to such techniques as the two gap methods I havediscussed. However, if you are able to sit and watch the market on anintraday basis, then you must find those techniques which appeal toyou and which are also consistent with your abilities as a trader. Youmay not, for example, wish to watch the markets tick by tick in order totrade on the support and resistance methods presented in this book;rather you may wish to trade such techniques as the intraday pop. Ifthis is the case, then it is entirely possible using certain trading softwareto set indicator alerts which will inform you when such signals haveoccurred. Certainly this is also possible in terms of identifying whencertain support or resistance levels have been touched. A number ofonline trading software programs will allow you to achieve this goal.
If You Are Already an Active Trader. If you are already day trad-ing, then examine the techniques presented in this book for ideas andmethods or indicators and suggestions which may help you improveupon what you are doing. If, however, you are already totally satisfiedwith your techniques, then I would be the first to suggest that you notalter them substantially. If you feel that there is potential for you to prof-it using my suggestions, indicators, and methods, then I strongly recom-mend opening a separate day-trading account in order to implementthese ideas in a fashion which does not interfere or confound what youare already doing.
Prepare for Your Day. Although I prefer to prepare for my tradingday early each morning, some traders are not able to do this or prefermaking their preparations the day before either after market closings orin the evening. Either approach is acceptable as long as there is somedegree of organization and preparation in what you are doing. I havefound that many of my trading blunders occur when I make impulsivedecisions. This is not to say that unplanned-for decisions cannot bemade during the day; however, it is important for traders to have a verygeneral overview of what to do the next day.Putting It All Together 193
For those who are trading the gap systems, the preparatory work isvery clear indeed. Go through the markets prior to opening (either thenight before or that very day) and find those markets which have closedvery close to their low price for the day or very close to their high pricefor the day. Jot down market and contract month and watch these mar-kets for possible gap openings the next day. This will allow you to pre-pare for possible trades and to filter out those markets in which you willhave no day-trading interest due to either their lack of volatility, thintrading volume, or characteristically small price moves. Do not assumethat any given market is an unfit candidate for gap trades. Frequently,markets which have been known as sleepers spring to life following anopening price gap.
Support and resistance may also be determined in advance using theMAC method and the intraday charts. I strongly suggest that you dothis work in advance as well. As you can see, my preference is to studythe markets in advance whether for potential signals, developing chartpatterns, or to find approaching support and/or resistance levels.
Determine If Any Important Reports Are Scheduled. Althoughmany traders enjoy the thrill of watching markets respond to major gov-ernment reports and/or news items, I am not impressed by the aboveand actually prefer avoiding the markets until the dust has settled fol-lowing the release of such reports. Market response may create certaintrading opportunities, but I think that the average trader is far better offwaiting until the news has been digested and then entering his or herday trades.
I have found that those trading signals which occur after the first hourof trading, after overnight news has been assimilated, after importantreports have been released, and after the trading participants have hadan opportunity to express their sentiment by buying or selling tend to bemore reliable. I have also found that signals which occur toward the last1 to 2 hours of each trading session tend to be more reliable. I have nohard statistical evidence to support this assertion or observation, but Iurge you to study the markets and make your own observations.
Keep Good Records. | would be a much richer man today had Ilearned in my early days as a trader that good record keeping is impor-tant, especially for the day trader. As an active trader, the day-to-daynecessities of tracking your positions, making certain your price fills arecorrect as reported by your broker, making certain you remember tocancel and/or replace certain orders, and making certain that yourorders have been filled, are very, very important. Errors occur frequent-ly and must be corrected immediately, otherwise they may prove costly.194 Chapter Twenty-One
I suggest you either use a trading card such as those used on theexchange floor, or construct yourself a spreadsheet such as the oneshown in Figure 21-1. Better yet, track your positions on a computerspreadsheet which you may easily design yourself in any of the popularspreadsheet programs.
Your record-keeping system need not be elaborate. It need only behighly functional. When an order has been filled, check the order off.When an order has been canceled, cross the order out. When an orderhas been canceled and replaced, indicate so. Make sure you enter ordernumbers on your spreadsheet. An order number will be given to you byyour broker (in most cases) when the order is placed. This will simplifythe search process when attempting to discover if an order has beenfilled or in canceling an order. This is especially important for extremelyactive day traders. Ask your broker to give you an order number eachtime you place an order.
