New Dr. Brett Series on Lessons for Developing Traders

If there is one blog on the web where I never seem to find the appropriate amount of time required to digest all the nuggets of wisdom it contains, that site is undoubtedly Brett Steenbarger’s TraderFeed. Filled with insights that range from quantitative analysis and system development to what is arguably the best collection of content on the web in the realm of trader psychology, TraderFeed continues to be – at least in my opinion – the top all-purpose investment blog on the web.

For this reason, when Brett mentioned in Lessons for Developing Traders: What Moves Markets that he is “going to write about topics that no one told me about when I was learning the ropes,” I thought that instead of waiting until the series is finished to highlight it I would flag it now for anyone who is not already on the Steenbarger bandwagon.

This new series also got me thinking to about the three things I wish I had been told (assuming I was smart enough to follow that advice) at the beginning of my trading career. The answers are personal ones, but I believe they capture insights that led to quantum advances in my trading:

1. Standardize on one time horizon…and make it consistent with your trading approach and personality
   
   
2. Make research and analysis of risk management at least as important as R&D on stocks, indicators and strategies
   
   
3. Focus more time on developing expertise in managing (and exiting) existing positions than on discovering new high potential entries

For the record, a close fourth in this exercise was understanding the tenets of behavioral finance and the associated decision-making pitfalls that investors should learn to avoid. Those who wish to get a better sense of how I see the learning process for developing traders may wish to investigate my trader development stage model.

Readers, feel free to use the comments section to spell out the 3-4 things you wished someone had told you when you first started trading.

For more on these subjects, readers are encouraged to check out:

• Trader Development Stage Model – Version 2.0
• On Trading Rules and Guidelines

Disclosure: none