First, the connotation and significance of reflection
The word "reflection" originated from philosophy and originally meant thinking, that is, reflective thinking. British philosopher Locke believes that reflection or introspection is people's concern and perception of their own activities and one of the sources of knowledge; Dutch philosopher Spinoza believes that reflection is a more advanced way to know the truth. Hegel, a German philosopher, believes that reflection is a dialectical concept to grasp the development of absolute spirit and a general idea to grasp the essence of the unity of opposites within things from the connection. In short, people usually regard reflection or introspection as thinking about their own thoughts, behaviors and psychological feelings. William. Duram pointed out in the book Revolution of Thinking: "If one grasps the power of thinking, the frequency of success will be accelerated".
Self-reflection in trading is a process in which traders review and analyze their trading ideas, trading methods, trading behaviors, trading processes, trading environments and trading results with critical eyes, and make rational judgments and choose to learn. Self-reflection is the trader's self-dialogue, and he finds fault with himself in the process of trading.
Self-reflection is not a "review" in the general sense, but a reflection, reflection, exploration and solution of the problems existing in the trading process. Everyone's growth is contained in experience and reflection, so it has the nature of exploration and improvement, is the driving force for continuing trading, and is an important process for traders to develop themselves. Therefore, reflection is of great significance to improve the trading level of traders. But among all traders, few people will reflect, and even fewer people will reflect correctly, so it is difficult for them to make progress.
Second, how to cultivate the ability of reflection
? Among the strategies used to improve the reflective level of traders at home and abroad, reflective diary, that is, transaction diary or transaction log, is the most widely used. The so-called reflection diary is the most direct and simple way for traders to record what they see, hear, feel and do in their daily trading, and also record the events that have great influence on their trading, so as to realize self-monitoring and market monitoring. In essence, reflective diary externalizes simple introspection activities. Through continuous analysis, review and research of this tool, we can improve our trading skills and improve our reflective ability.
Third, the content of reflection.
At different stages, the focus and content of traders' reflection are different. Generally speaking, the development of traders' reflective ability can be divided into three stages: technical rationality stage, practical action stage and critical reflection stage. Novice traders are mainly reflected in trading tools and trading skills, adaptive traders are more reflected in trading strategies, mature traders are reflected in trading ideas, and expert traders are reflected in trading ideas innovation. According to the research statistics of relevant people on traders, reflective traders reflect on trading skills the most, followed by trading strategies; The reflection on the trading concept ranks third; There is the least reflection on transaction innovation. It can be seen that the reflection of traders has a certain gradient, and with the gradual deepening of reflection, the content of reflection will gradually deepen. Reflection still needs external guidance. It is difficult to run trading skills and trading ideas through simple copying training, but it is more appropriate to deepen understanding through practical reflection.
In the specific steps of reflection, we can refer to the reflection framework proposed by educators Cotton and Sparks-Langer:
(1) Select a specific problem and collect information in this area from possible fields, including target knowledge, trading partners and so on.
(2) Start analyzing the collected data to form a general framework of the problem, and at the same time search for knowledge related to the current problem in your existing knowledge. If you can't find similar knowledge, you can ask others or read professional books to get this information. This process helps to form creative solutions to problems.
(3) Once the problem situation forms a clear framework, we can establish various assumptions to explain market trends and guide actions, and consider the short-term and long-term effects of actions in mind.
(4) After thinking deeply about the effects of various actions, you can begin to implement the action plan.
When this kind of action is observed and analyzed, a new round of reflection cycle can be started, thus forming an effective reflection cycle. This process can be simplified to five steps: clarifying the problem, collecting data, analyzing the data, establishing theoretical assumptions, and implementing actions. It should be pointed out that the division is relative, and each step cannot be completely separated from other steps. For example, in the process of collecting information, we can deepen our understanding of the problem and further revise and limit it. On the other hand, collecting and analyzing data is undoubtedly problem-oriented.
Please refer to Sparks for the content of reflection? Langer put forward three main points:
1, cognitive component. Refers to the methods and steps for traders to process information and make decisions in the course of trading.
2. Key elements. It refers to the basis for traders to make trading decisions, including emotional experience, trading objectives, trading ideas and moral elements, such as whether the choice of trading tools is appropriate, the judgment of trading environment, the choice of trading strategies and whether the trading objectives are reasonable. It profoundly affects traders' understanding of markets and transactions, their concerns and their solutions.
