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European shares mostly higher. Spain’s Ibex up 0.9%. UK FTSE flat.

Modest gains for the major indices

The European stock markets are closed with major indices are closing higher.  Spain’s Ibex rose 0.9%.  UK FTSE was flat.
The provisional closes are showing:
  • German DAX, +0.2%
  • France’s CAC, +0.3%
  • UK’s FTSE, flat
  • Spains Ibex, +0.9%
  • Italy’s FTSE MIB, +0.67%
In the European debt market, yields for the benchmark 10 year sector are closing lower.
Modest gains for the major indices

In other markets:

  • spot gold is up $9.28 or 0.60% at $1510.50
  • WTI crude oil futures are down $0.95 or -1.65% at $58.37.  Crude oil inventories rose 1058K which was higher than the -2250K estimate.
IN the US stock market, major indices are lower:
  • S&P index -9.37 points or -0.31% at 2996.40
  • NASDAQ index -29.86 points or -0.36% at 2156.29
  • Dow industrial average -84.58 points or -0.31% at 27026.68
In the US debt market yields are also lower and trading near the lows for the day.
US yields are trading at the lows for the day

How Stephen Hawking Understands The Universe In 150 Seconds [VIDEO]

Have you ever wondered how the legendary Stephen Hawking thinks about the universe? He has worked on some of the most mind-boggling physics and cosmology questions, like what’s at the center of a black hole. This video from The Guardian’s Made Simpleseries, animated by Scriberia, explains some of the main ideas of Hawking’s complex theories from his book A Brief History of Time, in just 150 seconds.

Here are some of the highlights from the video.

What actually is at the center of a black hole? A singularity – or tons of matter packed into a tiny space. That high concentration of matter basically creates infinite gravity – that’s why nothing can escape a black hole.

What happens when a black hole disappears? It explodes, and the explosion has a force equivalent to a million nuclear bombs.

Why is Stephen Hawking so well-known? His work suggests that at one point, everything in our universe was squeezed into one of those singularities. Then, it exploded into the universe as we know it now.

Focus On Playing To Win – Want To Know Why?

The focus on avoiding losing is an easy condition to slip into.  I found it especially so if you’ve had some tough periods in your life.  Perhaps you lost a business, blew up a trading account or went for that promotion and failed to get it.  

It is particularly easy when you are taking down data to analyse your performance as most effective performers do.  That data is right in front of you.  Clear as day.  You can see exactly how many losing trades you have had, how many losing days, weeks etc.

You have an understanding that it’s all about probabilities and that if you follow the old saying “limit your losses and let your winners run” you can be a successful trader with a seemingly bad win rate (30-40%).  As long as your winners outshine your string of small losers you will be OK.   (more…)

10 Habits of Successful Traders

1.  Follow the Rule of Three.  The rule of three simply states that a trade will not be made unless you can carefully articulate three reasons for doing so.  This eliminates trading from an indicator alone.

2.  Keep Losses Small.  It is vitally important to keep losses small as most all of large losses began as small ones, and large losses can put an end to your trading career.

3.  Adjust Stops.  When a trade is working move your stop loss up in order to lock in gains.

4.  Keep Commissions Low.  There is a cost to trading but there is no reason to overpay brokerage fees.  A discount brokerage is just as good as a premium brand name one.

5.  Amateurs at the Open, Pros at the Close.  The best time to enter trades are after lunch when the professionals are looking to get in at a better price than one provided in the morning.

6.  Know the General Market Trend.  When trading individual stocks make sure you trade with the general market trend or condition, not against it. 

7.  Write Down Every Trade.  Doing this will allow you to learn what is working and what is not.  It will also help you determine what types of trades work best for your personality.

8.  Never Average Down a Losing Position.  It is a loser’s game when you add to a loser.  You add to winning positions because they are winners and are proving themselves to be such.

9.  Never Overtrade.  Overtrading is a direct result of not following a well thought out plan, deciding it is best to trade off emotion instead.  This will do nothing but cause frustration and a loss of money.

10.  Give 10 Percent Away.  Money works the fastest when it is divided.  When we share we prime the economic pump of the universe. 

Trading is a game of rules.  We either make the decision to abide by them or we break them.  We do the latter at our own peril. 

Learn from Losses

As a trader you have to learn how to take losses. Period. Don’t be a crybaby. Learn how to take losses.

Learning how to take losses is one of the most important lessons you must learn if you want to survive as a trader. Nobody is 100% right all the time. Losses are inevitable. Even Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods lose sometimes and they’re considered the best in their field.

There will be trading streaks where you’ll have a number of successful consecutive trades, but that will eventually come to an end you will take a loss.

As that point it’s very important not to lose your head, you must remain in control of yourself. Don’t have a cow man.

Take a break. Calm down and relax. Take a chill pill dude.

Until you’ve regained a clear mind and an ability to think logically again, stay out of the market.

Don’t whine about your loss and never carry a prejudice against a loss.

The key to manage losses is to cut them quickly before a small loss becomes a large one.

I repeat. The key to manage losses is to cut them quickly before a small loss becomes a large one.

Never ever think that you will never lose. That’s just ludicrous. Losses are just like profits, it’s all part of the trader’s universe.

Losses are unavoidable. Get over the loss and move on to the next trade.

