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Trading Hints and Tips

 tips-1

1. OPPORTUNITY. There are dozens of these every day, unfortunately you can’t buy them all, so only pick the top 10 and then narrow them down to 2 to 3.
 This is done by using your buying criteria which is part of your trading plan which you already have written down. (Hopefully you have one?)

 2. BUYING and SELLING. I have a pre planned strategy which I have developed by trial and error; this was achieved by learning by my trading mistakes  and the mistakes of others.
 3. PATIENCE.This is definitely a virtue worth developing. Sometimes the market is going up in the right direction, but is not going as fast upwards as you  would like.  Be patient and use a “stop loss” to lock in those profits. However small they may be.  Also don’t always be in a hurry to “buy that next share” just because you have that money burning a hole in your pocket.  Do your homework and then you have chosen the right share for the right reasons and not just because it looked good 

 4. STRESS.If it is hurting! Don’t do it, cut your losses or be content with a small profit and get out. (more…)

29 One Liner Trading Rules

  • Take no trades without establishing a complete and precise trading plan before the initial trigger.
  • Keep an open mind for new market scenarios based on what the price action and pattern setups provide.
  • Always trade with the trend.
  • Once I am in a trade, stick with the original plan for target and stop-loss – Don’t panic!
  • Make every trade meet the strategy requirements and what happens from there is up to the market.
  • I need to exercise greater patience in both buying and selling.
  • Be more willing to take a position, even if it is very small. It is tough though to gain the confidence to do so as the market has been tough. (more…)

8 Steps for Traders

1. Find Your Strength.  It is important that the trader determine what type of market, trending or consolidating, best suits their own personality and strength.  The best traders stay focused on one or the other and master it.

2. Know Your Market.  You should know your market when trading.  In other words, know the levels of support/resistance;  know how the instrument you trade moves with the general market; know who is likely to be on the other side and what they are thinking; and “the terrain of any market includes the “long-term charts”

3.  Prepare Your Order.  Know when to get into a trade and why and know when to get out of a trade and why.  Just like a secret agent who will “never enter a room without knowing how to get out of it in a hurry”

4.  Placing Your Order.  Once you have adequately prepared for a trade, it is then necessary to be ready to place the trade when the time is right.  Here “patience is the key…you must be able to wait for the market to tell you when the moment is right.  Wait for the market to generate the action; don’t force it”

5.  Sticking With Your Plan.  This is probably the hardest part about trading.  Once you enter the battlefield (enter a trade), the emotions of fear, ecstasy, greed, and sheer excitement can then take over and cause you to forget your well prepared plans for entry and exit.  You must enter a “Zen-like mental state” where you remain in control of your emotions.  Not doing so could spell disaster.

6. Identify When You Are Wrong.  “It is crucial to your survival to identify in advance whether your view might be wrong and to determine what price level, when broken, would be in support of the consensus view; therefore, you are building up your ability to defend the occasional probes against you”

7.  Holding On To Your Winning Positions.  Set a trailing stop when your trade is moving in your direction thereby locking in profits while allowing the trade to work toward its maximum potential.  “A trailing stop loss keeps you in the war, keeps you in tune with the war, and, most important, leaves you in full readiness to instantly strike again”

8.  Focus On Your Next Trade.  This is the most important step and is saved for last.  This step simply says to start anew with each new trade.  No matter if you won, lost, or broke even on the last trade, the next trade is a new one.  “You do indeed need to be starting every single trade fresh and alert without any baggage from the previous encounter”

James P. Arthur Huprich's Market Trusms And Axioms

1. Commandment #1: “Thou Shall Not Trade Against the Trend.”

2. Portfolios heavy with underperforming stocks rarely outperform the stock market!

3. There is nothing new on Wall Street. There can’t be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market today has happened before and will happen again, mostly due to human nature.

4. Sell when you can, not when you have to.

5. Bulls make money, bears make money, and “pigs” get slaughtered.

6. We can’t control the stock market. The very best we can do is to try to understand what the stock market is trying to tell us.

7. Understanding mass psychology is just as important as understanding fundamentals and economics.

8. Learn to take losses quickly, don’t expect to be right all the time, and learn from your mistakes.

9. Don’t think you can consistently buy at the bottom or sell at the top. This can rarely be consistently done.

10. When trading, remain objective. Don’t have a preconceived idea or prejudice. Said another way, “the great names in Trading all have the same trait: An ability to shift on a dime when the shifting time comes.”

