Archives of “TIME” tag

rss

The Ten Harsh Financial Commandments

  
Analysis, Education
#  #  #  #  #

I) You will not buy low or sell high.

II) You will cut your winners and let your losers run.

III)  You will wish you owned more of what’s going up and less of what’s going down.

IV) You will be fearful when others are fearful.

V) You will fight the trend.

VI) You will not buy when there is blood in the streets.

VII) You will spend too much time worrying about low probability outcomes.

VII) You will invest for the long-term, or until we get a ten percent correction, whichever comes first.

IX) You will go broke taking small profits.

X) You will not just sit there, you’ll do something.

10 Things I Learned from Steve Jobs about Trading and Life

  
Analysis, Education
#  #  #  #  #  #

Less is more, simple is good.

That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.

Your first loss is your best loss

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

When studying the market and speculating about the future, the past is all we have.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

No one gets paid for originality – you get paid for making money. You should be happy to take other people’s good ideas and run with them, as long as you understand exactly why you are in the trade and take full responsibility of the results. If you don’t know why you are in a trade, you won’t know when to exit. (more…)

Reason For Trading Failure

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #

bellaquote

The quote above is from Mike Bellafiore’s  The Playbook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader.

Unfortunately, too few make it in the trading business, not for lack of desire or want for success, but for ignorance of what is necessary for success.  Successful trading is not about predicting the future but about managing it.

If you find that each day your time is consumed with searching for the next great indicator or a combination thereof or with the endless search for the best time frame to use, then you are trying to predict.  If, on the other hand, you focus on a specific, well-defined price pattern for entry and exit on a specific time frame, allowing the price to dictate your future action (win, lose, or draw) then you are managing the future.

The former is a “path to trading failure”; the latter the road to success.

 

10 Life Lessons We Learn Too Late

  
Analysis, Education
#  #  #  #  #

What Are the Lessons People Often Learn Too Late in Life?

1. Time passes much more quickly than you realize.

2. If you don’t take care of your body early then it won’t take care of you later. Your world becomes smaller each day as you lose mobility, continence and sight.

3. Sex and beauty may fade, but intimacy and friendship only grow.

4. People are far more important than any other thing in your life. No hobby, interest, book, work is going to be as important to you as the people you spend time with as you get older.

5. Money talks. It says “Goodbye.” If you don’t plan your finances for later in life, you’ll wish you had.

6. Any seeds you planted in the past, either good or bad, will begin to bear fruit and affect the quality of your life as you get older — for better or worse.

7. Jealousy is a wasted emotion. People you hate are going to succeed. People you like are going to sometimes do better than you did. Kids are going to be smarter and quicker than you are. Accept it with grace.

8. That big house you had to have becomes a bigger and bigger burden, even as the mortgage gets smaller. The cleaning, the maintenance, the stairs — all of it. Don’t let your possessions own you.

9. You will badly regret the things you didn’t do far more than the things you did that were “wrong” — the girl you didn’t kiss, the trip you didn’t take, the project you kept putting off, the time you could have helped someone. If you get the chance — do it. You may never get the chance again.

10. Every day you wake up is a victory.

10 Financial Commandments

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #

I) You will not buy low or sell high.

II) You will cut your winners and let your losers run.

III)  You will wish you owned more of what’s going up and less of what’s going down.

IV) You will be fearful when others are fearful.

V) You will fight the trend.

VI) You will not buy when there is blood in the streets.

VII) You will spend too much time worrying about low probability outcomes.

VII) You will invest for the long-term, or until we get a ten percent correction, whichever comes first.

IX) You will go broke taking small profits.

X) You will not just sit there, you’ll do something.

CheckList for Pre-Market -After Market Close

  
Analysis, Education
#  #  #  #

Pre-market

  • Am I prepared to trade?
  • Have I cleared my mind or meditated prior to trading?
  • Have I reviewed my market feeds for any overnight news?
  • Have I run my stock selection scans?
  • Have I updated my watchlists?
  • Have I updated my risk per trade calculations, along with 2ATR measurements and position sizes?

After market close 

  • Have I carried out my daily review of my trading?
  • Have I updated my stops as per my rules?
  • Have I logged my results?
  • Did I only make logical, rational decisions throughout the market session?

