Saturday, October 18, 2014

Monday, October 13, 2014

HArmonic trading / Trader or Gambler ?

Analysis and decision-making helps remove the emotional
(gambling) aspect and allows traders to confine their prospective
trading strategy to a 1:2 – 1:6 risk versus reward base.
 

Anything less than 1:2 becomes unworthy of the time
to trade when the return is no more than risking one
pip to gain one or one and one half pips.
Anything more than a ratio of 1:6 becomes an improbable trading scenario.

http://i.gyazo.com/cecff60e86d58c15a63a7c1e397afb72.png
 
 

Quote - Paul Tudor Jones - Risk Control

At the end of the day, the most important thing is
how good are you at risk control. Ninety percent of any
great trader is going to be the risk control.
 -Paul Tudor Jones

It would just be a matter of playing the odds and obeying your
money management rules when you trade.
 
 

Thursday, October 2, 2014

EVO SIM - Scalping vs. Swing Trading - Monthly income vs. Wealth Creation - 100 % focus

My Best practice trading day ever !

"A trade like this won't pay the mortgage,
but it does allow me to pick up an extra shot of espresso the next time I'm at Star-bucks.

Of course, the idea here is that ...
scalp trades are used to generate monthly income,
and
swing trades are used to create wealth. "

~ John Carter - Mastering The Trade, 2nd Ed.

After today .. I believe that scalping
can
MORE than pay
just the mortgage ;)





~ TheTRINI
;)

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Tools - Education - Learn from other Execs thinking to run your business the way it needs to be run.

From Forbes ... (circa 2010 ?)
http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/17/executive-mental-toughness-leadership-managing-athletes.html

Six Elements Of Mental Toughness


The business world just keeps getting more complex. Indeed, a recent study by IBM of 1,500 global chief executives (Capitalizing on Complexity)indicated that they felt the greatest issue facing them was the escalation of complexity.
Complexity and turbulence in the business environment may be here to stay, but they present opportunities as well as challenges for leaders. As a business school dean, I run a more than $80 million business in an increasingly competitive marketplace. With over 33,000 stakeholders, I know the pressure isn’t going away, and so do other leaders in my organization. More likely, it will intensify. Still, I say, “Bring it on!”
Let me explain.
My son plays soccer in a competitive league. He practices three days a week and trains in specific skills with his coach. Also, he and I train together. Not only do we run sprints and engage in long bike rides to build speed, endurance and strength, we also work on the mental game associated with playing competitive sports.
Research and common sense tell us that top competitive athletes succeed because of their physical talents and their dedication to training. However, they also succeed because of their dexterity in dealing with the psychological pressures of a sport. In short, mental toughness and resilience are tremendously important for any athlete aiming to be the best in a sport.
As a result, many athletes engage in training their psychological readiness. At the root of mental training in sports is this question: Are you mentally tough enough to compete?
It is not simply a matter of my son’s knowledge, ability and skill in soccer. It is also his psychological preparedness for the game, including skill in dealing with the stress of strong competition, recovering from mistakes and failure quickly, determining strategies to tackle tough situations, adjusting with each circumstance and game, collaborating with a team, celebrating successes but not becoming overconfident and keeping positive before, during and after the game.
Using research and literature from sports psychology, such as James Loehr’sThe New Toughness Training for Sports, my son and I actively work each week on his mental game. When we do so, I recognize dramatic similarities to conversations that I have with business executives.
Many have shared with me that their companies have taken a brutal pounding for the last two years, and even those who have had some success are citing fatigue in this new complex game of business. But, just as with athletes, they don’t rely only on knowledge, skills, ability or past success to traverse difficult situations. They draw on an attitude, a toughness that allows them to push through hard situations and face adversity with confidence. As businesses look to the future, their top people need to think about whether they have game-ready leaders who not only have technical skills in business but mental toughness as well.

