How to think like a professional trader 4 of 4
Watching this strikes me to the core.. My tendency to identify, adopt and marry a trade is very detrimental. Even profitable trades are corrupted because I never want to close them. Need to understand that trades are not my cats. They are probability bubbles to find, watch as they grow and then pop them on your terms. Before they drift away!
Shocked to find out that he died in 2015, suddenly, no cause given. Age 67 and he had taken up exercise, particularly running and was excited by how good he felt, mentioned in the video. Net worth about 20 million and a kind, sincere teacher. Oh my... Thought provoking.
Enjoy Bret Steenbarger on trading psychology as well. Also Jack Schwager's videos are monumental. Amazed to find out that all these wise men traders are passionate about cats! To a great extent. Well, I've got that base covered in spades with 37 on the farm, all elderly.
hayman,
I watched the first part of this and highly recommend that EVERYBODY interested in trading watch it.
Thanks extremely much for such a wonderful positive contribution!
Hi hayman,
Thanks for the link. I noticed there is a set of 4 of these lectures. I haven't started yet, but I am planning to go through all of them during the next few days.
I didn’t know he had passed away…. Sad news!
Mark Douglas was a great teacher… a great motivator.
Trading isn’t only about studying “fundamentals”, or knowing how to read charts…. Quite important are the mental battles that go on in a trader’s mind, when engaging with the markets. Fear, as well as over-confidence can quickly mess up a good trade.
Several of his books address this subject.... they focus on trading psychology… on the importance of a “trader’s mindset”.
Reading about his passing, brings back memories….
When I met him, quite a few years ago, I asked him to autograph one of his books for me. I asked him to write “To Gunter, the best trader I have ever met”. Of course, I was joking, when I made this request. To my surprise, he did write it down in my book, but started the sentence with “possibly the best…”, hedging the statement a bit.
Disclosure: Needless to say, I am not in the same league as he, when it comes to trading skills.
He will be missed.
A thread on the futures.io forum devoted to Mark Douglas. Particularly revealing of his genuine sensitivity and caring is this post:
"Super sad to learn of this news. I was fortunate enough to meet him at a seminar in 2012. Very tender human being. I could perceive from him a unique sensitivity. He is/was a believer in intuition with regard to trading and spoke a lot about it. As a result for his instruction I find intuition my most valuable quality in my trading.
During the seminar he spoke about how incredibly difficult it is for him to write and never wanted to become a writer. He said he would agonize over every sentence, and had to choose just the right words. At a very deep level he wanted to help people even though writing was not necessarily his thing he suffered thought it in order to reach and help more traders. I spoke to Mark regarding writing and offered my father-in-law's help as a sort of writers group. My father-in-law is a child psychologist and writer who lives near Mark Douglas and is in a number of writing groups. Mark took down the information with pen and paper and was genuine about it."
Dear Mark Douglas,
Now that the cage of the soul is broke take flight and speed forth into infinity to your new abode and higher level of existence. Death to this world is birth to the next realm. Very honored to have had the opportunity to meet you sir.
Below is Mark and I in Chicago 2012.
 |
|
thank you, hayman, for the addtional comments about Mark Douglas
Wonderful story and great picture.
Thanks for sharing hayman!!
There is a lengthy video tribute to Mark Douglas at the Shadow Trader website. It requires a passive registering, but appears a genuine educational site affiliated with Tasty Trade. Tasty is a very kind, educational oriented brokerage with extensive support material. Once registered with Shadow Trader, just put "Mark Douglas in the search bar. I just now registered myself and am listening to them expound on his most famous quotes. Worthwhile in my opinion. Looking forward to aquaint myself with Shadow Trader attributes, charts and spread information. Just saw it on youtube without registering on Shadow Trader. Here it is
More Educational Videos from Tasty Trade without registering
I've not watched but the first part of your first video hayman and though I don't use a trading system some things that he said really clicked in my head about pulling the trigger on trades and why people are fearful.
People are afraid because SOMETHING is going to happen. Prices are either going to go up, go down or stay the same..........and they don't know which one it is for sure.
However, if you have a system that works 65% of the time, that shouldn't matter in the long run. And you can't know which ones will work if you are using a system telling you when to buy or sell. You just have to take all the signals and if you have a good system.........in the long run you will make money.
I don't use a well defined system but I realized that sometimes, I don't pull the trigger because I worry that on THAT particular trade, my weather analysis will not work because some of the time.........there are wild spikes that make no sense and I worry that one of them will happen right after I put on the trade.
Thanks for the links hayman. Mark had a lot of insights to the markets. And this series is great.