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Trading Profits in relations to Time and Accuracy

  
  Education
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The size of profits of a trading system, is related to time and accuracy. They are inter-related and it is not possible to get the best out of all 3 factors in any trading system.

Before I elaborate further, I shall define what these 3 factors mean.

Size of profits – I am referring to the average amount of profits the system will earn per trade.

Time – The average length of time you held on to a trade.

Accuracy – The percentage that the system is correct and earns you a profit.

Big Profits = Long Time = Low Accuracy

For systems that aim for big profits, they must allow a greater range of fluctuations for the trade. By having a large trading range will in turn prevent you from getting stopped out so soon. Hence, you will be in a trade for a longer period of time. Besides having a larger profits, it will also serve you losses that are bigger, because your stop loss limit has to be further from your entry point. It is more difficult to grasp for the relationship with accuracy.

Small Profits = Short Time = High Accuracy

On the contrary, a highly accurate trading system allows you to be right most of the time but each time when you are right, you take very small profits. This is possible by making very tight stops in your trades such that you lock in profits as soon as you make them. Hence, you will be in and out of the trades very fast and frequently. This is typical to intraday trading or mean reversion models or even band trading. (more…)

5 Trading Pitfalls To Avoid

  
  Education
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Pitfalls1. Aiming too high – There is no quick way to get rich. You need to be realistic in the goals you set and do not overpromise yourself. The success in trading is the ability to follow through.

2. Trying to win them all – – Keep adding to a loser position instead of getting out. The result based on impulsive trades usually becomes a lot worse before it gets better.

3. Hoping to recover from big drawdown – Get out of your losing positions quick. It is inevitable that you get caught in the wrong end of a trending market. Always a day late and many many dollars short !

4. Don’t know when to stop/check – It is time to reflect when your system loses the edge. Don’t send yourself into mine fields. Take some time off and regroup your strategy.

5. Being stubborn – Don’t fight the wrong fight and keep kicking yourself. Remorse about your misfortune won’t changed what have happened. Trading is supposedly fun, challenging and rewarding. If you  don’t feel this way, please stop trading.

5 Trading Pitfalls To Avoid

  
  Education
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1. Aiming too high – There is no quick way to get rich. You need to be realistic in the goals you set and do not overpromise yourself. The success in trading is the ability to follow through.

2. Trying to win them all – – Keep adding to a loser position instead of getting out. The result based on impulsive trades usually becomes a lot worse before it gets better.

3. Hoping to recover from big drawdown – Get out of your losing positions quick. It is inevitable that you get caught in the wrong end of a trending market. Always a day late and many many dollars short !

4. Don’t know when to stop/check – It is time to reflect when your system loses the edge. Don’t send yourself into mine fields. Take some time off and regroup your strategy.

5. Being stubborn – Don’t fight the wrong fight and keep kicking yourself. Remorse about your misfortune won’t changed what have happened. Trading is supposedly fun, challenging and rewarding. If you don’t feel this way, please stop trading.

4 Wisdom Thoughts for Traders

  
  Education
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Give up reliving your past trades.

Each trade is a new trade do not hold grudges against stocks and think they ‘owe’ you for past losses. Do not fall in love with a stock and hold it as it falls lower and lower.

Give up letting your trading define your self worth.

Do not let your trading define you. Diversify your life with friends, family, hobbies, and other interests. It is not healthy to become overly obsessed with the markets.

Give up on losing trades quickly when your stop is hit.

Your best trades will be the ones that are profitable from the start, if they immediately go against you be prepared to be stopped out. You can destroy your trading account when you start the “It will come back, I just have to wait” chant in the midst of a death spiral.

Give up on price targets let your winners run as far as they will go.

In the right market conditions trends can go on to unbelievable levels, the big wins during these trends can make your entire year profitable if losses are small on losing trades. If you set a predefined profit target you will miss the opportunity when the big move comes. Let a trailing stop take you out.

HOW DISCIPLINE HELPS IN TRADING

  
  Education
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“Discipline in executing each and every trade according to your trading methodology is the secret to your success. If you want to improve your trading, what you need to do is very simple. Before you enter any trade, imagine that you will have to explain this trade to a panel of your peers, by explaining to them the reason for your entry, your money, trade, and risk management guidelines, and why you exited the trade. Imagine having to explain why you chose this particular market and this particular time frame, along with how you set objectives for the trade, and how you determined where your initial protection would be. If you can truly do this, I strongly believe that you can be successful.

