A group of working adults got together to visit their University lecturer.
The Lecturer was happy to see them.
Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
The Lecturer just smiled and went to the kitchen to get an assortment of
cups - some porcelain, some in plastic, some in glass, some plain looking
and some looked rather expensive and exquisite.
The Lecturer offered his former students the cups to get drinks for
themselves.
When all the students had a cup in hand with water, the Lecturer spoke:
"If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up,
leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.
While it is normal that you only want the best for yourselves, that is the
source of your problems and stress.
What all you wanted was water, not the cup, but we unconsciously went for
the better cups."
"Just like in life, if Life is Water, then the jobs, money and position in
society are the cups.
They are just tools to hold/maintain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't
change."
"If we only concentrate on the cup, we won't have time to enjoy/taste the
water in it."
WATER AND LIFE
EMPATI
Suatu malam, sepulang kerja, saya mampir di sebuah restoran cepat saji di kawasan
Bintaro. Suasana sepi. Di luar hujan. Semua pelayan sudah berkemas.
Restoran hendak tutup. Tetapi mungkin melihat wajah saya yang memelas karena
lapar, salah seorang dari mereka memberi aba-aba untuk tetap melayani. Padahal,
jika mau, bisa saja mereka menolak.
Sembari makan saya mulai mengamati kegiatan para pelayan restoran. Ada yang
menghitung uang, mengemas peralatan masak, mengepel lantai dan ada pula
yang membersihkan dan merapikan meja-meja yang berantakan.
Saya membayangkan rutinitas kehidupan mereka seperti itu dari hari ke hari.
Selama ini hal tersebut luput dari perhatian saya. Jujur saja, jika menemani
anak-anak makan di restoran cepat saji seperti ini, saya tidak terlalu hirau akan
keberadaan mereka. Seakan mereka antara ada dan tiada. Mereka ada jika saya
membutuhkan bantuan dan mereka serasa tiada jika saya terlalu asyik menyantap
makanan.
Namun malam itu saya bisa melihat sesuatu yang selama ini seakan tak terlihat.
Saya melihat bagaimana pelayan restoran itu membersihkan sisa-sisa makanan di atas
meja. Pemandangan yang sebenarnya biasa-biasa saja. Tetapi, mungkin karena malam
itu mata hati saya yang melihat, pemandangan tersebut menjadi istimewa.
Melihat tumpukan sisa makan di atas salah satu meja yang sedang dibersihkan, saya
bertanya-tanya dalam hati: siapa sebenarnya yang baru saja bersantap di meja itu?
Kalau dilihat dari sisa-sisa makanan yang berserakan, tampaknya rombongan yang
cukup besar. Tetapi yang menarik perhatian saya adalah bagaimana rombongan itu
meninggalkan sampah bekas makanan.
Sungguh pemandangan yang menjijikan. Tulang-tulang ayam berserakan di atas
meja. Padahal ada kotak-kotak karton yang bisa dijadikan tempat sampah. Nasi di
sana-sini. Belum lagi di bawah kolong meja juga kotor oleh tumpahan remah-remah.
Mungkin rombongan itu membawa anak-anak.
Meja tersebut bagaikan ladang pembantaian. Tulang belulang berserakan. Saya tidak
habis pikir bagaimana mereka begitu tega meninggalkan sampah berserakan seperti
itu. Tak terpikir oleh mereka betapa sisa-sisa makanan yang menjijikan itu harus
dibersihkan oleh seseorang, walau dia seorang pelayan sekalipun.
Sejak malam itu saya mengambil keputusan untuk membuang sendiri sisa makanan jika
bersantap di restoran semacam itu. Saya juga meminta anak-anak
melakukan hal yang sama. Awalnya tidak mudah. Sebelum ini saya juga pernah
melakukannya.
Tetapi perbuatan saya itu justru menjadi bahan tertawaan teman-teman. Saya
dibilang sok kebarat-baratan. Sok menunjukkan pernah keluar negeri. Sebab di
banyak negara, terutama di Eropa dan Amerika, sudah jamak pelanggan membuang
sendiri sisa makanan ke tong sampah. Pelayan terbatas karena tenaga kerja mahal.
Sebenarnya tidak terlalu sulit membersihkan sisa-sisa makanan kita. Tinggal
meringkas lalu membuangnya di tempat sampah. Cuma butuh beberapa menit.
Sebuah perbuatan kecil. Tetapi jika semua orang melakukannya, artinya akan
besar sekali bagi para pelayan restoran.
Saya pernah membaca sebuah buku tentang perbuatan kecil yang punya arti besar.
Termasuk kisah seorang bapak yang mengajak anaknya untuk membersihkan sampah di
sebuah tanah kosong di kompleks rumah mereka. Karena setiap hari warga kompleks
melihat sang bapak dan anaknya membersihkan sampah di situ, lama-lama mereka malu
hati untuk membuang sampah di situ.
Belakangan seluruh warga bahkan tergerak untuk mengikuti jejak sang bapak itu dan
ujung-ujungnya lingkungan perumahan menjadi bersih dan sehat. Padahal tidak ada
satu kata pun dari bapak tersebut. Tidak ada slogan, umbul-umbul, apalagi spanduk
atau baliho. Dia hanya memberikan keteladanan. Keteladanan kecil yang berdampak
besar.
