Archives of “Trend Following” tag

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Psychology & Risk Management For Traders

  
  Education
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PSYCHOLOGY

  1. I keep Blue Channels turned off while trading.
  2. I do not care about others opinions I care only about price and chart action.
  3. I do not try to predict, instead I trade in accordance with the chart.
  4. I am not trying to prove I am right I am trying to make money.
  5. I am not trading for ego gratification I am trading for money.
  6. I am not trying to be the genius who calls a top I am the trend follower who follows a trend all the way up until it ends.
  7. I admit freely to my losing trades along with my winning trades.
  8. I do not get emotionally attached to each price movement through out the day.
  9. I have faith in my rules, methodology and system.
  10. I understand it that it is the market conditions and not me that creates profits.

RISK MANAGEMENT

  1. I never add to a losing positions.
  2. I carefully control position sizing to limit risk based on volatility.
  3. I attempt to never lose  more than 1% of my capital on any one trade.
  4. I trade smaller when volatility is high.
  5. I sell positions with volatility stops when daily ranges double in the wrong direction.
  6. I have stale stops and sale positions that do not trend in four days after entry.
  7. I quickly sell losing trades when my stop is hit.
  8. I sell stocks when they close in the bottom of the days range.
  9. I never expose more than 6% of my capital to possible loss at any one time.
  10. Risk is priority #1, profits are #2.

Ed Seykota-Quotes Collection

  
  Education
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RELAX-READEd Seykota’s Trading Style

  • My style is basically trend following, with some special pattern recognition and money management
    algorithms.
  • In order of importance to me are: (1) the long-term trend, (2) the current chart pattern, and (3) picking a good spot to buy or sell. Those are the three primary components of my trading. Way down in very distant fourth place are my fundamental ideas and, quite likely, on balance, they have cost me money.
  • I consider trend following to be a subset of charting. Charting is a little like surfing. You don’t have to know a
    lot about the physics of tides, resonance, and fluid dynamics in order to catch a good wave. You just have to be able to sense when it’s happening and then have the drive to act at the right time.
  • Common patterns transcend individual market behavior (my note: i.e. price patterns are similar across different markets).

Overall Rules

  • Trade with the long-term trend.
  • Cut your losses.
  • Let your profits ride.
  • Bet as much as you can handle and no more.

Buying on Breakouts

  • If I were buying, my point would be above the market. I try to identify a point at which I expect the market momentum to be strong in the direction of the trade, so as to reduce my probable risk.
  • I don’t try to pick a bottom or top.
  • If I am bullish, I neither buy on a reaction, nor wait for strength; I am already in. I turn bullish at the instant
    my buy stop is hit, and stay bullish until my sell stop is hit. Being bullish and not being long is illogical. (more…)

To Trade or Not to Trade

  
  Education
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in trading activity alone does not make money, the right activity at the right time is what makes money. Many times the right thing, is to do nothing.

In your actual trading you have to do four things very well to make money.

You have to know when to get in.

Only enter trades that have the highest probability of success and the best risk/reward ratio. Buy the best monster stocks during up trends. Short the fallen leaders when the game changes and they are under the 50 day. Buy the monster stocks at the gift of the 200 day moving average. Short down trending junk stocks. Go where the trends are.

You have to know when to get out.

When your trade reverses through a key support get out. When the market trend changes get out of your long positions. When your stop loss is hit, get out. When the stock reverses and hits your trailing stop, get out.

You have to know when to stay in. (more…)

The Legendary Turtle Traders

  
  Education
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Have you ever heard of the legendary Turtle traders? Millionaire trader Richard Dennis set off to find out if traders were just born to trade, or if they could be trained to be successful in the markets from scratch. The answer? If they could follow rules they could be successful.

“I always say that you could publish my trading rules in the newspaper and no one would follow them. The key is consistency and discipline. Almost anybody can make up a list of rules that are 80% as good as what we taught our people. What they couldn’t do is give them the confidence to stick to those rules even when things are going bad.” –Richard Dennis: Founder of the ‘Turtle Traders’ quoted from the book Market Wizards:

The Turtle system proved that the traders that followed the rules went on to be millionaires and to manage money professionally.

Markets – What to buy or sell

  • The Turtles traded all major futures contracts, metals, currencies, and commodities.
  • The turtles traded multiple markets to diversify risk.

Position Sizing – How much to buy or sell

  • Turtle position sizing was based on a markets volatility using the 20 day exponential moving average of the true range.
  • The Turtles were taught to trade in increments of 1% of total account equity,

Entries – When to buy or sell (more…)

To Trade or Not to Trade-The Biggest Question For Traders

  
  Education
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In trading activity alone does not make money, the right activity at the right time is what makes money. Many times the right thing, is to do nothing.

In your actual trading you have to do four things very well to make money.

You have to know when to get in.

Only enter trades that have the highest probability of success and the best risk/reward ratio. Buy the best monster stocks during up trends. Short the fallen leaders when the game changes and they are under the 50 day. Buy the monster stocks at the gift of the 200 day moving average. Short down trending junk stocks. Go where the trends are.