Just prior to entering every trade, try to imagine yourself executing the trade perfectly. Imagine how it will feel when you enjoy having made money with your trading.

Yes I know, you don’t have time to do that. Why? Because you never plan your trades ahead of time. You probably don’t have a strategy, and instead of waiting patiently for trade that meets your well-defined parameters and your thought-out plan, you just jump in the minute you think you see something that looks good.

You need to take a lesson from a spider. The spider waits patiently in his web until some unsuspecting insect flies into the spider’s trap.

Have you been flying into any of my traps? I wait for trades that meet my expectations, trades that fit my plan. I wait patiently, and being kind-hearted I don’t want any of my readers to land in my web. I’d rather the unsuspecting are readers of someone else’s newsletter. But it’s amazing how often I get to feed.”

Know When to Trade (and When Not to Trade)

  
  Education
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Successful traders know when to trade: they trade when their system tells them to. That might seem like an obvious point, but people too often forget it during the excitement of actually having money on the line.
A trader should be governed by his or her system, not by the circumstances of the moment, the market, or the outcome of a few trades. Keep a long-term perspective which focuses on developing a consistent, repeatable strategy. You won’t know what is successful or what fails if you constantly change your reasons for trading.
It is hardest to keep this kind of control when you’re experiencing losses. But this is also the most crucial time to be consistent. Otherwise, you won’t know how to avoid downturns in the future, or how to prevent them from becoming too damaging. (more…)

3 Trading Wisdom Thoughts

  
  Education
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1) Focus on being profitable for the week – Individual trades may go against you and individual trading days can offer little opportunity. As a senior trader once explained to me, for the active trader, however, there are enough fresh opportunities in a week to make it reasonable to set a goal of being profitable for the week. You won’t reach your goal every single week, but the mere act of setting the goal keeps you focused. For example, you don’t want to lose so much money in a single day that you can’t make it back during the other days of the week. You also don’t want to lose so much money on a single trade that you can’t come back during the remainder of the day. When you really push yourself to be profitable every week, you don’t let individual days get away from you. And when you don’t let individual days get away from you, you start managing each trade carefully to ensure that your largest loss won’t exceed your largest gain. Time and again I’ve seen a consistent sign of progress among developing traders: they stop digging themselves into holes.
2) Take what the market gives you – Today I peeled out of several short positions after a spate of very negative TICK readings in the afternoon. I’ve learned that such concentrated selling often precedes nasty short-covering rallies. My S&P position hadn’t made as much profit as my NASDAQ and Russell positions, but the market doesn’t care about that. I took what the market gave me and started the week green. Did the market go down even further after I exited? Absolutely. As one experienced trader explained to me, when the market rewards your position right off the bat, you want to take something off the table. You might let a piece of your position ride if you have a longer-term opinion, but never give green a chance to become red. A winner that turns into a loser is a double loss. (more…)

27 Motivational Quotes for Traders

  
  Education
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1. IF A TRADER DOES NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENS TO HIM PSYCHOLOGICALLY WHILE IN A TRADE, HE IS DOOMED TO LOSE UNTIL HE DOES OR HE RUNS OUT OF MONEY.
2. THE MARKET PAYS YOU TO BE DISCIPLINED.
3. BE DISCIPLINED EVERY DAY, EVERY TRADE AND THE MARKET WILL REWARD YOU.
4. ALWAYS LOWER YOUR TRADE SIZE WHEN YOURE TRADING POORLY.
5. NEVER TURN A WINNER INTO A LOSER.
6. YOU’RE BIGGEST LOSER CANNOT EXCEED YOUR BIGGEST WINNER.
7. DEVELOP A METHODOLOGY AND STICK WITH IT.
8. BE YOURSELF. DON’T TRY TO BE SOMEONE ELSE.
9. YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BE ABLE TO COME BACK AND PLAY THE NEXT DAY.
10. EARN THE RIGHT TO TRADE BIGGER.
11. GET OUT OF YOUR LOSERS.
12. THE FIRST LOSS IS THE BEST LOSS.
13. DON’T HOPE AND PRAY.
14. DON’T SPECULATE.
15. NEVER TAKE A BIG LOSS.
16. HIT SINGLES NOT HOME RUNS.
17. CONSISTENCY BUILDS CONFIDENCE.
18. LEARN TO SWEAT OUT YOUR WINNERS.
19. MAKE THE SAME TYPES OF TRADES OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
20. BE A BRICKLAYER.
21. DON’T OVER ANALYZE.
22. ALL TRADERS ARE EQUAL IN THE EYES OF THE MARKET.
23. IT’S THE MARKET ITSELF.
24. ITS BORING. ITS A JOB. PATIENCE.
25. 70% OF THE MONEY FLOWING COMES FROM INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS.
26. STRONG VOLUME IS 150% OF NORMAL VOLUME.
27. TRADE WHAT YOU SEE, NOT WHAT YOU THINK.

