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7 concepts that can make you a better trader

  
  Education
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New traders spend lot of time on indicators, scans, or chart pattern. Lot of that effort is wasted. Instead they should focus on core concepts.

 
If you understand core concepts you will find understanding the market and techniques used by traders easier. All the indicators and techniques are based on some underlying core concept. Many times the people who promote some of these indicators do not understand the core concept or purposefully package their indicators as something that is anti thesis of a core concept.
 

If you are serious about your trading there are some concepts you must know in significant details. Those concepts will help you build a strong foundation on which you can build a trading system. There are seven  concepts you should study:
  • Momentum : If you understand this you will understand trends and mean reversion. You will understand why and how momentum works in the market. Most indicators are momentum based. Trend following and buying strength also works, so does mean reversion. They are all part of the momentum phenomenon. 
  • Market Breadth: Stock markets are composite markets. The overall move in market is an aggregate of moves of several hundred or several thousand stocks. So the level of participation in a move is important. 
  • Equity Selection: Because the overall market is a composite of many individual moves, it becomes critical to select right kind of stocks from the universe of stocks. Hence equity selection is extremely critical. You should know various ways in which one can select equities.
  • Market Anomalies: Market anomalies are the distortions in the market. If you base your trading on a proven and statistically significant anomaly, you will be profitable. Absent that no amount of indicators will help you. A through understanding of anomalies will give you an edge.
  • Market Microstructure: Market Microstructure is a branch of finance concerned with the details of how exchange occurs in markets.  Understanding this will tell you how the market operates. The concept of market microstructre is very critical if you are trading very small time frames or are a day trader. Because to be successful on those time frame you need to find exploitable anomalies in market microstructure. You need to understand role played by market makers, automated programs, arbitragers, large fund buyers and so on. Their tactics and behaviour creates certain patterns 
  • Growth investing : Growth investors buy stocks of companies growing faster than the average company in the market. 
  • Value investing : Value investors buy stocks of companies which are cheap or out of favor.
These are the core concepts around which all trading strategies revolve.

Trading ,Not So Simple

  
  Education
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Becoming a good trader doesn’t happen overnight. Just as with any other skill or discipline, it requires time and practice to become proficient at it:

One of the biggest problems I see new traders struggle with is the mindset that somehow trading can be approached differently from other ventures or activities. This is something which either comes from too much focus on the prospects of profits and easy wealth building (greed, in short) or from just not considering that it is an activity which requires skill to do well.

In Enhancing Trader Performance, Brett Steenbarger talks about trading as a performance activity. He relates it closely to athletics, but you could very easily extend the metaphor to any other activity which takes time and effort to progress in skill. The point is that you cannot expect to just jump right in and be an expert. You must progress through stages of understanding, competence, and experience.

Trading is easy. I mean pointing and clicking to buy and sell is about at simple as it gets. (more…)

Ed Seykota’s 6 Rules from the Whipsaw Song

  
  Education
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1. Do not be overly concerned about whipsaws a good trend pays for them all.

A whipsaw is when you enter a position but get stopped out quickly when the market reverses opposite to your position.  If you are a trend trader this may happen many times in a row in a range bound market.  This can be very frustrating to a trader and it may cause them to completely change their method.  The fact is that one really good trend will pay for all of these whipsaws as long as you keep your losses small, and if you change your system you lose the benefit of that big trend.

To avoid whipsaw losses, stop trading. -Ed Seykota

2. When you catch a Trend, ride it to the end.

Your system must be able to take a position in a trending market, but then also be able to ride that trend to the end.  Most new traders will jump out of trades before they are finished trending because they are scared the market has gone too far and will take back their paper profits.  Let a trailing stop take you out of a trade when the trend is over, and only exit once you are stopped out.

“The trend is your friend except at the end where it bends.” -Ed Seykota (more…)

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