Archives of “money management” tag

rss

WHY traders really lose money

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

BUY-SELL-PANICLet us now talk a bit about the reasons WHY traders really lose money. Since I was able to talk to many traders from different corners of India, I can honestly say that majority of them show the same reasons to the trading failure.

THE MOST FREQUENT REASONS ARE:

1. No quality trading education and know-how;
2. Poor, or nonexisting, trading plan;
3. Lack of trading discipline;
4. Underestimating the importance of money management;
5. Trading on inner “impulses” or “inspirations”;
6. Trading with the money that one cannot afford to lose;
7. Knowing a little, or nothing, about the psychology of trading.

Focus

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

The goal of a successful professional in any field is to reach his personal best. You need to concentrate on trading right. Each trade has to be handled like a surgical procedure – seriously, soberly, without sloppiness or shortcuts. This is a stock trading risk management plan. A loser cannot cut his losses quickly. When a trade starts going sour, he hopes and hangs on, and his loses pile up. And as soon as he gets out of a trade, the market comes roaring back.

  • Trends reverse when they do because most losers are alike. They act on their gut feeling instead of using their heads. The emotions of people are similar, regardless of their cultural background or educational levels.
     
  • Emotional traders go into risky gambles to avoid taking certain losses. It is human nature to take profits quickly and postpone taking losses. Emotional trading destroys those who lose. Good money management and timing techniques will keep you out of the hole. Losing traders look for a “sure thing”, hang on to hope, and irrationally avoid accepting small losses.

DON’T FIGHT THE MARKET

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Fighting the market is not good for two reasons.  First, we lose money.  How much we lose depends on how well we are managing our money and controlling our risk.  Second, fighting the market affects our judgment, and causes us to try to confirm that our judgment is correct. Some very high level market analyst will persist in fighting a trend so that we will eventually be proved to be correct.  They figure that if we persist long enough, no matter how long it takes, we will eventually be right. In some cases the “technical price” level is so far away that by the time the forecast is negated, the inventor following the advice will have lost a large sum and missed a fine opportunity on the other side of the forecast!

By analogy, there is a reason for leaving your car downstream, launching your canoe upstream, and paddling downstream.  It is much easier and eminently more fun to go with the flow and paddle downstream.  We could do the opposite and paddle upstream, eventually we may even get to our destination, but the cost would be substantial.  It would take much more time, more physical and emotional stamina, and we would be constantly fighting the current.  Reaching the goal would not be worth the cost.

From a system trading point of view, it is seen from a different set of constraints. The technical or priced based strategy that gets you into a trade also has a priced based signal that says “the strategy is wrong get out ” or “the strategy is wrong reverse your positions”. The problem with relaying on price to tell you that you’re wrong is that the market does not care. So like the unmoved market analyst that says “it’s only a bear market rally”, at some point money management, risk manage has to come into play, It is a necessary evil.

Marty Schwartz- Trading Quotes

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

The marketplace is an arena and other traders are the adversaries.

I turned from a loser to a winner when I was able to separate my ego needs from making money. When I was able to accept being wrong. Before that, admitting I was wrong was more upsetting than losing the money.

When I became a winner I went from ‘I figured it out, therefore it can’t be wrong’ to ‘I figured it out, but if I’m wrong, I’m getting the hell out, because I want to save my money and go on to the next trade.’

By living the philosophy that my winners are always in front of me, it is not so painful to take a loss. If I make a mistake, so what!

My attitude is: Never risk your family’s security.

Whenever you get hit, you are very upset emotionally. Most traders try to make it back immediately; they try to play bigger. Whenever you try to get all your losses back at once, you are most often doomed to fail.

After a devastating loss, I always play very small and try to get black ink, black ink. It’s not how much money I make, but just getting my rhythm and confidence back.

Before taking a position always know the amount you are willing to lose.

The most important thing is money management, money management, money management. Anybody who is successful will tell you the same thing.

I always take my losses quickly. That is probably the key to my success.

The best advice I can give to the ordinary guy trying to become a better trader is Learn to take losses. The most important thing in making money is not letting your losses get out of hand.

Thinking Can Make Impossible Become Possible

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

I am sure that all of us have seen the statue of The Thinking Man. It is an amazing sculpture that evokes in individuals many different emotions and ideas.

As a trader, if we are always worrying about what might happen if we do this or do that and if it is wrong that we will lose money, then we will rarely if ever have a successful session.

I submit that if we take time before we begin a trading session to think about all of the correct decisions we will make, all of the good trades we will execute, all of the money management actions that we will adhere to and so much more, then we will be so far ahead of multitudes of other traders.