You have to know when to get out. (more…)

The Mind of a Trend Following Winner

  
  Education
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All types of traders have different emotional responses to winning trades as well as losing trades. The mindset of a winning trend follower is much different than most. There is no excitement on a winning trade nor emotional distress on a losing trade. The reason there is no excitement on a winning trade is due to the humbleness of the winning trend follower. He or she did nothing different. They were consistent in their plan and the market moved. The reason is very simple why these small group of winning trend followers succeed. The winning trend follower has an exact plan and knows that he is playing the odds. He or she keeps their losses small…or try to do so…however there will always be gaps or limit moves against them. There is only 4 possibilities when we trade:

big losses
big wins
small losses
small wins… (more…)

Trend Following -Important points for Traders

  
Analysis, Education
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  • Trend following historically has a relatively low win percentage, across all asset classes. The positive expectancy from using such a system comes from the size of the winners far exceeding any losses incurred;
  • Trend followers never try to predict tops or bottoms in markets – they buy on strength and sell on weakness;
  • Strict risk managment and position size minimises the losses as far as possible when a losing streak hits;
  • Probably 80% of your trades each year will cancel each other out – consisting of small winners, small losers (restricted to 1R of your capital) and break-even trades;
  • The remaining 20% of your trades will probably account for 100% of your profits, but you never know which ones will generate the profits when you open the position;
  • To achieve this you HAVE to let the profits run until you receive an exit signal;
  • Stops are updated as often as your system rules determine;
  • And you have to adhere to your stops at all times;
  • Nobody knows when a trend will reverse, however when it does, you automatically give back a portion of your profits before your (trailing) stops are hit;
  • If a trend breakout reverses or fails just after entering a position, you will incur losses;
  • Significant increases in volatility can cause losses due to whipsawing or trading ‘noise’;
  • The best market conditions for trend followers are trending, stable markets;
  • The worst market conditions for trend followers are non-trending, volatile markets;
  • There are numerous trend following methods out there, but although the entry/exit parameters may vary, trend followers as a rule will make (or lose) money in the same markets at the same times;
  • If you don’t understand any of the above points, or are not prepared to accept these facts, then you do not have the mindset to follow a trend following method.

20 Principles That Make Market Wizards Successful

  
  Education
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  • They have the resilience to come back from early losses and account blow ups.
  • They focus on what really matters in trading success.
  • They have developed a trading method that fits their own personality.
  • They trade with an edge.
  • The harder they work at trading the luckier they get.
  • They do the homework to develop a methodology through researching ideas.
  • The principles they use in their trading models are simple.
  • They have mental and emotional control is key while winning or losing.
  • They manage the risk to avoid failure and pain.
  • They have the discipline to follow their trading plan.
  • Market wizards have confidence and independence in themselves as traders
  • They are patient with winning trades and impatient with losing trades.
  • Emotions are dangerous masters to the trader; they know how to manage their own emotions.
  • Market wizards evolve as a trader to avoid eventually failing in a method that has lost its edge over time.
  • It is not the news but how the market reacts to that news is what they watch for.
  • The fully understand the right way to position size for their goals of returns and drawdowns based on their risk/reward and winning percentage.
  • Market wizards understand comfortable trades are usually losing trades while the more uncomfortable trades are usually the winners.
  • They are good losers. Cutting losses when proven wrong and even reversing the direction of their trades when the price action dictates it.
  • The best traders are always learning through their own mistakes.
  • Passion for trading was the fuel for their eventual success.

Hope & Fear in Trading

  
  Education
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In trading most new traders allow hope and fear to dictate their trading. They have a losing trade and instead of selling it and getting out they instead hope it will come back to even allowing the loss to grow. Another error  for new traders is that when they have a winning trade they fear that the profit will disappear so they sell for a small gain and miss the big trend in their favor. When hope and fear controls the trader they end up with big losses and small gains. A formula for ruin.

Instead the rich trader is fearful of losses getting bigger so they sell quickly when losing, risking a maximum of 1% of their capital on any one trade. Rich traders are able to think clearly and trade rationally knowing exactly what they are risking, when their stop is hit, they get out. This enables them to keep all their losses small.

When a trade is immediately a winner for a rich trader they hope it will run 100 points in their favor. Rich traders enable this to be possible with a trailing stop, they do not get out of a winning trade until a key price reversal has happened that tells them that the trend is actually reversing.

Rich traders are fearful of losses growing bigger and hope that their winners will continue on a monster trend. This mindset allows  them to be on the right side of trends and avoid any huge losses. This is why the best traders in the world are trend followers and win consistently. Do you want to join their club? Then do not let fear and hope dictate your trading decisions use them correctly.

4 Trading Fear

  
  Education
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The fear of being wrong: Traders fear being wrong so much they will hold a small loss until it becomes a huge loss. Even adding to the loss in the hopes of it coming back and getting to even. Don’t do this, holding on to a loser after it hits your predetermined stop loss is like being a reverse trend trader. Do not be afraid of being wrong small be afraid of being wrong BIG.

The fear of losing money: New traders hate to lose money, they do not quite understand yet that they will lose 40%-60% of the time in the long term. We should come to expect the small losses and wait for the big wins patiently. Many times traders fear this so much that they have a hard time taking an entry out of fear of losing. If you can’t handle the losses as part of the business, you can’t trade.

The fear of missing out: The opposite of the fear of losing money is the fear of losing potential profits. This causes traders to watch a stock go up and up, miss the primary trend, then not being able to take it any more and get in late just in time for the trend to reverse and lose money. Trade at your systems proper entry point do not chase a stock because you are afraid to miss out on some profits.

The fear of leaving money on the table: When your trailing stop is hit get out of the trade. If your rules tell you to get out after a parabolic run up and stall then exit. You must be disciplined on taking money off the table while it is there. Being greedy for that last few dollars when your system says to sell could lead to major losses of paper profits. Let your winners run but when the runner gets to tired to continue: bank your profits.

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