Saya juga pernah membaca cerita tentang kekuatan senyum. Jika saja setiap orang
memberi senyum kepada paling sedikit satu orang yang dijumpainya hari
itu, maka dampaknya akan luar biasa. Orang yang mendapat senyum akan merasa
bahagia. Dia lalu akan tersenyum pada orang lain yang dijumpainya.
Begitu seterusnya, sehingga senyum tadi meluas kepada banyak orang. Padahal asal
mulanya hanya dari satu orang yang tersenyum.
Terilhami oleh sebuah cerita di sebuah buku "Chicken Soup", saya kerap membayar
karcis tol bagi mobil di belakang saya. Tidak perduli siapa di belakang. Sebab
dari cerita di buku itu, orang di belakang saya pasti akan merasa mendapat
kejutan. Kejutan yang menyenangkan. Jika hari itu dia bahagia, maka harinya yang
indah akan membuat dia menyebarkan virus kebahagiaan tersebut kepada orang-orang
yang dia temui hari itu. Saya berharap virus itu dapat menyebar ke banyak orang.
Bayangkan jika Anda memberi pujian yang tulus bagi minimal satu orang setiap hari.
Pujian itu akan memberi efek berantai ketika orang yang Anda puji merasa bahagia
dan menularkan virus kebahagiaan tersebut kepada orang-orang di sekitarnya.
Anak saya yang di SD selalu mengingatkan jika saya lupa mengucapkan kata "terima
kasih" saat petugas jalan tol memberikan karcis dan uang kembalian. Menurut dia,
kata "terima kasih" merupakan "magic words" yang akan membuat
orang lain senang. Begitu juga kata "tolong" ketika kita meminta bantuan orang
lain, misalnya pembantu rumah tangga kita.
Dulu saya sering marah jika ada angkutan umum, misalnya bus, mikrolet, bajaj, atau
angkot seenaknya menyerobot mobil saya. Sampai suatu hari istri saya mengingatkan
bahwa saya harus berempati pada mereka. Para supir kendaraan umum itu harus
berjuang untuk mengejar setoran. "Sementara kamu kan tidak mengejar setoran?''
Nasihat itu diperoleh istri saya dari sebuah tulisan almarhum Romo Mangunwijaya.
Sejak saat itu, jika ada kendaraan umum yang menyerobot seenak udelnya, saya
segera teringat nasihat istri tersebut.
Saya membayangkan, alangkah indahnya hidup kita jika kita dapat membuat orang lain
bahagia. Alangkah menyenangkannya jika kita bisa berempati pada perasaan orang
lain. Betapa bahagianya jika kita menyadari dengan membuang sisa makanan kita di
restoran cepat saji, kita sudah meringankan pekerjaan pelayan restoran.
Begitu juga dengan tidak membuang karcis tol begitu saja setelah membayar,
kita sudah meringankan beban petugas kebersihan. Dengan tidak membuang permen
karet sembarangan, kita sudah menghindari orang dari perasaan kesal
karena sepatu atau celananya lengket kena permen karet.
Kita sering mengaku bangsa yang berbudaya tinggi tetapi berapa banyak di antara
kita yang ketika berada di tempat-tempat publik, ketika membuka
pintu, menahannya sebentar dan menoleh ke belakang untuk berjaga-jaga apakah ada
orang lain di belakang kita? Saya pribadi sering melihat orang yang
membuka pintu lalu melepaskannya begitu saja tanpa perduli orang di belakangnya
terbentur oleh pintu tersebut.
Jika kita mau, banyak hal kecil bisa kita lakukan. Hal yang tidak memberatkan kita
tetapi besar artinya bagi orang lain. Mulailah dari hal-hal kecil-kecil. Mulailah
dari diri Anda lebih dulu.
Mulailah sekarang juga.
Valuing Our Time And Opportunity
Jack baru saja mendapatkan pelajaran berharga. Ia membuka sebuah kotak keemasan dan ia mendapati di dalamnya sesuatu yang sangat berharga juga secarik kertas yang sangat berkesan.Waktu kecil ia tinggal bersama ibunya di sebuah kota kecil. Ia bertetangga dengan seorang duda yang istrinya sudah meninggal. Duda itu tidak mempunyai anak dan hanya tinggal sendiri. Pria malang itu melihat Jack bertumbuh dari seorang anak-anak, sampai kencan pertamanya, lulus dari kuliah, bekerja dan menikah.
Jack adalah seorang pekerja keras yang gila kerja. Ia bahkan tidak ada waktu untuk putrinya dan istrinya. Setelah ia menikah, ia dan keluarganya tidak lagi tinggal di sebelah rumah pria tua itu. Mereka pindah.
Suatu hari Jack mendapat telepon dari ibunya, "Ingat Pak Belser? Ia meninggal dunia hari Selasa lalu. Pemakamannya hari Kamis pagi." Kenangan masa kecilnya berseliweran dalam dirinya. Ia mengenang kembali masa-masa kecilnya dengan Pak Belser."Halo?" suara ibunya membangunkannya."Iya bu, aku akan ke sana hari Rabu," kata Jack "tapi kupikir Pak Belser sudah lupa tentang diriku.""Oh tidak, Jack," kata ibunya, "Pak Belser selalu ingat padamu. Ia ingat akan hari-hari di mana kamu main-main di balik pagar rumahnya dan hari ketika kamu duduk di pangkuannya ketika istrinya meninggal." "Beliau orang pertama yang mengajariku ilmu pertukangan. Tanpa beliau, aku tidak akan mungkin terjun ke usaha ini." kata Jack.
