Turning market analysis into successful financial performance

Good market analysis does not automatically translate into successful financial performance. It's true! There are aspects of actual investment and trading that are not discussed enough, and I admit that I haven't focused on them here either. It's like the difference between being able to analyze a sports game or team, pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses ... but getting onto the field is another story! We can map out a game strategy, but then when you get onto the field the experience changes. I'll try to focus more on this aspect of things in future posts, both here and at my trading education site (the NoBullNoBearNoBias site, see links at right).

Meantime, here are a couple of links that may be good, if they check out then I may add to my "other sites" list at right. They are listed at that PTV-Investing Blog a reader provided the link for (which I've added to that sites list because already it seems very neat), and these look promising too:

Recommended Reading (one book I recommend adding is Hobbs' "Fibonacci for the Active Trader"; plus, if you can locate Kevin Haggerty's tutorials on 1-2-3 trend reversals, and on trap doors, those are also very good)
Trade Without Emotion - Great title, but I am not sure if this site is really an educational site or trying to sell something. I'll need more time to check it out. But, I love the title - this point is VERY important.

There is a site I can and DO recommend, Brett Steenbarger's http://www.traderfeed.blogspot.com/. Brett trades and is a psychologist and authored The Psychology of Trading (Wiley, 2003), Enhancing Trader Performance (Wiley, 2006), and apparently has a new book, The Daily Trading Coach (Wiley, 2009). I don't use his particular analytical methods, although I don't mind looking at them from time to time. But his commentaries on approach and psychology are VERY GOOD.

Trading IS a lot like sports, which took me a long time to understand, but it's true. Which does certainly have a fun element! - so long as we approach it that way. Whether you consider yourself to be trading against "Da Boyz", or looking for your own personal best, we can draw on the ideas of shaking off prior setbacks, visualizing success, having a trading discipline, and being willing and able to TMAR (take money and run) a win and take it home (not feeling like we've gotta immediately go for another, without preparation). We spend most or all our time looking at the markets, but preparation, knowing our own styles, and "playing" accordingly are important to our actual success.

The main, initial focus of my blogspots here was and remains to put out unbiased assessments of where markets really are likely to go, not where people hope they will go. But I'll try to add more discussion of how readers can use the information too.