Also jot down the exact time you placed your order or use one of themany popular time stamping machines and actually write an order tick-et for each order you place. You may think that this is an unnecessarilydetailed or compulsive procedure, but believe me, it is not. For those ofyou who have seen my office, this close attention to detail may seem anincongruity in my personality. It may very well be, yet I find it neces-sary in order to preserve and protect my account from costly errors.Organization and good record keeping are extremely important for theday trader.
Check your positions every day before trading begins. Make certainthat your orders from the day before have been executed correctly as
 
Figure 21-1. Sample daily trading record.Putting It All Together 195
given and at the correct prices, namely the prices which were reportedback to you. Report any changes, omissions, and/or corrections anderrors to your broker immediately! The longer you wait, the more likelyit will be that the error will be yours regardless of whose it actually was.Some brokerage firms offer a preliminary position run at the end of thetrading day for their active traders. This run is downloaded by comput-er and may be printed out at your office frequently before 4:00 p.m.Chicago time. For those of you who are extremely active traders, such apreliminary run will prove very helpful. In addition to the spreadsheetor trading card that I recommended, a number of commercially avail-able electronic notepads small enough to fit in your pocket will do thejob quite well.
Check your orders frequently during the day to make sure that youhave not forgotten to cancel an order or that you have not neglected tojot down an order number. All this may seem somewhat unnecessary toyou, but I can assure you that it will pay off not only in the short runbut in the long run as well. I cannot overemphasize the importance ofgood record keeping as a basic building block for successful day trading.
Placing Orders Promptly and Correctly. | have already reviewedwith you previously my suggestions, explanations, and caveats aboutorder placement. Unless you are a very experienced trader who isalready familiar with all the terminology and with the applicability ofdifferent trading orders to different types of markets and for differentpurposes, then I urge you to review my definitions and suggested appli-cations. Correct order placement is absolutely crucial to successful daytrading. Review order placement and make certain that you are commu-nicating correctly with your broker. An incorrect order will be costly inmany cases.
Avoid Extraneous Input. | have stressed the importance of thisbehavior throughout the book. The day trader is constantly being bar-raged by a plethora of extraneous inputs which can achieve virtually nouseful purpose other than to distract, dissuade, confuse, or intimidate. Isuggest, therefore, that you keep extraneous information to a minimum,not allowing it to impinge upon your space or to infringe upon yourtrading decisions. In the vast majority of cases, decisions which areaffected by extraneous input will not prove profitable. With the exceptionof specific instances which may prove beneficial, e.g., taking advantage ofnews to exit or enter a position as previously discussed, extraneous inputis the enemy of most day traders and should be kept to the absolute mini-mum. Some day traders benefit from reading certain publications, paying196
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attention to the news, or consulting the opening market indications, but Ifind that such information is frequently not productive and unfortunatelycounterproductive in many cases.
Keep a Trading Diary. Another little device which has helped meconsiderably over the years is my trading diary. While this may againseem an unnecessary and compulsive preoccupation, I assure you it isanything but compulsive. I have found that the maintenance of adetailed trading diary, particularly for those who are new to day trading,can be one of the most effective learning tools available to the day trader.Your diary should contain a list of all trades that were made, the reasonor reasons that you entered these trades, the reason or reasons that youexited these trades, and any other comments, particularly of an emotion-al undertone, which may have affected your trading decisions. Thisdiary should be available for review and should in fact be reviewed atleast once daily, preferably at the end of each trading session or previousto the next trading session early in the day so that you may relive bothyour trading errors as well as your trading successes. The review willhelp you learn and will therefore increase your winning behaviors whiledecreasing your losing behaviors. It can also help you learn a great dealabout the trading systems or techniques which you are using, whetherthey are the ones suggested in this book or otherwise.22
The Psychologyof Day Trading
Perhaps the single most important aspect of any trading methodology,whether for the long term, intermediate term, short term, or day trade,is the psychology of the trader. My work with trader psychology datesback to the first trade I ever made in 1968. Having been trained as a clin-ical psychologist, and having practiced as such for quite a few years, Iam very familiar with the limitations of the trader and with the psycho-logical road blocks which traders constantly throw in their own paths.My book, The Investor’s Quotient (Wiley, New York, 1980), published in1980, has continued to be a best-seller through the years, indicating notnecessarily that my writing skills are tremendous but rather that traders realizetheir limitations and seek to know more about how to overcome them.
