Lies in trading….

When it comes to trading, I can pretty much spot a liar a mile off. Years of experience in the markets helps me to know what is achievable, what isn’t and why traders are often the biggest fibbers. It’s usually in the words they use when describing their trading. They can use all the clichés about how they went from unsuccessful to successful trader or about the great strategy they use but there’s normally a hollowness in their eyes or a subtle body movement that tells me something is missing from what they are saying.

You need to have real depth to be able to talk from the heart about your trading. I guess it’s like in TV interviews, it’s often easy to see if the interviewee is uncomfortable talking about a given subject and you can see when they are holding something back.

It’s the same with traders. I’ve met many genuine people who want to succeed in this tough business and they will pour their heart out about their experiences. But it’s those other traders who seem to glean over the messy stuff and want to give you their advice which seems hollow in a way. It’s happened a few times now where I’ve been speaking to someone and thinking, you’re looking me in the eye as you’re telling me this but I can see you’re lying.

So why do traders do it and who are these traders? For many, I guess it’s an ego trap. They simply can’t admit to the ups and downs of their trading performance so they tend to tell you about the mistakes they may have done in the past but imply that they never make those mistakes now. They don’t want to appear as flawed in an way but as traders, all of us are flawed!

We are all constantly fighting our basic pre-programmed instincts of fight or flight. Our brains are designed to protect us from harm, whether it’s physical or emotional. Our sub conscious will do its very best to make trading decisions that it thinks are in our best interests but as we know, trading is counter intuitive. What we naturally want to do (sell when a panic sets in) is not what we should actually do (see it as a buying opportunity).

These traders are often wanting to prove something perhaps to others. For example you see it in forums. There’s always a few individuals who want to project themselves as some sort of trading god within the safety of a chat room. Well I can tell you that I’m pretty close to being a trading god and yet I still have loads of losing trades!

So what’s the point of this article? Don’t trust what other traders say. If what they say seems too good to be true, there’s probably a little sugar coating going on. There are no holy grails, simply hard work and time applied. And even then success cannot be guaranteed. All traders have to overcome that natural fight or flight mindset or they are destined to know a huge amount of technical information but not really be able to outperform their peers….

Moving over to the markets, the USDCAD has been ranging between the 200dsma and the 500dsma. At some point it’s going to need to test one of them so I use them as targets if long or short. If price broke above the highs of early September, there’s very good odds of that 200dma being attacked. Otherwise a breakdown will see the opposite happen. I’m off on my annual vacation so see you in October…

Charlie Burton

Ezeetrader

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