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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 July 2006 Table of Contents (1) Quote on Making it Happen (2) Article - Accept Failure and Move Forward (3) Trader's and Investors Expo - Brisbane (14/15 July) (4) Technical Analysis full day workshop - Singapore (23 July) (5) Website Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stay up to date with all that is happening at Trading Plan, by subscribing to our 'Trading Blog' (no email address necessary). I am continually adding content and every update of this site is announced here, including minor content updates, page additions, and product releases. So stay plugged in by subscribing to this site's RSS feed. Copy and paste the address below into your RSS reader to receive the Trading Plan RSS feed... http://www.trading-plan.com/Trading-Plan.xml Not sure what RSS is? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- 1 -- Quote on Making it Happen "Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen." Lido 'Lee' Iacocca (1924 - ). -- 2 -- Accept Failure and Move Forward It was only a few weeks ago and I was presenting a 1 hour seminar on Developing a Trading Plan at the Trader’s Expo in Melbourne. After announcing my outline, I started out by explaining the importance of having a plan in the first place and how essential it is that you convince yourself of its importance. If you are not convinced that it is important then you won’t spend the time and effort developing one. Amongst other things, I stress the importance of finding an edge and separating yourself from the majority. This is crucial because the majority fail and unless you know what your edge is – unless you know how you are going to separate yourself, you will probably end up with the majority. Who is this majority I speak of? The majority normally refers to most of the market participants who don’t make money. How many times have you read or heard someone say that only 20% of people make money trading and the rest (aka the majority) fail. I even said it myself as I was opening my presentation. But as quickly as I said it, I tempered my remarks by questioning who supports these conclusions that only 20% of traders make money and the rest don’t. I certainly don’t have any evidence to suggest it is accurate. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it really is just a cliché. I don’t know of any evidence to suggest this is true. Are there any audited reports with statistical data from a wide range of broking accounts where the figures all add up? It had me thinking after my presentation and it was made even clearer to me with a discussion with someone. He mentioned my brief digression in my presentation about the cliché of how about 20% making it trading etc. He also didn’t think it was entirely accurate. He went on to say that trading is similar to most professions in that you have 20% who are very successful, 20% at the other end of the scale who are never going to make it and this large 60% group in the middle who are in neither camp. You have the majority who certainly are not failing but at the same time, they are not meeting or exceeding their expectations of themselves. They along with the 20% ‘no chance’ group make up the majority (80%). I started to agree with him. OK, let’s assume that most people don’t fail - they just don’t meet their expectations with their trading. They are in the 60% group and just plod along. What moves us then from the middle group into the ‘exceeding expectations’ group? I think there are a few reasons why and they all lie within ourselves. I think most people are afraid to fail at certain times in their lives and are not prepared to take risks. This may be a key barrier to enjoying the success we really seek. I also believe that most people subconsciously view failure as a negative experience – this shouldn’t be the case. John Keats (1795 – 1821), a significant English poet said, “Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.” There wouldn’t be too many people who have had more failures than the great Thomas Edison, yet he never saw them as failures – they were positive experiences on the road to success. He said, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” He also recognised that most people struggled with the idea of failure. He added, “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” I have lost count of the number of times I have said to myself that ‘Life is short’ and ‘you only live once – this isn’t a dress rehearsal!”. When I say it, my next thought is always about taking a little extra risk and trying to not worry about what might go wrong. Sometimes, I think we need to make a real conscious effort to go after our dreams and goals, and almost forget about the possibility of failing. Maybe this positive step might break down the barrier and move people out of the 60% group and up into the ‘exceeding expectations’ minority. With that in mind, Go For It !
-- 3 -- Trader's and Investors Expo - Brisbane (14/15 July) The Traders and Investors Expo makes its next stop in Brisbane this weekend on 14 and 15 July 2006. The expo will be held at the Great Hall - Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Entry is $15. I will be presenting a 1 hour seminar on both days and my topic will be 'Developing your Trading Plan'. The presentations are $35. The official website is http://www.tradersexpo.com.au/traders&investors/bne_home.htm -- 4 -- Technical Analysis full day workshop - Singapore (23 July) Throughout the course, I will be passing on to you all of the things I look for when entering trades. For the price of S$168 for the whole day, if you don't think this is the best value trading course you have ever attended, then I will like to know what is. Bookings and further details are available by contacting Dickson Yap on +65 9788 8141 or dicksonyap@dpr-intl.com -- 5 -- Website Update In the last couple of weeks, amongst Trader's Journal Editor duties and going away camping with the family, I have been writing content for the new section on the trading-plan.com website - technical analysis. So far I have added some information on chart patterns, candlestick patterns and trends. Visit http://www.trading-plan.com/ta_general.html Soon, I will be adding information about some of the popular technical indicators that people use. If there is anything you want to learn about specifically in technical analysis, do not hesitate to contact me. Contact details are at http://www.trading-plan.com/contact_us.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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