confessions of an options trader

or should we call it gambling? speculating?

by now you should have noticed i am updating my blog less and less regularly.

that's because i have been seminars and workgroups to learn how to trade (horrors!) in the US market (wah, so risky!)

i chose not to "announce" earlier because friends and acquaintances around me have been, and still are, SKEPTICAL.

"be careful dont get burnt"

"i have seen people lose everything"

"share market is so risky, are you sure you can make money?"

after dabbling in the US market for more than 2 months, i've got news for you.

i realised the real reason why people get burnt or lose all their money in the stock market.

it's not because it's risky (everything we do has a certain amount of risk)

it's not because market is unpredictable (well, to a certain extent, but not to that extent to wipe out your entire portfolio)

it's also not because it's difficult to make money in the market (there are numerous success stories out there)

there is one true root cause, and one only -

HUMAN NATURE

because people trade on their emotions.

when they start to see their predictions go wrong, they make decisions based on FEAR.

when they start to see their predictions go right, they make decisions based on GREED.

fear and greed are the 2 real obstacles to a trader's success.

another thing, when things go wrong, they start to blame the market, blame the broker, blame the economy, blame everyone and everything else but themselves.

how to make money when you dont own up to your actions and improvise???

to date, even though i am not making big bucks (just enough to buy treats for my cats, hehe), i can proudly say that i have learnt to manage my emotions, and able to make sound, rational decisions.

another common pitfall is people expect seminars to produce miracles for them. they spend a couple of hundreds or thousands, and expect the dough to roll in for them.

well, the only thing that will roll are my eyes!

trading is a lot of hard work, and seminars are just an introduction to the methods and strategies that have been proven to work. also, these stuff are not 100% foolproof. so people who go to seminars expecting fast bucks get rich quick schemes are going to be disappointed.

so the conclusion of this post - i have been spending time doing research and trading and less time blogging lah...

that's the main point i wanted to make. do ignore all the blah blah blah above. :)))