As of 03/28/2024
  Indus: 39,807 +47.29 +0.1%  
  Trans: 16,212 +183.07 +1.1%  
  Utils: 882 +7.51 +0.9%  
  Nasdaq: 16,379 -20.06 -0.1%  
  S&P 500: 5,254 +5.86 +0.1%  
YTD
 +5.6%  
 +2.0%  
 +0.1%  
 +9.1%  
 +10.2%  
  Targets    Overview: 03/13/2024  
  Up arrow40,000 or 38,500 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow16,300 or 15,350 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow885 or 830 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow16,600 or 15,200 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow5,350 or 5,100 by 04/01/2024
As of 03/28/2024
  Indus: 39,807 +47.29 +0.1%  
  Trans: 16,212 +183.07 +1.1%  
  Utils: 882 +7.51 +0.9%  
  Nasdaq: 16,379 -20.06 -0.1%  
  S&P 500: 5,254 +5.86 +0.1%  
YTD
 +5.6%  
 +2.0%  
 +0.1%  
 +9.1%  
 +10.2%  
  Targets    Overview: 03/13/2024  
  Up arrow40,000 or 38,500 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow16,300 or 15,350 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow885 or 830 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow16,600 or 15,200 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow5,350 or 5,100 by 04/01/2024

Bulkowski on Procrastination

Procrastination: Farmer Bob

Our hero, Basket Case Bob, is not dangling by a fingernail from the ledge of a high rise in some exotic country, nor is he commanding an army in Afghanistan. Rather, he is perfecting his trading system. It's not quite right. Another tweak here, a moving average crossover there, and he will be almost done.

Almost.

In fact, he's been working on what he calls the Holy Grail system, one that never loses and makes big profits, since I have known him. He is using his unfinished system as an excuse to avoid trading. Are you the same way?

Deep down, what is his problem? Is he secretly in love with his mother and hates his father? Of course! He's a basket case, after all, but his real problem is fear.

It all started when he was a young farmer. Farmers are risk takers, to be sure, but his family equated trading the stock market to gambling. When he took an interest in the markets, they criticized him and warned him about the risks of failure.

"Fred the Red traded the futures market," warned his dad, "and now look where he is. He lost his farm!"

"He's right," added his mom. "Benevolent Betsy was investing for her charity and now it's in foreclosure."

Those warnings and a difficult economy reinforced Bob's fears about trading for a living. And the longer he goes without trading the worse he is likely to do once he starts. Why? Because all of that stored anxiety will burst through and compound the difficulty of making a proper trade. He'll be a nervous wreck.

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Procrastination: Problems Areas

Here is a list of problems traders and investors may come across.

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Procrastination: Study

What did Basket Case Bob do? He studied the best traders in the company where he worked using the following methods.

Since the traders all worked for the same company, he could simply ask them how they achieved their success, but he also watched them in action.

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Procrastination: Trading Plan

Once he had analyzed several pros to understand why they were successful, he created a game plan of his own. He followed these rules.

  1. Goals. Without setting goals, there would be no measure of success or failure. Within x days, y weeks, and z months, he would have monetary benchmarks to meet for each period.
  2. Risk. How much was he willing to lose? How much was he willing to bet on a single trade? Answering these money management questions and others helped define his trading parameters.
  3. Trading Style. When he studied successful traders, he found different mechanisms that worked best for their trading style.

    Some traders preferred a quick in and out, cut and run method, catching the swings from low to high and the reverse. Others preferred a more relaxed system that waited for the longer run of a breakout.

By assessing his own lifestyle, he tailored his plan to his personality. Those too impatient at stoplights might prefer the 1-minute scale with quick trades, catching each ebb and flow of price. Those in the slow lane that drive the speed limit prefer to wait for the breakout from a trading range. They switch to the longer time scales on their charts to determine entry and exit points.

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Procrastination: What Successful Traders Use

From his study of traders, he discovered the following.

-- Thomas Bulkowski

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See Also

 

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