Self-analysis

Bill commented on my self-analysis with the three C's that guide his trading, cautious optimism, continuous learning, and choice & responsibility.  My comments to each follow:

Cautious optimism

This is a good one.  This could have a couple of meanings.  Optimism is great but if the optimism turns into cockiness, you could find yourself in trouble.  I never go into a trade thinking it's a lock.  If you know anything about the world of sport betting, this term is thrown around liberally.  "New York is going to cover the spread for sure, it's a lock."  These are famous last words and almost always guarantee that it is not a lock.  Instead of cautious optimism, I could just say, "I don't know what is going to happen next."  No one does.  This is what stop losses are for. 

Continuous learning

How much can you learn? Enough to last a lifetime.  Unfortunately you can't learn it from a book.  Like most things that aren't easy, experience is golden and takes a long time to obtain.  Anything I've ever read has said that it could take anywhere from 3 – 10 years to learn how to trade.  

Choice and responsibility

You buy a trading system and it doesn't work.  That guy scammed me. 

You listen to some self-proclaimed currency analyst who screams DOLLAR SHORT! Dollar moves long, he's no expert!

Taking responsibility is so important.  There is no reason to blame anyone except yourself.  I've listened to other people before when it comes to trades and when I lost, it made me feel better to blame them.  How long can anyone expect to last doing this? This is why selling trading signals for a living has to be the worst job on earth if you actually care about your credibility.  When you win, your the best.  When you lose, your dirt.