There are those who will disagree with me, but I feel strongly that thischapter is possibly the most important one in the entire book. Whilemany of you may choose to either ignore what I have said in this chapteror skip it entirely, I do sincerely believe that to do so would be the worstmistake you can make. Although it is impossible to completely discuss inone chapter what takes several books to explain thoroughly, I will do mybest to acquaint you with the pitfalls which await you as a day trader.
Day traders are in the unique position of having a very short termrelationship with the market. For many years day trading has been con-sidered to be the most speculative of speculative trading activities. Ibelieve that this is a market myth that has been perpetuated by thosewho are unable to day trade or who are afraid to do so. The fact of thematter is that the day trader is in an advantageous position. The trueday trader understands the limitations of what can be achieved withinthe day time frame. The day trader is, therefore, the sharpshooter offutures trading. The day trader is interested in finding the correct target,taking aim at it, pulling the trigger, and bagging the prey. As mercenary
197198 = Chapter Twenty-Two
as this may sound, that’s what day trading is all about. The effective daytrader will keep his or her powder dry, will aim only at the mostpromising targets, and will aim only at targets which are likely to be hit.
The day trader must be consistent, efficient, adaptable, and persistent.These are the most important qualities that a day trader can develop.Because day trading is unique among the many different avenues whichare open to futures traders, day trading has its unique brand of psychol-ogy. In this chapter I will attempt to acquaint you with the major issuesthat face the day trader and, moreover, to suggest to you methodswhich may be used to overcome your limitations, and to maximize yourstrong points.
A Successful Day Trader NeedsDiscipline
Before we examine the psychological and behavioral issues that limitsuccess in day trading, let’s examine the qualities which facilitate orenhance day-trading results. The first among these is discipline.Certainly by now you've heard the word discipline hundreds if not thou-sands of times. It is probably one of the most worn out terms in allfutures trading. The problem is that merely saying the word is onething, but understanding its true definition operationally, or on a behav-ioral level, is a far more important thing. What do I mean by discipline?
= Discipline is not just the ability to develop a trading plan and to staywith it, it is also the ability to know when your trading plan is notworking and, therefore, knowing when to abandon it.
= Discipline is also the ability to give your day-trading positions suffi-cient time to work in your favor or, for that matter, sufficient time towork against you.
= Discipline is the ability to trade again once you've take a loss. It is theability to ignore extraneous information and to avoid inputs whichare not related to the system you are using.
Discipline is the ability to maintain reasonable position size and toavoid the motion which leads to overtrading.Discipline is the persistence required to maintain your trading sys-tems and to calculate the necessary timing indicators consistently dur-ing the day, either manually or by computer.
Above all, however, discipline is the ability to come back to thetrading arena every day, regardless of whether you have won, lost, orbroken even the day before.The Psychology of Day Trading 199
You can see, therefore, that discipline consists of many differentthings. Discipline is not any one particular skill. Perhaps the best way tounderstand trading discipline is to examine some of its componentbehaviors. Let’s look at a few of these.
Persistence
This is, perhaps, the single most important of all qualities that a tradercan possess. Day trading, and for that matter all futures trading, is anendeavor which requires the ability to continue trading even whenresults have not been good. Due to the nature of markets and tradingsystems, bad times are frequently followed by good times, and goodtimes are frequently followed by bad. Some of a trader’s greatest successeswill occur following a string of losses. This is why it is extremely importantfor traders to be persistent in applying their trading methods and tocontinue using them for a reasonable period. Those who quit too soonwill not be in the markets when their systems begin to work; those whoquit too late will run out of trading capital. Therefore, while persistenceis important, it is also important to know when a trader has been toopatient when it is time to quit and not play any longer using the systemwhich you have been using.
If persistence is so important, then how does the trader develop it?The answer is simple, but the implementation is not. Persistence isdeveloped by being persistent. Although this may sound to you like acircular answer, it is truly not. The only way to be persistent is to force your-self initially to do everything which must be done according to the dictates ofyour systems or method. Try this, if you're having difficulty. Make a com-mitment to a trading system or method. Follow through with thatapproach for a specific amount of time taking every trade according tothe rules or, if the system is subjective, attempting to trade the systemwith as much consistency as possible. If you have been consistent inapplying your rules, then you will find that, in most cases, your consis-tency will have paid off, and you will have profits to show for yourefforts. Even if your trading was not successful, you will have learned agreat deal. You will have learned that you can follow a system ormethod, that you can trade in a disciplined fashion, and, moreover, thatthe only way to do so is to be persistent by following as many of thetrades and rules as possible.
