Losing to traders out-thinking you? How to think through trades to gain an edge
"You can't out-think me!"
In reality, many further along the trading journey outmanoeuvre and out-think me.
And these are the traders I want to side with. They represent prominent participants (you only get big/stay big if operating at the the pointy end). Identifying them makes trading more manageable.
Traders I out-think rank below me, based on my self-assessment of where I sit along the trading journey.
How can I tell I out-rank them?
There's a saying applicable to all performance fields. "The more you know, the more you realise you don't know".
Your core competency could be music, sport, competitive poker, or trading. Regardless, you recognise those performing at levels higher or lower than yourself. And while your trading competitors are faceless, you can see their actions.
The most significant shift in my own game in the last three years is solving the giant game at play. I tie many trades together over sessions and days, despite trading intra-day. Connecting the dots is how you determine when to scale up your size versus not scaling up your size. Scaling is a super power.
See the list of essential trading skills you need to make it as a trader
If you know the big game at play, there are precise levels in the market you won't enter into either long or short trades.
Traders further along than myself also know the larger game at play. These traders also avoid long or short initiations at said levels.
Thus, if I see larger participants acting at those precise levels, I take a step back to re-evaluate. What did I miss? Have fundamentals changed, or am I wrong?
Differentiating between prominent versus independent players is how you receive ongoing trade feedback.
We all have an innate drive to conquer. Winning, succeeding, progressing, achieving makes us feel alive. You win the trading game by out-thinking your opponent.
The real-time footage below illustrates thinking to beat the competition.