11. Any dead fish can go with the flow. Yet, it takes a strong fish to swim against the flow. In other words, what seems “hard” at the time is usually, over time, right.

12. Even the best looking chart can fall apart for no apparent reason. Thus, never fall in love with a position but instead remain vigilant in managing risk and expectations. Use volume as a confirming guidepost.

13. When trading, if a stock doesn’t perform as expected within a short time period, either close it out or tighten your stop-loss point.

14. As long as a stock is acting right and the market is “in-gear,” don’t be in a hurry to take a profit on the whole positions. Scale out instead.

15. Never let a profitable trade turn into a loss, and never let an initial trading position turn into a long-term one because it is at a loss. (more…)

Warrior Trading : Clifford Bennett

warriror tradingThese eight steps are intended as a guide to the new trader and a reminder to the experienced.

1. Find Your Strength.  It is important that the trader determine what type of market, trending or consolidating, best suits their own personality and strength.  The best traders stay focused on one or the other and master it.
 
2. Know Your Market.  You should know your market when trading.  In other words, know the levels of support/resistance;  know how the instrument you trade moves with the general market; know who is likely to be on the other side and what they are thinking; and “the terrain of any market includes the “long-term charts” (140).
 
3.  Prepare Your Order.  Know when to get into a trade and why and know when to get out of a trade and why.  Just like a secret agent who will “never enter a room without knowing how to get out of it in a hurry” (142).
 
4.  Placing Your Order.  Once you have adequately prepared for a trade, it is then necessary to be ready to place the trade when the time is right.  Here “patience is the key…you must be able to wait for the market to tell you when the moment is right.  Wait for the market to generate the action; don’t force it” (143).
 
5.  Sticking With Your Plan.  This is probably the hardest part about trading.  Once you enter the battlefield (enter a trade), the emotions of fear, ecstasy, greed, and sheer excitement can then take over and cause you to forget your well prepared plans for entry and exit.  You must enter a “Zen-like mental state” where you remain in control of your emotions.  Not doing so could spell disaster. (more…)

Resolutions For 2012

Resolutions On Trading & Investing:

  • Define my trading plan and stay with it.
  • Take no trades without establishing a complete and precise trading plan before the initial trigger.
  • Keep an open mind for new market scenarios based on what the price action and pattern setups provide.
  • Always trade with the trend.
  • The less trading I do, the better my results so for 2012 I’m adoping weekly/monthly time frames
  • Once I am in a trade, stick with the original plan for target and stop-loss – Don’t panic!
  • Make every trade meet the strategy requirements and what happens from there is up to the market.
  • I need to exercise greater patience in both buying and selling.
  • Be more willing to take a position, even if it is very small. It is tough though to gain the confidence to do so as the market has been tough.
  • I am NOT going to overtrade. I will only make “A” trades.
  • Don’t ever force a trade, stay in cash when unsure.
  • I resolve not to violate my stops.
  • Wait for opportunities instead of looking for trades.
  • Do not make a move until your indicators say so.
  • Follow this important Gartman rule: “Do more of what is working and less of what is not.”
  • To clarify my trading approach in my mind and in writing.
  • Be dispassionate and thoroughly objective when evaluating positions.
  • Do not be afraid to cut a loss, even if the trade is later re-entered at a higher price / better set-up
  • Never trade on impulse.
  • To memorize and practice the cardinal rules of trading.
  • Only trade when you can pay very close attention or exclusive attention to the market.
  • Dedicate more time during non-market hours to prepare for trading.
  • Take emotion out of my trading. Follow price action.
  • I need to overcome my unreasonable fear of the market.
  • Try to avoid personal bias in making decisions.
  • Wait for pattern to work out – do not jump the gun.
  • Don’t be in such a damn hurry. Wait out the times when the setup is just not there.
  • Avoid buy and hold in times of high market volatility.
  • Actually ignore the news and trade the charts! It’s harder than it sounds.
  • Don’t force the trade. The market will open again tomorrow and there will be new opportunities.
  • Don’t turn a trade into an investment. Continue to focus on price action.
  • Approach each trading day well-rested, of clear mind, and with a positive, opportunistic attitude just like Kirk

 
Resolutions On Learning:

