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Helpful Lessons

Helpful Lessons1. Remain Flexible – do not let your bias (”The Market MUST Go Down”) cloud the reality of what’s happening

2. Seek High Probability, Low Risk Set-ups
(In this case, we had the trend, resistance, and a doji working in our favor, and were risking 2 points to play for 8 points)

3. Take Your Stop-Loss when the Trade Fails
(You would have been in a worse situation if you stubbornly held short into the sudden 10-point rally)
(In fact, some of the largest swings occur AFTER a high-probability set-ups has failed … I call this “Popped Stops”)

4.  “Anything Can Happen” in the Market (Mark Douglas)
Even the best set-ups can … and sometimes do… fail and that’s perfectly fine as long as you control risk.
Don’t blame FII’s ,Global Market  or Mutual Funds – trading is a game of probabilities instead of certainties.

Study each day to learn more concepts and do your own end-of-day analysis of the charts to make yourselves even better traders!

How to Treat Delusional Disorder

This market is delusional!  I’ve heard it several times, but I am still unsure exactly what this means.  Given what I’ve seen and heard on this trading desk over the past several weeks I can begin to hypothesize about the true nature of this ubiquitous exclamation.  First, strength and weakness in the market has not necessarily translate to strength and weakness in individual names.  Dean’s portfolio has been the best barometer of this divergence.  His long cash book has felt the slings and arrows of a declining market while under performing on up days; the perfect shitstorm.  Strong balance sheets and superior management have failed to translate into upward price action.  On the other side of the coin, Moskowitz’s technical strategy has also struggled in the face of this “delusional” market.  Daily levels of support and resistance, moving averages, and pivot points have been broken, traversed, and forsaken.  Familiar setups have failed to produce familiar results.  Finally, after reviewing the charts of Schwartz’s portfolio, we came to the conclusion that the tenets of relative strength and relative weakness have been all but abandoned.  Names have shown massive intraday reversals that suck away P&L without warning.

Given the “delusional” nature of the market, there is only one strategy that guarantees success; get small.  The fact that strategies have lacked their usual effectiveness does not imply they are obsolete; however, given the unusual action we have witnessed lately, it is advisable to limit one’s exposure to the bizarre action.  Eventually the market will begin to look like its old self and when that time comes, the heavens will open and the money gods will reappear.  In the meantime, remember the old axiom: “The market can remain delusional longer than you can remain solvent.”

The Anatomy of a Trend: 10 Guidelines

  1. A trend begins with capital flowing into an asset based on a perceived increase in the future value of the asset.
  2. Trends are identified by higher highs and higher lows for several days in a row or the reverse lower highs and lower lows.
  3. Moving averages can also identify trends based on a moving average sloping up or sloping down visibly.
  4. A moving average can also act as support or resistance for a stock as it trends in one direction and bounces off a key moving average.
  5. Trends tend to persist because the owners of the asset have no reason to sell and tend to just let their position ride causing the trend to continue.
  6. Supply and demand causes trends when you have a lot of dollars chasing a limited asset.
  7. In stocks, up trends are caused by mutual fund managers building large positions in their favorite stocks.
  8. Down trends in stocks are caused when institutions start to unload a stock or investors cash in their mutual fund shares during bear markets and managers have to raise cash by selling their holdings.
  9. Capital is always looking for great returns so they chase stocks with the biggest earnings expectations planning on the stock price following.
  10. Trends tend to persist until acted on by an opposing force. Sometimes this is as simple as running out of buyers or sellers of the asset.

The money is in the big trends, look for them, find them, and ride them until they end.

“The trend is your friend until the end when it bends” -Ed Seykota

You Might be a Trend Following Trader if…..

Trend Follower“Trend  followers use reactive technical analysis. Instead of trying to predict a market direction, their strategy is to react to the market’s movements whenever they occur. This enables them to focus on the market’s actual moves and not get emotionally involved with trying to predict direction or duration.” -Michael Covel/ Trend Following

You Might be a Trend Following Trader if…..

  1. …you love buying break outs above resistance and new all time highs.
  2. …big trends make you happy not angry.
  3. …you do not trade the concept of something being overbought you just use a trailing stop.
  4. …your trading decisions are based on what is happening now, not your opinions, your fears of what will happen, or your hopes of what will happen later.
  5. …you risk a little capital over and over again to make a lot of capital eventually.
  6. …you are great at letting your winners run.
  7. …trend followers don’t need a story they follow actual price action.
  8. …you look for longs in a bull market and shorts in a bear market you are likely a trend follower.
  9. …higher highs and higher lows are one of your best indicators to go long.

Richard Rhodes' Trading Rules

If I’ve learned anything in my decades of trading, I’ve learned that the simple methods work best. Those who need to rely upon complex stochastics, linear weighted moving averages, smoothing techniques, Fibonacci numbers etc., usually find that they have so many things rolling around in their heads that they cannot make a rational decision. One technique says buy; another says sell. Another says sit tight while another says add to the trade. It sounds like a cliche, but simple methods work best.

  1. The first and most important rule is – in bull markets, one is supposed to be long. This may sound obvious, but how many of us have sold the first rally in every bull market, saying that the market has moved too far, too fast. I have before, and I suspect I’ll do it again at some point in the future. Thus, we’ve not enjoyed the profits that should have accrued to us for our initial bullish outlook, but have actually lost money while being short. In a bull market, one can only be long or on the sidelines. Remember, not having a position is a position.
  2. Buy that which is showing strength – sell that which is showing weakness. The public continues to buy when prices have fallen. The professional buys because prices have rallied. This difference may not sound logical, but buying strength works. The rule of survival is not to “buy low, sell high”, but to “buy higher and sell higher”. Furthermore, when comparing various stocks within a group, buy only the strongest and sell the weakest.
  3. When putting on a trade, enter it as if it has the potential to be the biggest trade of the year. Don’t enter a trade until it has been well thought out, a campaign has been devised for adding to the trade, and contingency plans set for exiting the trade.
  4. On minor corrections against the major trend, add to trades. In bull markets, add to the trade on minor corrections back into support levels. In bear markets, add on corrections into resistance. Use the 33-50% corrections level of the previous movement or the proper moving average as a first point in which to add.
  5. Be patient. If a trade is missed, wait for a correction to occur before putting the trade on. (more…)
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