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DENNIS GARTMAN’S NOT-SO-SIMPLE RULES OF TRADING

  
  Education
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1. Never, Ever, Ever, Under Any Circumstance, Add to
a Losing Position… not ever, not never! Adding to losing positions is
trading’s carcinogen; it is trading’s driving while intoxicated. It will lead to
ruin. Count on it!

2. Trade Like a Wizened Mercenary Soldier: We
must fight on the winning side, not on the side we may believe to be correct
economically.

3. Mental Capital Trumps Real Capital: Capital
comes in two types, mental and real, and the former is far more valuable than
the latter. Holding losing positions costs measurable real capital, but it costs
immeasurable mental capital.

4. This Is Not a Business of Buying Low and Selling
High; it is, however, a business of buying high and selling higher.
Strength tends to beget strength, and weakness, weakness.

5. In Bull Markets One Can Only Be Long or
Neutral, and in bear markets, one can only be short or neutral. This may
seem self-evident; few understand it however, and fewer still embrace it.

6. “Markets Can Remain Illogical Far Longer Than You
or I Can Remain Solvent.” These are Keynes’ words, and illogic does often
reign, despite what the academics would have us believe. (more…)

Dennis Gartman’s Trading Rules List

  
  Education
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Some food for thought for the weekend. Trading rules from great traders are always worth reading. If you spend some time to understand the concept behind each trading rule this will improve your trading skills and take you to the next level. Also check this video where Dennis Gartman talks about the concept of keeping it simple.

1. Never, under any circumstance add to a losing position…. ever! Nothing more need be said; to do otherwise will eventually and absolutely lead to ruin!

2. Trade like a mercenary guerrilla. We must fight on the winning side and be willing to change sides readily when one side has gained the upper hand.

3. Capital comes in two varieties: Mental and that which is in your pocket or account. Of the two types of capital, the mental is the more important and expensive of the two. Holding to losing positions costs measurable sums of actual capital, but it costs immeasurable sums of mental capital.

4. The objective is not to buy low and sell high, but to buy high and to sell higher. We can never know what price is “low.” Nor can we know what price is “high.” Always remember that sugar once fell from $1.25/lb to 2 cent/lb and seemed “cheap” many times along the way.

5. In bull markets we can only be long or neutral, and in bear markets we can only be short or neutral. That may seem self-evident; it is not, and it is a lesson learned too late by far too many.

6. “Markets can remain illogical longer than you or I can remain solvent,” according to our good friend, Dr. A. Gary Shilling. Illogic often reigns and markets are enormously inefficient despite what the academics believe.

7. Sell markets that show the greatest weakness, and buy those that show the greatest strength. Metaphorically, when bearish, throw your rocks into the wettest paper sack, for they break most readily. In bull markets, we need to ride upon the strongest winds… they shall carry us higher than shall lesser ones.

8. Try to trade the first day of a gap, for gaps usually indicate violent new action. We have come to respect “gaps” in our nearly thirty years of watching markets; when they happen (especially in stocks) they are usually very important.

9. Trading runs in cycles: some good; most bad. Trade large and aggressively when trading well; trade small and modestly when trading poorly. In “good times,” even errors are profitable; in “bad times” even the most well researched trades go awry. This is the nature of trading; accept it.

10. To trade successfully, think like a fundamentalist; trade like a technician. It is imperative that we understand the fundamentals driving a trade, but also that we understand the market’s technicals. When we do, then, and only then, can we or should we, trade.

11. Respect “outside reversals” after extended bull or bear runs. Reversal days on the charts signal the final exhaustion of the bullish or bearish forces that drove the market previously. Respect them, and respect even more “weekly” and “monthly,” reversals.

