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6 Mistakes Traders Make

1. Failure to have a trading plan in place before a trade is executed. A trader with no specific plan of action in place upon entry into a futures trade does not know, among other things, when or where he or she will exit the trade, or about how much money may be made or lost. Traders with no pre-determined trading plan are flying by the seat of their pants, and that’s usually a recipe for a “crash and burn.”

2. Inadequate trading assets or improper money management. It does not take a fortune to trade futures markets with success. Traders with less than $5,000 in their trading accounts can and do trade futures successfully. And, traders with $50,000 or more in their trading accounts can and do lose it all in a heartbeat. Part of trading success boils down to proper money management and not gunning for those highly risky “home-run” type trades that involve too much trading capital at one time.

3.Expectations that are too high, too soon. Beginning futures traders that expect to quit their “day job” and make a good living trading futures in their first few years of trading are usually disappointed. You don’t become a successful doctor or lawyer or business owner in the first couple years of the practice. It takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success in any field of endeavor–and trading futures is no different. Futures trading is not the easy, “get-rich-quick” scheme that a few unsavory characters make it out to be.

4.Failure to use protective stops. Using protective buy stops or sell stops upon entering a trade provide a trader with a good idea of about how much money he or she is risking on that particular trade, should it turn out to be a loser. Protective stops are a good money-management tool, but are not perfect. There are no perfect money-management tools in futures trading. (more…)

6 Mistakes done by Traders

1. Failure to have a trading plan in place before a trade is executed. A trader with no specific plan of action in place upon entry into a futures trade does not know, among other things, when or where he or she will exit the trade, or about how much money may be made or lost. Traders with no pre-determined trading plan are flying by the seat of their pants, and that’s usually a recipe for a “crash and burn.”

2.Expectations that are too high, too soon. Beginning futures traders that expect to quit their “day job” and make a good living trading futures in their first few years of trading are usually disappointed. You don’t become a successful doctor or lawyer or business owner in the first couple years of the practice. It takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success in any field of endeavor–and trading futures is no different. Futures trading is not the easy, “get-rich-quick” scheme that a few unsavory characters make it out to be.

3.Failure to use protective stops. Using protective buy stops or sell stops upon entering a trade provide a trader with a good idea of about how much money he or she is risking on that particular trade, should it turn out to be a loser. Protective stops are a good money-management tool, but are not perfect. There are no perfect money-management tools in futures trading.

4.Lack of “patience” and “discipline.” While these two virtues are over-worked and very often mentioned when determining what unsuccessful traders lack, not many will argue with their merits. Indeed. Don’t trade just for the sake of trading or just because you haven’t traded for a while. Let those very good trading “set-ups” come to you, and then act upon them in a prudent way. The market will do what the market wants to do–and nobody can force the market’s hand.

5.Trading against the trend–or trying to pick tops and bottoms in markets. It’s human nature to want to buy low and sell high (or sell high and buy low for short-side traders). Unfortunately, that’s not at all a proven means of making profits in futures trading. Top pickers and bottom-pickers usually are trading against the trend, which is a major mistake.

6.Letting losing positions ride too long. Most successful traders will not sit on a losing position very long at all. They’ll set a tight protective stop, and if it s***they’ll take their losses (usually minimal) and then move on to the next potential trading set up. Traders who sit on a losing trade, “hoping” that the market will soon turn around in their favor, are usually doomed.

Words of Wisdom from Colm O’Shea

In “Hedge Fund Market Wizards”, Jack Schwager interviews Colm O’Shea of Comac Capital. There are some great quotes in the interview and here are some of my favourites:

 You need to implement a trade in a way that limits your losses when you are wrong, and you also need to be able to recognize when a trade is wrong.

 … what strikes me about really good managers (is that) they don’t get attached to their ideas.

 You need a method that suits your personality.

 People who like trading because they like gambling are always going to be terrible at it. For these people, the trading books could be greatly shortened to the message: “Don’t trade. You are really bad at this. So just don’t do it.”

 Traders who are successful over the long run adapt. If they do use rules, and you meet them 10 years later, they will have broken those rules. Why? Because the world has changed. (more…)

Four Multi-Millionaire Traders Share Their Thoughts On Trading

number4“The key is consistency and discipline,” says Richard Dennis who grew $400 into $200,000,000.

“The key is consistency and discipline.  I don’t think anybody winds up making money in this business because they started out lucky.”

For legendary trader Richard Dennis, the importance of being consistent isn’t just theory.  In 1984, on a bet, Dennis trained 23 individuals off the street to religiously follow a set of trading rules.  His point was to provide that discipline was the key to trading success.  All but 3 of those beginner traders made over 100% return their very first year of trading and Dennis won his $1,000,000 bet.  Consistent discipline is also what is taught in the “Futures in Motion” advisory service.