  • Learn to do 1-2 things very well and focus.
  • Write the plan for the year ahead. Specify initial position, goals, entrance and exit strategies for action, identify risks to take and manage.
  • Study more on the weekends to prepare for the upcoming week.
  • I will be more diligent in keeping a journal of EVERY trade made in the year.
  • Quit searching for the holy grail of trading – there is none.
  • Turn off CNBC and all other distractions in the way of my success
  • I will keep good records and document all of my research, trades, and outcomes.
  • Use the right side of my brain and be careful of the left.
  • Do not blindly follow anyone else.
  • Accept failure and move on.
  • Methodically analyze what went right and wrong on each trade.
  • Spend more time nightly looking at charts.
  • Learn 10 new chart patterns this year and trade only setups identified by those patterns.
  • Apply a consistent decision tree toward every single trade.
  • Tune out the noise. No calls during the day. No more “experts”, no more TV and definitely, absolutely and without a smidge of doubt no more twitter.
  • Transition from paper trading to live trading.
  • Need to read more charts and read less newspapers.
  • Assess my strengths and what is working well for me and determine how I can improve. Also, assess what does not add value and eliminate it.
  • Stay with low risk, probability based methods.
  • Every trade I take requires a one page description of why, how, and at what levels I intend to take action.
  • Paper trade new ideas before putting real money at risk.
  • Study and read more, establish a trading plan, follow the plan, experiment, re-evaluate and keep learning.
  • I resolve to improve myself by: managing my emotions better, become more patient and understanding, define my goals more completely, and constantly review my efforts to these accords.
  • My resolution would be to trade/invest during all market conditions. Emotion still has some control over my investments.
  • Work on consistency!! (more…)

Negative Trading Behaviors

*Over Trading in Size *Jumping the Gun *Hesitating *Skipping Trades *Being in A Hurry * Trading without Proper Preparation *Getting Stuck in A Losing Trade *Whipsawing *Breaking Your Trading Rules *Shooting From the Hip * Over Interpreting *Discounting *Trading A  Scenario without Reference to Price *Trading Heedlessly *Trading Wildly *Abandoning Your Trading Plan *Not having A Trading Plan *Switching Strategies Frequently *Not having  A Proven Strategy *Not Pulling the Trigger *Not Believing the Evidence the Market Provides *Blindly Believing   A story you tell yourself *Blindly Believing A story somebody else tells you *Becoming Impulsive.*Not Verifying A System Or Method Before you trade it.*Over Researching *Using Trading as a Spectator Sport *Jumping in before you think *Trading too Big *Grabbing Profits too soon.*Getting Careless *Being too Careful *Not adding to A Winning Trade.*Trading Heavier when losing *Forcing  trades *Getting Trigger Happy *Gulping Profits too soon *Adding to A losing Trade.*Overtrading  in terms of Frequency *Sticking with A Losing system *Sticking with A Broker that gives you bad Fills.*Not Making Trading A Priority*Worrying what others will think.*Trading with borrowed Money.*Trading with Money you need to live on*Holding Unrealistic Expectations.*Engaging in Negative and Destructive Self talk*Becoming Despondent about your trading results.*Wanting certainty before you trade.*Disregarding Probabilities*Fooling Yourself about your Trading.*Not keeping Proper Records*Not Acknowledging Mistakes.*Not Learning from Mistakes.*Repeating Mistakes*Engaging in Self Pity* Blaming Others *Getting Envious of other traders *Giving Up periodically *Resisting loss* Feeling shame for loss *Lying and Covering up results *Becoming pessimistic about the future of your trading * Being Unrealistic about your present trading &Tying self worth to trading * Bragging about Trading * Being Unduly Secretive  about trading * Using  trading to inflate your ego *Letting trading interfere with A full and Balanced life *Letting life interfere with A Full  and Balanced trading *Using trading to avoid living *Doing anything Unethical regarding your trading *Doing what Doesn’t work *Not continuing to do what does work *Getting Reckless & Getting Overcautious * Letting others put your down Re your trading * Waiting to Respect yourself untill you succeed with trading*Being Unorganized in your efforts * Trading for the sake of trading *Letting Distractions take your attention away from trading * Not Specializing *Not executing with precision *Forgetting to cancel stops after a trade is off*Fighting Yourself *Fighting the Market *Fighting Your Methods *Making careless errors & Personifying the Market *Projecting your own feelings on the market.

-Other

Go over each of the Behaviors you have checked and scale them from 1 to 10 as to severity.Let 10 represent the most harmful to your trading.

Market Truisms and Axioms

Commandment #1: “Thou Shall Not Trade Against the Trend.”

• Portfolios heavy with underperforming stocks rarely outperform the stock market!

• There is nothing new on Wall Street. There can’t be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market today has happened before and will happen again, mostly due to human nature.

• Sell when you can, not when you have to.