3. Trader's statement. Refers to the traders' own ideas and behavior basis, including the questions raised by traders, the conversations of traders in the daily analysis, study and communication, and their explanations of trading behavior. This explanation of the actual situation can make traders more aware of their trading decision-making process.
In short, traders' reflection should be multi-angle and multi-dimensional, and they should be open to their own trading and learning, and always ask "Why? What is this? How did this happen? When will it happen? Where will it be? " Improve your trading orientation in self-questioning.
Fourth, the basic types of reflection
Reflection can be divided into three categories: reflection before trading, reflection during trading and reflection after trading. Trading reflection is not only a review of trading behavior, but also to guide future practice, so that we are no longer blind and stupid.
1, reflect before trading.
Pre-trading reflection refers to the reflection of traders when making trading plans, including the judgment of market conditions, the choice of trading opportunities, the choice of trading strategies, the formulation of trading objectives, the choice of trading tools, the provisions of trading behavior, the allocation of trading funds, the ideas of others and other operational reflections. It is forward-looking.
2. Reflection in the transaction process.
Reflection in the trading process mainly refers to whether traders can adjust their thinking in time according to the situation of the disk, whether they can monitor and adjust their trading behavior flexibly and effectively, and reflect on their participation, decision-making and operation. This kind of reflection is monitoring, which emphasizes solving the problems of trading ideas and behavioral obstacles. Make the transaction run with high quality and high efficiency, and improve the traders' ability to regulate and deal with the transaction. This process of reflection requires careful reflection records. The contents of reflection record mainly include: trading process, summing up successful experience, finding out the reasons for failure, and recording the psychological changes of trading.
3. Reflection after the transaction.
Post-trading reflection mainly refers to traders' thinking memories of the whole trading process and market operation, including trading ideas, trading behavior, their own performance and others' performance, as well as the analysis and improvement suggestions for successful and failed trading operations. This is crucial.
Five, the basic process of reflection
Generally speaking, traders' reflection can be composed of four links: finding problems, collecting information and analyzing, putting forward hypotheses and verifying hypotheses.
1, problem found
There is an old saying: "People who despise learning and think it is easy have never studied or never know what is easy." Trading learning is never easy, and it is not enough for someone to give us an answer. To form your own understanding, you must ask your own questions and think about all kinds of problems yourself. If the futures market is a gold mine, it is not that you can get gold by going to the gold mine. The key is what kind of questions to ask. That's a good question It is close to wealth and success. Only when we ask questions will we seek corresponding answers. And most of the results we get are the results of different problems. So the starting point of traders' reflection is the problem. In this process, traders must first be aware of the existence and situation of the problem, determine the content of reflection, and understand how their thoughts and actions have led to a problem, or how they have affected an opportunity. These problems can be found from traders' own transactions or from the experience of others. It is recommended to use the latter more because the former is too expensive. For example, how do I understand the principles of various trading tools? How to use it? Do I consider the trading environment every time I trade? Are trading rules formulated and followed? What is my trading philosophy? How is it formed? What is my understanding of the market? Did I take advantage of other people's weaknesses to make a profit? How should I study in the future?
2. Collect information and analyze it
For novice traders, it is difficult to find problems in their own transactions, so we should take the way of learning and understanding others. How much do I know about this field? What kind of resources or information can help me? How do successful people succeed? How do losers fail? How to start the initial study correctly? How much does it cost to learn to do futures? How to survive in the futures market?
For adaptive traders, focus on the problems found in strategy formulation and implementation. What are the types of trading strategies? What is the application principle of each trading strategy? What is the trading plan under each trading strategy? Is there any ambiguity or inconsistency in the use and implementation of the strategy?
For mature traders, the focus is on the trading concept. What prompted you to buy? Under what circumstances? What will you do when you get a good return? What should I do when external factors affect the transaction? How to manage trading funds? Is the transaction return stable, etc?
To solve the above and more problems, the best way is to deeply analyze the root of this problem, and at the same time clarify the experience and lessons of others in solving this problem. This process is not achieved overnight, and it needs regular system operation.
