Windows of Opportunity: The Real Holy Grail?

[Ken]

Patience, followed by decisive, though less frequent, action on optimal windows of opportunity should become the norm for all traders in this group. Maybe the legendary Trading Holy Grail is hidden behind this simple discipline!

Thank you Billy. This is indeed a common discipline that I've observed among successful traders. In my experience, it becomes difficult to keep up with the ebbs and flow of the market when I'm completely in cash as psychologically & emotionally I've disengaged. I found it easier to be patience and at the same time keep myself in sync with market actions by maintaining a very small position in play.

What do you find to be effective ways to maintain just cash position yet at the same time maintain that "edge" where you are still immersed in the market actions ?

-Ken

[Rembert]

Very true. I might also add that buy signals from Pascals 20DMF also offer great 'windows of opportunity' to get into discretionary stock positions. They don't occur often, I think 3 to 4 times a year, but they are well worth waiting for.

[Billy]

Thank you Billy. This is indeed a common discipline that I've observed among successful traders. In my experience, it becomes difficult to keep up with the ebbs and flow of the market when I'm completely in cash as psychologically & emotionally I've disengaged. I found it easier to be patience and at the same time keep myself in sync with market actions by maintaining a very small position in play.

What do you find to be effective ways to maintain just cash position yet at the same time maintain that "edge" where you are still immersed in the market actions ?

-Ken

Ken, my daily six-hours routine and 7 hours RT market monitoring are enough to keep me immersed in the market actions whether in cash or not! When in cash, I simply try to see if the next high probability window of opportunity is approaching fast or not and I am focusing on the planning of my next trade if it is near instead of worrying about an existing position. For most people, staying invested 10% of a normal position size or trading some small options positions should probably be effective ways to stay connected with market reality.

[Charl]

Thank you Billy. This is indeed a common discipline that I've observed among successful traders. In my experience, it becomes difficult to keep up with the ebbs and flow of the market when I'm completely in cash as psychologically & emotionally I've disengaged. I found it easier to be patience and at the same time keep myself in sync with market actions by maintaining a very small position in play.

What do you find to be effective ways to maintain just cash position yet at the same time maintain that "edge" where you are still immersed in the market actions ?

-Ken

Trading is an odd occupation. No other job that I can think of can prepare you for what it takes to become a successful in trading. What other profession can teach you (give you experience) to be successful and maintain an edge by remaining patient at doing nothing - taking no action most of the time but be ready at any time?

for me to relate - think about the game of soccer, a 90 min game (i think) on average each player touches the ball about 5min to 10 min during the course of the game. Those few minutes are critical to the overall success of the game, and each player needs to be ready at any time to receive the ball an be on his A game - So for me, the principal that can be applied to trading is what do I do when I don't have the ball/ or trade on ? what am I thinking of during that time, am I doing stuff that makes me feel (emotionally) I'm working hard (like in other jobs) yet I'm pissing away money? Of course the last thing you need to do is do something to lose your mental edge or be come inpatient and then get whipsawed when I do decide to enter a trade.

Billy, as far as I can tell from following your post over the past 15 months - you are born to think and act like a trader, you do it without even thinking about it! I'm learning from you and relating your comments/princials to stuff I can understand and apply to my personality. Hope my soccer analogy can help some-one else whith similar questions.

thanks, cheers
Charl