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The Greatest Traders

What separates the 10% that make money from the 90% that don’t?

10,000 hours.

In his recent book ‘Outliers’ Malcolm Gladwell describes the 10,000-Hour Rule, claiming that the key to success in any cognitively complex field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. 10,000 hours equates to around 4hrs a day for 10 years. For some reason most people that ‘try their hand’ at trading view it as a get rich quick scheme. That in a very short space of time, they will be able to turn $500 into $1 million! It is precisely this mindset that has resulted in the current economic mess, a bunch of 20-somethings being handed the red phone for financial weapons of mass destruction. The greatest traders understand that trading much like being a doctor, engineer or any other focused and technical endeavor requires time to develop and hone the skill set. Now you wouldn’t see a doctor performing open heart surgery after 3 months on a surgery simulator. Why would trading as a technical undertaking require less time?

Trading success, comes from screen time and experience, you have to put the hours in!

Education, education, education.

The old cliché touted by politicians when they can’t think of anything clever to say to their audience. The importance of education to success in trading cannot be placed on a high enough pedestal. You have to learn to earn, the best traders work obsessively to refine their edge further to stay ahead of the curve.

Think for yourself.

“NO! NO! NO!”… “Bear Stearns is not in trouble”…”Don’t move your money from Bear! That’s just silly! Don’t be silly!”

A quote from well known stock guru Jim Cramer aired on CNBC days before Bear Stearns lost 90% of its value. Many followed this call and felt the obvious pain as a result. As the old saying goes, “too many cooks spoil the broth” it is very much the same in trading. Successful traders blinker themselves from the opinions of others; they focus on their own analysis of fundamental and technical information.

Adapt or Die.

Market conditions change and technology advances, thus the conditions for trading are always evolving, the rise in mechanical trading is testament to that. The very best traders through a process of education and adaptation are constantly staying ahead of the curve and creating ever new and ingenious methods to profit from the markets evolution.

Fail to plan, you plan to fail.

The best traders have a well documented plan; they know exactly what they are looking for and follow that plan to the letter. Their preparation for a trade starts long before the market open, it is this meticulous planning and importantly adherence to that plan that helps them avoid the biggest demons for any trader, over trading and revenge trading.

“Be like Machine”

As human beings emotions pay a key role in our existence, for a trader emotions can be a source of great pain. Trading psychology and the management of your emotions in a trade play a key role in overall success. Fear and greed can cut your winners short and let your losers run. Dealing with emotions follows on from your plan; the more robust your plan the less likely you are to fall into the emotional mine field.

Know your tools

Every trader has a set of tools they use, DOM, Charts, News feeds etc. These tools are a traders bread and butter; they are the most vital part of a traders arsenal, without which it would be impossible to trade. The best traders have mastered their order entry methodology, they know all about the features they need from their charts. This mastery of their tools, allows the trader to get the very best out of the resources they have available to them and ensures perfect execution of their trading ideas.

Know Thyself

Behind all the egos and excess, the best traders know their limitations; they focus on what can go wrong in a trade, and expend a lot of energy in limiting and controlling their risk before thinking about profits. They have a heightened sense of self-awareness and focus on incremental self improvement.

Profit & Loss

The best traders focus on the trade itself rather than the P&L; they view each trade as a technical exercise and focus on getting the most out of the market in accordance with their plan. They do not think in terms of the grocery payment, the electric bill and the desire to make X amount to cover a mortgage payment. Focusing on the money behind a trade can cloud technical objectivity.

In Conclusion

The greatest traders work hard to get ahead and even harder to stay ahead. Through increased and niche knowledge they constantly adapt with the market and remain profitable in every environment. Drive, tenacity and the will to succeed is the greatest edge of every successful trader.

Warren Buffett's Worst Trade & Biggest Mistake

Investors always remember their worst trade or biggest mistake. Warren Buffett is no different. However, Buffett’s biggest mistake might surprise you. In an interview with CNBC, the Oracle of Omaha admitted that the worst trade of his career was buying Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A). Imagine that. But if you dig deeper into his account of the story, you’ll see that while his worst trade might have been buying Berkshire Hathaway, his biggest mistake was letting emotion get the better of him.

