Wednesday, June 24, 2009

** VIDEO ** Trading "Outliers"

9:00pm OK, the video's a bit dark and not as usual quality, but I went directly to YouTube's direct capture to re-record it and bypass my own software to get this damn thing up.

Essentially, I follow up to Tuesday night's post & comments regarding the critical role "outliers" play in trading and poker, as well as an update on my pursuing trade-capture charts.

The point I wanted to emphasize, is that if someone tells you one trade, day, week, month, year, etc. was an "outlier" (Lord knows why they're focused on your results in the first place ... but that's another story), I suggest you accept it as one of the nicest compliments anyone could ever make about your trading. And when they then give you that puzzled look, you can grin and respectfully say "that's why I trade and you don't".

For while good traders strive for consistent keep over time, the better ones recognize that while doing so day in & day out, year-in & year-out, they're simultaneously always searching for those "outlier" conditions and results where it's time to push the chips hard and go after the outlier that can make that day, week, month, year, or career.

So here's to your future "outlier" results!



And here's the all-important weather forecast for the cookout:

10 comments:

steve said...

Can I Skype in to the cookout? Live webcam?!

Vikas Temani said...

Hi Don

have been reading your blog for the last several months daily. Im a day trdaer trading TED Spread (2yr T-Notes vs Eurodollar futures contracts)since Q2 2007. I had my first drawdown of 50k $ in Q4 2008. Since then I have been struggling in trading and have not able to be consistent. My acc. is still at around -50k$. The highest profit that I have made in any quarter has been 60k$. Could you kindly suggest the best way to come out of this rut?

Don Miller said...

Hi Vikas -

Sorry to learn of your struggles. Respectully, my current focus is getting my own equity chart back on a consistent upswing, and all I can suggest is to see how I try to battle out of the current funk.

Don

KN said...

Vikas if you allow me to through in my 2 pennies, I was going through a similar situation and then I started rereading Trading in the zone by Mark Douglas a few months ago and the AHA moment came and smack me right in my chops....

I am not saying it will work but at least give it a try...

kobus

Anonymous said...

Hi Don,

I was wondering if you keep an intra day P@L of your trades or do you look at the final number after the last trade of the day ??

Ric said...

Vikas,

I agree with KN. If you haven't already read "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas then, by all means do so. It's the best trading info/advice I've ever received.(Recently read it for the fifth time - just to keep the info fresh in my mind)

I just recently purchased Don's favorite, "The Tao of Poker" and plan to start reading that one this weekend.

All the best,
Ric

IRF said...

Glad to hear that you're close to getting x_study to work. My clearing firm had the same issues initially, my trade plots were 6 hours ahead of the chart. One of their IT guys worked with TT and just had to go into some TT file on my machine and change a setting. I'm sure they'll get you setup and working. It is a great tool for trade review for and saves so much time because you don't have to plot trades by hand.

YM-Trader said...

Once we've been trading a certain period of time almost always, IMHO, any changes we need to make to improve our results will come not from our plan, but the execution of it. There's a big difference. Having been a YM daytrader for 2-1/2 yrs. now I KNOW its not the plan...it's what's happening in my head. For those Trading In The Zone fans, or any trading psych book, why not exchange some ideas? "Ahaa" moments? Love em'. Why are we reading this blog anyway? It's not so Don can teach us about entries and exits. I'm open to exchanging thoughts via email.

RoachApproach said...

"For while good traders strive for consistent keep over time, the better ones recognize that while doing so day in & day out, year-in & year-out, they're simultaneously always searching for those "outlier" conditions and results where it's time to push the chips hard and go after the outlier that can make that day, week, month, year, or career."

I like this one, because it shows me the way to go. I have been trading for a living now for 2.5 years and strive for consistency, but I will profit more on these big opportunities in the (soon) future!

Cheers,
Markus

Andrew said...

Outliers. I hadn't heard this word before. Einstein's special theory of relativity, Soro's bet against the pound, humanities discovery of hydrocarbons, me meeting my wife, the birth of my children....none of them daily occurences, all outliers. Nuff said.

One of the things I like most about your blog Don is the absence of moaning and negativity which seems rife on many trading sites I have come across. And that it covers much more than trading.

Keep on keepin' on