Compare this to the ignorance and confusion which come from hap-hazard trading or by applying trading rules inconsistently. Think backto your experiences as a trader. Remember your worst losing trades.You will find that those losses which have been taken according to a system or200
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method are easier to accept psychologically, whereas those which have not beenaccepted according to the rules have often turned into terrible monsters, ulti-mately costing you much, much more than they should have, financially as wellas psychologically. If you would like to master the skill of persistence,then you will need to practice it. Make the commitment and I think youwill see some wonderful results, even over the short term.
Willingness to Accept Losses
Here is yet another important quality that the effective day trader musteither possess, acquire, or develop. Perhaps the single greatest downfallof all traders is the inability to take a loss when it should be taken. Losseshave a nasty habit of becoming worse rather than better. Unless they aretaken when they should be, the results will not be to your liking.
Although it is easier for the day trader to take a loss than it is for theposition trader (since a loss must be accepted by the end of the tradingday), it is still the downfall of many a day trader who is unwilling toaccept the loss when it is a reasonable one. The good day trader musthave the ability to take a loss when the time to take that loss is right.What's right is dictated by the particular trading system or risk manage-ment technique which is being used. I would venture to say from myexperience and observations that perhaps 75 percent or more of all largelosses are due to the fact that losses were not taken when they were small or rel-atively small or when they should have been taken.
I can certainly speak from experience when I say that my largest lossever resulted from the fact that I refused to take the loss when the time wasright. I allowed a $500 loss to turn into a $5000 loss. Fortunately, thatwas the first and last time I was guilty of that serious a transgression.Unfortunately, many traders, a great many traders in fact, refuse to takelosses when the time is right. Fortunately, the day trader has two oppor-tunities to take a loss. The first one is at the stop loss point as determined bya system or at the predetermined dollar risk stop. The second point is at the endof the day. A day trader is, therefore, fortunate inasmuch as he or she isforced to liquidate all positions at the end of the day. This will keep loss-es smaller than they would be if losing positions were carried overnight.
Here are some suggestions as to how you may improve your ability totake losses when they should be taken:
1. Formulate your stop loss rules very specifically. Do this whether theyrelate to systems or dollar risk amount, and type or write your rulesin large print. Place the hard copy close to your quotation equipment,the computer which you use for trading, or the telephone from whichyou place your orders. If you do not use a computer or quotation sys-The Psychology of Day Trading 201
tem for your trades, then please keep your rule handy on an indexcard and refer to it frequently during the day.
2. Make the commitment to accept your next 10 losses completely as dictatedby your system. Once you have done this, the behavior will becomehabitual and losses will be easier to accept.
. If you trade with a full-service broker or a trading partner, make your bro-ker or partner aware of where your stop loss will be. Have them remindyou that you must exit your position accordingly. You may wish togive them the authority to do so for you, assuming of course, thatyour relationship with them is sufficiently close to allow for such aprocedure.
Ww
-4, Place your stop loss. A much more simple procedure, although I do notnecessarily recommend it at all times due to the nature of day trad-ing, is to actually place your stop loss as soon as your entry order hasbeen filled.
These suggestions will, I feel, help you master the ability to takelosses in a timely and rational fashion.
The Ability to Avoid Overtrading
Too many day traders feel that they must trade every day. Let’s face it,some traders are addicted to trading. A day without a trade for them islike a day without a meal. The fact is that there are some days whichoffer few if any trading opportunities. The day trader who wishes to pre-serve capital and avoid losses as well as unnecessary commission chargesshould understand that day trading is not an everyday event. There will bedays when no trades are indicated. Believe me when I tell you thatthings are better that way.
One of the telltale signs of the day trader about to go astray is thesearching-for-a-good-trade syndrome. Have you ever found yourself sit-ting at the computer or quotation screen, bored because there have beenno trades that day? Have you ever found your fingers idly rambling overthe keyboard searching chart after chart looking for markets to trade?Yes, my friend, this is the first sign of trouble. Should you ever find yourselfin this position, do yourself a favor and stop looking. Good day-tradingopportunities within the parameters I have set forth in this book areplentiful, but they do not occur every day. Consequently, set yourselfstandards as to which markets you will day trade, and if there are no daytrades in these markets do not allow yourself to endlessly wander aboutthe keyboard looking for day trades in such things as orange juice or pal-ladium. They may work for you from time to time, but the odds of suc-Chapter Twenty-Two
cess are very slim. Take my word for it, the successful day trader willspecialize in only a handful of markets and will do well at these. Do notattempt to spread yourself too thin by looking for trading opportunitieswhere in fact they do not exist. And this brings me to my next point.