Embedded below is the video where Buffett talks about his worst trade in Berkshire Hathaway

6 Points For Traders

1.  Anything can happen in the market…and often does.6-steps

2.  There is ALWAYS someone on the other side of the trade…ALWAYS.

3.  Stock market rules are made to be broken…because there are none.  Only yours… that you never break-for buying or for selling.

4.  There may be more than one pattern at work at the same time-both diametrically opposed to one another. 

5.  If on the wrong side jump to the other.  The market is no place for marriage or inflated egos.

6.  Never listen to the herd.  Instead, follow your own analysis and the charts you use as the basis of this analysis.  This is just one of the many reasons I do not watch Blue Channels before, during, or after hours.

Euro Hits 4-Year Low on Mistranslated French Comment

The euro fell to a fresh four-year low versus the dollar on Friday after the French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said he only saw good news in parity between the two currencies.

He used the French word “parite,” which can mean either “parity” or “exchange rate.”

Prime Minister Francois Fillon was referring to the general evolution of the exchange rate between the euro
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[EUR=X  1.1975    0.0006  (+0.05%)   ]
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and the dollar when he referred to the “parity” between the two currencies, a source close to the prime minister said on Friday.

Speaking at a news conference earlier, Fillon said: “I only see good news in the parity between the euro and dollar.

He later used the word “parity” in a different context to mean the general rate.

Viewers Tuning Out CNBC

Competition is heating up in the business news segment. The May Nielsen numbers suggest that CNBC’s ratings are being squeezed by the likes of Fox Business Network.

The substantial stock market sell off in May, which was the worst in nearly 50 years, may also have contributed to lower numbers at CNBC. According to Nielsen, CNBC lost 14% of its coveted 25-54 advertising demographic during the business day (5a-7p) versus last year. CNBC’s post-market show Fast Money is down a whopping 17% year over year.

Making the situation more interesting is the fact that CNBC has spent a considerable amount of money bringing in new talent in the wake of Charlie Gasparino’s defection to Fox Business. CNBC also lost Dylan Ratigan to sister network, MSNBC. CNBC has added commentators such as John Carney, Amanda Drury, and Kate Kelly in recent months. Herb Greenberg also just debuted yesterday as CNBC’s Senior Stock Commentator.

CNBC has long been criticized for being too easy on corporate management and for doing too much cheerleading, especially in the go-go years. Now that viewers have a wider selection of business channels to consider, it would appear as if CNBC must step up its game in order to retain its position.

It does not appear as if the network is taking the ratings slump sitting down, however. CNBC has added new shows such as “Strategy Session,” which has yet to debut, and “Options Action.” It will be very interesting to see how this competition between the big three business networks plays out, and how each evolves going forward.

From a viewer’s perspective this seems like a very good development, because it will force Bloomberg, FBN, and CNBC to continually improve and innovate their coverage, whereas in the old days, complacency may have been a tempting alternative.

 

Opinion no value at all

The market does not care about your opinion and what you think it ought to do.  The market cannot be tamed, placed in a box, or coerced into your way of thinking.  The market does not care about your technical analysis based on past history not does it care about your projections for the future.  The market does not care about this edge or that one.  The market does not care about what I think, about what the most popular flavor of the month guru thinks, or what the latest ANALyst on Blue Channel thinks.  The market does not care about your dreams, goals, and aspirations no matter how well grounded and planned.  The market does not care about the latest economic news.  The market only cares about the present. Remember this the next time you get into a trade believing, hoping, and praying that it HAS TO WORK.  The market does not care if it hurts you, so if you choose to believe, instead of see, what is right there in front of you, then that which you fear the most will come to be. I am not alone when I say this.