12. Keep your technical systems simple. Complicated systems breed confusion; simplicity breeds elegance. (more…)

DENNIS GARTMAN’S -Trading Rules

  
  Education
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1. Never, under any circumstance add to a losing position! Ever! Nothing more need be said; to do otherwise will eventually and absolutely lead to ruin!
2. Trade like a mercenary guerrilla. We must fight on the winning side and be willing to change sides readily when one side has gained the upper hand.
3. Capital comes in two varieties: Mental and that which is in your pocket or account. Of the two types of capital, the mental is the more important and expensive of the two. Holding to losing positions costs measurable sums of actual capital, but it costs immeasurable sums of mental capital.
4. The objective is not to buy low and sell high, but to buy high and to sell higher. We can never know what price is too low. Nor can we know what price is too high.  Always remember that sugar once fell from $1.25/lb to 2 cent/lb and seemed cheap many times along the way.
5. In bull markets we can only be long or neutral, and in bear markets we can only be short or neutral. That may seem self-evident; it is not, and it is a lesson learned too late by far too many.
6. Markets can remain illogical longer than you or I can remain solvent according to our good friend, Dr. A. Gary Shilling. Illogic often reigns and markets are enormously inefficient despite what the academics believe.
7. Sell markets that show the greatest weakness, and buy those that show the greatest strength. Metaphorically, when bearish, throw your rocks into the wettest paper sack, for they break most readily. In bull markets, we need to ride upon the strongest winds as they shall carry us higher than shall lesser ones.
8. Try to trade the first day of a gap, for gaps usually indicate violent new action. We have come to respect gaps in our nearly thirty years of watching markets; when they happen (especially in stocks) they are usually very important.
9. Trading runs in cycles: some good; most bad. Trade large and aggressively when trading well; trade small and modestly when trading poorly. In good times even errors are profitable; in bad times even the most well researched trades go awry. This is the nature of trading; accept it.
10. To trade successfully, think like a fundamentalist; trade like a technician. It is imperative that we understand the fundamentals driving a trade, but also that we understand the market’s technicals. When we do, then, and only then, can we or should we, trade. (more…)

Ten Reasons – Trading Long Option Strangles

  
  Education
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A long strangle is long one call at a higher strike and long one put at a lower strike in the same expiration and on the same stock. Such a position makes money if the stock price moves up or down well past the strike prices of the strangle. There are higher costs and risks with these strategies, as I discuss below. 

 Strangles are low risk plays, one side of the options will go up in value when the other side goes down in value the majority of the time.

  1. If one side becomes worthless it generally means the other side is worth a lot.
  2. You can make money on strangles even when you do not know which way the market will move.
  3. It is much less stressful to hold a position with a hedge in place.
  4. The big risks are transferred from the option buyer to the option seller in this play.
  5. Strangles lose small  with small movements but win big when there is a big move. The are asymmetrical in their construction.
  6. When one side of the option sellers blow up their account due to an outsized move you will be on the other side of them and be the trader their capital flows to.
  7. Strangles can be played on any time frame.
  8. With the strangles the winning side has a growing delta and the losing side has a shrinking delta.
  9. Strangles can be used to capture trends, volatility, and reversals.

Where is the risk? (more…)

