Rob Dogsen

It’s similar with reading charts. Recognizing a good structure once doesn’t mean you’ve really understood it. Only through regularly drawing, measuring, comparing, and observing does a feel develop for which structures actually hold up and which only look good in hindsight.

My own development in the markets did not follow a straight line. In the beginning I stuck closely to individual rules and lines. A support was supposed to hold, a resistance was supposed to push the price back, and a cleanly drawn line was supposed to be respected as far as possible. Trades still went wrong. Sometimes the analysis wasn’t even fundamentally wrong. The mistake was in the execution.

I didn’t always have a clear stop, took profits too late or not at all, and held on to my opinion even though the market had long since given a different answer. A stock could move as expected at first and still turn into a bad trade because I lacked a plan for taking profits. Conversely, a good idea could become needlessly expensive if I hadn’t set its invalidation point beforehand.

Being self-employed, I already knew the importance of clear processes and of taking responsibility for my own decisions. In the markets, though, I didn’t initially apply that knowledge consistently to my own actions. Too often I reacted to the current price instead of setting my approach in advance.

That’s how I came to understand that good chart analysis alone doesn’t make a good trade. It’s not enough to correctly assess a possible move. You also need to know how much risk you’re willing to take, where your own idea fails, and what you’ll do if the price actually moves in the expected direction. Analysis, entry, stop, position size, and profit-taking belong together. If any one of these is missing, even a good idea can be poorly executed.

Over time my way of working became more flexible. For me, though, flexible doesn’t mean arbitrary. I don’t shift lines and target zones around until they fit my position. I prepare several possibilities and accept that the market doesn’t have to follow any of my scenarios. Supports, resistances, trendlines, pitchforks, Fibonacci levels, harmonics, and indicators are therefore not rigid commands for me. They are tools I use to identify and classify possible reaction zones. Only the price’s later behavior shows which of these considerations were actually relevant.

This has also changed how I handle gains and losses. I no longer need to buy the perfect low, sell the high, or capture an entire move. If, according to my plan, I sell at a 20 percent gain and the stock then goes on to rise 50 percent overall, I haven’t done anything wrong. I realized a gain and closed my trade according to my plan. The stock’s further price action doesn’t retroactively turn a reasonable decision into a wrong one.

In the same way, a limited loss is part of trading. Not every good setup works out. Not every strong zone holds. Not every harmonic produces a lasting reaction. What matters is that a single trade doesn’t determine whether I can keep acting calmly and in a structured way afterward. Losses don’t have to feel good. They have to stay controllable.

Today I therefore approach buying, selling, gains, and losses much more calmly. Not because I don’t care about the outcome of a trade, but because I decide in advance what risk I accept and how I want to react to different price developments. I don’t have to be right every single moment. I have to make my decisions in a way I can account for, and manage my risk so that I remain able to act even after a mistake.

This book grew out of these experiences. It shows how individual tools can be combined into a coherent overall picture, and why good analysis always needs a plan for actually putting it into practice, too. At its center are a clear analysis process, independent decision-making, and a controlled approach to risk.

Because knowledge alone doesn’t change anything yet. It only becomes experience through application, evaluation, and repetition – in dog training just as much as in reading a chart.