“Professional traders make good risk/reward trades and are not concerned with the outcome.   Nor are they under the delusion that they really know where a stock or the market is headed.  Those who will be pushing paper around at some dead end job in the near future are new traders who trade seeking to fulfill some narcissist need to be correct.    Or smarter than the market.  Or your trading neighbor.  Or a friend.  Get over yourself. You have no idea where the market or stocks are really going in six months. All there is are favorable risk/reward trades to make with the outcome uncertain and controlling your risk paramount.”

“This is one of the paradoxes of trading and investing: you need distinct views to put your money at risk, and you need to persist with these views in order to ride winners. At the same time, you can’t become married to these views; you need to quickly revise and even abandon your outlooks in order to limit losses. We can trade and invest for ego needs, and we can trade and invest to make money: over the long haul, we can’t do both. It takes a strong ego to formulate and act upon one’s ideas; an even stronger one to step back from those ideas in the face of non-confirmation.”

Most people, let’s face it, must be right. They live to have other people know they’re right. They don’t even want success. They don’t even want to win. They don’t want money. They just want to be right. The winners, on the other hand, just want to win.”

“Life happens when you’re making other plans. This is true and no matter how much we visualize future success, set goals and create plans for achieving them, there will be things that happen over the course of the coming year beyond your control that will impede, slow, stop or even reverse your progress. This is to be expected and, if at all possible, planned for. Frequently the difference between success and failure is being able to accept those challenges head on as they occur and keep working toward your goals even when you experience complete failure and hardship. Anyone who has achieved anything worthwhile has failed in doing so, if not many times. But, that’s part of how we grow and get better.”

The less I cared about whether or not I was wrong, the clearer things became, making it much easier to move in and out of positions, cutting my losses shot to make myself mentally available to take the next opportunity.”

If you enter a trade and the stock doesn’t go the way you predicted, go ahead and take that loss immediately. Don’t sit their like a twit and try to justify a bad trade as you lose more money, dump it. Move on. Forget the need to be right.”

“In reality, the market puts us in a contest with ourselves.  Until we let go of the false ideas of what makes the market tick and simply respond as the market unfolds, we will continue to be punished.”

The degree by which you think you know, assume you know, or in any way need to know what is going to happen next, is equal to the degree to which you will fail as a trader.

Principles of Peak Performance

peak-performanceThe first principle of peak performance is to put fun and passion first. Get the performance pressures out of your head. Forget about statistics, percentage returns, win/loss ratios, etc. Floor-traders scratch dozens of trades during the course of a day, but all that matters is whether they’re up at the end of the month.

Don’t think about TRYING to win the game – that goes for any sport or performance-oriented discipline. Stay involved in the process, the technique, the moment, the proverbial here and now.! A trader must concentrate on the present price action of the market. A good analogy is a professional tennis player who focuses only on the point at hand. He’ll probably lose half the points he plays, but he doesn’t allow himself to worry about whether or not he’s down a set. He must have confidence that by concentrating on the techniques he’s worked on in practice, the strengths in his game will prevail and he will be able to outlast his opponent.

The second principle of peak performance is confidence. in yourself, your methodology, and your ability to succeed. Some people are naturally born confident. Other people are able to translate success from another area in their life. Perhaps they were good in sports, music, or academics growing up. There’s also the old-fashioned “hard work” way of getting confidence. Begin by researching and developing different systems or methodologies. Put in the hours of backtesting. Tweak and modify the systems so as to make them your own. Study the charts until you’ve memorized every significant swing high or low. Self-confidence comes from developing a methodology that YOU believe in. (more…)

Erin Burnett yells at guy, saying he is 'so rude!'

To be honest, we’re not sure what EuroPacific’s Michael Pento did during this debate that was so out of the norm for CNBC, where yelling and talking over each other is common… but obviously he touched a nerve with Erin Burnett who yelled at him YOU ARE SO RUDE right at the :37 mark.
Then after he finishes he point, she lectures him some more, prompting the eye-roll seen here.
As for the debate? It was about the US bond market and whether the massive US debt load will turn bonds into toilet paper. We guarantee nobody makes a point you haven’t already heard several times.



