I read a couple of books by John Hayden. I didn't find any of his strategies to be useful in my approach to trading, but he did touch on one interesting topic; that is the factor of the ego in trading.

The ego is such an important part of our personalities and our endeavors but it holds absolutely no real estate in the trading world. I should say, that it holds no place in the world of profitable traders. I believe that ego goes hand-in-hand with stubborness, meaning and unwillingness to adapt. You must adapt to the markets, because the market will sure as hell not adapt to you AND the market is ALWAYS right. This is hard for a lot of egotystical traders to accept. This is also the reason that all trading systems will not consistently make money.

A trading system abides by a set of rules. These set of rules cannot adapt to the ever changing nature of the market. Only the human mind can do so. This is why trading is an art and not a science.

This blog used to contain some very interesting charts (which I deleted) derived from my trading "system". Although it was complex and dynamic, I realized that it ultimately would not be profitable. For one, I was using complicated geometry and time frames. Luckily, I came to realize the big picture in the markets. There is a lot of truth in KISS (keep it simple stupid).

The market makers couldn't are not really concerned about 1 minute, 3 minute or 5 minute traders. Institutional traders don't care about 2 point stop losses or a 5 point stop-losses at that. Personally, I would rather take my 1 to 2 points here and there and make a humble living. That type of trading jives more with my personality. Unfortunately that is not how it works. The trader needs to "jive" with the market, not the other way around. The major market moves are made by the major players and if you want to make major points then you have to trade in a paradigm which allows you to take advantage.

Recently, I have discovered that any thing less than a 30 minute time frame gives me no real idea of what is happening in the market. There are many who would say that you cannot day trade on a 30 minute chart. That is a half-truth. You may not be able to day-trade every day on a 30 minute chart but you can do it at least once a week and still make more than the day trader who is "chasing success".