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Donchian's 20 Trading Guides (First publication: 1934)

General Guides:

  1. Beware of acting immediately on a widespread public opinion. Even if correct, it will usually delay the move.

  2. From a period of dullness and inactivity, watch for and prepare to follow a move in the direction in which volume increases.

  3. Limit losses and ride profits, irrespective of all other rules.

  4. Light commitments are advisable when market position is not certain. Clearly defined moves are signaled frequently enough to make life interesting and concentration on these moves will prevent unprofitable whip-sawing.

  5. Seldom take a position in the direction of an immediately preceding three-day move. Wait for a one-day reversal.

  6. Judicious use of stop orders is a valuable aid to profitable trading. Stops may be used to protect profits, to limit losses, and from certain formations such as triangular foci to take positions. Stop orders are apt to be more valuable and less treacherous if used in proper relation the the chart formation.

  7. In a market in which upswings are likely to equal or exceed downswings, heavier position should be taken for the upswings for percentage reasons – a decline from 50 to 25 will net only 50% profit, whereas an advance from 25 to 50 will net 100%

  8. In taking a position, price orders are allowable.  In closing a position, use market orders.”

  9. Buy strong-acting, strong-background commodities and sell weak ones, subject to all other rules.

  10. Moves in which rails lead or participate strongly are usually more worth following than moves in which rails lag. (more…)

Trading Sins

  • over-trading
  • too much leverage
  • under capitalization
  • not adhering to stops
  • trading without a plan
  • paying short thrift to proper execution
  • assuming too much risk, not respecting it
  • trading products I don’t fully understand
  • competing where I have no edge
  • becoming too emotional
  • under-valuing the need for ample liquidity
  • misaligning time-frames (the time a trade typically needs to play out, versus my expectation/need for it conclude)

Successful traders fail all the time. In fact, many even fail a majority of the time. The difference is that their failures are not a failure to execute their plan. The failure rests in the fact that the expertly chosen trade turned out to be wrong (nobody can be right 100% of the time – except Congress). And when the trade was wrong, they took their loss which resulted in minimal damage to their portfolio and moved on to the next opportunity.

Donchian's 20 Trading Guides

richard-donchian
Richard Donchian is best known for developing the Donchian Channel Indicator. This is a simple trend following tool that detects and alerts you to breakouts by plotting the highest high and the lowest low over the last period time interval which the user specifies.
Through his many years of trading and writing weekly newsletters (Commodity Trend Timing), Richard Donchian shares with us some very valuable trend trading wisdom.

  1. Beware of acting immediately on a widespread public opinion. Even if correct, it will usually delay the move.
  2. From a period of dullness and inactivity, watch for and prepare to follow a move in the direction in which volume increases.
  3. Limit losses and ride profits, irrespective of all other rules.
  4. Light commitments are advisable when market position is not certain. Clearly defined moves are signaled frequently enough to make life interesting and concentration on these moves will prevent unprofitable whip-sawing. (more…)

Trading Wisdom – Gary Bielfeldt

The most important thing is to have a method for staying with your winners and getting rid of your losers. By having thought out your objective and having a strategy for getting out in case the market trend changes, you greatly increase the potential for staying in your winning positions. The traits of a successful trader: The most important is discipline – I am sure everyone says that. Second, you have to have patience; if you have a good trade on, you have to be able to stay with it. Third, you need courage to go into the market, and courage comes from adequate capitalization. Fourth, you must have a willingness to lose; that is also related to adequate capitalization. Fifth, you need a strong desire to win. You have to have the attitude that if a trade loses, you can handle it without any problem and come back to do the next trade. You can’t let a losing trade get to you emotionally. If a trade doesn’t look right, I get out and take a small loss.

Richard Donchian's 20 trading guides

General Guides:

  1. Beware of acting immediately on a widespread public opinion. Even if correct, it will usually delay the move.
  2. From a period of dullness and inactivity, watch for and prepare to follow a move in the direction in which volume increases.
  3. Limit losses and ride profits, irrespective of all other rules.
  4. Light commitments are advisable when market position is not certain. Clearly defined moves are signaled frequently enough to make life interesting and concentration on these moves will prevent unprofitable whip-sawing.
  5. Seldom take a position in the direction of an immediately preceding three-day move. Wait for a one-day reversal.
  6. Judicious use of stop orders is a valuable aid to profitable trading. Stops may be used to protect profits, to limit losses, and from certain formations such as triangular foci to take positions. Stop orders are apt to be more valuable and less treacherous if used in proper relation the the chart formation.
  7. In a market in which upswings are likely to equal or exceed downswings, heavier position should be taken for the upswings for percentage reasons – a decline from 50 to 25 will net only 50% profit, whereas an advance from 25 to 50 will net 100%.
  8. In taking a position, price orders are allowable. In closing a position, use market orders.
  9. Buy strong-acting, strong-background commodities and sell weak ones, subject to all other rules.
  10. Moves in which rails lead or participate strongly are usually more worth following than moves in which rails lag.
  11. A study of the capitalization of a company, the degree of activity of an issue, and whether an issue is a lethargic truck horse or a spirited race horse is fully as important as a study of statistical reports.

Technical Guides:

  1. A move followed by a sideways range often precedes another move of almost equal extent in the same direction as the original move. Generally, when the second move from the sideways range has run its course, a counter move approaching the sideways range may be expected. (more…)

10 Trading Mistakes

1. Under capitalization – One of the first mistake I made when beginning to trade was being under capitalized. I started with a $10K account without any idea on how to trade. You need enough capital to learn and gain the experience. Some like to call the initial stake “market tuition.” If you can avoid paying your dues, great for you. But most new traders will lose their money. Just make sure you learn from every loss.