Core Trading Concepts

If you are serious about your trading there are some concepts you must know in significant details. Those concepts will help you build a strong foundation on which you can build a trading system. There are seven  concepts you should study:
 
  • Momentum : If you understand this you will understand trends and mean reversion. You will understand why and how momentum works in the market. Most indicators are momentum based. Trend following and buying strength also works, so does mean reversion. They are all part of the momentum phenomenon. 
  • Market Breadth: Stock markets are composite markets. The overall move in market is an aggregate of moves of several hundred or several thousand stocks. So the level of participation in a move is important. 
  • Equity Selection: Because the overall market is a composite of many individual moves, it becomes critical to select right kind of stocks from the universe of stocks. Hence equity selection is extremely critical. You should know various ways in which one can select equities.
  • Market Anomalies: Market anomalies are the distortions in the market. If you base your trading on a proven and statistically significant anomaly, you will be profitable. Absent that no amount of indicators will help you. A through understanding of anomalies will give you an edge.
  • Market Microstructure: Market Microstructure is a branch of finance concerned with the details of how exchange occurs in markets.  Understanding this will tell you how the market operates. The concept of market microstructre is very critical if you are trading very small time frames or are a day trader. Because to be successful on those time frame you need to find exploitable anomalies in market microstructure. You need to understand role played by market makers, automated programs, arbitragers, large fund buyers and so on. Their tactics and behaviour creates certain patterns 
  • Growth investing : Growth investors buy stocks of companies growing faster than the average company in the market. 
  • Value investing : Value investors buy stocks of companies which are cheap or out of favor.

The Magical Number of Pi and Stock Markets

There are some magical numbers and sequences of numbers that have their prints in the nature. They were there in the first place because God who created the whole universe encoded them just like His signature or autograph. Now, we might wonder, why is these magical numbers so important in our discovering of the secrets of the stock market trading and investing business? The simple and quick answer to that question is that these numbers resonate and vibrate in the stock markets, commodity markets and forex just as they are found in the universe that we live in. This is true for any financial markets. Before you discredit my claim of the magical number pi (π) and its application in making money in financial markets, take a good look of Fibonacci. This magical sequence of numbers of Fibonacci that starts from 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and etc, had been a very good technical indicator of when (time) and where (price) should the index futures reverses its trend. The number of pi (π) is so magical that its decimal portion is unique and there is no repetition of patterns. Just in case that some of you wonder what pi (π) is, it is a constant number where pi π = 3.1415926535897932384626433832795… The study of market cycles and market geometry uses pi (π) to pin-point the exact reversal date and price for stock markets and other financial markets. Here I present to you a video that sings out the magical number of pi (π).



Seven Concepts

If you are serious about your trading there are some concepts you must know in significant details. Those concepts will help you build a strong foundation on which you can build a trading system. There are seven  concepts you should study:
 

  • Momentum : If you understand this you will understand trends and mean reversion. You will understand why and how momentum works in the market. Most indicators are momentum based. Trend following and buying strength also works, so does mean reversion. They are all part of the momentum phenomenon. 
  • Market Breadth: Stock markets are composite markets. The overall move in market is an aggregate of moves of several hundred or several thousand stocks. So the level of participation in a move is important. 
  • Equity Selection: Because the overall market is a composite of many individual moves, it becomes critical to select right kind of stocks from the universe of stocks. Hence equity selection is extremely critical. You should know various ways in which one can select equities.
  • Market Anomalies: Market anomalies are the distortions in the market. If you base your trading on a proven and statistically significant anomaly, you will be profitable. Absent that no amount of indicators will help you. A through understanding of anomalies will give you an edge.
  • Market Microstructure: Market Microstructure is a branch of finance concerned with the details of how exchange occurs in markets.  Understanding this will tell you how the market operates. The concept of market microstructre is very critical if you are trading very small time frames or are a day trader. Because to be successful on those time frame you need to find exploitable anomalies in market microstructure. You need to understand role played by market makers, automated programs, arbitragers, large fund buyers and so on. Their tactics and behaviour creates certain patterns 
  • Growth investing : Growth investors buy stocks of companies growing faster than the average company in the market. 
  • Value investing : Value investors buy stocks of companies which are cheap or out of favor.

 

7 concepts that can make you a better trader

  • Momentum : If you understand this you will understand trends and mean reversion. You will understand why and how momentum works in the market. Most indicators are momentum based. Trend following and buying strength also works, so does mean reversion. They are all part of the momentum phenomenon. 
  • Market Breadth: Stock markets are composite markets. The overall move in market is an aggregate of moves of several hundred or several thousand stocks. So the level of participation in a move is important. 
  • Equity Selection: Because the overall market is a composite of many individual moves, it becomes critical to select right kind of stocks from the universe of stocks. Hence equity selection is extremely critical. You should know various ways in which one can select equities.
  • Market Anomalies: Market anomalies are the distortions in the market. If you base your trading on a proven and statistically significant anomaly, you will be profitable. Absent that no amount of indicators will help you. A through understanding of anomalies will give you an edge.
  • Market Microstructure: Market Microstructure is a branch of finance concerned with the details of how exchange occurs in markets.  Understanding this will tell you how the market operates. The concept of market microstructre is very critical if you are trading very small time frames or are a day trader. Because to be successful on those time frame you need to find exploitable anomalies in market microstructure. You need to understand role played by market makers, automated programs, arbitragers, large fund buyers and so on. Their tactics and behaviour creates certain patterns 
  • Growth investing : Growth investors buy stocks of companies growing faster than the average company in the market. 
  • Value investing : Value investors buy stocks of companies which are cheap or out of favor.
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