Sesibuk-sibuknya Jack, ia kemudian mengatur ulang jadwalnya di hari Rabu dan Kamis. Ia menghargai Pak Belser seperti ayahnya sendiri dan ia sangat ingin ada di sana ketika pemakamannya. Hari Rabu malam ia tiba di kampung halamannya. Ia dan ibunya kemudian berjalan ke rumah Pak Belser untuk terakhir kalinya. Di beranda, ia mengintip ke dalam rumah Pak Belser.
Terbesit banyak kenangan tentang masa kecilnya. Sofa yang sering ia duduk, meja makan di mana ia pernah memecahkan piring, telepon di sudut ruangan dan hey...Jack terdiam sejenak."Kotak emas di ujung meja itu hilang!" seru Jack.Ibunya bingung. Segera Jack menjelaskan tentang kotak emas di ujung meja itu. Ukurannya tak lebih dari satu jengkal orang dewasa dan bercat emas di luarnya. "Pak Belser selalu mengatakan itu miliknya paling berharga dan akan diberikan kepada seseorang yang layak menerimanya. Tapi setiap kali aku menanyakan isinya, ia selalumenjawab 'Pokoknya berharga deh'."Dan sekarang kotak emas itu sudah tidak ada lagi. Dugaan Jack, mungkin diambil oleh seorang keluarga jauhnya.
Dua minggu kemudian setelah pemakaman, seorang kurir mengantarkan sebuah paket untuk Jack. Nama Jack tertulis di atas paket itu dengan tulisan yang sangat sulit dibaca. Jack membuka paket itu... Di dalamnya ada sebuah kotak emas (persis seperti kotak emas Pak Belser yang hilang itu) dan sepucuk surat. Jack membaca surat itu, "Setelah kepergianku, tolong sampaikan kotak ini kepada Jack Bennet. Ini adalah harta paling berharga yang kumiliki." Sebuah kunci ada dalam amplop itu, kunci untuk membuka kotak itu. Hatinya bergetar, tanpa sadar ia menangis terharu, Jack perlahan membuka kotak itu. Di dalamnya dia menemukan sebuah jam saku yang indah yang terbuat dari emas. Dengan perlahan Jack membuka jam itu. Di dalamnya terukir kata-kata yang tak pernah ia lupakan seumur hidupnya, "Terima kasih, Jack, untuk waktumu. Ini saya berikan jam untukmu, sesuatu yang paling berharga bagiku. Harold Belser.""Yang ia hargai dariku adalah... waktuku." serunya perlahan.
Ia menggenggam jam itu beberapa saat. Kemudian ia menelepon sekertarisnya dan membatalkan semua janjinya untuk dua hari ke depan. "Mengapa?" tanya Janet, sekertarisnya."Aku ingin menghabiskan waktu untuk keluargaku," kata Jack, "dan Janet, terima kasih untuk waktumu."
Sobat, di dunia ini ada dua hal yang tidak bisa ditarik kembali: itu adalah perkataan dan waktu. Waktu yang sudah lewat tidak akan bisa dikembalikan lagi. Waktu tidak bisa dipaksa mundur, tidak bisa diperlambat dan juga tidak bisa dipercepat. Waktu akan terus bergerak maju dengan kecepatan konstan. Kita tidak akan bisa kembali ke masa kanak-kanak. Kita tidak bisa mengulang satu peristiwa yang sama di waktu itu.
Sudahkah Anda memberi waktu pada diri Anda dan sesama Anda? Sudahkah orang lain menghargai waktu yang telah Anda korbankan kepada mereka?
Filosofi Pohon
Seorang bijak bercerita tentang filosofi pohon ....
Ada 3 hal yg kita bisa belajar tentang pohon kata dia :
1. Pohon tidak makan dari buahnya sendiri
- Buah adalah hasil dari pohon ...dari mana pohon memperoleh makan ?
Pohon memperoleh makan dari tanah ...semakin akarnya dalam semakin
dia bisa menyerap nutrisi lebih banyak ...ini berbicara tentang kedekatan
hubungan kita dengan Sang Pencipta sebagai Sumber Kehidupan kita ...
Ada cerita menarik ...katanya buah kurma itu manis sekali ...
Kenapa bisa begitu ?
Menurut ceritanya pohon kurma itu ditanam di padang pasir ...
Bijinya ditaruh di kedalaman 2 meter kemudian ditutup dengan 4 lapisan ...
Sebelum pohon kurma itu tumbuh maka dia berakar begitu dalam sampai
kemudian menembus 4 lapisan tersebut dan menghasilkan buah yg manis
di tengah padang pasir .....
Ada proses tekanan begitu hebat ketika kita menginginkan hasil yg luar biasa...
Seperti perumpamaan pegas yg memiliki daya dorong kuat ketika ditekan ...
