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20 Nuggets from a Book : A Better Way to Make Money

1.  The secret to losing money in the market is to know why.  “The losers “were ‘playing the market’, not using it intelligently.  The fellow at the other end of the deal, who was using it intelligently, not ‘playing the market’, is the one who got the money.”

2.  “It is an undeniable fact that indiscriminate trading in a hectic market will send one to financial oblivion quicker than any other known process.”

3.  “The most careful preparation-a systematic plan-is one of the essentials of success.”

4.  “Market action is not complex but surprisingly simple.  Yet it is often made to appear complex by newspaper forecasters and market letter writers.”

5.  “Market action is human nature in action.”

6.  All market movements are based on “two deep-seated and entirely natural emotions:  the desire for gain and the fear of loss.”

7.  “So anxious are people to find some talisman, some magic wand, that will help them secure the hidden riches of the market, that they will try anything from coin-flipping to crystal gazing to secure the desired assistance.”

8.  “What marvelous results could be attained in the business of making money if those who buy stocks would take a little time to learn a few simple facts about the market in which they are blindly reposing their faith.”

9.  “Market students are continually diverted from making true evaluations of securities and commodities because they study the statistics made by prices instead of the psychology of prices.”

10.  “Adopt one system of trading and stick to it, just as you employ and stick to one physician in whom you learn to have confidence.” (more…)

True False Questions

True or False

  1. The big money in trading is made when one can get long at lows after a big downtrend.
  2. It’s good to average down when buying.
  3. After a long trend, the market requires more consolidation before another trend starts.
  4. It’s important to know what to do if trading in commodities doesn’t succeed.
  5. It is not helpful to watch every quote in the markets one trades.
  6. It is a good idea to put on or take off a position all at once.
  7. Diversification is better than always being in 1 or 2 markets.
  8. If a day’s profit or loss makes a significant difference to your net worth, you are overtrading.
  9. A trader learns more from his losses than his profits.
  10. Except for commission and brokerage fees, execution costs for entering orders are minimal over the course of a year.
  11. It’s easier to trade well than to trade poorly.
  12. It’s important to know what success in trading will do for you later in life.
  13. Uptrends end when everyone gets bearish.
  14. The more bullish news you hear the less likely a market is to break out on the upside.
  15. For an off-floor trader, a long-term trade ought to last 3 or 4 weeks or less.
  16. Other’s opinions of the market are good to follow.
  17. Volume and open interest are as important as price action.
  18. Daily strength and weakness is a good guide for liquidating long term positions with big profits.
  19. Off-floor traders should spread different markets of different market groups.
  20. The more people are going long the less likely an uptrend is to continue in the beginning of a trend.
  21. Off-floor traders should not spread different delivery months of the same commodity.
  22. Buying dips and selling rallies is a good strategy.
  23. It’s important to take a profit most of the time.
  24. Of 3 types of orders (market, stop, and resting), market orders cost the least skid.
  25. The more bullish news you hear and the more people are going long the less likely the uptrend is to continue after a substantial uptrend.
  26. The majority of traders are always wrong.
  27. Trading bigger is an overall handicap to one’s trading performance.
  28. Larger traders can muscle markets to their advantage.
  29. Vacations are important for traders to keep the proper perspective.
  30. Undertrading is almost never a problem.
  31. Ideally, average profits should be about 3 or 4 times average losses.
  32. A trader should be willing to let profits turn into losses.
  33. A very high percentage of trades should be profits.
  34. A trader should like to take losses.
  35. It is especially relevant when the market is higher than it’s been in 4 and 13 weeks.
  36. Needing and wanting money are good motivators to good trading.
  37. One’s natural inclinations are good guides to decision making in trading.
  38. Luck is an ingredient in successful trading over the long run.
  39. When you’re long, limit up is a good place to take a profit.
  40. It takes money to make money.
  41. It’s good to follow hunches in trading.
  42. There are players in each market one should not trade against.
  43. All speculators die broke
  44. The market can be understood better through social psychology than through economics.
  45. Taking a loss should be a difficult decision for traders.
  46. After a big profit, the next trend following trade is more likely to be a loss.
  47. Trends are not likely to persist.
  48. Almost all information about a market is at least a little useful in helping make decisions.
  49. It’s better to be an expert in 1-2 markets rather than try to trade 10 or more markets.
  50. In a winning streak, total risk should rise dramatically.
  51. Trading stocks is similar to trading commodities.
  52. It’s a good idea to know how much you are ahead or behind during a trading session.
  53. A losing month is an indication of doing something wrong.
  54. A losing week is an indication of doing something wrong.
  55. One should favor being long or being short – whichever one is comfortable with.
  56. On initiation one should know precisely at what price to liquidate if a profit occurs.
  57. One should trade the same number of contracts in all markets.
  58. If one has $10000 to risk, one ought to risk $2500 on every trade.
  59. On initiation one should know precisely where to liquidate if a loss occurs.
  60. You can never go broke taking profits.
  61. It helps to have the fundamentals in your favor before you initiate.
  62. A gap up is a good place to initiate if an uptrend has started.
  63. If you anticipate buy stops in the market, wait until they are finished and buy a little higher than that.