Obviously, any questions that are repeatedly marked with a ‘No’ or an ‘X’ over a period of time will clearly highlight what you need to work on.
Finally, note how these questions make no reference to whether you made a profit or a loss. You can break every trading rule on a given day and make money. You can also trade perfectly on a given day in accordance with your rules and lose money.
The thing is, the more faithful you are to your process, you increase the probabilities of being successful over the long-term. Creating good habits will help you achieve this.

Patience in Trading

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

The most important lesson I’ve learned over the years of trading is staying patient throughout the journey. There will always be loosing trades as well as winning trades, the key is not being greedy as well as staying consistently patient with the market whilst gaining experience.

Re-reading books, trading scripts as well as regularly topping up knowledge of all the relevant price action technicalities is crucial, although I’d say the main attribute to achieving consistent results is not only sticking to your own specific trading plan and rules, but remaining patient and never giving up. The use of repeated trading affirmations can help dramatically with this.

In the world of trading, those who remain patient over the years and ‘slowly but surely’ carve out a positive equity curve will surely gain the vital skills needed to make trading a full time, long term career.

Most traders have only the ‘destination’ in mind, with the ‘journey’ aspect as secondary. This is the wrong approach. Without the long journey testing your patience, including all the difficulties and hurdles, the destination would be too easy to obtain and everyone would be doing it. This is why learning to trade can be seen as easy, however its the journey that most amateur traders find too difficult to sustain. This can all be overcome with the right trading mindset and understanding.

:Anything that comes quick goes quick. Patience is required for outstanding results.

50 One Liners for Traders

  
Analysis, Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #
  1. Don’t try to read into other people’s trading decisions.
  2. By all means like a stock, but don’t try to be best friends with it forever. Instead, spend time nurturing positions that are being kind to you.
  3. Beware the Beginners Cycle. The want to be right will cause you to collect courses and books and will only be a costly and frustrating exercise. The secret is elsewhere.
  4. Actually, there is no secret. It’s all in the maths.
  5. Losses when trading are inevitable, but losses should always be limited.
  6. Have a prepared trading plan so you don’t rush into bad decisions. Time spent planning will help you avoid catastrophic losses, riding the emotional roller coaster, and other unnecessary headaches.
  7. Get off your high horse. Your ego will eventually cost you dearly.
  8. Validate your strategy before you risk your capital.
  9. Don’t waste your time on other trader’s successes. The only person you’re competing against is yourself.
  10. 10. Ignore any broker that tells you to buy when there is blood in the streets. You can be sure it’s not theirs.
  11. Outsource to people who do the stuff they’re better at so you can do the stuff you’re better at.
  12. Make haste slowly. Ensure you have a validated strategy that has an edge and ensure you have a full understanding of the journey ahead of you. The markets will always be there. What won’t be there if you’re in too much of a hurry is the capital in your account.
  13. Understand positive expectancy. When you see it, you’ll get it.
  14. Ask someone you trust if you are unsure.
  15. Risk a small amount of capital on each trade.
  16. Sentiment will drive the market, or a stock, a lot further than logic ever will.
  17. Only fools claim to know the future.
  18. Don’t be a dick for a tick. Saving a few cents here and there will only cost you dollars later on.
  19. You can’t control the market. Don’t waste your time by watching every trade tick along.
  20. Find a strategy that makes sense to you.
  21. Be curious and keep a trading diary. Don’t be scared to learn something new.
  22. Explore new ideas and opportunities often.
  23. Let go of things you can’t change. Concentrate on things you can.
  24. There is no point questioning the market.
  25. The market will pay you when it’s ready. You just need to be there when it does.
  26. Find a strategy you actually enjoy following.
  27. Realize that the harder you work, the luckier you will become.
  28. Risk not thy whole wad. There is a reason why compounding is the 8th Wonder of the World.
  29. However good or bad a situation is now, it will change. Accept that positive expectancy sometimes takes time to show its hand.
  30. Realize that being right does not equate to profits.
  31. 45% of trades will tend be profitable. 45% will tend be losses. 10% will be breakeven. Your job is to make the winners count.
  32. Make mistakes, learn from them, laugh about them, and move along.
  33. Successful trading is not a sprint. Buffet didn’t earn his reputation in a single year – or decade.
  34. The only thing you can control is the amount of money you’re willing to lose on each trade.
  35. Don’t over think things. Simple works best. Complex will eventually break.
  36. Understand why your strategy makes money.
  37. If you can’t pull the trigger it’s usually because you don’t trust the strategy you’re using. Stop and re-evaluate.
  38. Trends can’t not exist.
  39. The biggest hurdle to overcome is between your ears.
  40. Don’t fear the market. It can’t actually hurt you. You can hurt you though.
  41. The object of gaining a trading education isn’t knowledge; it’s to enable action.
  42. Never move a stop backward. You’re mind is screwing with you.
  43. Rules you can’t or won’t follow are of no use to you.
  44. Your initial reaction to any adverse situation is usually wrong.
  45. Risk and volatility are not the same. Volatility can increase returns. Risk can increase losses.
  46. Think long term with regard to strategy application. Performance and trade outcomes in the short term are random.
  47. The keys to success are consistency, discipline and patience. They cannot be bought.
  48. Every stock that goes bankrupt exhibits a sustained downtrend first.
  49. Any strategy is only as good as the person using it.
  50. Take responsibility for every decision you make.