The Ability to Specialize
Successful day trading is a time-consuming undertaking which requiresclose attention. In many cases it require diligence, follow-through, andpersistence. Although some day-trading techniques I have discussed inthis book, specifically the gap methods, lend themselves to strictlymechanical trading, many do not. It will be possible for you to enterorders for gap trades without watching the markets closely. However,the vast majority of techniques require close attention. Therefore it isunfeasible for most day traders to be involved in too many markets atone time. I suggest that day trading three markets is sufficient for themajority of traders. In fact, for new day traders, I would recommendspecializing in only one market, attending to this market thoroughlyand carefully in order to develop your skills and to increase your overallprofits.
What should the new day trader trade? Naturally, the answer to thisquestion will change as a function of market conditions. Some marketshistorically have lent themselves well to day trading—the currencies,S&P futures, and Treasury bonds. However, some markets such as silver,soybeans, the petroleum complex markets, and other currencies makegood day-trading vehicles as well under certain market conditions.Consequently, I would pay attention to these as well when they becomesufficiently active and volatile. In terms of gap trades, there are manymarkets which are good day-trading vehicles inasmuch as entry will beon a specifically defined buy or sell stop with exit usually on the close oftrading. Since gap trades do not in many cases require close attention,many markets may be day traded in this fashion. For the newcomer,however, I would recommend a very limited portfolio of trades untiltechniques have been mastered and self-confidence has been achieved.
Beginning with Sufficient Capital
Perhaps one of the worst blunders that any trader could commitwhether trading from the day time frame or from a position trade per-spective is to attempt trading with insufficient capital. The argumentmay be made that the day trader does not need to have substantial capi-tal in his or her account since trades are closed out at the end of the dayThe Psychology of Day Trading 203
and therefore the necessity for sufficient margin to maintain positions iseliminated. While this may be true, it is also true that those with limitedfunds cannot play the game as long as those with larger funds can. It isimportant in any venture to start with sufficient capital in order that thetrader not feel pressured to perform and to allow the particular tradingsystem or methods sufficient opportunity to ride through periods ofpoor performance.
The trader with limited capital will not only be a nervous trader, look-ing always to minimize losses beyond the point of realistic trading, butalso will frequently be knocked out of the game after a series of losses,before his or her trading methods have had the opportunity to perform.Consequently, capitalize your trading account sufficiently or decideahead of time that you will trade only a very limited portfolio consistentwith your available capital. Do not start with an undercapitalizedaccount, since this is a near certain invitation to failure. In order to begintrading with sufficient capital the aspiring trader will have to be realis-tic and, above all, patient enough to gather the speculative capital whichwill be needed.
The Ability to Use News to Your
AdvantageMany a trader has learned the hard way that following the news can fre-quently lead to losses. I have discovered that there are ways in whichthe trader may use the fundamental news or developing international,domestic, or political news to his or her advantage. To use the news inyour favor, do not be a follower of the news, rather be a “fade” of the news.Use the news to exit positions which you have most likely establishedwell before the news has become public knowledge. I am a firm believerin the old market dictum: buy on rumor, sell on news. On an intradaybasis, markets are very sensitive to news well before the news is knownby most traders. Insiders buy and sell on expectation, sometimes basedon rumor, frequently based on fact. They establish positions before thegeneral public is aware of the news, and, once the news has becomepublic knowledge, they take advantage of the surge or the drop inprices to exit positions.
Therefore, if you wish to use the news to your advantage, you mustbe a contrarian. This is especially true from the day-trading perspective.Although there is nothing wrong with following intraday trends, fre-quently intraday trends react strongly to news developments. If you arefollowing your trading system or method, you will most often be on thecorrect side of the market when such news develops. Take advantage of204
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price surges or declines to exit your position. This require self-controland the ability to see the news as your opportunity to get out, not asyou opportunity to hold on for even more profit!
