And the great sea with its friends and its enemies. And bed, he thought. Bed is my friend. Just bed, he thought. Bed will be a great thing. It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought. ‘Nothing’, he said aloud. ‘I went out too far.’ – Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea ‘At that point I ought to have gone away, but a strange sensation rose up in me, a sort of defiance of fate, a desire to challenge it, to put out my tongue at it. I laid down the largest stake allowed – four thousand gulden – and lost it. Then, getting hot, I pulled out all I had left, staked it on the same number, and lost again, after which I walked away from the table as though I were stunned. I could not even grasp what had happened to me.’ – The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoevsky If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. – Chinese Proverb Luck never gives; it only lends. – Swedish Proverb Depend on the rabbit’s foot if you will, but remember it didn’t work for the rabbit. – R.E. Shay |
Archives of “stake” tag
rssJesse Livermore’s Money Management Rules
If you haven’t read this book “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” written in 1923, read it! It is purpordetly the unofficial biography of one of the greates traders ever; Jesse Livermore. The rules Jesse followed back at the turn of the last century are still very much applicable today.
1) Don’t lose money. Don’t lose your stake. A speculator without cash is like a store-owner with no inventory. Cash is your inventory, your lifeline, and your best friend. Without cash, you are out of business. Don’t lose your line. There is no place in speculating for hoping, for guessing, for fear, for greed, for emotions. The tape tells the truth.
2) Always establish a stop. A successful speculator must set a firm stop before making a trade and must never sustain a loss of more than 10 percent of invested capital. I have also learned that when your broker calls you and tells you he needs more money for a margin requirement on a stock that is declining; tell him to sell out the position. When you buy a stock at 50 and it goes to 45, do not buy more in order to average out your price. The stock has not done what you predicted; that is enough of an indication that your judgment was wrong. Take sour losses quickly and get out. Remember, never meet a margin call, and never average losses. Many times I would close out a position before suffering a 10 percent loss. I did this simply because the stock was not acting right from the start. Often my instincts would whisper to me: “J.L., this stock has a malaise, it is a lagging dullard. It just does not feel right,” and I would sell out of my position in the blink of an eye. I absolutely believe that price movement patterns are repeated and appear over and over with slight variations. This is because humans drive the stocks, and human nature never changes. Take your losses quickly. Easy to say, but hard to do. (more…)
HOPE
Hope is a four letter word.An appropriate acronmym for HOPE Could be ;
Having
Our
Prayers
Expected.
False hope is great source of misery and no just in the trading arena.Prayers are always good by keeping in mind that some of Gods greatest gifts are her unanswered prayers.
Hoping is a sign that the trder has no control over his position.Traders should never be hoping and always trying to control the amount of risk at stake at all times.Always trading-never hoping should be a traders’s motto.
Gambling vs. Trading
“Gambling is taking a risk when the odds are against you. Speculating is taking a risk when the odds are in your favor.” Victor Sperandeo
“the only difference between gambling and trading is that your amount at risk and amount of potential reward varies with trading.” I agree, but there’s more to it. The parallels are obvious, from the lack of control over outcome to the illusion of knowledge to the physiological effects of having a stake in the outcome. However, the differences are substantial…and mostly mathematical.
The expectancy in gambling is ALWAYS terrible, while market speculation at times offers outstanding opportunities. To get a 2:1 or 3:1 opportunity in gambling, one needs to accept incredibly low odds of victory. In financial markets, those 2:1 or above opportunities come around like clockwork and offer high enough probability that long-term positive expectancy is possible. Not only that, but the market speculator has the opportunity to adjust his or her position after the game begins…when was the last horse race where you could take a little off the table after the first turn? Or reclaim most of your bet when your horse stumbles out of the gate?
I’ll leave the neuroscience to the experts, but it seems to me that we need to coordinate our left brain(rational) and right brain(experiential) in laying out the role of each. We want to allow our intuition to shine through, but within the overall structure of positive expectancy. No matter how hard one tries, the math of gambling can’t come close to touching the opportunities for building a business out of the markets.
Trading Wisdom
This (Trading) is not a job where you get paid by the hour. You get paid for doing the right thing”
-“Forget that your money is at stake. Money in trading account is just a tool for making money. Preserve your tool. You need it to make money”
-“Don’t let the outcome of one trade alter your trading discipline. One trade doesn’t make a system…”
-“Trading is a game of probabilities. You don’t have to be right every time. You just have to follow your rules”
-“You decide your fate; the market doesn’t”
-“Pure followers of stock pickers will never be around…Learn or you are bankrupt”
-“Be aggressive in trending market and conservative in choppy market”
“Take home runs when you can, but don’t beat yourself up about missing a few. One trade should never make or break your account”
A Method to Measure Risk and Return
Placing a trade with a predetermined stop-loss point can be compared to placing a bet: the more money risked, the larger the bet. Conservative betting produces conservative performance, while bold betting leads to spectacular ruin. A bold trader placing large bets feels pressure or heat from the volatility of the portfolio. A hot portfolio keeps more at risk than does a cold one. Portfolio heat seems to be associated with personality preference; bold traders prefer and are able to take more heat, while more conservative traders generally avoid the circumstances that give rise to heat. In portfolio management, we call the distributed bet size the heat of the portfolio. A diversified portfolio risking 2% on each of five instrument & has a total heat of 10%, as does a portfolio risking 5% on each of two instruments. Our studies of heat show several factors, which are: Trading systems have an inherent optimal heat. Setting the heat level is far and away more important than fiddling with trade timing parameters. Many traders are unaware of both these factors. COIN FLIPPING One way to understand portfolio heat is to imagine a series of coin flips. Heads, you win two; tails, you lose one is a fair model of good trading. The heat question is: what fixed fraction of your running total stake should you bet on a series of flips?
