can be a drag sometiems with all the stuff you need to do for clients. This past week has been a real struggle trying to keep my priorities straight. [...]