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36 Steps To Becoming A Better Trader

1. We accumulate information – buying books, going to seminars and researching.
2. We begin to trade with our ‘new’ knowledge.
3. We consistently ‘donate’ and then realise we may need more knowledge or information.
4. We accumulate more information.
5. We switch the commodities we are currently following.
6. We go back into the market and trade with our ‘updated’ knowledge.
7. We get ‘beat up’ again and begin to lose some of our confidence. Fear starts setting in.
8. We start to listen to ‘outside news’ and to other traders.
9. We go back into the market and continue to ‘donate’.
10. We switch commodities again.
11. We search for more information.
12. We go back into the market and start to see a little progress.
13. We get ‘over-confident’ and the market humbles us.
14. We start to understand that trading successfully is going to take more time and more knowledge than we anticipated.

MOST PEOPLE WILL GIVE UP AT THIS POINT, AS THEY REALISE WORK IS INVOLVED.

15. We get serious and start concentrating on learning a ‘real’ methodology.
16. We trade our methodology with some success, but realise that something is missing.
17. We begin to understand the need for having rules to apply our methodology.
18. We take a sabbatical from trading to develop and research our trading rules.
19. We start trading again, this time with rules and find some success, but over all we still hesitate when we execute.
20. We add, subtract and modify rules as we see a need to be more proficient with our rules.
21. We feel we are very close to crossing that threshold of successful trading.
22. We start to take responsibility for our trading results as we understand that our success is in us, not the methodology.
23. We continue to trade and become more proficient with our methodology and our rules.
24. As we trade we still have a tendency to violate our rules and our results are still erratic.
25. We know we are close.
26. We go back and research our rules.
27. We build the confidence in our rules and go back into the market and trade.
28. Our trading results are getting better, but we are still hesitating in executing our rules.
29. We now see the importance of following our rules as we see the results of our trades when we don’t follow the rules.
30. We begin to see that our lack of success is within us (a lack of discipline in following the rules because of some kind of fear) and we begin to work on knowing ourselves better.
31. We continue to trade and the market teaches us more and more about ourselves.
32. We master our methodology and our trading rules.
33. We begin to consistently make money.
34. We get a little over-confident and the market humbles us.
35. We continue to learn our lessons.
36. We stop thinking and allow our rules to trade for us (trading becomes boring, but successful) and our trading account continues to grow as we increase our contract size.

Five Fatal Flaws

If you’ve been trading for a long time, you no doubt have felt that a monstrous, invisible hand sometimes reaches into your trading account and takes out money. It doesn’t seem to matter how many books you buy, how many seminars you attend or how many hours you spend analyzing price charts, you just can’t seem to prevent that invisible hand from depleting your trading account funds.

Which brings us to the question: Why do traders lose? Or maybe we should ask, ‘How do you stop the Hand?’ Whether you are a seasoned professional or just thinking about opening your first trading account, the ability to stop the Hand is proportional to how well you understand and overcome the Five Fatal Flaws of trading. For each fatal flaw represents a finger on the invisible hand that wreaks havoc with your trading account.

The killer flaws? They are:

Fatal Flaw No. 1 – Lack of Methodology
Fatal Flaw No. 2 – Lack of Discipline
Fatal Flaw No. 3 – Unrealistic Expectations
Fatal Flaw No. 4 – Lack of Patience
Fatal Flaw No. 5 – Lack of Money Management

20 Trading Rules for your weekend

1.        KNOW THYSELF
What kind of trading style fits your personality…Trend following? Day Trading? Buy and hold (please NO)? Next, what do you want to accomplish with your trading…Monthly Income? Long-Term Growth? Risk Aversion? And finally, you must have a grip on your emotions, because you will experience failure and success in trading and you need to know how you will react to both.
 
2.        KEEP IT SIMPLE
You should be able to describe each trading strategy in your war chest on a 3×5 index card.  There are so many different trading tools and indicators out there that it is easy to make trading and investing harder than it is. Find a few technical and/or fundamental indicators that you can apply to your trading, and master them.
 
3.        DIVERSIFY 
Specialize in a few different trading strategies and then spread your risk out across multiple asset classes using those trading strategies. Make sure all of your trades are not dependent on the same sector, commodity, industry, or idea. 
 
4.        LOSERS AVERAGE LOSERS
Only losers add to losing positions. If a trade is going against you, move on and find another trade. It’s not about pride, it’s about profits.
 
5.       NEVER STOP LEARNING
 You must constantly make an investment in your trading education. Read books, go to seminars, or talk to other traders, because over time the traders that make a commitment to never stop learning will be the traders that stay in the game and are able to adjust their trading style to any market environment.   
 
6.        CREATE A TRADING PLAN
Having a trading plan creates discipline. Why are you making this trade? What’s your risk? What’s your reward? How much margin is required? What will you do if things get bad, or really good? These are questions you should be able to answer on every trade you execute.   
 
7.        BAD TRADE MOVE ON
I don’t care who you are, you are going to have bad trades. When you have a bad trade, take a break from trading, go to a movie, or kick the dog (once), but don’t sit around and pout.   It’s important that you move on and start planning how you are going to get it back. 
 
8.        TRADE WITH CONFIDENCE
Trust your research, feel confident in the time and energy you have put into your trading strategy and know that no matter what the market does in the short term, you have the ability to make money in the long term. 
 
9.        THE MARKET IS GOING…????
Nobody knows where the market is going and you don’t either.    So pick trading strategies that allow a little wiggle room in case you wake up one morning and the market doesn’t do exactly what you told it to. (See trade schools)
 
10.    DICSIPLINE
 This word sums up a long term trader. You must have the discipline to follow your systems and manage your emotions hour after hour, day after day, year after year. If you are undisciplined in other areas of your life, don’t be surprised if one day you break your trading rules. You must practice discipline 24 hours a day.  (more…)

40 steps in the Traders Journey

They are as follows:

  1. We accumulate information, we learn- buying books, asking questions, maybe going to seminars and researching what really works in trading.
  2. We begin to trade with our ‘new’  found knowledge.
  3. We make profits only to give it back very quickly and then realize we may need more knowledge or information.
  4. We accumulate more information.
  5. We switch the stocks we are currently following and trading.
  6. We go back into the market and trade with our better system. this time it will work.
  7. We lose even more money and begin to lose of confidence that we can even be traders. The reality of losing money sets in.
  8. We start to listen to other traders and what works for them.
  9. We go back into the market and continue to lose more money.
  10. We completely switch our style and method.
  11. We search for more information.
  12. We go back into the market and start to see a little progress.
  13. We get ‘over-confident’ in a single trade and put on a big position believing it is a sure thing and the market quickly takes our money.
  14. We start to understand that trading successfully is going to take more time and more knowledge than we ever anticipated. MOST PEOPLE WILL GIVE UP AT THIS POINT, AS THEY REALIZE WORK IS INVOLVED.
  15. We get serious and start concentrating on learning a ‘real’ methodology.
  16. We trade our methodology with some success, but realize that something is missing.
  17. We begin to understand the need for having rules to apply our methodology.
  18. We take a sabbatical from trading to develop and research our trading rules.
  19. We start trading again, this time with rules and find some success, but over all we still hesitate when we execute.
  20. We add, subtract and modify rules as we see a need to be more proficient with our rules. (more…)

Trading Rules :

tradingrules1

  1. We accumulate trading information – buying books, going to seminars and researching.
  2. We begin to trade with our ‘new’ knowledge.
  3. We consistently ‘donate’ and then realize we may need more knowledge or information.
  4. We accumulate more information.
  5. We switch the commodities we are currently following.
    [private] (more…)
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