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What Kind of Person is Best Suited to Trading?

Great traders have a few personality traits that do give them a natural advantage.  That’s not to say you can’t succeed without them, just that it’ll be an uphill battle and a greater degree of reflection and self-correction will be required.  The trader with the best chance of success will be –

Independent.  Being happy with a good deal of autonomy will allow you to confidently execute your plan without needing 25 people to concur with your analysis.  Trading is a solitary game, and you need to be able to thrive on your own, to a large extent.  Support is great but when it comes down to it, it’s all up to you.

Decisive.  If you take hours to do something simple like choose a burger off a menu, the odds of you being able to see a trade set-up and coolly pull the trigger are greatly diminished.  Especially if you trade short time-frames that can be the difference between success and failure.

Insightful.  If a trader can honestly look at their skills, motivations and short-comings and actively work to rectify them, they have the tools to over-come nearly anything the market throws their way. (more…)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Needs Money

 International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a statement that it would begin selling large holdings of its gold reserves

IMF: Says will shortly begin ‘on market sales’ for remaining 191 tons of gold; To start selling up to $7B of gold to market

– Gold will be sold in a “phased manner” to avoid disruptions to gold market

– On market sales does not preclude sales of gold to interested central banks.
– Off-market sales would reduce amount of gold to be sold on the market.

So why is the IMF selling its gold? Is it that the monetary fund is looking ahead to more countries needing cash bailouts? Or does the IMF view gold as a worthless commodity in the future?

The announcement did impact the gold price as reflected on this gold chart which shows the reaction.

IMF-GOLD SELLING

Ten Ways to Trade With an Edge

An edge is an advantage that a trader has over his competitors, allowing him to generate and retain profits from other traders . There can be many types of  trading edges through risk management, psychological management, and through better trading methods.

Here are a few:

  1.  A selective trader that only trades the best set ups, trends, and stocks has the advantage of waiting for the fat pitch and not just swinging at every ball thrown his way.
  2. Simply using correct position sizing can put you in the top 10% of traders simply by not blowing out your account and staying in the game by maximizing winners and minimizing losers..
  3. Risking no more than 1% of your capital per trade brings your risk of ruin down to almost zero and allows the trader to survive losing streaks. You have the edge of being around to have a winning streak later on.
  4. Only taking trades with a risk-to-reward of 3 to 1 or better gives the opportunity to have bigger winners than losers in the long run which is needed to be profitable. 
  5. Trading in the direction of the trend in your time frame gives you an edge over those losing money by fighting the trend.
  6. Having the discipline to follow a trading plan gives you an edge over those that trade based on fear and greed. (more…)

Least Resistance

A man ought not to be led into trading by tokens. He should wait until the tape tells him that the time is ripe. As a matter of fact, millions upon millions of dollars have been lost by men who bought stocks because they looked cheap or sold them because they looked dear. The speculator is not an investor. His object is not to secure a steady return on his money at a good rate of interest, but to profit by either a rise or a fall in the price of whatever he may be speculating in. Therefore the thing to determine is the speculative line of least resistance at the moment of trading; and what he should wait for is the moment when that line defines itself, because that is his signal to get busy. ——-REMINISCENCES OF A STOCK OPERATOR by Edwin LeFevre
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