Archives of “tops and bottoms” tag

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Five Rules of Wealthy Traders

  
  Education
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1.  Wealthy traders PLAN EVERY SINGLE TRADE. “In simple terms [wealthy traders] know exactly what they want to pay, how much money they anticipate making (or losing) and a very clear idea on the probability of the trade working out.”

2.  Wealthy traders STOPPED TRYING TO PICK TOPS AND BOTTOMS years ago.  “Simply put, 95% of the traders out there that make money are buying higher highs and selling lower lows. [Wealthy traders] do the exact opposite of nearly everyone out there because they found out long ago that picking tops and bottoms is a sucker’s bet.”

3.  Wealthy traders are PATIENT WITH WINNERS and RIDICULOUSLY IMPATIENT WITH LOSERS. “Most traders have a great deal of patience with their losers but get nervous about locking in gains and sell them to quickly – the exact opposite of what wealthy traders do.”

4.  Wealthy traders TRADE ONE MARKET. “Focus on trading one market exceptionally well rather than try to trade whatever’s hot – that’s how wealthy traders do it.”

5.  Wealthy traders gauge success on ANYTHING BUT MONEY. “The growing trading account simply becomes a nice result – a side benefit if you will – of making good decisions and reading the market well.”

The 10 Bad Habits of Unprofitable Traders

  
  Education
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The 10 Bad Habits of Unprofitable Traders

  1. They  trade too much. A major edge small traders have over institutions is that we can pick our trades carefully and only trade the best trends and entries. The less I trade the more money I make because being picky is an edge, over trading is a sure path to losses.
  2. Unprofitable traders tend to be trend fighters always wanting to try to call tops and bottoms, while they eventually will be right there account will likely be too small by then to really profit from the actual reversal. The money is made swimming with the flow of the river not paddling up stream the whole time.
  3. Taking small profits quickly and letting losing trades run in the hopes of a bounce back is a sure path to failure. The whole thing that makes traders profitable is their risk/reward ratio, big wins and small losses. Being quick to take profits but allowing losses to grow is a sure way to eventually blow up your trading account.
  4. Wanting to be right more than wanting to make money will be VERY expensive because  the trader won’t  want to take losses and he definitely will not want to reverse his position and get on the right side of the market because in his mind that is a failure, in a profitable trader’s mind that is a success if they start making money.
  5. Unprofitable traders trade too big and risk too much to make too little. The biggest key to profitability is to not to have BIG LOSSES. Your wins can be as big as you like but the downside has to be limited.
  6. Unprofitable traders watch BLUE CHANNELS for trading ideas. Just stop it. (more…)

5 “Common” Rules of Great Traders.

  
  Education
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1. They react and make few decisions. They do plan every trade. They just plan a lot faster. The market moves fast, so do they. A plan is somehow neglected by many. Would you start a business without any plans? Do it already. You will improve.

2. They make most of their money on the highs or lows. There will be interest at the highs and lows, they use it to buy and sell into. They are already in a position when it gets there. It is a place that most people are looking at. The market actions will dictate further moves. I disagree that they stop picking tops and bottoms. They just are aware that is the type of trade they are taking. High risk, high reward.

3. They get out on the best tick. On a winner or a loser. See rule 1 and 2. I am not sure why no one ever talks about this, including here. Execution is as important as any other skill.

4. They accept responsibilities for their actions. They do not socialize losses and privatize wins. It is all privatized. They eliminate mistakes and learn more cheaply than others. I do not know if they only trade one market but they are experts on themselves.

5. Success is the end point. They can already pay their bills. They are actually trading with risk capital. They can focus on the market and keeping their TEE in balance. Percentage gains are very important but they are not indicative of future returns. Their measurement is based on how well they executed their plan.

MARKET WISDOM

  
  Education
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A list of golden sayings and rules I have gleaned from many sources:
wisdom-thought

  • Plan your trades, trade your plan.
  • Trade Quality, Not Quantity.
  • Keep it simple.
  • Don’t look for a reason to enter the market, look for a reason NOT to enter.
  • Don’t act due to “Newbie Nerves”
  • Don’t make up a trade. If you have to look, it isn’t there.
  • Never play with scared money.
  • You are not the market.
  • Buy dips in an uptrend, sell rallies in a downtrend.
  • Do not try to pick tops and bottoms.
  • It is only divergence if it came off a retracement – not a sideways market.
  • Indicators warn, price action confirms.
  • Divergence is early, cross-overs are late.
  • You cannot expect your positions to go immediately into the money.
  • Divergence means a detour, but not necessarily a new trend.
  • No-one knows what will happen in the markets.
  • Standing aside is a position.
  • Subordinate your will to the will of the market.
  • Large ranges beget small ranges, small ranges beget large ranges.
  • Once a thing is set in motion, it tends to stay in motion.
  • Sniper-rifle, not a shotgun.
  • Cut your losses short, let your profits run.
  • Only move stops in the direction of your position.
  • Do not let a winner turn into a loser.
  • Never add to a losing position.
  • Forget losses quickly. Forget profits even quicker.
  • Consistent behavior equals consistent results.

There are probably more, send ’em in…

Paul Tudor Jones Quotes

  
  Education
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I believe the very best money is made at the market turns. Everyone says you get killed trying to pick tops and bottoms and you make all your money by playing the trend in the middle. Well for twelve years I have been missing the meat in the middle but I have made a lot of money at tops and bottoms.” …

“I’m always thinking about losing money as opposed to making money. Don’t focus on making money, focus on protecting what you have” ..

The secret to being successful from a trading perspective is to have an indefatigable and an undying and unquenchable thirst for information and knowledge.

Ninety-percent of any great trader is going to be the risk control.