21 Trading Quotes

  
  Education
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1. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” ~ Mark Twain
2. “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” ~ John Maynard Keynes.
3. “I never buy at the bottom and I always sell too soon.” ~ Baron Rothschild
4. “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” ~ John Maynard Keynes
5. “Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.” ~ Warren Buffett
6. “It is not our duty as speculators to be on the bull side or the bear side but upon the winning side.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
7. “The  principles of successful speculation are based on the supposition that people will continue in the future to make the mistakes that they made in the past.” ~ Thomas F. Woodlock
8. “It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It was always my sitting tight. Got that?” ~ Mr. Partridge in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
9. “They say you never grow poor taking profits. No, you don’t.  But neither do you grow rich taking a four-point profit in a bull market.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
10. “Remember that prices are never too high for you to begin buying or too low to begin selling.  But after the initial transaction, don’t make a second unless the first shows you a profit.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
11. “A loss never bothers me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong – not taking the loss – that is what does the damage to the pocketbook and the soul.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
12. “If a man didn’t make mistakes, he’d own the world in a month.  But if he didn’t profit by his mistakes, he wouldn’t own a blessed thing.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
13. “The man who is right always has two forces working in his favor – basic conditions and the men who are wrong.  In a bull market bear factors are ignored.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
14. [What advice would you give the novice trader?] – “First, I would say that risk management is the most important thing to be well understood.  Undertrade, undertrade, undertrade is my second piece of advice.  Whatever you think your position ought to be, cut it at least in half.” ~ Bruce Kovner in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards
15. “There is probably no class of trades with a higher failure rate than impulsive trades.” Jack Schwager in Market Wizards
16. [What is the most important advice you could give the novice trader?] – “Trade small because that’s when you are as bad as you are ever going to be.  Learn from your mistakes.” ~ Richard Dennis in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards
17. “The elements of good trading are: (1) cutting losses, (2) cutting losses, and (3) cutting losses.  If you can follow these three rules, you may have a chance.”  ~ Ed Seykota in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards
18. “Charting is a little like surfing.  You don’t have to know a lot about the phsyics of tides, resonance, and fluid dynamics in order to catch a good wave.  You just have to be able to sense when its’s happening and then have the drive to act at the right time.” ~ Ed Seykota in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards
19. “I have two basic rules about winning in trading as well as in life: (1) If you don’t bet, you can’t win.  (2) If you lose all your chips, you can’t bet.” ~ Larry Hite in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards
20. “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 in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards
21. “Lose your opinion – not your money” ~ Unknown

9 Trading Wisdom for Traders

  
  Education
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NEVER THROW MORE MONEY AFTER A LOSING POSITION

Never add to a losing position under any circumstances. Throwing more money at a losing trade will burn your capital faster than you can imagine. This is the main contributor that eliminates losing investors from the trading game. The only thing that happens when you buy more of a losing position is that your net worth declines. You hope that it may turn around eventually and your decision to buy will prove fortuitous. For every example of a fortune from an unexpected turnaround, there are ten examples of bleak outcomes.  

 

ALWAYS INVEST ON THE WINNING SIDE

Do not worry about trading on the bullish or bearish side, but always trade on the winning side. This is a brilliant piece of wisdom. Learn to master the art and science of investing on the winning side. You should be willing to change sides immediately when one side has gained the upper hand. You cannot stay rigid in your positions because the market is dynamic. Keep a close eye to see if the facts have changed regarding the company. If the facts have changed, you must change.

 

DO NOT HANG ONTO A LOSING POSITION

Failure to admit you were wrong and holding onto losing positions will cost you money. Watching your capital deplete in front of your eyes is de-motivating and mentally exhausting. However, your mind will be even more exhausted if you hold onto a losing trade. You will get more and more fearful with each passing minute, day and week.

In the meantime, you are missing out on a treasure chest of potentially profitable stocks that are waiting to make you money. Bad decisions are valuable sources of learning to master your trading technique. Cut your losses, adapt your trading strategy to include your new knowledge, and search for stocks that will make you money. In the stock market, time is money; there is no time to watch your stock fall all the way to the bottom. (more…)

21 Quotes for Traders

  
  Education
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1. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” ~ Mark Twain

2. “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” ~ John Maynard Keynes.

3. “I never buy at the bottom and I always sell too soon.” ~ Baron Rothschild

4. “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” ~ John Maynard Keynes

5. “Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.” ~ Warren Buffett

6. “It is not our duty as speculators to be on the bull side or the bear side but upon the winning side.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

7. “The  principles of successful speculation are based on the supposition that people will continue in the future to make the mistakes that they made in the past.” ~ Thomas F. Woodlock

8. “It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It was always my sitting tight. Got that?” ~ Mr. Partridge in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

9. “They say you never grow poor taking profits. No, you don’t.  But neither do you grow rich taking a four-point profit in a bull market.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

10. “Remember that prices are never too high for you to begin buying or too low to begin selling.  But after the initial transaction, don’t make a second unless the first shows you a profit.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