There are at least six markers of mental toughness from sports psychology that apply equally well to business situations. As with athletes, business leaders need to ask, am I mentally tough enough to compete?
1. Flexibility. Game-ready leaders have the ability to absorb the unexpected and remain supple and non-defensive. They maintain humor even when the situation becomes tough. If something isn’t going well or doesn’t turn out as expected, they remain flexible in their approach and look for new ways to solve the problem. Just like a quarterback faced with a broken play, a leader may have to decide quickly on a different way to get the ball down the field.
Also, leaders must continually be open to re-educating themselves, even in the basics, which they may have taken for granted for too long. They need to exercise caution in defensively falling back on ideas they know and are comfortable with rather than looking for new ways of doing business.
2. Responsiveness. Game-ready leaders are able to remain engaged, alive and connected with a situation when under pressure. They are constantly identifying the opportunities, challenges, and threats in the environment. They understand that they need to think differently about how their environment and business operate.
The problems we encounter now are messier and more complicated than ever before. They often can’t be solved in the ways others were. Game-ready leaders look for new ways to think about these problems and, more important, look for fresh ways out of these problems. They have a sense of urgency about responding to the changing face of business.
Just as a coach may change strategies at halftime in response to the way a game is going based on the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, game-ready leaders in business must respond to changes in the environment and the players.
We must pay close attention to and understand global, national, regional and local economic trends, market trends, consumer trends, industry trends and competitor responses. Relying on old assumptions about how business operates and assuming that last year’s trends still hold today is dangerous. Leaders make decisions and act based on up-to-the-minute and in-depth knowledge of what is really going on in business now.
3. Strength. Game-ready leaders are able to exert and resist great force when under pressure and to keep going against insurmountable odds. They find the strength to dig deep and garner the resolve to keep going, even when in a seemingly losing game. They focus on giving their best and fighting hard until the end, with persistent intensity throughout the game.
The story of Team Hoyt, Dick and Rick, is an inspirational example of drawing on both inner and physical strength. Rick was born in 1962 to Dick and Judy Hoyt and was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. His parents were advised to institutionalize him because”there was no chance of him recovering, and little hope for Rick to live a ‘normal’ life. This was just the beginning of Dick and Judy’s quest for Rick’s inclusion in community, sports, education, and one day, the workplace. In the spring of 1977, Rick told his father that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Far from being a long-distance runner, Dick agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair, and they finished all 5 miles, coming in next to last. That night, Rick told his father, ‘Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.’ At that moment, they formed Team Hoyt and have run many races together with now impressive times. The 2009 Boston Marathon was officially Team Hoyt’s 1,000th race.” (Adapted from the Team Hoyt website.)

Just as athletes dig deep to find the physical and psychological strength to continue through adverse and tough situations, game-ready business leaders must exhibit the same strength. As James Loehr puts it, top athletes think, “While this is tough, I am a whole lot tougher.” Game-ready business leaders bring the same intensity, through all the continual pounding.
4. Courage and ethics. Game-ready leaders do the right thing for the organization and the team. They suppress the temptation to cut corners or to undermine others so they come out on top. They have the courage to make the hard but right decisions for the organization.
A famous story I share with my son as an example of courage and ethics in sports is that of the tennis player Andy Roddick. In 2008 Roddick was the No. 1 seed at the Rome Masters. He was at match point and about to win. The umpire called his opponent for a double-fault serve. Walking to shake his opponent’s hand, Roddick noticed a ball mark on the clay–in bounds. Roddick got the umpire’s attention and pointed out that the ball had nicked the line but was in fact in bounds. The match continued. Roddick went on to lose the match, and his beyond-the-call-of-duty honesty made him famous as an upstanding person, an opponent who would do the right thing. Game-ready leaders in business do the same. PepsiCo provides a great business example of this. A disgruntled Coca-Cola employee and two other individuals attempted to sell proprietary information to Pepsi. Pepsi received a package containing a sample of a new Coke product and other information. Pepsi immediately informed Coke, which contacted the FBI. Game-ready business leaders ultimately win by making the right and courageous decisions.
5. Resiliency. Game-ready leaders rebound from disappointments, mistakes and missed opportunities and get right back in the game. They have a hardiness for enduring the downs of a situation. They remain optimistic in the face of adversity and quickly change when necessary.They resolve to make things better and are experts at figuring out ways to do more with fewer resources. How about the resiliency of Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga, who was just one out away from pitching a perfect game when Jim Joyce, the first-base umpire, called a runner safe who was indeed out? Joyce had made an error. Galarraga was certainly deeply disappointed, but he continued to pitch and get the next batter out. Afterward, Joyce admitted the error and apologized. Galarraga shrugged it off, saying, “Everyone makes mistakes.”
6. Sportsmanship. Game-ready leaders exhibit sportsmanship. They don’t let the opponent know when he or she has gotten them down. “Chin up,” I say to my son. Clearly we all experience disappointment, attacks from others, an occasional blow to the stomach. However, the behavior exhibited by game-ready leaders after losing or being attacked by others or the situation sets the tone for the rest of an organization. Additionally, top athletes support their teammates and their roles. If teammates start competing with and attacking one another, it is definitely difficult to win.
Living in Denver, I follow the Denver Broncos. Kyle Orton has done an outstanding job of displaying sportsmanship while under public scrutiny. Brought to the Broncos last year, he has been the subject of constant press speculation about possibly being replaced. The drafting of Tim Tebow brought on another press outcry, that Kyle was out and Tim was in. Kyle handled it with grace and dignity. Putting his mind to the game and the team, he got on the field and simply practiced hard, welcoming his new teammate. In the face of even internal competition, Kyle Orton exhibits the mentality of “Bring it on!”
We all need these same markers of toughness to succeed and lead in today’s business environment. We cannot succeed on technical skill alone. Companies have tough questions and situations to address. Game-ready leaders go into today’s business environment with their best mental game and with the attitude of “Bring it on!” After all, who doesn’t love the challenge and fun of a demanding, complex game?
Christine M. Riordan is the dean and a professor of management at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver.