2. Pohon tidak tersinggung ketika buahnya dipetik orang
- Kadang kita protes kenapa kerja keras kita yg menikmati justru orang lain ...
Ini bicara tentang prinsip memberi ...dimana kita ini bukan bekerja untuk hidup,
tetapi bekerja utk memberi buah ....artinya apa ? kita bekerja keras supaya kita
dapat memberi lebih banyak kepada orang yg membutuhkan ...jadi bukan utk kenikmatan sendiri...cukupkanlah dirimu dengan apa yg ada padamu ....tapi tidak pernah ada kata cukup utk memberkati orang lain dengan pemberian kita ...
Pelajaran dari Warren Buffet seperti email yg sering anda terima tentang kehidupan
dia...beliau adalah orang terkaya di dunia, tapi kehidupannya mencerminkan kesederhanaan, katanya masih hidup di rumah yg sama yg dia tinggalin puluhan tahun lalu, pakai mobilnya yg lama juga....tapi ketika kekayaannya 35 Miliar USD dia berkomitmen utk menyumbang 31 Miliar USD, itu katanya pas jaman pemerintahan Bill Clinton awal ...
Sekarang kekayaannya justru bertambah2 banyak. .....
Berapa banyak dari kita yg sulit utk menahan nafsu terhadap barang2 bermerek, mobil2 mewah, gonta ganti HP .....
3. Buah yg dihasilkan pohon itu menghasilkan biji,dan biji itu menghasilkan multiplikasi
- Ini bicara tentang bagaimana hidup kita memberi impact terhadap orang lain ...
Katanya pemimpin itu bukan masalah posisi/jabatan ...tapi masalah pengaruh dan inspirasi yg diberikan kepada orang lain ...
Claudio Ranieri, pelatih Juventus berkata bahwa Del Piero itu adalah pemimpin, walau ban kaptennya dicopot sekalipun dia tetap pemimpin...ngerti kan ? Bukan mengenai ban kaptennya, itu hanya pengakuan saja...
Bicara tentang impact, pendiri Astra bercita2 menjadikan perusahaan ini sebagai sebuah pohon besar yg rindang dan menjadi tempat berteduh buat banyak orang ...dan hal itu mulai tercapai hari2 ini dengan jumlah karyawan 120.000 artinya memberi penghidupan kepada sekitar 600.000 jiwa....
Perusahaan ini dibangun bukan karena keserakahan memperkaya diri sendiri, tapi karena cita2 utk
"Menjadi milik yg bermanfaat bagi bangsa dan negara" (Catur Dharma ke-1)
Demikianlah yg diceritakan orang bijak itu tentang filosofi pohon ...
Semoga bermanfaat....
Selamat berkarya...
Trading evolution
I think that I reached a certain important point in my trading education. I think the moment I had two months ago was like God appearing to me as burning bush!!!
The moment I talk about is that moment when you realize that systems are mostly useless, indicators all lag and price is king! I started to use trends, support/resistance,and breakouts. This is in fact the most basic form of trading we all start with, but then we loose all that basic stuff along the way in search of the holy grail. It's such a good feeling when it's back!
Now I'm just using trendline as support and resistances and trade the breakouts. With a little help from doji's, hammers etc this is working very very well!
Now this stage is completed in the course of mastering forex, I can move on to implementing and perfecting my money management system.
Never again indicators for me , ever!!!!
HAL PENTING SAAT MENGHADAPI NEWS
Bagi saya, trading news memiliki resiko yang lebih kecil dibanding saat saya melakukan trading secara teknikal. Meski demikian demikian saya tidak pernah menganggap sepele masalah Teknikal. Banyak bukti bahwa pergerakan harga yang disebabkan oleh News, ketika berhadapan langsung dengan Teknikal kuat maka pergerakaannya akan teredam. Oleh karena itu, sebelum melakukan trading News saya selalu mengamati pergerakan harga sebelum news direlease. Beberapa hal yang selalu menjadi catatan adalah :
1. MA100 dan MA200 di H1, H4, D1dan Timeframe yang lebih tinggi adalah merupakan support dan resistant yang kuat.
2. Daily pivot, juga merupakan support dan resistant yang baik. Terutama bila open price jauh dari pivot.
3. Perhatikan support dan resistant di hari-hari atau jam-jam sebelumnya terutama yang dibuat oleh News kuat dari negara pair yang anda amati.
4. Gambar vertikal support, resistant dan trendline di timeframe H1 dan H4 keatas.
Jadi pada intinya saya selalu memperhatikan support dan resistant terdekat ketika sedang menghadapi News. Dan biasanya support dan resistant tersebut adalah gerbang exit dari posisi saya.
Hal lain yang saya perhatikan adalah:
5. Bila di hari yang sama ada 2 News dan News tersebut adalah milik dari sebuah negara , maka :
Bila News yang lemah direlease terlebih dahulu, maka biasanya tidak banyak trader yang ikut dalam volume perdagangan News tersebut, karena sebagian besar trader menunggu direleasenya News yang lebih besar. Misalnya : Pada hari yang sama, UK Service Production di release jam 4 sore dan UK BOE Interest Rate di release jam 6 sore. Maka biasanya efek yang dihasilkan oleh UK Service Production hanya 50% dari efek yang biasanya terjadi.