The influence Of Hope & Fear

In trading psychology, two emotions that are constantly to the fore are hope and fear. One of the traders who recognised this was the legendary trader W D Gann. 

“Hope and fear: I have written about this often in my books and I feel I cannot repeat it too often. The average person buys commodities because they hope they will go up, or because someone advises them, they will go up. This is the most dangerous thing to do, never trade on hope. Hope wrecks more people’s lives than anything else. Face the facts, and when you trade, trade on the facts, eliminating hope”
“Fear causes many losses. People sell out because they fear commodities are going lower, but they often wait until the decline has run its course and sell near the bottom – never make a trade on fear”

Trading Rules :

tradingrules1

  1. We accumulate trading information – buying books, going to seminars and researching.
  2. We begin to trade with our ‘new’ knowledge.
  3. We consistently ‘donate’ and then realize we may need more knowledge or information.
  4. We accumulate more information.
  5. We switch the commodities we are currently following.
    [private] (more…)

Jim Rogers-I own the dollar.Will I own it in five years, ten years? I don't know.

Jim Rogers decries the growing uncertainty and recklessness of global central planners as the world enters unchartered financial markets:

  For the first time in recorded history, we have nearly every central bank printing money and trying to debase their currency. This has never happened before. How it’s going to work out, I don’t know. It just depends on which one goes down the most and first, and they take turns. When one says a currency is going down, the question is against what? because they are all trying to debase themselves. It’s a peculiar time in world history.

 
I own the dollar, not because I have any confidence in the dollar and not because it’s sound – it’s a terribly flawed currency – but I expect more currency turmoil, more financial turmoil. During periods like that, people, for whatever reason, flee to the U.S. dollar as a safe haven. It is not a safe haven, but it is perceived that way by some people. That’s why the dollar is going up. That’s why I own it. Will I own it in five years, ten years? I don’t know. 

It makes it extremely difficult for the investor looking for acceptable risk/reward, or the saver looking to protect their purchasing power; as in Rogers’ view, all options have their problems:

  

I own gold and silver and precious metals. I own all commodities, which is a better way to play as they debase currencies. I own more agriculture than just about anything else in real assets because of the reasons we discussed before. We were talking before about the risk-free or worry-free investment. Even gold: the Indian politicians are talking about coming down hard on gold, and India is the largest buyer of gold in the world. If Indian politicians do something — whether it’s foolish or not is irrelevant — if they do something, gold could go down a lot. So I own it. I’m not selling it. But everything has problems.

Success = Easy + Hard

think

The easy includes

passing the exam to become a licensed realtor
getting a degree
putting together a business plan
having an idea (that will change the world)
keeping your job (or getting a job in better times)
taking lessons to improve your golf handicap (more…)

Why Trend Followers Mint Money ?

The reason trend traders make money in the long term is because due to supply and demand and the flow of capital equities, currencies, commodities, and future contracts tend to trend in one direction or the other in different time frames, trend traders and trend followers are there to capitalize on those trends by letting the market action determine their buy and sell decisions seeking to be on the right side of the market’s trend the majority of the time.
Here is why it works:

  1. Bear markets have no supports, they keep falling until a new support level is found.
  2. Bull markets have no resistance, they keep keep going up until a new resistance level is found.
  3. The world’s capital is always flowing and seeking to find returns; this flow causes trends to emerge.
  4. Monster stocks can double due to earnings growth expectations.
  5. Currencies can plunge based on fear of a nations solvency.
  6. Commodities can run to absurd levels based on supply expectations.
  7. Fear can bring markets down far below what any one thinks is rational.
  8. Greed can inflate markets up far above any reasonable valuations.
  9. Trend traders are not predicting price action they are simply following it. They let reality guide them not opinions.
  10. Markets tend to trend and systems that are able to capture trends and minimize losses in choppy environments are robust in the long term.
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