Nicholas Darvas's 1957-1958 Trade Rating System via "Cause of Error"
Always review your journal, it's the only way to fine tune your process and execution
Be highly intentional with your progress if you don't want trading to remain a hobby. It's about much more than the wins and losses on a chart.
1. Trading As A Big Data Game Controlled By You, First Start By Reducing Randomness In Your Trading Behavior.
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2. A Period Review Process is Non-Negotiable to Remain Profitable
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3. The greatest improvements in trading performance will come from analyzing yourself. If you have the data, try this first before giving up.
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4. The basic entries you need in your spreadsheet journal
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5. Crunching the data part 1
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6. Crunching the data part 2
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7. Lowest win rate% in 15 years, Above average % CAGR in 15 years.
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8. Your data is the only help you need to improve
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9. You may already be on track without your % performance reflecting it
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@801010athlete Appreciate your help with trading, it’s been great . You keep it honest and real. I teach surfing as well as a school teacher which is rewarding. I’m glad I subscribed to your teaching !! Keep it up
One of my faves . . .
“The Story of the Mexican Fisherman”
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while”. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”
The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”
“But what then?” Asked the Mexican.
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”
“Millions – then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your (grand)kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
One of the strangest things about America 🇺🇸…
You meet people making $300k/year who are anxious, exhausted, medicated, and can barely sleep at night.
Then you go to Mexico 🇲🇽…
and see some guy running a small restaurant, barely breaking even…
but he’s laughing with friends, drinking mezcal at lunch, hugging customers, and sleeps perfectly fine at night.
Trading is hard because you eventually realize it is much more than a technical game.
It requires a deep understanding of self: your appetite for risk, your emotional triggers, and the moments that cause you to deviate from your system.
This is why regular introspection and journaling are so important — especially during the gut-wrenching periods when nothing seems to go right.
Writing down your emotions and thought processes exposes your patterns under pressure. It becomes a mirror, revealing the small leaks in your trading system and within yourself. Only then can you start designing ways to “beat yourself.”
This snippet from Olympic medalist Eileen Gu captures the importance of introspection:
https://t.co/mExYBYbu8G
Imho, this is the path to excellence in any field. That said, even with the right mindset, it still takes dedicated time, deliberate practice, and persistent effort. The self-delusion that you will “make it” in trading without putting in the commensurate work will not cut it.
So be patient with yourself. Rome was not built in a day!