Dan bila News yang kuat direlease terlebih dahulu dan menciptakan support atau resistant kuat, maka S/R tersebut akan berlaku bagi News selanjutnya.
6. Jangan ambil posisi melawan arah news setelah news dirilis, meskipun sepertinya sudah hit resistant atau support kuat dan mulai berbalik arah. Ingat!! Support dan resistant hanya digunakan untuk exit target.
7. Jika nilai data News yang telah direlease diperkirakan dapat mengerakkan pair dengan kuat namun ternyata gerakannya tidak sekuat yang kita prediksi dan setelah initial spike ternyata harga langsung rebound ke pre-release price artinya sentiment pasar sedang berlawanan dengan data dari News.
Biasanya setelah rebound harga akan kembali menuju ke arah sesuai data yang di release namun harga akhir dari initial spike akan menjadi S/R kuat dan kemungkinan rebound lagi di S/R tersebut.
Contoh: US NFP akan direlease, konsensus 100K, harga ada di 1.9600, data keluar 60K, diperkirakan menggerakkan pair 60 pips, ternyata di menit pertama harga hanya bergerak 40 pips di 1.9640 dan kemudian harga balik lagi ke dekat pre release price 1.9605, maka jika kita mau beresiko kita ambil posisi buy disini dengan harapan harga bergerak lagi sesuai data yang direlease ke 1.9640 lagi dan segera exit di nilai tersebut.
Jangan berharap harga bergerak lebih jauh lagi mengingat sentiment pasar yang berseberangan dengan nilai data.
Dan jangan ambil posisi SELL karena berseberangan dengan nilai data yang baru direlease.
8. Hati-hati dengan Libur Nasional. Besarnya Efek dari data yang direlease terhadap nilai mata uang akan sangat berkurang bila waktu release data bersamaan dengan hari libur yang tentunya tidak semua trader ambil bagian dalam volume perdagangan pada saat tersebut.
Contoh: NFP 6 April 2007, bersamaan dengan hari Jum'at Agung (Good Friday). Diprediksi dengan nilai data yang direlease dapat menggerakkan GU minimal 90 pips, namun ternyata hanya bergerak lambat sebesar 39 pips di initial spike. Dan total kurang lebih 52 pips.
9. Bila lebih dari 1 data news yang di release diwaktu yang bersamaan dan ternyata data yang direlease mengalami konflik maka yang terjadi adalah :
a. Bila data-data yang direlease memiliki bobot yang berbeda misalnya : AUD Retail Sales (news kelas 1) dan AUD Building Approval (news kelas 3) maka biasanya yang terjadi adalah akan terjadi retrace hingga 50% cepat setelah spike dan kemudian secara perlahan-lahan harga akan bergerak sesuai dengan data news yang lebih kuat.
b. Bila data-data yang direlease memiliki bobot yang sama misalnya : US NFP dan US Unemployment Rate maka biasanya yang terjadi adalah akan terjadi retrace cepat hinggabalik ke prerelease price setelah spike dan kemudian secara cepat harga akan bergerak sesuai dengan data news yang lebih dominant pengaruhnya (dalam hal ini US NFP)
Winners Simply Do What Losers Won’t Do
Adopting the belief that “winners” simply do what the “losers” will not do is very useful in many aspects of life. After all, that is the case in the field of investing and trading. So let’s step into that belief and see what naturally follows.
Here are some winner/loser opposites. If you find yourself disturbed by any of these, you may have stumbled across a clue to an area in which you need to spend some time.
1) A winner crafts a detailed business plan which includes on-going reviews and sticks to the plan.
A loser thinks a business plan is something he’ll get to one day in the future after he has achieved some success trading.
2) A winner designs systems with high positive expectancy, sound money management strategies, minimal degrees of freedom to avoid curve fitting, and then puts the system into his business plan for implementation. He lets the market determine the outcome.
A loser has a continually changing system/methodology based on whether or not the last few trades were winners or losers. He is scared of what "may happen to him" in the markets in the future. His position size is controlled by whims and notions. His exit points vary depending on how fearful he is of giving up open profits or how hopeful he is that a losing trade will turn around.
3) A winner knows that his method will provide the long term return he is after if he implements it correctly. A loser thinks he has to continually be looking for a new indicator to eliminate having to enter trades that lose money. A winner knows deep in his heart that he is completely responsible for the outcome of each and every trade.
A loser assumes responsibility for winning trades while blaming floor brokers, brokerage firms, hedge funds, international news events, or simply "the market" for losing trades.
4) A winner is not trying to prove anything about himself through his trading activities.
A loser thinks he’s the master of the market, closing a big winning trade,and then gloats in his outstanding success he had "beating" the market.
5) A winner knows he’s a winner even after an expected 12 losses in a row.
A loser is sure he’s almost worthless as a person after 5 losses in a row.
6) A winner realizes that he produces the emotions he experiences related to trading and assumes responsibility to resolve deep-seated root causes for negative emotions that interfere with his trading business.
A loser knows that it’s the market that causes him to feel depressed or angry, and he’s determined to fight this beast.
7) A winner gladly shares trading advice to less experienced people.