Step 3 make assumptions
Don't completely copy other people's ideas, but find out through your own eyes, find new ideas and methods to solve the problems, form assumptions to solve the problems, and thus formulate practical implementation plans. For example, the most famous trend trading system needs to understand the question: how do I find the trend? Will I trade in an upward trend and a downward trend? What should I do when the market is sideways? What are my entry criteria? How do I find that the trend is coming to an end?
Step 4 test the hypothesis
Before putting the assumptions and solutions of the problem into practice, we must analyze and demonstrate the rationality of the results and assumptions. And take the new problems arising in the verification process as the content of the next round of reflection, and so on until the problems are solved. This kind of research and inspection needs a lot of time and energy. It is precisely because of the huge investment and great responsibility in the early stage that we can have confidence in the rationality and logic of the original assumptions in future transactions.
Basic methods of reflection on intransitive verbs
Scientific reflection method is the guarantee to improve teaching efficiency. Common reflection methods are:
1, exchange reflection method
The exchange reflection method is a method to check one's trading behavior, understand the investment idea hidden behind trading behavior and improve trading ability through various forms of exchanges and discussions with peers in the post-trading time. Such as forums, chat software, chat rooms, etc. It should be reminded that traders should not participate in communication during trading hours, because what we need most during trading hours is our own observation, analysis and understanding. You must know what happened in the market and how it started and ended. This process cannot be replaced by others, and this experience must be accumulated by yourself.
2. Logging reflection method
Log reflection method refers to any period of time after the end of the transaction, the trader reproduces the whole transaction process by rereading the transaction log and comparing it with the disk at that time, so that the trader can reflect on the transaction process of himself or others as a bystander. Taking Qlhclub as an example, what opportunities are there in the market in March and April this year? What deal did you make? What was the result? What would you do if you started all over again? By rereading the transaction log, you can find and criticize your own problems in the transaction, so that the existing problems are fully exposed.
Log reflection method focuses on analyzing and summarizing the success or failure of learning and trading, so as to have its own analysis, feelings, experience, new understanding and improvement suggestions, making it the most effective reference for future trading, thus reaching a higher level.
3. Reading reflection method
Reading reflection method includes two aspects. One is that traders get different ideas and ideas from their past by reading relevant information, so as to solve the problems they want to solve, help themselves to accept new information and ideas, and provide new explanations, insights and possible new solutions for the problems they want to solve; The other is to find out the problems that you ignored or solve the problems that you failed to solve by reading books or reports written by senior traders with rich success or failure experience.
? The following are some reference books I read during my reflection: qlhclub's Seven Weng's Looking at the Market and John? Murphy's technical analysis of futures market, Gann's angle line and time window, Larry? Williams' secret of short-term trading, Martin? Schwartz's "Trading Champion", Guo Jianjing's "Successful Trading-Talking about Investment with Financial Masters", George? Angel's short-term sniper will provide high learning value; If you want to solve the problems related to trading strategy, Stanley? Crowe's Crowe on Investment Strategy, Mark? Thiel's Investment Habits of Buffett and Soros, Van K? Sapu's road to financial freedom, James? f？ Dawton's Controlling the Market-How Good Traders are Made, Arthur? l？ Simpson's Ghost Gift, Mark? Fred Freddy's Super Short-term Guest will provide high learning value; If you want to solve the problems related to the trading concept, Barton? Biggs's "Hedge Fund", Eldon Jr. Meyer's hedge fund-the case of top traders, Ron? Muehlenkamp's guide to wealth-the economic explanation and investment memorandum of successful fund managers, Robert? j？ Shearer's irrational prosperity, Naseem? Nicholas's Black Swan-How to Deal with the Unpredictable Future, Lars? Tweed's Financial Psychology —— Grasp the True Meaning of Market Fluctuation, Robert? Rubin is in an uncertain world, Bernard? Baruch's autobiography of baruch, Robert? Skidelski's biography of @kane@ will provide high learning value; If you want to solve the problems related to trading innovation, Larry? The secret of Williams' short-term trading, Victor? Spalandi's principle of professional speculation, Wells? Wilder's new concept of technology trading system, constance? Brown's technical analysis of professional traders and Thomas R. Demark's analysis of market rhythm and timing will provide high learning value.