"Is it important to be creative in your trading?"
I’m not sure I can describe it in terms of importance. The creative process is somewhat of a mystery, even to scientists who study it. There are a few common characteristics that all creative persons possess (such as an openness to a variety of internal and external experiences and a driving need to express one’s sense of individualism), but for the most part, exactly how the creative mind makes earthshaking discoveries is unknown. A few prerequisites are necessary, though. The mind must be focused, for example. New ideas must flow through the mind freely, and there must be a wide range of ideas, so that they can be combined and re-combined in new ways. New and creative trading ideas are necessary to stay ahead of the crowd, so doing whatever you can to prepare your mind to brainstorm new ideas will help you develop creative trading strategies that are the foundation of profitable trading.
Dont Deny Reality
If you want to be a successful trader, you must make sure you do not deny reality in any phase of your trading. You cannot deny losses, price direction, mistakes you make, being undercapitalized, or a whole host of things you would rather not think about. Many traders think the best way to deal with unpleasant ideas, events, or personal character flaws is to shut their eyes and pretend they don’t exist.
Let’s face it, trading can be difficult, at times very difficult and it’s essential that you focus on reality. Denial takes your focus away from the very thing you need to be concentrating on-the action of prices-regardless of time frame. Your mind must be clear so that you can look at the market and see what is really there.
The way I learned to handle denial was to simply write down and confront all possible ideas I had trouble accepting. Some thoughts I could fix and others I just had to accept. But facing the truth of what and who you are is the only way to deal with denial. You have to realize that for the most part the only things you can change are in yourself. Other things you just have to accept. You have to accept the reality of slippage, for example. You have to realize that indicators often give false signals and that there is no magic moving average nor is there a magical oscillator.