Aloha from the Northwest and a bit on market objectivity

Aloha traders, greetings from Seattle and currently Hood River, OR. I will be out of town until September 10th, and will not resume normal trading activities until September 12th. I may, however, put a few posts up in between now and then. I was able to make some very successful trades this past week, and WHAT A WEEK it was. Remember, this market is extremely unstable, volatile, and of course you do not need me to tell you this, but it is unpredictable as well. The best part about all of what I just mentioned is that it does not matter. How could that be, you ask? How could the movements of the market not matter to my trading? Well, honestly, it is not as simple as just that statement, but in one sense it is, because you success as a trader relates entirely to objectivity and probability within your trading edge. Many people will research until their mind is numb, but where does this endless search for 'how to be right' take you? In my opinion it actually reverses any potential advancements one may make in their trading at one point or another, simply because when things are working, many traders take it upon themselves to all of a sudden become more subjective, and inherently less objective which masks one's ability to asses their trading edge in such a way that consistency and independent thinking become far out of reach. The most important aspect of being a successful trader, is the ability to control one's emotions, thoughts, and as a result of these effects, control the result. This in no way means that you can control the outcome of each trade, because to think this is to think that one can KNOW what the market will do next, but controlling what you CAN control, such as, emotions, thoughts, and physical behavior will ultimately put you, the trade, in control of how you implement your edge. This is the only way to determine whether or not you have an edge on the market, as testing your strategy over a period of sample-sizes is absolutely necessary. I bring this ideas of objectivity and controlling behavior to this blog entry because these ideas can transform your trading. Imagine what would have happened, and did happen, to many traders this past week who were objective, did not control their emotions, allowed their thoughts to influence their behavior, and ultimately took trades based upon subjective, pointed evaluation of what the market WILL DO. So, if you were one of these traders, who bought into the 'breakout' two Fridays ago, I truly hope that your stops were tight and the losses were cut quickly. Without objectivity and emotional control, it would have been almost impossible. Its not your fault, it is being human. But it is avoidable.

Aloha.