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Trading as a way of life- VIDEO

  
Education, Video
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Jihan Bowes-Little is a California-born writer, recording artist, and professional risk-taker. He began his career as a Trader at Goldman Sachs and is now a Portfolio Manager for Bluecrest Capital. Simultaneously, he launched a career as a Hip-Hop and Spoken Word artist, signing to Warner Music earlier this year. His recently completed first novel, ‘The Trade’, chronicles his unusual and colourful double-life. He lives in London, where he also founded Roark Entertainment, an Investment and Advisory firm for Artists and Creative Entrepreneurs.

The Right Approach to Losses

  
  Education
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First of all, understand that losses are a necessary part of any risk taking activity.  The goal should always be to blunt the impact of  losses as opposed to eliminating the losses altogether.  There is a distinct difference between minimizing the impact of losses versus minimizing the number of losses.  If the money you are risking stands between you and hunger, think twice before placing it on the line.  Risk capital must be true risk capital.

Second, losses are better teachers than wins.  As noted above, wins often lead to complacency.  Losses usually compel you to figure out “why.”  If small and incidental to your overall strategy, they confirm that your plan is  working.  If relatively outsized and/or unexpected, losses make you examine the precedent trades and determine if your strategy should be adjusted.  This is how advancement happens.  Thomas Edison needed nearly 10,000 tries to find filament for an incandescent bulb that would last for more than a few hours.  Of the thousands of attempts that did not produce the bulb, Edison did not see them as failures, but rather as things that didn’t work which was useful knowledge in and of itself.  By knowing what didn’t work, Edison was able to find his way to what did.  Containing and then examining your losses will help you do the same with your trading strategy.

Third, recognize that losses that are kept small relative to your portfolio are a big part of the fuel that propels your account higher.  They say that you are taking prudent steps to grow your account… that you are “in the game.”  The alternative, especially if you accept that losses are a necessary part of trading, is no risk taking or the taking of outsize risk (refusing to cut losers).  Neither of these provide a path to account growth.  If you can find/develop a trading method that allows for (in fact, embraces), many small losses while still delivering profits overall, you will have gone a long way toward eliminating the trepidation that most new traders feel about entering the fray.  You will also be able to stop worrying about having the “right” picks.

Trending Value Metrics by O’Shaughnessy

  
  Education
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James O’Shaughnessy is a well known “value quant” for his book What Works on Wall Street (4th Ed). He has a new column in Marketwatch discussing what he calls  “the top stock-market strategy of the past 50 years.”

According to Jim, using a combination of value and momentum strategies — “Trending Value” — is the best performing strategy since 1963. To capture this, he ranks stocks based on:

• Price-to-Sales
• Price-to-Earnings
• Price-to-Book
• Price-to-Cash Flow
• EBITDA/Enterprise Value
• Shareholder yield (dividend yield + rate of share repurchases)

O’Shaughnessy ranks all of these on a 1-100 basis for his Trending Value portfolio. He works with the top 10% of those ranked stocks with the best composite score. He selects a concentrated portfolio of 25 stocks based on trailing six-month momentum, creating an extremely cheap group of stocks that are on the mend.

Its an interesting ideas, one worth exploring . . .

