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Make Friends

The trend is your friend. Trading is like swimming. You can swim with the current or against it. In a survival situation, you can swim with the current forever. Outside factors such as water temps, need for food and sleep are another matter, but as for pure swimming ability you could swim with a slow or strong current forever.

Not so with swimming against the current. You will eventually tire and drown. That is an absolute certainty. Unless you find intricate ways to reserve kinetic energy and escape the current’s ravage for periods of respite, you will die. The same concept is true for trading with market direction versus against it. If I only had Rs 10000 for every person I heard say, “I’m a contrarian… I don’t follow the herd” through the past fifteen years, I’d have Rs One Crore for free money right now. Any idea where all those market contrarians are today? Other professions than trading. (more…)

Market Wizard’s 25 Trading Clichés and Axioms to Follow, Memorize and Practice

  1. THE MARKET ITSELF IS THE ULTIMATE WEILDER OF JUSTICE. JUDGE, JURY AND PROSECUTOR.
  2. RECIPE TO LOSE FOR SURE: OVER-ANALYZE, PROCRASTINATE, HESITATE.
  3. LEARN TO SWEAT OUT, HANG ON TO AND SCALE OUT OF YOUR WINNERS.
  4. HIT SINGLES AND DOUBLES, NOT HOMERUNS. THE HOMERUNS ARE USUALLY THE RESULT OF GOOD TRADING AFTER A PROFITABLE TRADE HAS STARTED TO MAKE ITS MOVE
  5. A BIG LOSS CAN DESTROY YOU. IS RISK WORTH TOTAL DESTRUCTION?
  6. LOVE TO LOSE MONEY. NOT BECAUSE YOU’RE AN IDIOT, BUT BECAUSE LOSING MONEY IS AN IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK MECHANISM. EMBRACE THE SIGNAL AND DITCH THE TRADE.
  7. NEWS IS HISTORY. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND LEAST OBSERVED RULE. DAYTRADING ARCADES UP AND DOWN WALL STREET HAVE DOZENS AND DOZENS OF LCD’S TUNED TO ONE STATION, CNBC. BY THE TIME THEY PUKE IT OUT, IT’S ABOUT 7 TO 12 HOURS OLD. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS “BREAKING NEWS” ANYMORE. SOME TRADERS TELL ME THEY TUNE IT OUT. YOU CAN’T. IT GETS INTO YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS AND AFFECTS YOUR TRADING. PUT YOURSELF ON A TOTAL NEWS BLACKOUT FOR A WHILE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR RESULTS. LOSE TOUCH WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD. ISOLATE YOURSELF TO YOUR ALGORITHMS, DATA, CHARTS AND MASTERING YOUR TRADING PLATFORM. AND IF YOU WORK FOR A FIRM WITH DOZENS OF LCD’S TUNED TO CNBC, MAINLY SO THAT THEIR “GUY” WHO IS ON ONCE A WEEK IS SEEN AND HEARD BY EVERYONE AT THE FIRM. THIS PERSON RARELY KNOWS HOW TO TRADE. I KNOW OF A FEW FIRMS OUT THERE LIKE THIS.
  8. THE FIRST LOSS IS THE BEST LOSS BECAUSE IT HURTS THE MOST. LEARNING TO LOSE IS IMPORTANT. LEARNING TO LOSE AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE IS THE MARKET’S PAVLOVIAN WAY OF TEACHING YOU HOW TO TRADE PROFESSIONALLY AND PROFITABLY
  9. EARN THE RIGHT TO TRADE BIGGER. YOU’LL KNOW WHEN YOU’RE READY. DON’T RUSH IT. THE BIGGER YOU GET, THE MORE IMPORTANT EXECUTION STRATEGY BECOMES. YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SLOPPY, LIKE MOST PEOPLE I’VE MET, EVEN THOSE THAT WERE SO CALLED MENTORS TO ME, OR WHO I CALLED “MAESTRO”. SLOPPIEST TRADER IN THE WORLD. TINY ORDERS LEAVING ELEPHANT FOOTPRINTS WHILE SMART TRADERS TAKE MAMMOTH ORDERS AND DON’T MAKE A RIPPLE
  10. BE YOURSELF. DON’T TRY TO BE SOMEONE ELSE. FIND THE STRATEGY THAT WORKS FOR YOUR PSYCHE. IT TAKES WORK, READING, TESTING, AND INNER-REFLECTION. YOUR CHARACTER HAS THE CORRECT STRATEGY OUT THERE. YOU HAVE TO FIND IT. DON’T TRADE WHAT SOME SCHMUCK WANNABE HEAD TRADER AT A SHADY FIRM TELLS YOU TO TRADE, OR USE A STRATEGY TAUGHT BY A FIRM THAT LETS YOU ONLY TRADE THAT STRATEGY. GET OUT OF THESE FIRMS. (more…)