Oh yes -- he's completely right of course, and I'm being a complete snark.

It took time for me to admit that soft, squishy things like emotions matter in a successful trader. I wanted everything to be clean, antiseptic, etc by the numbers. That's the engineer in me talking - "if it can't be quantified, it can't be measured, if it can't be measured, it doesn't exist" is a pretty strong tendency in engineers. Had to pitch that to the side of the road and admit that psychology and mass hysteria plays a HUGE role in the actions of markets.

I believe now that emotional control is the #1 thing required in a trader and there's really no way to teach that from a book. You've got to get your nose bloody several times, spend some time naval-gazing (lint and all) and say "OK, here's where I screwed up and why."

Now my personal indicator is pretty well established for relative tops and bottoms. When I walk away from the tube after the market close and feel preeeeetty pleased with myself, I catch it and say "This feeling always shows up just before you get those profits taken away from you. Go back and sell some!"