Taking Advantage of Brief Price
Surges
In order to day trade profitably, you must also learn to take advantageof brief flurries in prices. In the previous section I discussed large intra-day price moves which can occur in relation to international, domestic,political, and economic news. At times, markets will drop or rally quicklyseemingly in response to no news. What may be happening in suchcases is a rumor on the trading floor, a large buyer or buy order, or largeseller or sell order of which you are not aware. Such brief price surges ordrops are opportunities for you to exit positions consistent with theprice move.
Regardless of the source, consider all price rallies or declines whichoccur quickly within the day’s trading session to be an opportunity foryou to either exit your current position at a profit, or to establish a newposition using support and resistance methods which have been out-lined previously. It is important to develop this quality as a day trader,since it is entirely consistent with the day-trading objective. Too manyday traders assume that bulges or sharp declines in price within the dayare basically meaningless. Believe me they’re not. They're tailor-madefor the day trader. The day trader who is committed to taking a profitout of the market every day must take advantage of these price moves.If you decide not to do so, then by all means you must either raise orlower your stop loss (depending on your position), or you must use anappropriate mental stop loss which is adjusted to the change in price.What this means simply is use a trailing stop loss in the event that theprice move is negated shortly after it begins. In this way you will havegiven yourself an opportunity to lock in a larger profit which you mightnot otherwise have had.
Sticking to Your Daily Goal
Above all remember that as a day trader you have one major goal andthat is to make money trading each day. The important considerationhere is that in order to make money day trading every day you willneed to be particularly aware of your net profits during the day (aftercosts) and as the day progresses if you are riding profits. You will bemore inclined to take those profits in order to make each day profitable.The Psychology of Day Trading 205
My advice, which is based on many years of short-term and day trad-ing, is to set yourself specific standards regarding when you will beginto liquidate positions toward the end of the day in order to guaranteeyourself a profitable day. My advice is to do so approximately 1 hourbefore the close of trading. You may either begin to close out your posi-tions at that time or you may use a follow-up stop loss procedure inorder to “lock in” existing profits.
Many traders would disagree with my advice. As I indicated earlier,however, it is based on many years of trading experience, and it isdesigned to achieve a very important goal for the day trader. As a daytrader you need to end each day with a profit, no matter how small thatprofit may be. If you can do so, you will be reinforced positively foryour day-trading skills. This will give you confidence and a positiveattitude toward your trading profession which, of course, is very impor-tant, particularly when you have experienced a string of losses. In otherwords, if you can be even slightly successful each day, your attitudetoward day trading will become more positive, your self-confidence willincrease, and you will be more able to withstand the temporary reversalto which all traders, short-term, long-term, and day traders alike, fre-quently fall victim.
But in order to achieve this goal you will need to internalize it, keep-ing it foremost in your mind at all times. What is right and proper forthe position trader or for the short-term trader is not necessarily goodfor the day trader. If you find yourself wanting to ride profits or lossesovernight, then you are not being true to your goal as a day trader.Should you wish to day trade and position trade as well then I urge youto do so in different accounts in order to avoid the confusion which willassuredly come from doing both in the same account. Keep your goal inmind, and you will be less likely to stray from it.
Using Market Sentiment to Find
Day-Trading OpportunitiesT have already discussed the importance of going against the majorityopinion in order to find profitable day-trading opportunities. I believethat this is one of the most important qualities a day trader can possess. Whilethere is certainly a great deal of money to be made day trading with theexisting trend, it is also important to know when the existing trend hasreached a possible turning point. One of the best ways if not the best wayof doing this is through the use of market sentiment. Since I havealready discussed the particulars of applying market sentiment for thepurposes of day trading, I will not repeat this information here; how-206
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ever, I do again stress its importance. The day trader must also be a contrar-ian. This does not mean that you must buck the trend, but it does meanthat you must always be aware of whether sentiment is very high or very low.This will give you important clues as to whether you should be quick totake profits, whether you can allow profits to run, and whether youshould look for trading opportunities on the opposite side of the exist-ing trend.
Conclusion
Although there are many other important qualities that a successful daytrader must either possess or acquire, I believe I have covered the mostsignificant ones. If you strive to develop these qualities, then your odds ofsuccess as a day trader will certainly be better. 1 have learned, after mymany years of trading, that the major difference between those who are suc-cessful traders and those who are not is to be found in their psychological make-up and in the skills they have acquired as traders rather than in the tradingsystems they use.
Although it is certainly helpful to have an effective trading