My Trading Resolutions for next 3 months

  
  Education
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  • Think for myself
  • Stay focused on the reasons why I bought a stock and sell when those reasons are no longer compelling
  • Don’t let successful trades turn into losses
  • Be ruled less by emotion and fear and more by logic and knowledge
  • Read some good books on trading
  • To avoid being whipsawed, I will give myself more room for the trade to work
  • Follow my own rules
  • Be easier on myself when I screw up and don’t let my ego inflate when I’m right
  • Don’t force trades – there will always be another opportunity
  • Honor thy stops!
  • Stop chasing hot and popular stocks
  • Do my own research
  • Keep learning
  • Learn to be less nervous and take more risks
  • Remember that lost opportunity is better than lost capital
  • Trade less – don’t overtrade
  • To try and limit the number of opinions I allow to affect my trading. Paralysis by analysis has hurt me
  • Avoid any trade where I use the word “hope” in my reasoning process
  • To follow my logical, well-conceived, long-term game plan, without making irrational changes due to short-term market conditions
  • Tune out the daily noise and useless banter
  • Reduce the number of positions currently held
  • Have more faith in my own abilities
  • In trading, learn to be fearless
  • Don’t be too greedy
  • Slow down!
  • Incorporate the use of smart trailing stops
  • Use ETFs to properly diversify
  • Remove my ego from my trading decisions
  • Avoid getting easily frustrated or impatient
  • Control and limit my losses
  • Focus on making the next trade, instead of the last one
  • I will not average down into losing positions
  • Create more careful and detailed records with a commitment to review them regularly
  • Learn to incorporate a systematic screening method like you
  • Use emotions (both personal and market) to my own advantage
  • Know my exits before making any trade
  • Don’t be swayed by the latest and greatest strategy I hear about
  • Keep it simple. Complex strategies are no better
  • Avoid crowded trades
  • Take time to look for reasons NOT to buy
  • Let profits run longer. take losses quicker
  • Trade what I see, not what I want to see
  • Be more proactive and react faster to situations I find
  • Make bigger, but less frequent trades
  • Stay patient
  • Focus on value of companies and not on the temporary market emotions
  • Be more nimble
  • Keep better notes
  • Adopt an opportunistic versus a rigid bull or bear bias toward the market
  • Enjoy the game more
  • To quit counting the value of my account on a daily basis
  • Stop looking for the holy grail
  • Figure out what trade related information to consume on a daily basis and keep what is useful and leave out that which is not
  • Avoid information overload by limiting what I read
  • Don’t read stock blogs
  • Turn off the TV and dedicate more of my time to become a better trader
  • Set up a lazy portfolio
  • Focus on proper asset allocation
  • Never forget that “when you are through learning you are through”
  • Recognize mistakes early, exit, and move on
  • Take partial profits routinely, but keep money on high-performing stocks
  • Follow my system
  • To screen & scan my watchlist in a consistent manner each and every time
  • Take routine breaks away from the market to refresh and gain more perspective
  • Add more fundamental research to my technical research
  • Concentrate on finding just one really good idea per year like Warren Buffett
  • Stop searching for shortcuts or quick fixes – take baby steps
  • Read at least 3 more trading books in next 3 months
  • Focus, focus, focus – ignore all outside distractions
  • When a strategy works, have the courage to follow it through, when it does not work, to have the wisdom to stop trading
  • Find and exploit long-range sector themes
  • Open my ears and keep my mouth shut
  • Never panic
  • Be humble

A to Z -Motivational Tips

  
  Education
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■A – Achieve your dreams.

Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Consume yourself with the motivation to achieve tremendous results from everything you attempt

■B – Believe in your self, and in what you can do.

Motivation comes from within, if you trust in your abilities you will come out on top.

■C – Consider things on every angle and aspect.

Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides. Never say never, there is a way of accomplishing anything if you keep an open mind and never give up.
■D – Don’t give up and don’t give in.
Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel. The only way you lose for sure is when you quit.
■E – Enjoy. Work as if you don’t need money.
Dance as if nobody’s watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you’ll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy. Maintain a positive attitude under any circumstance. Fill your mind with positive thoughts and the whole world will be your playground.
■F – Family and Friends – are life’s greatest ‘F’ treasures.
Don’t loose sight of them. So often we look past our greatest treasures, remain motivated to always seek the treasures in your family bonds.
■G – Give more than what is enough.

Where does motivation and self improvement take place? At work? At home? At school? When you exert extra effort in doing things. Try to give more than what is asked of you, this shows true self motivation.

■H – Hang on to your dreams.

They may dangle in there for a moment, but these little stars will be your driving force. Dreams keep us motivated to go after the things that excite us in life. Holding onto your dreams shows a strength in your character of positive expectations. (more…)

Trading Psychology Lesson-Naked Truth

  
  Education
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A good analyst is someone who can figure out that markets are going from Point A to Point B;

A good trader is someone who can navigate the path from Point A to Point B;

A good investor is someone who can weather the path from Point A to Point B;

Good analysts often are not good traders.

Good traders often are not good investors.

Good investors often are not good traders.

Good traders and investors often need to hire good analysts.

So much of success boils down to knowing who you are and accepting that.

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