A loser thinks that he needs to look cool as a suave trader and talk down to those less experienced than him.
8) A winner is aware that his methods and systems may require modification as time proceeds, and he develops appropriate boundaries of performance which will indicate whether or not he needs to review his system.
A loser is sure that all he has to do is find "the right system or method" and then he will forever more be able to sit back and enjoy easy profits. He feels slighted by professional traders since they claim not to have any great secret indicators, and he "knows" they’re lying to him.
9) A winner understands the level of capitalization required to successfully implement his trading business plan.
A loser thinks that his $5,000 account is a great start for trading highly leveraged commodities, and the day he opens the account he feels like he’s really off to the races now.
10) A winner knows that it is up to him to develop the skills necessary to create, test and evaluate sound trading systems and methods.
A loser knows he just hasn’t looked hard enough to find that special system someone has created which will bring him all the wealth he’s ever dreamed of ("damn those professional traders - if only they would tell me their secret indicators").
11) A winner looks forward to opportunities to give back to the world some of what he has learned along the way to becoming a successful professional trader.
A loser knows he has to keep everything he learns secret since if anyone finds out where he places his one lot stop orders, then they will try to run the market to his stops to hurt him.
12) A winner who goes long on an upside break-out only to be stopped out at the bottom of the correction of the failed break-out four days later can simply reenter on another upside break-out a few days later.
A loser in the same trade gets mad that the market retraced all the way to his stop and then reversed. As prices rally back through to a second break-out he gets even madder since he’s not in the trade he tried to take. Two months later after a tremendous rally, the loser is so angry at the market for what "it’s done to him" that he finally buys (just days from the top of the move).
13) A winner runs his trading business wisely—carefully managing his fixed and variable costs of doing business and making capital investments which provide a worthwhile return to his business.
A loser spends all the money he can afford to buy the latest computer hardware and the hottest (best marketed) trading software he can find—with no understanding of the return expected from his investments.
14) A winner knows he needs to continually work on his feelings and emotions related to his trading business as he grows in success and equity.
A loser knows that he only needs to buy additional software and systems and perhaps attend the "latest guru’s" trading method to achieve what he’s after.
15) A winner knows what his goals are and he has criteria established to measure his level of achievement.
A loser’s goal is "being rich", and he’s sure that it’s only a matter of finding the "right" answer for how to trade.
In Time for Thanksgiving
Time is rushing by,
Because that is what it's like.
So unless we slow down,
We might feel that we have never lived.
Memories of decades passed,
Are so fresh and vivid in my mind,
Images and feelings all rolled into one,
It is like they just happened yesteday.
If decades are collapsed into days,
Then what remains of the years ahead,
We will feel like we haven't even began to live,
And it is all very soon coming to an end.
But the laws of nature tells me,
The arrow of time is constant.
No, our feelings do not lie,
A thousand years to God is but a day.
So as we race toward eternity,
We feel time more like God feels.
We feel that much Nature's laws remained
For us to yet discover.
We exaggerate Time's importance,
It is just a marker for events.
After helping us to record so many,
We naturally feel that not many remain.
Yet life is not measured by the number of events,
But the meaning that each one brings
Hence God gives us the Seasons,
And the Special Occasions to celebrate.
These were lead-in lines of our lifes' stories,
They made our lives beautiful,
By enriching our relationships,
And gave them meaning.
And the most meaningful of them all,
Must be Thanksgiving!
Only when we learn to give thanks,
Only then we notice how our cups have overflowed.
I will slow down in order to Give Thanks!
The Fruits of Your Trading Success
The fruits of your success will be in direct ratio to the honesty and sincerity of your own effort in keeping your own records, doing your own thinking, and reaching your own conclusions.
I find time and time again that losing traders are making the same mistakes:
1. They don't keep any records.
2. They do no testing.
3. They become euphoric about (and increase risk wildly after) wins.
4. They become despondent about (and decrease risk wildly after) losses.
5. They focus on how much money they want.
6. They rarely / never think about how much they stand to lose on a trade.
7. They set their stop loss based on a 1:1 or 1:2 risk to reward ratio, just to make the ratio look good.
8. They discount the importance of psychology.
9. They over-value the importance of the trading "system."
10. They have no routine.
Doing and Not Doing
Becoming consistently profitable as a trader has as much to do with learning to not do some things as much as it has to do with learning to do some other things.
Overcoming the negative behaviors can be made much easier by making a routine for doing the positive behaviors.
The more you test, you less you trade (this is good). The more you study risk control, the less you feel compelled to increase your trade size erratically. The more you keep records of your trades, the less arbitrary your decisions will become. The more you do your own homework and research, the less you will depend on someone else to tell you what to do. The more often you get up on time, eat what you should, keep your body healthy, the more likely it is that your mind will be clearer. It's the simple routines that matter in trading.
It's not too late for you to change your routine. What are you going to change?
The Fear Factor
I was chatting with a friend tonight about trading and she said she still had the "fear factor" when it came to pulling the trigger and taking a trade. It made me think. There are only a few reasons that people fear taking a trade:
1. Their trade size is too big. If the monetary loss if your stop is hit is frightening you, then lower the trade size. If the loss if your stop is hit is greater than 1%, take a long hard breath, think about your spleen, and reduce the trade size.
