Trade What You See

 It is critical that you trade what you see, not what you think. What you "think" is your opinion, and trading your opinion, or that of anyone else, generally results in more losses than wins.

Being flexible, and being able to adapt to what you see in the markets, is the only tradable reality we have.  You have to learn to adapt your trading style to what is happening in the markets in which you trade. 

When someone tells me they want to day trade the e-mini S&P on a five-minute chart, I become disturbed.  I know that, for that person, there are some horrible experiences ahead.

You have to trade what you see, but you do not always see good trades on a five-minute e-mini chart.  You do not always see good trades in any single market in any time frame.

The trading business has a singular great advantage over brick and mortar businesses -- a trading business does not have to worry about a fixed location, or for customers to come to that location.  A trader can go where the money is being made. A trader can look at a variety of markets, in a variety of time frames, to find trades that fit his/her trading style.

Location is important to a trader, but a trader "locates" the good trades by hunting for them.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen traders agonizingly losing money, trading in a market situation that is really not tradable, and all the while, in another market and time frame, traders are picking up money from beautiful, and easy-to-do, winning trades.