2. Having the approach to trading as a “learn as you trade” – Big mistake. “Learn as you trade” = losing money. Losing money can lead to emotional and financial stress and may even create enough fear in you making it hard to trade. Make sure you come prepared to the battlefield. Be a strategist. Sun Tzu said, “The battle is won before it is fought.” Think about it.

3. Trading as a hobby – Take a look at your hobbies. Do they make money? Hobbies in general are entertainment that cost money. Do not approach trading as a hobby. Treat it like a business. Develop a business plan, have goals, and understand what you want out of trading.

4. Thinking that you know it all – The moment one thinks he knows it all is the moment he has become a fool. Its impossible to know everything about the markets. This is a lifetime learning process. Find your niche…. find your speciality and be an expert in it. In other words, find your edge. One thing I learned in trading is that niche = money.

5. Trading without a plan – One of the worst things you can do as a trader is to trade without a plan. Trading without a plan is like driving in a new area without a map or a navigation system. You are lost. (more…)

Trading Wisdom

tradingwisdom

The most important thing is to have a method for staying with your winners and getting rid of your losers. By having thought out your objective and having a strategy for getting out in case the market trend changes, you greatly increase the potential for staying in your winning positions. The traits of a successful trader: The most important is discipline – I am sure everyone says that. Second, you have to have patience; if you have a good trade on, you have to be able to stay with it. Third, you need courage to go into the market, and courage comes from adequate capitalization. Fourth, you must have a willingness to lose; that is also related to adequate capitalization. Fifth, you need a strong desire to win. You have to have the attitude that if a trade loses, you can handle it without any problem and come back to do the next trade. You can’t let a losing trade get to you emotionally. If a trade doesn’t look right, I get out and take a small loss.

Guidelines from Donchian

  1. Beware of acting immediately on a widespread public opinion. Even if correct, it will usually delay the move.
  2. From a period of dullness and inactivity, watch for and prepare to follow a move in the direction in which volume increases.
  3. Limit losses and ride profits, irrespective of all other rules.
  4. Light commitments are advisable when market position is not certain. Clearly defined moves are signaled frequently enough to make life interesting and concentration on these moves will prevent unprofitable whip-sawing.
  5. Seldom take a position in the direction of an immediately preceding three-day move. Wait for a one-day reversal.
  6. Judicious use of stop orders is a valuable aid to profitable trading. Stops may be used to protect profits, to limit losses, and from certain formations such as triangular foci to take positions. Stop orders are apt to be more valuable and less treacherous if used in proper relation to the chart formation.
  7. In a market in which upswings are likely to equal or exceed downswings, heavier position should be taken for the upswings for percentage reasons a decline from 50 to 25 will net only 50 percent profit, whereas an advance from 25 to 50 will net 100 percent profit.
  8. In taking a position, price orders are allowable. In closing a position, use market orders.
  9. Buy strong-acting, strong-background commodities and sell weak ones, subject to all other rules.
  10. Moves in which rails lead or participate strongly are usually more worth following than moves in which rails lag.
  11. A study of the capitalization of a company, the degree of activity of an issue, and whether an issue is a lethargic truck horse or a spirited race horse is fully as important as a study of statistical reports.

Wisdom of Market Wizards

“Perhaps the most important rule is to hold on to your winners and cut your losers. Both are equally important. If you don’t stay with your winners, you are not going to be able to pay for the losers.” – Michael Marcus

“The more a price pattern is observed by speculators, the more prone you are to have false signals. The more a market is the product of nonspeculative activity, the greater the significance of technical breakouts.” –Bruce Kovner

My take – Most commons are pennants and flags. And most obvious failed outbreaks are candles ended with the close below the intended trendline.

“The most important rule is to play great defense, not great offense. Everyday I assume every position I have is wrong. I know where my stop risk points are going to be. I do that so I can define my maximum drawdown. Hopefully, I spend the rest of the day enjoying positions that are going in my direction. If they are going against me, then I have a game plan for getting out.”
“… I believe the very best money is to be made at the market turns. Everyone says you get killed trying to pick tops and bottoms and you make all the money by catching the trends in the middle. Well, for twelve years, I have often been missing the meat in the middle, but I have caught a lot of bottoms and tops. If you are a trend follower trying to catch the profits in the middle of a move, you have to use very wide stops. I’m not comfortable doing that. Also, markets trend only about 15% of the time; the rest of the time they move sideways.”
“Don’t focus on making money; focus on protecting what you have.”
Paul Tudor Jones (Big Big Big Fund Manager)

“The most important is discipline – I am sure everyone tells you that. Second, you have to have patience; if you have a good trade on, you have to be able to stay with it. Third, you need courafe to go into the market, and courage comes from adequate capitalization. Fifth, you need a strong desire to win.”
“You should have the attitude that if a trade loses, you can handle it without any problem and come back to do the next trade. You can’t let a losing trade get to you emotionally.” – 
Gary Bielfeldt

The traits of a successful trader

sachin

The most important is discipline – I am sure everyone says that. Second, you have to have patience; if you have a good trade on, you have to be able to stay with it. Third, you need courage to go into the market, and courage comes from adequate capitalization. Fourth, you must have a willingness to lose; that is also related to adequate capitalization. Fifth, you need a strong desire to win.” – Gary Bielfeldt

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