8 Wisdom Points For Traders
Archives of “January 2019” month
rssTraders Millions By The Minute-video
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Traders: Millions By The Minute takes a look at the fast and fiercely competitive world of financial traders and talks to the men and women who play the markets in London, New York, Chicago and Amsterdam.
Season 1, Episode 01
Manhattan hedge fund manager Karen thinks that money is power and as she deal with two sets of twins, a busy social calendar and her $200 million fund on a daily basis. Bob has spent over thirty years jostling for position on Chicago’s cattle futures trading floor, but now he believes that is could be time give up his “trading addiction”. Will and Piers use their expertise to train others in the art of making money from tiny moves in the markets in London.
Dennis Gartman- Trading Rules
R U L E # 1
Never, ever, under any circumstance, should one add to a losing position … not EVER!
Averaging down into a losing trade is the only thing that will assuredly take you out of the investment business. This is what took LTCM out. This is what took Barings Brothers out; this is what took Sumitomo Copper out, and this is what takes most losing investors out.
R U L E # 2
Never, ever, under any circumstance, should one add to a losing position … not EVER!
We trust our point is made. If “location, location, location” are the first three rules of investing in real estate, then the first two rules of trading equities, debt, commodities, currencies, and so on are these: never add to a losing position.
R U L E # 3
Learn to trade like a mercenary guerrilla.
The great Jesse Livermore once said that it is not our duty to trade upon the bullish side, nor the bearish side, but upon the winning side. This is brilliance of the first order. We must indeed learn to fight/invest on the winning side, and we must be willing to change sides immediately when one side has gained the upper hand.
R U L E # 4 DON’T HOLD ON TO LOSING POSITIONS
Capital is in two varieties: Mental and Real, and, of the two, the mental capital is the most important.
Holding on to losing positions costs real capital as one’s account balance is depleted, but it can exhaust one’s mental capital even more seriously as one holds to the losing trade, becoming more and more fearful with each passing minute, day and week, avoiding potentially profitable trades while one nurtures the losing position.
R U L E # 5 GO WHERE THE STRENGTH IS
The objective of what we are after is not to buy low and to sell high, but to buy high and to sell higher, or to sell short low and to buy lower.
We can never know what price is really “low,” nor what price is really “high.” We can, however, have a modest chance at knowing what the trend is and acting on that trend. We can buy higher and we can sell higher still if the trend is up. Conversely, we can sell short at low prices and we can cover at lower prices if the trend is still down. However, we’ve no idea how high high is, nor how low low is.
R U L E # 6
Sell markets that show the greatest weakness; buy markets that show the greatest strength.
Metaphorically, when bearish we need to throw our rocks into the wettest paper sack for it will break the most readily, while in bull markets we need to ride the strongest wind for it shall carry us farther than others.
R U L E # 7
In a Bull Market we can only be long or neutral; in a bear market we can only be bearish or neutral.
In a bull market we can be neutral, modestly long, or aggressively long–getting into the last position after a protracted bull run into which we’ve added to our winning position all along the way. Conversely, in a bear market we can be neutral, modestly short, or aggressively short, but never, ever can we–or should we–be the opposite way even so slightly.
R U L E # 8
“Markets can remain illogical far longer than you or I can remain solvent.”
The University of Chicago “boys” have argued for decades that the markets are rational, but we in the markets every day know otherwise. We must learn to accept that irrationality, deal with it, and move on.
R U L E # 9
Trading runs in cycles; some are good, some are bad, and there is nothing we can do about that other than accept it and act accordingly.
Thus, when things are going well, trade often, trade large, and try to maximize the good fortune that is being bestowed upon you. However, when trading poorly, trade infrequently, trade very small, and continue to get steadily smaller until the winds have changed and the trading “gods” have chosen to smile upon you once again.
R U L E # 10
To trade/invest successfully, think like a fundamentalist; trade like a technician.
It is obviously imperative that we understand the economic fundamentals that will drive a market higher or lower, but we must understand the technicals as well. When we do, then and only then can we, or should we, trade. (more…)
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
Ed Seykota’s Magic Trading System
1: Do not stress about whipsaws – one good trend pays for them all.
A whipsaw is when you enter a stock, but get stopped out quickly. In a period of whipsaws, this may happen many times. This can be frustrating to a trader or investor, and it may cause them to change their system. But the fact is that one good trend will pay for all of these whipsaws, and if you change your system you lose the benefit of that!
2: When you Catch a Trend, ride it to the end.
Your system must be able to jump on a trending stock (for instance, up if you are going long), but then also be able to ride that trend to the end. Many novice traders will jump out of stocks before they are finished trending because they are scared the market has gone too far. Let your system tell you when the trend is ending, and only exit once it does.
3: When you show a loss, give the loss a toss.
Every single successful money manager ever interviewed has said something along the lines of: “Cut your losses short”. Get rid of your losses. Keep your winners. And once you have your system don’t second guess it! Being stopped out is part of the process.
4: We know if our risk is right when we make a lot of money, but can still sleep at night.
Risk is the amount of risk per trade (the price between your entry and your stop loss), and how much your total risk is (regarding how many positions you have open at one time). (more…)
Just Cut & Paste on Your Trading Desk
Yes ,Only 5% or less ………………………..Traders knows this thing.
The Most Powerful Trader in the World
Once you’ve mastered putting in protective stops, you’ll feel empowered. Why? Because at that point you are emotionally balanced and are WILLING to transfer the risk to someone else and exit with a small loss. You have emotional and financial understanding that trading is a process and that any one trade is meaningless over 1,000s of trades.
At that point you have personal power in that trading is just one part of your day and your life is abundant. And you don’t need to tell anyone about your trading. You’re in love with your process – be it mechanical or discretionary – and not in love with any one particular trade.
At that point, you’ll also realize that you can’t really speak to anyone about trading anymore. Most amateurs don’t understand that trading like a professional requires a combination of self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and some level of technical proficiency.
You won’t be able to communicate with such a person as they are speaking one language and you another. They are ignorant about your expertise and necessary behavior. It’s a dialect all its own and it’s unique to you and only you.
This ability is learned behavior – but most will never achieve this level because they are focused on the wrong principles. They’re missing the 80% of the puzzle that is most significant.
Google's world headquarters in 1998
Are you a discretionary trader?
How would you be able to tell? Here is a quiz that will help you decide. Answer Yes or No to the following questions.
- Do you sometimes buy newsletter recommendations without having a real plan for how you’ll get out of the trade?
- Do you occasionally (or often) take trades based upon some interesting indicator that you learned in a workshop (i.e., when you see that indicator go, you usually get into a trade, but again you have no real plan about how you’ll get out of the trade)?
- Do you trade three or more different systems in the same account?
- Do you trade more than ten different systems?
- Do you sometimes enter a trade and later not remember why?
- Are you unsure of how many systems you have?
- Do most of your systems lack a complete set of rules to guide your behavior?
- Are your systems equivalent to the setups used to get into the trades and nothing more?
- Are you unable to list the rules for the last trade you made?
- Are you able to list the rules for any of the last five trades you made?
If you answered Yes to as many as two of the questions above, you have some elements of a no-rules discretionary trader. However, if you answered Yes to 6 or more questions above, you definitely are a no-rules discretionary trader.
Chances are you seldom make money in the market because you are not playing a winning game. You probably make many mistakes. In fact, since you don’t have rules, I would consider everything you do to be a mistake until you have a set of rules in place. How can you effectively learn from any of your trading experiences if you do not know which ones are mistakes? (more…)
THE PROBABILISTIC MINDSET
