E-Mini Trading Is About How You Think and React
I have been thinking about writing this article about e-mini trading for quite a while, hoping to string together meaningful words about the thought process consistently profitable traders utilize.
I am the first to admit that discipline and technique are essential skills in the e-mini trading process.
On the other hand, I have known more traders than I care to admit that knew more about trading than anyone in the room and were far more disciplined than most people; yet they could not fully grasp trading at the emotional level and remained mediocre.
There is an intangible in e-mini trading, especially e-mini scalping, that is difficult to describe.
Yet, I can spot it in an individual after trading less than an hour with them.
Proficient traders have a wise, pragmatic, and aggressive personality about them that stands out in a crowd of lesser traders.
This is not to say that they are big, brawny-type of individuals in the physical sense; but they are big, brawny sized individuals in the thinking sense.
They understand risk and are precise in their thinking and are instinctively predatory because for every 50 tick winning trade there is a corollary 50 tick losing trade.
They intrinsically understand that in order for the successful trader to win, there has to be corresponding losing trader.
The difference between a well-trained successful trader and a well-trained unsuccessful trader is in how they think.
The great traders I have known have a symmetry in their thinking and analysis that is unique to the trading profession.
Like professional athletes, there is heartbreak and exhilaration on the trading floor but the great traders are generally reserved and take their overwhelming number of winning trades in stride with the occasional loss, and they trade and think with surgical precision, never the center of attention; yet, the swirl of traders around them always felt their presence and were fully aware of the skill level and professionalism they brought to the floor.
I don't believe great traders are born; instinctive trading is a myth.
On the other hand, when great training, experience, and technique combine with superior emotional control and "acquired" trading instinct it is a sight to behold.
So, how do you acquire this type of thinking? It is my opinion that right thinking traders develop over the course of their career and remain ever-vigilant students of trading.
I have read in several books that you have to learn to "think away" the impulsive mistakes that are the stuff of beginning e-mini traders.
I have never been able to control what I am thinking, but I do believe that you can control your reaction to improper e-mini trading impulses.
The more you trade and succeed, the better your reactive sense becomes; in short, you get better with each winning trade and each losing trade.
I suppose the rate that you assimilate the knowledge you gain, both winning and losing, will ultimately be the decider of your long term success.
Writing about intangibles is a difficult task; you know skill and experience when you see it, but trying to convey a mode of thinking is no small undertaking.
It is far easier to describe what you see in a great trader than to get inside his or her head and explain the combination of great skill and intangible instinct.
I hope I have shed some light on this topic, or at least set you on a path to achievement goals in e-mini trading.
As I tell every new trader in my program, trading is about thinking.
I am the first to admit that discipline and technique are essential skills in the e-mini trading process.
On the other hand, I have known more traders than I care to admit that knew more about trading than anyone in the room and were far more disciplined than most people; yet they could not fully grasp trading at the emotional level and remained mediocre.
There is an intangible in e-mini trading, especially e-mini scalping, that is difficult to describe.
Yet, I can spot it in an individual after trading less than an hour with them.
Proficient traders have a wise, pragmatic, and aggressive personality about them that stands out in a crowd of lesser traders.
This is not to say that they are big, brawny-type of individuals in the physical sense; but they are big, brawny sized individuals in the thinking sense.
They understand risk and are precise in their thinking and are instinctively predatory because for every 50 tick winning trade there is a corollary 50 tick losing trade.
They intrinsically understand that in order for the successful trader to win, there has to be corresponding losing trader.
The difference between a well-trained successful trader and a well-trained unsuccessful trader is in how they think.
The great traders I have known have a symmetry in their thinking and analysis that is unique to the trading profession.
Like professional athletes, there is heartbreak and exhilaration on the trading floor but the great traders are generally reserved and take their overwhelming number of winning trades in stride with the occasional loss, and they trade and think with surgical precision, never the center of attention; yet, the swirl of traders around them always felt their presence and were fully aware of the skill level and professionalism they brought to the floor.
I don't believe great traders are born; instinctive trading is a myth.
On the other hand, when great training, experience, and technique combine with superior emotional control and "acquired" trading instinct it is a sight to behold.
So, how do you acquire this type of thinking? It is my opinion that right thinking traders develop over the course of their career and remain ever-vigilant students of trading.
I have read in several books that you have to learn to "think away" the impulsive mistakes that are the stuff of beginning e-mini traders.
I have never been able to control what I am thinking, but I do believe that you can control your reaction to improper e-mini trading impulses.
The more you trade and succeed, the better your reactive sense becomes; in short, you get better with each winning trade and each losing trade.
I suppose the rate that you assimilate the knowledge you gain, both winning and losing, will ultimately be the decider of your long term success.
Writing about intangibles is a difficult task; you know skill and experience when you see it, but trying to convey a mode of thinking is no small undertaking.
It is far easier to describe what you see in a great trader than to get inside his or her head and explain the combination of great skill and intangible instinct.
I hope I have shed some light on this topic, or at least set you on a path to achievement goals in e-mini trading.
As I tell every new trader in my program, trading is about thinking.