Tools - Education - Mental Conditioning

From Sports ... Basketball .. but still usable ...


5 WAYS TO BECOME MORE MENTALLY TOUGH

"Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes." Chinese Proverb
Mental toughness means  backbone, daring, determination, fortitude, guts, mettle, moxie, nerve, perseverance, resolution, spirit, tenacity, toughness. It is  is the ability to persevere in pursuit of a goal; no matter how long it takes.
Here are five ways to become more mentally tough on and off the court.
1. Do the hard things first. Pick your weakest spot and work on it first every practice. Choose the weight lifting exercise you like least and do it right away. Pick the subject you need the most work in and always start with it. If you wait, chances are you won’t want to work on your weakness or you will not give it your best effort. When we choose the hard things in life we develop mental toughness and life becomes easier. When we always choose the easiest we get weaker.
2. Be specific. If you want to work on upper body strength, write down the specific number of push-ups you will do. Counting backwards can help motivate you to finish. When working on math, pick a time limit and the number of problems you want to get finished in that time limit. For shooting, decide how many shots you will make in a row from different spots on the court, if you miss more than two shots in a row, sprint dribble down and back with the off-hand.  Write down your goals and put them somewhere you can see them everyday. 
Be accountable.  Whether you are working on your game, your attitude, or your grades have someone hold you accountable in areas you are likely to give up and not work on. Choose someone you can work together with or someone who is a mentor who can help teach you how to develop mental toughness.  For example, in ball handling, compete against a good player for the highest score, then whoever loses does one push-up. Make a goal to encourage each other and pick someone who will motivate you to keep going.
4. Deal with problems. When life is hard we want comfort not change, but those who have learned the secret of being mentally tough have learned comfort now can mean pain later, whereas a little pain now can yield a big reward in the future. We know we are not choosing the right way to handle our problems when we look for comfort in ignoring the problem, becoming bitter, using gossip, or simply by trying to escape. We need to learn to open up with a trusted parent or adult. We need to learn to talk to people not about them. We need to address problems with courage and kindness before becoming bitter and resentful. Every time we run away from our problems, more problems follow. The minute we decide to deal with problems we become more mentally tough and better able to handle problems in the future.
5. Guard your thoughts. The reason why it's called mental toughness is because what you think determines how you act. If you want to become more mentally tough, you have to become tough about what you think. Certain thoughts should never be in your head. Replace weak thoughts like, “I can’t, I’m tired, I’m bored, “ with strong thoughts. An athlete training for basketball season didn't like to run. The first time around the track for a conditioning run left her feeling exhausted. Her mentor asked what she was thinking as she ran around the track. "I hate running. This is awful. I want to stop." She admitted. The next time around the track, her mentor asked her to change what she said in her head to, “I love to run, my body is strong, I feel great.” The second time around she ended with a huge smile. She said, “I had no idea how big a difference what I thought made on what I do and how I feel. Even though I didn't think it would work, it did. I felt great .”
For more tips on basketball and to find a basketball camp visit www.nbccamps.com.  NBC Basketball Camps is the largest overnight basketball camp program in the world and is a division of USSC Sports Camp Network.

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