“It’s perseverance” declares Tom Baldwin who started with $25,000 and made untold millions trading upwards of $2 billion dollars a day in T-Bond futures.

“It’s perseverance.  You don’t need any education at all to do it … because it is like any job.  If you stand there long enough, you have to pick it up.” (more…)

Top 6 Mistakes Traders Make

1. Failure to have a trading plan in place before a trade is executed. A trader with no specific plan of action in place upon entry into a futures trade does not know, among other things, when or where he or she will exit the trade, or about how much money may be made or lost. Traders with no pre-determined trading plan are flying by the seat of their pants, and that’s usually a recipe for a “crash and burn.”

2.Expectations that are too high, too soon. Beginning futures traders that expect to quit their “day job” and make a good living trading futures in their first few years of trading are usually disappointed. You don’t become a successful doctor or lawyer or business owner in the first couple years of the practice. It takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success in any field of endeavor–and trading futures is no different. Futures trading is not the easy, “get-rich-quick” scheme that a few unsavory characters make it out to be.

3.Failure to use protective stops. Using protective buy stops or sell stops upon entering a trade provide a trader with a good idea of about how much money he or she is risking on that particular trade, should it turn out to be a loser. Protective stops are a good money-management tool, but are not perfect. There are no perfect money-management tools in futures trading.

4.Lack of “patience” and “discipline.” While these two virtues are over-worked and very often mentioned when determining what unsuccessful traders lack, not many will argue with their merits. Indeed. Don’t trade just for the sake of trading or just because you haven’t traded for a while. Let those very good trading “set-ups” come to you, and then act upon them in a prudent way. The market will do what the market wants to do–and nobody can force the market’s hand. (more…)

20 Trading Advice for Traders

  1. You have to love trading to do the work that takes you over the hump to winning.

  2. Successful traders are not born, they are built through hard work and discipline.

  3. Trading is not complicated, discipline, perseverance, risk management, passion, and a winning method that fits your personality is all you need. If you have them you will win, if you are missing one you lose.

  4. Where you are currently as a trader is not where you have to stay, the right homework done with an open mind can move you into a different place.

  5. Trading skill is built through work ethic.

  6. You must dedicate yourself to winning at trading. Every day you improve by working at it. (more…)

Stubbornness

If it doesn’t pay off the first time forget it.

Perseverance is a good idea for spiders and kings, but not always for speculators. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to squeeze a gain out of any single speculative entity.
Don’t chase any investment in a spirit of stubbornness. Reject any thought that an investment “owes you” something. And don’t buy the alluring, but fallacious idea that you can improve a bad situation by averaging down.

 

Traders need 3 Keys

#1 Trading is not about winning percentage, being right all the time, or predicting the future. What it is about is having bigger winners than losers. If you are profitable after each long string of trades then you are a winning trader in that time frame. You can make money through winning percentage as long as you keep losers small and you can make money through huge wins even with lots of losses. The key is not how many times you are right but the size of your winners versus your losers. That is the magic elixir of profitability.

#2 Trading is first and foremost about surviving, the vast majority of traders not only don’t make money but they lose most of their trading capital. The only way to have a long profitable trading career is to manage risk and survive a string of losses. If your trading losses are more than 1% to 2% of total trading capital per  losing trade you are in danger of blowing up your account with a string of losing trades or one big loss. To make the journey from new trader to successful trader you have to survive losing streaks and completely unexpected market action. Trading and betting big will eventually take you out of the game, it is only a question of when.

#3 Trading is one of the roughest things a person can do mentally and emotionally. Even if you win in the markets you have to keep up a large amount of personal human capital in perseverance, passion, dedication, focus, and faith in self and system. If you are missing one of these six psychological elements the odds will be against you. You have to cultivate your goals and drive into a vision of success that you are willing to pursue until you get it and pay the price as you go to have the prize you seek.

Linda Bradford Raschke – 50 Time Tested Classic Stock Trading Rules

50

1. Plan your trades. Trade your plan.
2. Keep records of your trading results.
3. Keep a positive attitude, no matter how much you lose.
4. Don’t take the market home.
5. Continually set higher trading goals.
6. Successful traders buy into bad news and sell into good news.
7. Successful traders are not afraid to buy high and sell low.
8. Successful traders have a well-scheduled planned time for studying the markets.
9. Successful traders isolate themselves from the opinions of others.
10. Continually strive for patience, perseverance, determination, and rational action.
11. Limit your losses – use stops!
12. Never cancel a stop loss order after you have placed it!
13. Place the stop at the time you make your trade. (more…)

John D. Rockefeller Quotes

John D. Rockefeller is said to have been the richest person in history, even if he lived today. He left us with some wise quotes, check them out:

I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.

The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit… a reputation, character.

I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

These are some very wise quotes from the richest man in history.

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