Saturday, November 15, 2008

** VIDEO ** Simplicity & Humility

Today I discuss the dangers of overcomplicating things in trading, using my PC upgrade experience as an example. I also touch on why I moved the "fictitious draw" chart above my performance charts in the left margin.



Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don,

Another fantastic post. For me the most inspiring and instructive things about watching you these past few months have been your constant reminders that it's the combination of clear and simple method and the consistent discipline to follow it that wins in the markets. You're a true master of the craft. Congrats. I hope you keep something like this going in the future, even if not at this level of intensity. You're a great role model.

Niraj Prasad said...

Keep it simple, great advice!! At one point in the video you say you do not subscribe to any news service. My question is how do you then guard against unexpected market moving events, given high frequency of your trades. I sometime forget that 10:30 EST, every Wednesday, numbers for crude oil market comes out, and market can react violently to it. Ideally to avoid whipsaw one should be on the sideline during those times. Do you subscribe to a web portal like briefings.com or do you have membership of a chat service where you can interact with fellow traders and be warned in advance that something market moving might be going on and it is the time to stay on sidelines?

Don Miller said...

Yes, I do subscribe to Briefing.com (in the video I was referring to scrolling intraday headlines) that has news and a listing of economic releases which I look at at the beginning of each day.

Yet frankly, the reason for market moves is irrelevant 99% of the time. All I care about is the extent of buying or selling ... I don't care why. On the odd change it's something crazy like an interest rate cut, I'll check Briefing or Bloomberg, but only after seeing price action that doesn't make sense ... which is rare.

I firmly don't believe in chat services ... in fact I detest them and think most of them do much more damage than good. All they do is put subscription revenues in the horse callers pockets and take away from needed trading focus. [If traders are looking for confirmation from anyone other than themselves, they'll never make it and that's why most services are harmful.] I'll go to my grave believing that with conviction.

Don

Niraj Prasad said...

Thanks Don, it was very helpful. For a long time I have struggled between subscribing to a chat service or going alone. It has always put an extra burden of meeting that expense and yet only marginal benefits- if any. I was just looking for a role model, someone who has gone alone and thrived! In that sense thank you very much for your insights!!!