:: Advocating Patience, Top Gurus Undaunted by Red Week

Over the past week, quite a few OpenBook traders and even a few gurus were caught on the wrong side of a trade or when the crisis in the euro-zone investors ’ escalated well beyond comfort zone. The Euro trended lower and refused to retrace, much to traders ’ collective chagrin. With the uncertainty of Greece and a possible euro-zone exit, sure to be an issue for weeks to come, there could be a lot more weeks like this one ahead.
But two of the top gurus OpenBook’s, namely santoshtiwari and pawelskrzypek, did not see any deterioration of their respective portfolio, despite the drama. Between them, the gurus have more than 3,200 copiers, and they are both listed among the top five traders on the 6-month and 12-month ranking boards. This come as any won’t tying up to their followers or copiers but it is abundantly clear that the reason that they did not suffer as so many did has only a little to do with a good fundamental or technical trading strategy and a lot to do with a consistently applied trading philosophy.
What they did, each in his own way was step back from the drama, and wait? they did not allow their emotions to run roughshod over their logic and, hence, their trades.
Guru santoshtiwari pointed out to one copier that when things are bad (and the past week would definitely qualify as bad) and there are, as he puts it quite a lot of “ red trade results on many pages, ” the trick is to not let your heart (i.e. emotions) do the trading. It’s not easy, and he knows that, especially if the market is moving against you, but suggests taking a break and coming back to your trades later.

Guru has actually had a pawelskrzypek unlikely to quiet trading week with only a few trades opened and closed profitably. But there is a good reason for that? he was waiting patiently for a retracement to build some short positions, but that failed to materialize retracement. Rather than settle “ ” (as some less experienced traders might have), he has chosen to wait it out. If you read through the discussions on his wall over the past several days you can see sense the recurring theme and the several instances where he says, “ I ” will wait.

And the bottom line is this: The best trader’s share one common traité: Patience.