2. They haven't really tested their system. No testing = very little confidence.
3. They are afraid of being wrong. This usually relates back to #1 or #2 above.
The Woo-Hoo Timeline
The Woo-Hoo Timeline of Progression is a simple graph that explains the trajectory by which most traders make progress to trading for a living. There is a myth that progress as a trader is linear, meaning we see a trader make small gains, day after day, until one day they have morphed into a full time trader who can support themselves by their trading profits alone.
In reality, the progress of a trader towards trading for living looks more like that pic.In other words, it's all about long periods of plateaus (the Ho-Hum times) interrupted by Woo-Hoo moments and breakthroughs. Many traders don't succeed because they give up during the Ho-Hum times. Their system is "not working like it used to," or "My schedule has changed," or "I am just breaking even and not making progress." At times like this, traders start to do all kinds of terrible things to try to force the progression upward, and that invariably fails.
The Ho-Hum moments are when traders lose hope.
The Woo-Hoo moments are when a trader finally understands that risking less on every trade means that long-term, he will make more money. Or when a trader finally admits that he cannot trade from the 5 minute chart, but instead needs to look at longer term setups because he has a full-time job. Or when he realizes the power of backtesting, or being disciplined in all areas of his life, or of keeping good records of his trades.
Saturday is a Special Day
Some people are so addicted to trading (and I was one of these people for lot of years) that they are upset on Friday when the market is closing. And they are excited about Monday coming.
Nowadays, I am thrilled for Saturday. There isn't a thing I can do about my open trades. There isn't a chart that I can look at and plan anything that wasn't able to be planned yesterday. Stephen Covey, the self-help business author, recommends that you take some time to "Sharpen the Saw," or, in other words, get away from your business (trading) life, and get your mind and body in shape.
Saturday is a perfect day for that. Read a good book (not about trading). Spend time with your family. Wake up early and go for a walk. Clear your mind. Take a one-day sabbatical from the business of trading. You can find that you have breakthroughs and epiphanies about trading when you become deeply involved in something else.
Living Comfortably
Living comfortably isn't about trading a $1,000,000 account and trading for $100 per pip. It's not about buying a huge house in Menteng or driving a Jaguar or having a jet. It's not about being able to afford first-class plane tickets and staying at the Four Seasons.
So many retail traders are focused on what they will be able to buy once they start trading "big time." When I talk to them about trading for $1 per pip to start, and then working up from there, they are positively underwhelmed. Everything else I say is drowned out by the fear of not being able to get rich enough to live comfortably within a very short period of time.
The truth is that living comfortably isn't about all of those other things. It's about being comfortable living with less. It's about saving, not earning; about not risking rather than taking the big risk for the big score; it's about compounding gains over time rather than the lottery win. One of the best things a new trader can do for himself is to reduce his standard of living.
What is also fascinating to me is that by learning to compound gains over time, a trader becomes truly self-sufficient -- as opposed to hitting the jackpot on a single trade (which is not something easily replicated).
Long Term
As you mentioned it seems that nothing really happens in the beginning [profits come slowly at first and then start to exponentially increase] but then it starts to balloon. Is that what you were alluding to at the seminar? All it takes is patience. What I am really saying is that so many of us overestimate the short-term and massively underestimate the long term.
See this link great article from Fortune Magazine. It's old but super relevant to your progression as a trader. And a quiz about fear of success.
Hey! Your Glasses Don't Work!
"So and so's strategy doesn't work. He shows charts, and indicators, and whatever, but when I do it, it doesn't work."
Why is that?
How can a system work for one person and not the other?
The issue is that when you are trading a discretionary system, and you do enough testing to make it your own (this is a lot of testing -- at least 1,000 trades), you are essentially fitting yourself for a pair of glasses.
These glasses, once you fit yourself for them, work for you. They're your glasses. If you hand them to your friend while he's driving, he's likely to crash. What if he said to you, "These glasses don't work! They are terrible glasses!"
You'd say, "These glasses are not for you. They're mine." When you learn a system from someone else, from a book, a Web site, or a newsletter, you have to remember that in order to make it your own, you have to have your own experiences with the system. You can't just take it out of the box, and put it on like a pair of someone else's glasses.
Principles
"As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble."
Agreed. In your trading, focus on the big principles (money management, disciplined execution of a system, keeping a schedule).
Most People Won't Do the Work
I received an email from a frustrated trader today. Let's call him Ming. That's not his name, but I like the name so that's what we're going with.
Ming wrote me to say that:
I created a personal web blog at [then he tells me his blog address which he is keeping private] to track my progress. Only you, my wife and Fred [a mutual friend] know it exists. As you can see I stalled out.
His frustration comes from having "stalled out." After a month of posting, and planning, and trading, he feels that he has backtracked, or not made enough forward progress, or that he was doing just fine and things kind of fell apart. He was looking at about 10+ currency pairs, but he's now looking at just 5. He is following the same system every day. he is consistently applying the same rules to the charts. He is doing his best to practice trade in a trade simulator (although this has not appealed to him as much).