Techniques of Tape Reading
This (Trading) is not a job where you get paid by the hour.
You get paid for doing the right thing.
Forget that your money is at stake. Money in trading account is just a tool for making money. Preserve your tool. You need it to make money.
Don’t let the outcome of one trade alter your trading discipline. One trade doesn’t make a system…
Trading is a game of probabilities. You don’t have to be right every time. You just have to follow your rules.
You decide your fate; the market doesn’t.
Pure followers of stock pickers will never be around… Learn or you are bankrupt.
Be aggressive in trending market and conservative in choppy market.
Take home runs when you can, but don’t beat yourself up about missing a few.
One trade should never make or break your account.
You don't need to follow trading rules
We’ve all heard the proselytizers of trade planning bemoan lesser traders that they need to follow their trade rules. Yet, emotional traders still dominate the retail trading landscape. After hearing about how bad they are for acting as they do, they flagellate themselves for allowing emotion to enter into their trading decisions and re-dedicate themselves to discipline trading without emotions. But who are we to judge why and how someone else trades with their money?
Of all the different types of trading styles, I find the emotional style of trading the most entertaining. It is more human and natural than a game of probability. There is personal stuff at stake. Anyone who preaches to you that you need to stop it and get a plan is really preaching to themselves. They are healing a wound, or trying to convince themselves that they no longer participate in the egregious activity of trading without one. They are essentially scared of their emotions.
You cannot detach yourself from your emotions. If you want to trade based on emotions, I support your decision. After all, it’s your money and it’s not my place to tell you what to do with it.
Rules. We think of them as ‘made to be broken’ for a good reason. Rules are limiting and suffocating. Yes, we need some basic ones in our lives, but as soon as a method of trading is defined as a rule, the inner workings of the imagination begins the task of find ways around it. It’s only natural. Our total human experience cannot be contained with stupid rules. And who is making these rules anyway? Why are they valid? We all know that rules are put in place because we basically don’t trust someone (maybe ourselves) to do the right thing when the time comes. (more…)
LyondellBasell Board Said to Reject Reliance Bid
March 1 (Bloomberg) — The board of bankrupt LyondellBasell Industries AF rejected a bid from Reliance Industries Ltd., owner of the world’s largest oil-refining complex, two people briefed on the matter said today.
Reliance, based in Mumbai, had raised its offer for a controlling stake in Lyondell to $14.5 billion, two people with knowledge of the offer said Feb. 22. Lyondell is based in Rotterdam.
Buying LyondellBasell would create a company with more than $80 billion in revenue and give Reliance chemical plants and two oil refineries in the U.S. and Europe. The chemicals maker had rejected a revised Reliance bid that valued it at $13.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 8.
Lyondell was formed in a 2007 deal financed with $22 billion in debt in which it was bought by Basell AF, a unit of Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries Holdings LLC. Creditors have said the buyout crippled one of the world’s largest polymers, petrochemicals, and fuel companies, causing it to seek bankruptcy.
Lyondell spokesman David Harpole declined to comment.
Overtrading: A Common Mistake
Over trading is one of the biggest causes why traders never make it in the financial markets. With a click of a button, a trader can place a trade anytime he wants. It takes tremendous discipline to hold yourself back from over trading. There are many reasons why one may choose to over trade.
1. Traders without a plan
Traders without a plan are my favorite type of traders because they will always lose. Without a plan, how would one know when to take a trade and when not to? Having a trading plan is a necessity. I can not trade if I do not have a plan for the day. I feel lost without one.
2. Revenge trading
Many new traders become tilted after a loss or a string of losses. This causes them to revenge trade just to break even. This often leads to reckless trading forcing a trade when opportunity is low.
3. Chasing the markets
Alot of new traders feel more pain when they have missed a move than an actual loss. This is why new traders love to chase the markets. If price has moved away from your projected entry point, let it go. There are plenty of more opportunities. Chasing is one of the worst habits a trader can have. Not only does it offer you low rewards, it also gives you a horrible entry and alters your stop loss placement. Always think about the risk before the profits.
When you have a plan to follow, it is easy to filter out bad trades from good one. This keeps you discipline and selective in your trades. I personally do not like trading more than 5 round trips a day. Patience is a virtue. There are always good high probability trading opportunities everyday. Just sit tight and don’t jump the gun.
One way to control a loss is by reducing your size. The problem with gamblers is that they will often double up their stake so they can get even quicker. This usually leads to a greater loss and devastation. Having the strength to grind your way back from a loss is important in trading. Whenever I am having a losing streak, I will trade small and gradually recover. This also gives me the confidence I need after a string of losses.