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25 Trading Mantras

  
  Education
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Seeing an opportunity and acting upon it are two different things.

•  Price has memory. Odds are what price did the last time it hit a certain level will be repeated  . . . (BR:  Until support or resistance fails).

•  Pay attention to price action, regardless of what the charts are saying.

•  Look for a reversal at the same place you’re expecting a breakout or breakdown.

•  Price action sets up against the majority; the best profits are often in the opposite direction of the way you’re planning to go.

• Add to your winners and cut your losers. ’nuff said.

•  Opportunities come along all of the time. Wait for the best ones.

•  Don’t overly anticipate or see things that aren’t there. Wait for your signals. (more…)

The Power of Regret

  
  Education
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Everyone knows that chasing price is usually not beneficial, we either end up catching the move too late, or we get poor trade location, which makes it more difficult to manage the trade.

However, there are other forms of chasing that are just as common, maybe more common, and just as counter-productive.   As a trading psychologist I see these all the time.

Traders who are not profitable are often too quick to chase after new set-ups and indicators, or a different chat room, if that’s your thing.  Obviously, we need to have a trading edge, whether it is from the statistical perspective of a positive expectancy, or simply the confidence in a particular discretionary strategy such as tape reading, following order flow, market profile, etc.

Chasing a trade is the fear of missing out. The fear of missing out is associated with various emotions, including regret. In my work with traders and in my own trading, I’ve seen the incredible power of regret. There’s a lot of talk about fear and greed in trading, but the power of regret is often overlooked. Some of my own worst trades, and those of my clients, often have a ‘regret from missing a prior opportunity’ component. When I finally finish my book on the psychology of financial risk taking, I will include much about this overlooked but very powerful emotion. (more…)

You Have To Find What You Love

  
Education, Life, Video
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This is the most inspirational  speech I have ever heard. I know many of you want to be full time traders but somehow miss the courage to try it.

Yes, trading is hard at the beginning, some of you don`t have what it takes to be a great professional trader, but…the question I ask you is, “Do you want to be asking yourself this question for the rest of your life and wonder how it would have been?…”

Listen to this magnificent speech from Steve Jobs. It can be a life changer for you:

25 Trading Truths

  
  Education
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Seeing an opportunity and acting upon it are two different things.
•  Price has memory. Odds are what price did the last time it hit a certain level will be repeated  . . .
•  Pay attention to price action, regardless of what the charts are saying.
•  Look for a reversal at the same place you’re expecting a breakout or breakdown.
•  Price action sets up against the majority; the best profits are often in the opposite direction of the way you’re planning to go.
• Add to your winners and cut your losers. ’nuff said.
•  Opportunities come along all of the time. Wait for the best ones.
•  Don’t overly anticipate or see things that aren’t there. Wait for your signals.
•  The day isn’t over until the closing bell ring. The way it ends may be vastly different from how it begins.
•  Your first job isn’t to make money. It’s to protect capital.
•  Don’t rush to buy the lowest price or sell the highest price; It could get much lower or much higher before turning around. (more…)

Traders’ Discipline

  
  Education
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Top daytraders have the discipline to follow their daytrading system rigorously, because they know that only the trades that are signaled by their system have a greater rate of success. Matching a method of trading with your personality is the only way you will ever feel comfortable in the markets. Some websites have sought to profit from day traders by offering them hot tips and stock picks for a fee.

Day trading is an investment tactic with a relatively short investment. You need to position yourself so that you can endure long strings of losses, and maintain your day trading system.

Trading successfully is by no means a simple matter. A day trader should treat their capital as 100% risk capital and should not have to unduly worry that the whole amount of this capital may be lost very quickly. Good day traders do not rush into trades.

Day trading is just a numbers game. Be aware that day trading does not offer the protection of an advisor who can tell you whether a particular investment is suitable to your financial goals. Day trading is like running any other kind of business. It requires planning and expertize.

Limiting your losses when day trading is by far more important than making big profits. Day trading is an inherently variable business. For the sophisticated investor day trading may be safe since such investors know what they are doing and are willing to absorb the risk of losing money. Online trading is quick and easy, but making money from day trading and online investing takes time.

10 Lessons for Traders

  
  Education
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1. Trading affects psychology as much as psychology affects trading – This was really the motivating factor behind my writing the new book. Many traders experience stress and frustration because they are trading poorly and lack a true edge in the marketplace. Working on your emotions will be of limited help if you are putting your money at risk and don’t truly have an edge.

2. Emotional disruption is present even among the most successful traders – A trading method that produces 60% winners will experience four consecutive losses 2-3% of the time and as much time in flat performance as in an uptrending P/L curve. Strings of events (including losers) occur more often by chance than traders are prepared for.

3. Winning disrupts the trader’s emotions as much as losing – We are disrupted when we experience events outside our expectation. The method that is 60% accurate will experience four consecutive winners about 13% of the time. Traders are just as susceptible to overconfidence during profitable runs as underconfidence during strings of losers.

4. Size kills – The surest path toward emotional damage is to trade size that is too large for one’s portfolio. We experience P/L in relation to our portfolio value. When we trade too large, we create exaggerated swings of winning and losing, which in turn create exaggerated emotional swings. (more…)

The Power of Regret

  
  Education
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Everyone knows that chasing price is usually not beneficial, we either end up catching the move too late, or we get poor trade location, which makes it more difficult to manage the trade.

However, there are other forms of chasing that are just as common, maybe more common, and just as counter-productive.   As a trading psychologist I see these all the time.

Traders who are not profitable are often too quick to chase after new set-ups and indicators, or a different chat room, if that’s your thing.  Obviously, we need to have a trading edge, whether it is from the statistical perspective of a positive expectancy, or simply the confidence in a particular discretionary strategy such as tape reading, following order flow, market profile, etc.

Chasing a trade is the fear of missing out. The fear of missing out is associated with various emotions, including regret. In my work with traders and in my own trading, I’ve seen the incredible power of regret. There’s a lot of talk about fear and greed in trading, but the power of regret is often overlooked. Some of my own worst trades, and those of my clients, often have a ‘regret from missing a prior opportunity’ component. When I finally finish my book on the psychology of financial risk taking, I will include much about this overlooked but very powerful emotion.

Somewhat related to chasing a trade, is impulse trading.  They both have in common the underlying feeling of the fear of missing out.  It’s tempting for me to talk about impulse trading here, but it really deserves its own piece.

Market Thesis

  
  Education
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thesis-paperPurely academic, non applicable information. Writing them out helps me organize these assumptions into ideas. Hopefully you find some use for them.

1) Trading is like any other business, but not only in the conventional sense. The market is manipulated. The underlining principle behind this statement is that equities market is the same as any other market in the economy, whether it be technology or tube sock market – those with the biggest market cap control movement and direction.

2)While prices are moving in a current path identified by trend lines, heads of market are processing information and making preparations for the next shift. During the time traders see the trend forming and change their “bias” in accordance with the trend, heads of market have processed new information and are ready to take prices to a new level.

3)Technical analysis is a visual interpretation of how crowds behave in relation to price. It does not influence how prices will or should behave. When prices reach a certain level, the technical indicator at that level does not dictate how prices will react, rather, (more…)

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