My advice to Ming is this: you are doing what it takes to become successful. I would strongly encourage/beg you to not give up on the simulated testing. But other than that, you are putting an amazing amount of work into your goal of trading for a living. Most people don't want to do this kind of work. Let's reflect on a quote from Michael Covel's new book "The Complete Turtle Trader":
To cultivate that extra drive [exhibited by successful traders], however, requires deliberate practice. Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger has lived it; he has said, "In my whole life, I have known no wise people over a broad subject matter area that didn't read all the time -- none, zero." Most people do not want the real work that comes with real success.
That quote sums up much of what I feel about unsuccessful traders. It's not about your math skills. It's not about having some innate gift for trading. It's about work and practice.
Ming, you're on the right track. Keep yourself on it.
Knowledge and Confusion
I've learned for myself, and seen it in many others, that the more they or I learn and then try to apply, the more confused we can become.
To me, this doesn't mean that we have to stop learning or reading books or investigating new methods. What it does mean is that it's important to separate the learning process from the application of the learning. I make the analogy that trying to follow multiple trading systems can be like trying to drive a car with multiple steering wheels. It just won't work. It becomes confusing and it's overcomplicated.
The statemens about stepping back and having an open mind, and about you having to learn for yourself, that was quoted in this thread, are so very true in my experience. Through your own observations, and open-minded (so well put!) interaction with new ideas, and reading, etc, you are going to get an idea of what indicators or methods make the most sense to you.
And then you have to do more than observe -- of course this is my opinion and I am excited to hear what others have to say -- then you have to test the methods that you learn. You go back in time and you apply what you have learned and you prove whether it works or not. You learn whether the method experiences drawdowns that are unnacceptable, or whether it has a great win percentage but a bad average winner to loser size, or whether it requires you to keep an unrealistic schedule that negatively affects your health. This process of learning, making a hypothesis, and then testing that hypothesis, can take a long time. That's why so many traders fail, I think: they realize how much effort can go into "making a system your own" and instead they just start trading again, because of financial pressures, an addiction to trading, or because they simply feel that all that testing is unnecessary.
Once that learning and testing process is complete, you start applying what you've tested in the market. Do you get the same results? Or are they not what you expected based on your testing? You can share your results with a friend or mentor or spouse or people at FF -- someone who cares about your success. They can hold you accountable to apply what you have learned and tested in a disciplined way, and then they can help you stop trading if it's not working, or encourage you to be confident and continue to take the necessary risks associated with trading if the system is working.
All throughout this process, you are emphasizing learning and testing, and making a system "your own", and you are de-emphasizing lots of trading, you are reducing stress about whether you are doing it "right", you are proving to yourself that you can learn and test and implement.
And then as you implement a system that you have made your own, and you are profitable, you can repeat the process with more learning, more testing, and so on. It can be a continuous process that lasts a lifetime.
To bring it full circle, hopefully, one helpful thing for me (which I have seen with others) is that they focus their learning on one or two things at a time, then test, then implement, then hold themselves accountable to others and themselves. And this reduces the confusion associated with looking at so many things, so many systems, so many methods, and not "knowing what to follow."
Forex Trading & The Science Of Getting Rich
I first became aware of “the science of getting rich” a number of years ago when someone sent me a reprint of a book of that name by Wallace Wattle.
The book is a very “dry” read but the author claimed that getting rich was an exacting science which means that if anyone applied the rules – to the letter, then the outcome, by scientific definition, would be a true replication.
In other words, if one were to apply the rules of “the science of getting rich”, one would inevitably become rich.
In many ways, not dissimilar to applying a trading system that is proven to work, provided the user applies the system rules exactly, then the same success should be replicated time and time again.
You will recall – unless you have been trading Lunar Currencies (joke) – that we recently had a liquidity problem in the markets brought about by the meltdown in the sub-prime mortgage market.
In “the science of getting rich”, Wallace Wattle points out the necessity of generosity. In fact he states that one must give freely and although I may be slightly misquoting he suggests that “one should never miss the opportunity to give”.
It is a fact that almost all successful people give away money. I know that this may sound unlikely but check it out.
Warren Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock valued at around $40 million to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the world’s largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Yes that’s right, Bill Gates of Microsoft fame gives away very large amounts of his fortune to charitable causes. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are far from being alone in giving away money.
Perhaps wealthy people understand more than most that the cycle of money must be kept in motion. You need to give to receive.
So what do “the science of getting rich” and forex trading have to do with each other?
In my opinion, rather a lot!
As we saw with the credit crunch, when money stops flowing, it causes a ripple effect that increasingly affects more and more people. As long as the money flow continues, there is opportunity for all, but when it stops, there is nothing but trouble ahead.
With the act of giving, according to “the science of getting rich”, one is perpetuating the mental attitude of plenty. In essence you are in the mind set of “I have plenty so I can give freely with the full expectation that I will receive even more”.
Being in the right mind set is a very important part of becoming a successful trader.
It is rather like “Trading in the Zone” (an excellent book on trading attitude by Mark Douglas). When you are in the mentality of winning, you carry on winning, but when you are in the mentality of “lack” you are just waiting for failure, which surely will come along.
If you would like to dynamically improve your trading there are a number of things you might consider, and these could include making sure that you have a well proven trading system, making sure that you are always in the “right” mind set when trading and being prepared to “pass on” some of you winnings to a good cause.
