Trading Psychology | Do You Want To Be Right Or Do You Want To Make Money?

There seems to be an unspoken assumption that professional traders have to be “right” when they make a call on a stock or a market.  This assumption, in my view, is made by the majority of the public and by novice traders.

One of the best lessons I learnt in my trading career is that it matters not whether I am right or wrong on my opinion about a particular market or stock, as long as I am making money.  “Being right” is something that market analysts have to worry about (or as one of my mentors called it, the analists – if you catch my drift).  Traders are focused on making money and care little if they are right or wrong.

Sure, I’ll admit, there is a part of my ego that does want to be right when I place a trade, say on Goldman Sachs, the Euro-dollar or the futures markets.  But as a trader I have learnt to ignore the voice of my ego and instead focus on following my trading plan and setups.

Here is a brilliant article by professional trader, Peter Brandt, where he explains more about the difference between a market opinion and trading.   I think it is an important lesson in trading psychology.

Does it matter to you whether an expert gets it right or wrong?  Do you want to be right when you trade the markets?  Does it hurt your ego when you’re wrong?  Leave me your comments below.


13 Comments

  1. Great post Alessio.

    The 102 version of that should be OCO orders 🙂

  2. Great post Alessio.

    The 102 version of that should be OCO orders

  3. is simple my frend i us my minde..i don’t have nothing to give..

  4. I just want to make some money!

  5. Hi

    I have a quick question. Just watched your video regarding using the ADX @ 20 and was interested to know when your looking at the charts, what do you have the timing of the chart set to: mins, hours, days?? Which one? As this dies seem to effect the chart and ADX.

    I’d be really grateful for your insights. BTW I used your method last night to short the GBP/AUD last night and made a few quid so I’m really happy. Thanks

    Tim (somerset)

  6. Hi Alessio just a quick thanks for that most informative
    MACD video that you posted yesterday. Fascinating topic
    which i’m going to study a bit more of now. I’m looking at
    applying it to my possible Forex trading and from doing
    a little practice run this evening I can see that your advice
    is bang on the button. Well done sir.

  7. I’ve to admit that i like the excitement of trading and also making money from it but i think if you follow the right plan and keep the continuity you will be succeed even if you loose some money.

  8. Well said Amirfahad, you have captured the essence of what it means to be a trader. Well done.

  9. Hi Martin, thanks for your feedback about the videos. I am very glad to hear that the tools are helping you. Always a good idea to test it on your trading (at least 20 successful trades) before you implement it into your trading with real money. Keep up the good work. I am doing a webinar this Thursday as well which will help you too (details soon will be emailed to you).

  10. Hi Tim, thanks for the positive feedback on the videos. I appreciate it. In regards ADX, you can apply it to any timeframe you are trading on. So if you are trading on 5min charts then you apply it to that chart, and the same applies to other timeframes. Personally for me, if I am day-trading I use it on 5min charts (and some tick charts) and for swing trading I use it on 60 min, 240min charts, for medium to longer term trading I use it on the Daily charts. Would it be OK if I used your GBP/AUD trade as a case-study on my website? Your identity will be protected of course. Cheers. alessio

  11. Hi Paul – well said indeed. That was the answer I was looking for. Hope you’re doing well. Al

  12. Hey Donna – thanks for your comment. Always good to hear a different point of view. Cheers. Alessio

  13. Pingback: Trading Psychology – Leadingtrader.com | Stock Trading … | Stock … | Stock Trading Psychology Tips

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