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7 ways someone can claim a 90% winning rate

1. Mr. Hindsight

This person can point to any chart, and identify his buy and sell points with absolute precision. Usually recognized as an expert in his field of analysis, he can create stunning buy and sell signals for past data. Problem is, he usually can’t do it going forward. ADVICE: Ignore past “predictions,” and only follow Mr. Hindsight in real time. You’ll soon see his true ability.

2. Ms. Vague

Her market predictions are akin to reading the works of Nostradamus. She’ll say “the market will be up today, unless GDP figures are disappointing.” After the numbers come out, the prediction can be made to fit the outcome – “well, the numbers were only somewhat disappointing” or “other forces overpowered the market, so even though I was right, the market fell.” ADVICE: Turn off financial TV shows, since this is where Ms. Vague and here cohorts lurk.

3. Mr. Sneaky

This guy will have an ad that states “95% winning closed trades.” Sounds great, BUT it usually means that 5% of his trades are currently open losers, usually big losers, that he has held onto for a long time. ADVICE: Make sure all open trades are disclosed, too. Treat open and closed trades as the same. Don’t fall for the “this losing trade can always come back and be profitable” ploy.

4. Ms. Quick Exiter

In and out like a flash on winning trades, Ms. Quick Exiter will typically have losses 5-10 times her winners. But, she gets a lot of winners, and she wants to dazzle you with winning percentage. ADVICE: Look at total net profit. You probably will see a losing strategy, even with a 90%+ winning percentage.

5. Mr. Liar

If Mr. Liar can do anything to cheat, he will. In the past, he has stuck all his losing trades in one account, put all his winners in another account, and of course, only shows you the winning account. But, he has many other tricks up his sleeve, certainly more than I can name here. ADVICE: Track his trades in real time. Make sure they are specific and detailed enough so they cannot be misinterpreted.

6. Mr. Long Term

“The stock market will rise,” says Mr. Long Term. He is absolutely right, if you don’t pin him down on time. It may take 100 years, but stocks will eventually rise. But, the first 99 might wipe you out. Long term forecasters hope you’ll forget their predictions if they are incorrect. ADVICE: Treat any prediction, especially long term ones, with extreme suspicion. The fact is most experts are just guessing.

7. Ms. Really Can Do It

A rare and exceptional talent, this person is the real deal. No gimmicks, no tricks – just super high winning percentage and super high profits. ADVICE: Ask yourself “why would this person sell me their amazing secrets for $79, when if she is so good, she can trade and make unlimited amounts of money?” Answer: No one will ever sell you the ultimate key to trading success, and if they did, it would cost a lot more than you could afford.

So, now you know the seven members of the 90% winning trade club. Avoid these folks, and you’ll almost certainly become a better trader.

Decisiveness

“It’s better to be boldly decisive and risk being wrong than to agonize at length and be right too late” – Anonymous

“Procrastination in the name of reducing risk actually increases risk” – Colin Powell

“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in” – Napoleon Bonaparte

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing” – Theodore Roosevelt

If you have the patience to wait for your setup then you better have the decisiveness to GET IN THE TRADE once price comes to you and your entry parameters are present. How many people wait for the trade to come and then when it arrives start analyzing if they should take it? When the trade has arrived it is time for action, not analyzation. This is what preparation is for. If you have done your homework there is no need for hesitation – you already know what to do. At the same time trading is not static. There are times when the odds are high that the market will reverse before your final target is hit. Do you have the decisiveness to reverse the position or flatten when this situation is present? It has been said that the number one ingredient to being a great trader is the trading guts to pull the trigger as soon as a reverse is anticipated. Be decisive.

12 ways the world could end

Since the dawn of civilisation people have speculated about apocalyptic bangs and whimpers that could wipe us out. Now a team from Oxford university’s Future of Humanity Institute and the Global Challenges Foundation has come up with the first serious scientific assessment of the gravest risks we face.

Although civilisation has ended many times in popular fiction, the issue has been almost entirely ignored by governments. “We were surprised to find that no one else had compiled a list of global risks with impacts that, for all practical purposes, can be called infinite,” says co-author Dennis Pamlin of the Global Challenges Foundation. “We don’t want to be accused of scaremongering but we want to get policy makers talking.”

The report itself says: “This is a scientific assessment about the possibility of oblivion, certainly, but even more it is a call for action based on the assumption that humanity is able to rise to challenges and turn them into opportunities. We are confronted with possibly the greatest challenge ever and our response needs to match this through global collaboration in new and innovative ways.”

There is, of course, room for debate about risks that are included or left out of the list. I would have added an intense blast of radiation from space, either a super-eruption from the sun or a gamma-ray burst from an exploding star in our region of the galaxy. And I would have included a sci-fi-style threat from an alien civilisation either invading or, more likely, sending a catastrophically destabilising message from an extrasolar planet. Both are, I suspect, more probable than a supervolcano.

But the 12 risks in the report are enough to be getting on with. A few of the existential threats are “exogenic”, arising from events beyond our control, such as asteroid impact. Most emerge from human economic and technological development. Three (synthetic biology, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence) result from dual-use technologies, which promise great benefits for society, including reducing other risks such as climate change and pandemics — but could go horribly wrong.

Assessing the risks is very complex because of the interconnections between them and the probabilities given in the report are very conservative. For instance, extreme global warming could trigger ecological collapse and a failure of global governance.

The authors do not attempt to pull their 12 together and come up with an overall probability of civilisation ending within the next 100 years but Stuart Armstrong of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute says: “Putting the risk of extinction below 5 per cent would be wildly overconfident.” (more…)

Sentiment Cycle

RETURNING CONFIDENCE
On the upside, the area where churning takes place is in between the Returning Confidence phase and the Subtle Warning phase, after a significant advance has already taken place. This often appears in the form of a head and shoulders top on weekly or monthly charts. By the time confidence returns, the market has already been going up for ages while the retracement patterns become ever larger, each one scarier than the last.
To technical traders, this type of price action tells us that the market is getting tired. Perceived bull market volatility excites investors. They waited forever on the sidelines for fundamentals to confirm that the move up was ‘real’. The coast is finally clear and they jump in with both feet. This phase typically ends with a failure on test of top, and the big, super scary ‘buy the dip’ pullback begins.
BUY THE BIG DIP
The public continues to pour money in, lured by glowing good news and economic data. After the long move up, finding attractive stocks becomes difficult for technical traders and market veterans. Traders chase momentum where they find it. Investors believe that the game is back on, and they are willing to take big risk and buy big dips. This Big Dip usually comes after a failed test of top in the Returning Confidence phase. The Big Dip typically takes price below the 50-day simple moving average and quite often, to the 200-day moving average. This is where ABC Corrections are typically found.
ENTHUSIASM
Once it is widely accepted that economic and corporate fundamentals are supporting higher prices, a bell goes off. The bull survived The Big Dip. Those who had previously been afraid now have plenty of reasons – and proof – that it is safe to go back into the market and buy again.  (more…)

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