 

Market Wizard’s 25 Trading Clichés and Axioms to Follow, Memorize and Practice

  1. THE MARKET ITSELF IS THE ULTIMATE WEILDER OF JUSTICE. JUDGE, JURY AND PROSECUTOR.
  2. RECIPE TO LOSE FOR SURE: OVER-ANALYZE, PROCRASTINATE, HESITATE.
  3. LEARN TO SWEAT OUT, HANG ON TO AND SCALE OUT OF YOUR WINNERS.
  4. HIT SINGLES AND DOUBLES, NOT HOMERUNS. THE HOMERUNS ARE USUALLY THE RESULT OF GOOD TRADING AFTER A PROFITABLE TRADE HAS STARTED TO MAKE ITS MOVE
  5. A BIG LOSS CAN DESTROY YOU. IS RISK WORTH TOTAL DESTRUCTION?
  6. LOVE TO LOSE MONEY. NOT BECAUSE YOU’RE AN IDIOT, BUT BECAUSE LOSING MONEY IS AN IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK MECHANISM. EMBRACE THE SIGNAL AND DITCH THE TRADE.
  7. NEWS IS HISTORY. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND LEAST OBSERVED RULE. DAYTRADING ARCADES UP AND DOWN WALL STREET HAVE DOZENS AND DOZENS OF LCD’S TUNED TO ONE STATION, CNBC. BY THE TIME THEY PUKE IT OUT, IT’S ABOUT 7 TO 12 HOURS OLD. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS “BREAKING NEWS” ANYMORE. SOME TRADERS TELL ME THEY TUNE IT OUT. YOU CAN’T. IT GETS INTO YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS AND AFFECTS YOUR TRADING. PUT YOURSELF ON A TOTAL NEWS BLACKOUT FOR A WHILE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR RESULTS. LOSE TOUCH WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD. ISOLATE YOURSELF TO YOUR ALGORITHMS, DATA, CHARTS AND MASTERING YOUR TRADING PLATFORM. AND IF YOU WORK FOR A FIRM WITH DOZENS OF LCD’S TUNED TO CNBC, MAINLY SO THAT THEIR “GUY” WHO IS ON ONCE A WEEK IS SEEN AND HEARD BY EVERYONE AT THE FIRM. THIS PERSON RARELY KNOWS HOW TO TRADE. I KNOW OF A FEW FIRMS OUT THERE LIKE THIS.
  8. THE FIRST LOSS IS THE BEST LOSS BECAUSE IT HURTS THE MOST. LEARNING TO LOSE IS IMPORTANT. LEARNING TO LOSE AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE IS THE MARKET’S PAVLOVIAN WAY OF TEACHING YOU HOW TO TRADE PROFESSIONALLY AND PROFITABLY
  9. EARN THE RIGHT TO TRADE BIGGER. YOU’LL KNOW WHEN YOU’RE READY. DON’T RUSH IT. THE BIGGER YOU GET, THE MORE IMPORTANT EXECUTION STRATEGY BECOMES. YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SLOPPY, LIKE MOST PEOPLE I’VE MET, EVEN THOSE THAT WERE SO CALLED MENTORS TO ME, OR WHO I CALLED “MAESTRO”. SLOPPIEST TRADER IN THE WORLD. TINY ORDERS LEAVING ELEPHANT FOOTPRINTS WHILE SMART TRADERS TAKE MAMMOTH ORDERS AND DON’T MAKE A RIPPLE
  10. BE YOURSELF. DON’T TRY TO BE SOMEONE ELSE. FIND THE STRATEGY THAT WORKS FOR YOUR PSYCHE. IT TAKES WORK, READING, TESTING, AND INNER-REFLECTION. YOUR CHARACTER HAS THE CORRECT STRATEGY OUT THERE. YOU HAVE TO FIND IT. DON’T TRADE WHAT SOME SCHMUCK WANNABE HEAD TRADER AT A SHADY FIRM TELLS YOU TO TRADE, OR USE A STRATEGY TAUGHT BY A FIRM THAT LETS YOU ONLY TRADE THAT STRATEGY. GET OUT OF THESE FIRMS. (more…)
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