• Bulls make money, bears make money, and “pigs” get slaughtered.

• We can’t control the stock market. The very best we can do is to try to understand what the stock market is trying to tell us.

• Understanding mass psychology is just as important as understanding fundamentals and economics.

• Learn to take losses quickly, don’t expect to be right all the time, and learn from your mistakes.

• Don’t think you can consistently buy at the bottom or sell at the top. This can rarely be consistently done.

• When trading, remain objective. Don’t have a preconceived idea or prejudice. Said another way, “the great names in Trading all have the same trait: An ability to shift on a dime when the shifting time comes.”

• Any dead fish can go with the flow. Yet, it takes a strong fish to swim against the flow. In other words, what seems “hard” at the time is usually, over time, right.

• Even the best looking chart can fall apart for no apparent reason. Thus, never fall in love with a position but instead remain vigilant in managing risk and expectations. Use volume as a confirming guidepost.

• When trading, if a stock doesn’t perform as expected within a short time period, either close it out or tighten your stop-loss point.

• As long as a stock is acting right and the market is “in-gear,” don’t be in a hurry to take a profit on the whole positions. Scale out instead.

• Never let a profitable trade turn into a loss, and never let an initial trading position turn into a long-term one because it is at a loss.

• Don’t buy a stock simply because it has had a big decline from its high and is now a “better value;” wait for the market to recognize “value” first. (more…)

10 Great Quotes of Jesse Livermore

“Do not anticipate and move without market confirmation—being a little late in your trade is your insurance that you are right or wrong.” -Jesse LivermoreJL-ASR

“The good speculators always wait and have patience, waiting for the market to confirm their judgment.” -Jesse Livermore

“{Limit} interest in too many stocks at one time.  It is much easier to watch a few than many.” -Jesse Livermore

“Experience has proved to me that the real money made in speculating has been: “IN COMMITMENTS IN A STOCK OR COMMODITY SHOWING A PROFIT RIGHT FROM THE START. ” -Jesse Livermore

“As long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take a profit. You know you are right, because if you were not, you would have no profit at all. Let it ride and ride along with it. It may grow into a very large profit, and as long as the “action of the market does not give you any cause to worry,” have the courage of your convictions and stay with it.” -Jesse Livermore

“It is foolhardy to make a second trade, if your first trade shows you a loss. ” “Never average losses. ” Let that thought be written indelibly upon your mind.” -Jesse Livermore

“One should never sell a stock, because it seems high-priced.” -Jesse Livermore

“Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do. ” The speculator has to insure himself against considerable losses by taking the first small loss. In so doing, he keeps his account in order so that at some future time, when he has a constructive idea, he will be in a position to go into another deal, taking on the same amount of stock as he had when he was wrong.” -Jesse Livermore
“It is significant that a large part of a market movement occurs in the last forty-eight hours of a play, and that is the most important time to be in it.” -Jesse Livermore

“A speculator should make it a rule each time he closes out a successful deal to take one-half of his profits and lock this sum up in a safe deposit box. The only money that is ever taken out of Wall Street by speculators is the money they draw out of their accounts after closing a successful deal.” -Jesse Livermore

Jesse Livermore's Trading Rules (circa 1940)

1. Nothing new ever occurs in the business of speculating in stock and commodities.
2. Money cannot be consistently made trading every day or every week during the year.
3. Don’t trust your own opinion or back your judgment until the action of the market itself confirms your opinion.
4. Markets are never wrong – opinions often are.
5. The real money made in speculating has been in commitments showing a profit right from the start.
6. As long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take profits.
7. One should never permit speculative ventures to run into investments.
8. The money lost by speculation alone is small compared with the gigantic sums lost by so-called investors who have let their investments ride.
9. Never buy a stock because it has a big decline from its previous high.
10. Never sell a stock because it seems high-priced.
11. I become a buyer as a stock makes a new high on its movement after having had a normal reaction.
12. Never average losses.
13. The human side of every person is the greatest enemy of the average speculator.
14. Wishful thinking must be banished.
15. Big movements take time to develop.
16. It is not good to be too curious about all the reason behind price movements.
17. It is much easier to watch a few than many.
18. If you cannot make money out of the leading active issues, you are not going to make money out of the market as a whole.
19. The leaders of today may not be the leaders of two years from now.
20. Do not become completely bearish or bullish on the whole market because one stock in some particular group has plainly reversed its course from the general trend.
21. Few people ever make money on tips. Beware of inside information. If there was easy money lying around, no one would be forcing it into your pocket.
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