When we take time to think about what we desire to accomplish and what skill sets we have and how we will put them to use while we trade, when the session is over we will many times be amazed at what we have accomplished.

Don’t begin trading with thoughts of it being impossible to succeed or else your results will match those thoughts. Fill your thoughts with confidence and focus on what you truly desire to happen and then let yourself just go ahead and make it happen.

10 Elements of Successful Trading

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #

Traders that have the right mind set, money management, and winning method make money, those that are missing even one of the three, will eventually ‘blow up’ their account. This applies to both professionals and amateurs.

Whether you are a swing trader just trading the market with the $SPY ETF, a growth investor up to your eyeballs in Google and Apple, or even a day trader, these principles still apply to you. I believe these are universal principles for all traders, many professionals have proven they are not bigger than these laws of trading, by destroying the capital in hedge funds and even entire banks.

Trading Methodology:

  1. Winning system-Only trade tested systems with a positive expectancy in the long term.
  2. Faith– Your system has to allow you to trade your beliefs about the market.
  3. Risk/Reward-Never trade unless your profit expectations are greater than your capital at risk.

Trader Psychology:

  1. Discipline-You have to keep trading your method even when it doesn’t work for a given time period.
  2. Ego-Admit when you are wrong.
  3. Emotions-Trade the math not your emotions.

(more…)

Stock Market Learning

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

1. Read the works of Soros, Jesse Livermore, William O’Neill, Warren Buffett and Nick Darvis.
2. Choose one and copy exactly what they do.
3. See each stage they go through to reach their conclusions and the actions they take and the inferrences they derive from the outcomes.
4. Pick stocks and plan out the course of action and all the permutations of what will happen in all price scenarios and put them into practice.
5. Memorise the details of the great coups and all the rules the masters have made in trading.
6. Keep all your trading a secret and don’t let others’ views interfere with your own. Keep your mind totally on the facts at hand and the details of what you see.
7. Before going to sleep look at the coups of other traders and of your own. Talk with the masters you are studying and meet them in your mind for interviews.
8. When the markets are not open or the market isn’t acting right for you then study past trades and memorise the actions you took and piece together the trade again looking for the lesson.
9. Be a better trader than your teachers and ask yourself how you can do better.
10. When you have practiced and ‘perfected’ position entry, move to exits, patterns, money management, probability theory, etc..
11. Look at situations and look at them as you would a trade. What would you do? Are there any interesting things to learn here that can be used in the markets?
12. See what’s happening rather than guess.
13. Play games like the one played in Liar’s Poker, where you invent scenarios and ask each other what you would do in that situation. E.g. nuclear explosion in Tokyo…
14. Be aware of views you are taking on a trade. Look at it always as if it’s the first time you have seen it and review an open trade every day as if you have just placed it.

Vigilance

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Vigilance is the non-stop guarding and protecting of important things. In trading there is nothing more important than money. The Professional Trader takes his money very seriously and has given it a more serious term: “Capital”. Capital is everything to the winning trader. It is not just the end goal, it is the means and the source before, during and after the trades. The Professional Trader guards his capital very closely because it will allow him to trade today, tomorrow, next week, next month and next year and beyond. If capital is not protected at all times, then the entire effort for the year can be gone and future opportunities are severely limited. Vigilance in trading means holding the protection of your money, your capital as your constant highest priority. Properly protecting your capital includes starting with enough to trade wisely and be able to stay in the game when the inevitable downturns and losing streaks occur. (more…)

My 11 Trading Rules

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Trading in the markets is a process, and there is always room for self improvement. Here are my 11 rules that help me navigate the markets. By no means is this list exhaustive or exclusive.

Rule #1
Be data centric in your approach. Take the time and make the effort to understand what works and what doesn’t. Trading decisions should be objective and based upon the data.

Rule #2
Be disciplined. The data should guide you in your decisions. This is the only way to navigate a potentially hostile and fearful environment.

Rule #3
Be flexible. At first glance this would seem to contradict Rule #2; however, I recognize that markets change and that trading strategies cannot account for every conceivable factor. Giving yourself some wiggle
room or discretion is ok, but I would not stray too far from the data or your strategies.

Rule #4
Always question the prevailing dogma. The markets love dogma. “Prices are above the 50 day moving average”, “prices are breaking out”, and “don’t fight the Fed” are some of the most often heard sayings.
But what do they really mean for prices? Make your own observations and define your own rules. See Rule #1. (more…)

Go to top