The Golden Rules: 10 Steps to World-Class Excellence in Your Life and Work -Book Review

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #

How many times does one have to read good advice before acting on it? I don’t know. I for one continue to struggle. This time the advice comes from Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps’s coach, in The Golden Rules: 10 Steps to World-Class Excellence in Your Life and Work (St. Martin’s Press, 2016), written with Charles Butler.
The rules are straightforward:
1. A champion sets a “dream big” vision
2. Adopt an “all-in!” attitude, not a “get out!” one
3. Take risks—and then enjoy the rewards
4. Short-term goals lead to long-term success
5. Live the vision every day
6. A team approach can inspire individual success
7. Stay motivated over the long haul
8. Adversity will make you stronger
9. When the time comes, perform with confidence
10. Celebrate your achievement, then decide what’s next
Following them is something else.

(more…)

12 ways the world could end

  
Analysis, Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Since the dawn of civilisation people have speculated about apocalyptic bangs and whimpers that could wipe us out. Now a team from Oxford university’s Future of Humanity Institute and the Global Challenges Foundation has come up with the first serious scientific assessment of the gravest risks we face.

Although civilisation has ended many times in popular fiction, the issue has been almost entirely ignored by governments. “We were surprised to find that no one else had compiled a list of global risks with impacts that, for all practical purposes, can be called infinite,” says co-author Dennis Pamlin of the Global Challenges Foundation. “We don’t want to be accused of scaremongering but we want to get policy makers talking.”

The report itself says: “This is a scientific assessment about the possibility of oblivion, certainly, but even more it is a call for action based on the assumption that humanity is able to rise to challenges and turn them into opportunities. We are confronted with possibly the greatest challenge ever and our response needs to match this through global collaboration in new and innovative ways.”

There is, of course, room for debate about risks that are included or left out of the list. I would have added an intense blast of radiation from space, either a super-eruption from the sun or a gamma-ray burst from an exploding star in our region of the galaxy. And I would have included a sci-fi-style threat from an alien civilisation either invading or, more likely, sending a catastrophically destabilising message from an extrasolar planet. Both are, I suspect, more probable than a supervolcano.

But the 12 risks in the report are enough to be getting on with. A few of the existential threats are “exogenic”, arising from events beyond our control, such as asteroid impact. Most emerge from human economic and technological development. Three (synthetic biology, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence) result from dual-use technologies, which promise great benefits for society, including reducing other risks such as climate change and pandemics — but could go horribly wrong.

Assessing the risks is very complex because of the interconnections between them and the probabilities given in the report are very conservative. For instance, extreme global warming could trigger ecological collapse and a failure of global governance.

The authors do not attempt to pull their 12 together and come up with an overall probability of civilisation ending within the next 100 years but Stuart Armstrong of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute says: “Putting the risk of extinction below 5 per cent would be wildly overconfident.” (more…)

Go to top