10 Things that Great Traders have Declared Independence From

  
  Education
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10 Things that Great Traders have Declared Independence From

  1. Great traders do not have to be right about any one trade, their success is based on winning more than they lose on a large amount of trades.
  2. Great traders do not need trade ideas from other traders, they trade a system and method independent of others opinions.
  3. The best traders are independent of holding on to losing trades stubbornly trying to prove they are right, they cut losses.
  4. The best traders are not prisoners of their emotions they can make clear headed decisions due to trading like it is a business not an ego trip.
  5. Rich traders became rich because they had systems that allowed winning trades to be free to run as far as they would go. They are independent of price targets.
  6. Rich traders trade independently from Blue Channels sentiment.
  7. Great traders trade charts independently of market sentiment.
  8. Great traders trade independently of talking heads on financial television.
  9. Winning traders are independent of market gurus they have proven systems and methods.
  10. Great traders are free from the risk of ruin because they never risk more than 1% to 2% of their total capital on any one trade.

40 Rules for Traders

  
  Education
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1. Trading is simple, but it is not easy.
2.  When you get into a trade watch for the signs that you might be wrong.
3.  Trading should be boring.
4.  Amateur traders turn into professional traders once they stop looking for the “next great indicator.”
5.  You are trading other traders, not stocks or futures contracts.
6.  Be very aware of your own emotions.
7.  Watch yourself for too much excitement.
8.  Don’t overtrade.
9.  If you come into trading with the idea of making big money you are doomed.
10.  Don’t focus on the money.
11.  Do not impose your will on the market.
12.  The best way to minimize risk is to not trade when it is not time to trade. 
13.  There is no need to trade five days a week.  
14.  Refuse to damage your capital.
15.  Stay relaxed.

16.  Never let a day trade turn into an overnight trade.17.  Keep winners as long as they are moving your way.
18.  Don’t overweight your trades.
19.  There is no logical reason to hesitate in taking a stop.
20.  Professional traders take losses because they trust themselves to do what is right.
21.  Once you take a loss, forget about it and move on.
22.  Find out what loss parameters work best for your setup and adjust them accordingly.
23.  Get a feel for market direction by “drilling down” (looking at multiple time frames).
24.  Develop confidence by knowing and executing your trade setups the same way every time.
25.  Don’t be ridiculous and stupid by adding to losers.
26.  Try to enter a full size position right away.
27.  Ring the register and scale out of your position.
28.  Adrenaline is a sign that your ego and your emotions have reached a point where they are clouding your judgment.
29.  You want to own the stock before it breaks out and sell when amateurs are getting in after the move.
30.  Embracing your opinion leads to financial ruin.
31.  Discipline is not learned until you wipe out a trading account.
32.  Siphon off your trading profits each month and stick them in a money market account.
33.  Professional traders risk a small amount of money on their equity on one trade.
34.  Professional traders focus on limiting risk and protecting capital.
35.  In the financial markets heroes get crushed.
36.  Stick to your trading rules and you will never blow up your trading account.
37.  The market can reinforce bad habits.
38.  Take personal responsibility for each trade.
39.  Amateur traders think about how much money they can make on each trade.  Professional traders think about how much money they can lose.
40.  At some point all traders realize that no one can tell them exactly what is going to happen next in the market.
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