11. “A loss never bothers me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong – not taking the loss – that is what does the damage to the pocketbook and the soul.” ~ Jessie Livermore in Edwin Lefevre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (more…)

22 Trading Rules

  
  Education
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1. Never, under any circumstance add to a losing position…. ever! Nothing more need be said; to do otherwise will eventually and absolutely lead to ruin!
2. Trade like a mercenary guerrilla. We must fight on the winning side and be willing to change sides readily when one side has gained the upper hand.
3. Capital comes in two varieties: Mental and that which is in your pocket or account. Of the two types of capital, the mental is the more important and expensive of the two. Holding to losing positions costs measurable sums of actual capital, but it costs immeasurable sums of mental capital.
4. The objective is not to buy low and sell high, but to buy high and to sell higher. We can never know what price is “low.” Nor can we know what price is “high.” Always remember that sugar once fell from $1.25/lb to 2 cent/lb and seemed “cheap” many times along the way.
5. In bull markets we can only be long or neutral, and in bear markets we can only be short or neutral. That may seem self-evident; it is not, and it is a lesson learned too late by far too many.
6. “Markets can remain illogical longer than you or I can remain solvent,” according to our good friend, Dr. A. Gary Shilling. Illogic often reigns and markets are enormously inefficient despite what the academics believe.
7. Sell markets that show the greatest weakness, and buy those that show the greatest strength. Metaphorically, when bearish, throw your rocks into the wettest paper sack, for they break most readily. In bull markets, we need to ride upon the strongest winds… they shall carry us higher than shall lesser ones.
8. Try to trade the first day of a gap, for gaps usually indicate violent new action. We have come to respect “gaps” in our nearly thirty years of watching markets; when they happen (especially in stocks) they are usually very important.
9. Trading runs in cycles: some good; most bad. Trade large and aggressively when trading well; trade small and modestly when trading poorly. In “good times,” even errors are profitable; in “bad times” even the most well researched trades go awry. This is the nature of trading; accept it.
10. To trade successfully, think like a fundamentalist; trade like a technician. It is imperative that we understand the fundamentals driving a trade, but also that we understand the market’s technicals. When we do, then, and only then, can we or should we, trade. (more…)

Losses & Discipline in Trading

  
  Education
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Losses

  1. Remain mentally and emotionally focused while trading.
  2. Losses are part of all systems; knowing when to take losses is important.
  3. Always try to be extremely disciplined, and exit your losing trades when your system requires you to do so.
  4. Not taking losses when indicated is dangerous.
  5. Riding losing trades for too long usually results in larger losses and risk of ruin increases.
  6. It’s not a good idea to keep changing stops to avoid a loss.
  7. System traders use stops consistently.
  8. Separate yourself as a trader from yourself as a person.
  9. No system can trade the markets without taking losses at times.
  10. Clumping can happen on the losing side as well as the winning side.
  11. Your ability to take losses quickly is a great asset to your trading.

Discipline

Now this is vital to trading success. Imagine a person trying to become a pro athlete, but he or she sleeps in every day, eats excessively, stays up late and parties every night. Is this person going to become an elite athlete or not? The answer is no, and the reason why has everything to do with the amount of discipline. Discipline, in my mind, is like homework, only it’s homework that pays off in dollars in the trading industry. Here are a few rules that I use when it comes to discipline in my life as a trader:

  1. Good trading discipline is vital to my success.
  2. My three successes to the market are: doing my market homework, following through, and using my stop losses.
  3. I train my mind every day to be disciplined and focused.
  4. I see myself every day doing my market homework and following the signals, setting stops.
  5. I track my system exactly as it dictates.
  6. If my system gives me daily signals, I follow them every day.
  7. If my system gives me intraday signals, I follow them during the day.
  8. I do not allow outside influences to affect my discipline.
  9. Placing my orders correctly as my system dictates increases my odds for success.
  10. Discipline to follow through with my system is my friend.
  11. A system without stop losses puts me in a position of unlimited or unknown loss.
  12. I understand that a major aspect of being disciplined is using stops.
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