When trading macro, you never have a complete information set or information edge the way analysts can have when trading individual securities. It’s a hell of a lot easier to get an information edge on one stock than it is on the S&P 500. When it comes to trading macro, you cannot rely solely on fundamentals; you have to be a tape reader, which is something of a lost art form.

These days, there are many more deep intellectuals in the business, and that, coupled with the explosion of information on the Internet, creates the illusion that there is an explanation for everything and that the primary task is simply to find that explanation. As a result, technical analysis is at the bottom of the study list for many of the younger generation, particularly since the skill often requires them to close their eyes and trust the price action. The pain of gain is just too overwhelming for all of us to bear

Wisdom of Market Wizards

  
  Education
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“Perhaps the most important rule is to hold on to your winners and cut your losers. Both are equally important. If you don’t stay with your winners, you are not going to be able to pay for the losers.” – Michael Marcus

“The more a price pattern is observed by speculators, the more prone you are to have false signals. The more a market is the product of nonspeculative activity, the greater the significance of technical breakouts.” –Bruce Kovner

My take – Most commons are pennants and flags. And most obvious failed outbreaks are candles ended with the close below the intended trendline.

“The most important rule is to play great defense, not great offense. Everyday I assume every position I have is wrong. I know where my stop risk points are going to be. I do that so I can define my maximum drawdown. Hopefully, I spend the rest of the day enjoying positions that are going in my direction. If they are going against me, then I have a game plan for getting out.”
“… I believe the very best money is to be made at the market turns. Everyone says you get killed trying to pick tops and bottoms and you make all the money by catching the trends in the middle. Well, for twelve years, I have often been missing the meat in the middle, but I have caught a lot of bottoms and tops. If you are a trend follower trying to catch the profits in the middle of a move, you have to use very wide stops. I’m not comfortable doing that. Also, markets trend only about 15% of the time; the rest of the time they move sideways.”
“Don’t focus on making money; focus on protecting what you have.”
–Paul Tudor Jones (Big Big Big Fund Manager)

“The most important is discipline – I am sure everyone tells you that. Second, you have to have patience; if you have a good trade on, you have to be able to stay with it. Third, you need courafe to go into the market, and courage comes from adequate capitalization. Fifth, you need a strong desire to win.”
“You should have the attitude that if a trade loses, you can handle it without any problem and come back to do the next trade. You can’t let a losing trade get to you emotionally.” – 
Gary Bielfeldt

6 Mistakes done by Traders

  
  Education
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1. Failure to have a trading plan in place before a trade is executed. A trader with no specific plan of action in place upon entry into a futures trade does not know, among other things, when or where he or she will exit the trade, or about how much money may be made or lost. Traders with no pre-determined trading plan are flying by the seat of their pants, and that’s usually a recipe for a “crash and burn.”

2.Expectations that are too high, too soon. Beginning futures traders that expect to quit their “day job” and make a good living trading futures in their first few years of trading are usually disappointed. You don’t become a successful doctor or lawyer or business owner in the first couple years of the practice. It takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success in any field of endeavor–and trading futures is no different. Futures trading is not the easy, “get-rich-quick” scheme that a few unsavory characters make it out to be.

3.Failure to use protective stops. Using protective buy stops or sell stops upon entering a trade provide a trader with a good idea of about how much money he or she is risking on that particular trade, should it turn out to be a loser. Protective stops are a good money-management tool, but are not perfect. There are no perfect money-management tools in futures trading.

4.Lack of “patience” and “discipline.” While these two virtues are over-worked and very often mentioned when determining what unsuccessful traders lack, not many will argue with their merits. Indeed. Don’t trade just for the sake of trading or just because you haven’t traded for a while. Let those very good trading “set-ups” come to you, and then act upon them in a prudent way. The market will do what the market wants to do–and nobody can force the market’s hand.

5.Trading against the trend–or trying to pick tops and bottoms in markets. It’s human nature to want to buy low and sell high (or sell high and buy low for short-side traders). Unfortunately, that’s not at all a proven means of making profits in futures trading. Top pickers and bottom-pickers usually are trading against the trend, which is a major mistake.

6.Letting losing positions ride too long. Most successful traders will not sit on a losing position very long at all. They’ll set a tight protective stop, and if it s***they’ll take their losses (usually minimal) and then move on to the next potential trading set up. Traders who sit on a losing trade, “hoping” that the market will soon turn around in their favor, are usually doomed.

Top 6 Mistakes Traders Make

  
  Education
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1. Failure to have a trading plan in place before a trade is executed. A trader with no specific plan of action in place upon entry into a futures trade does not know, among other things, when or where he or she will exit the trade, or about how much money may be made or lost. Traders with no pre-determined trading plan are flying by the seat of their pants, and that’s usually a recipe for a “crash and burn.”

2.Expectations that are too high, too soon. Beginning futures traders that expect to quit their “day job” and make a good living trading futures in their first few years of trading are usually disappointed. You don’t become a successful doctor or lawyer or business owner in the first couple years of the practice. It takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success in any field of endeavor–and trading futures is no different. Futures trading is not the easy, “get-rich-quick” scheme that a few unsavory characters make it out to be.

3.Failure to use protective stops. Using protective buy stops or sell stops upon entering a trade provide a trader with a good idea of about how much money he or she is risking on that particular trade, should it turn out to be a loser. Protective stops are a good money-management tool, but are not perfect. There are no perfect money-management tools in futures trading.

4.Lack of “patience” and “discipline.” While these two virtues are over-worked and very often mentioned when determining what unsuccessful traders lack, not many will argue with their merits. Indeed. Don’t trade just for the sake of trading or just because you haven’t traded for a while. Let those very good trading “set-ups” come to you, and then act upon them in a prudent way. The market will do what the market wants to do–and nobody can force the market’s hand. (more…)

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