Trading Is War

By Brien Satzinger

I want to take your money.

I want every penny that you have in your trading accounts. I have a plan of living life on the beach and I'm going to use your money to get there. Or will I? I am the guy on the other side of your trade, selling to you when you want to buy or buying when you want to sell.

• Are you easy prey? Or, do I have to fight you?
• Are you trading without a plan? You have given me easy access.
• Are you pyramiding your losses? You're now making the payments on my beach house.
• Are you distracted while you're trading? Just go ahead and mail me your checkbook.

This business is war with every trade. Are you asleep at the wheel or are you going to fight? I really like taking your money. The choice is yours.

The truth is, I don't know you from Adam. I'm probably not going to be on the other side of your trade. But, we ARE in battle with every trade. We DO have to prepare to fight or we're an easy kill. We have to have a PLAN for using our WEAPONS on the field or we're dead.

This blog entry is an intro to a series on system development. We're going to walk through the steps to creating a realistic, functional plan for trading the markets. Then, we're going to look at our weapons and how to use them most effectively when the edge is in our favor.

I will fight and win, will you?

 

Brien Satzinger has traded stocks, options and futures since 1999.  To date, he has traded over two million shares, 500 option contracts and 2200 futures contracts, mostly done while working full time.  He currently lives in Memphis, TN and you can follow him on twitter here.