Trading Educators Blog

In trading, it's not whether you win or lose, but how much you profit on a winning trade compared with how much you lose on a losing trade. If you can cut your losses and move on, you'll survive. It makes sense, logically, but psychologically, many traders have trouble cutting their losses. We hate to lose, and we will do almost anything to avoid losing, even it means denying that we've lost. Some...

Would you rather have a job that pays a low salary but provides a steady income, or a high-paying job that might not be around next year? The answer to this question reveals a lot about your preferred trading style. If you are like most short-term active traders, you don't mind exchanging a little bit of security for a higher salary. Compared with typical jobs, short-term trading is risky, and one...

Are you ready to work all day and make absolutely no money at all? If you ask most people who are accustomed to working a 9-to-5 job, they would say, "No way, are you kidding?" But if you are a serious, active trader, there are many days that you must accept the fact that you aren't going to take home any money. There are various reasons that might cause you to decide to work for no immediate payo...

Have you ever been stuck in a rut? All you can think about is how "behind" you are, and how hard it will be to come back. Maybe you're thinking "I haven't made enough winning trades. What am I going to do? I'll never make it back." It's natural to panic a little when you're first starting out as a trader. The anxiety and worry can get to you, but winning traders have a trick that you may find help...

While risking capital on a trade, it's hard to not feel a little cautious. After all, if this trade, the next trade, and the one after that are losers, you'll begin wondering about what you might be doing wrong. You might feel a bit desperate, and think of trying to regain your edge. Feeling uneasy after a series of losses is understandable. But experienced traders keep cool, even when they are in...

If you're like most traders, you are in this business to make money big money. In all probability, you are ambitious, independent minded, and ready to take on the world. With this ambition usually comes a need to be the best. Only the people at the top of the field achieve the highest level of success. Although striving for expertise is a prerequisite for success, it usually coincides with a need ...

When it comes to protecting your money, one of the biggest dangers is so called impulse trading. Resisting the urge to have something right then and there is a skill everyone needs to learn in order to build a strong financial foundation. Recently I watched an entertaining TV show called "Auction Kings." One of the pieces being auctioned off was a 1975 Cadillac Eldorado. Cars don't get much b...

Do you ever feel as if you are just going through the motions, acting without thinking? Are you surprised that you react emotionally, selling prematurely when you meant to hold out a little longer? Or do you jump into a trade too soon, before you have systematically thought out your trading plan? You may be giving into a natural inclination to follow the crowd. I...

At the end of the year, it's tempting to examine the events of the past year, learn what you can from them, and start the New Year feeling that you can tackle anything the New Year throws at you. But you don't want to take a scrupulous self-examination too far. Sometimes we can waste a lot of time overanalyzing, and searching for lessons that just aren't there. A little bit of introspection can be...

Have you been making plans for the coming year? Have you been trying to make sense of where you've been so far? It's useful to ask and answer a few key questions: Where have I been? Where am I going? Where am I going to go next? The answers to these questions aren't always obvious. But consider the plight of Rey Aktiv and Pro Aktiv, brothers, both novice traders with very different personalities a...

How much time do you devote to charts study each day? It varies for me, but ideally, sufficient time to truly consider what is happening in the markets I'm interested in trading. For me, charts study is a part of my self-control and self-discipline efforts. Confidence comes from the self-disciplinary aspect of doing little things consistently right. I believe that when traders do their chart work ...

Use all your senses to trade the markets. If trading directly from a screen, watch for the signs of activity in the market. One trader I know booked a $9,500 day trading soybean profit, because he noticed a step up in trading activity as prices were making a new daily high. How could he know that suddenly the market had become very active? He was watching both contract volume and tick volume....

Winners learn more from losses than from wins. When a profit is taken, there may be little room for improvement. When a loss is taken, a trader's self-discipline and self-control are the first things to be examined. The second aspect of studying a loss is to see how the actual price action caused the loss. Was there a trend reversal; an unexpected gap? Most beginning traders sustain losses du...

There are some common mistakes I've seen traders make in the area of money management. First, let's understand what money management is all about. Money management overlaps with risk, trade, business, and personal management, yet it has many aspects that make it unique, distinctly different from all of the other areas of management. In this chapter we want to examine some areas of money management...

If you want to be a successful trader, you must make sure you do not deny reality in any phase of your trading. You cannot deny losses, price direction, mistakes you make, being undercapitalized, or a whole host of things you would rather not think about. Many traders think the best way to deal with unpleasant ideas, events, or personal character flaws is to shut their eyes and pretend they don't ...

Everyone is allowed to make one mistake. When the same mistake is repeated a second time, caution should be noted. The third repetition of the same mistake constitutes self-destructive habitual behavior that must be reversed.All trading must stop immediately until the trader's self-discipline is thoroughly examined. Once the reason for the repetitive mistakes&nbs...

When traders are "hot" and seemingly cannot lose, when they make several trades that perform exceedingly well, there is a surge of human pride. They feel like the pitcher who strikes out the other side for all nine innings of baseball. They feel invincible, brilliant, and like "master traders," to say the least. When a trader feels like that, he thinks he can do no wrong and make no mistakes....

You pay a price for every profit you take with time and effort required to obtain it. Not to mention the years of experience upon which your knowledge and methodology have been constructed. The slippage, and getting knocked out of a winning trade by one tick, cause a cumulative mental attrition that can be offset only by constant profits, vacations, and other interests not market-related. Tim...

Of course not! We hope for exactly the opposite. Just about anyone who traders or who teaches trading will tell you two things early in your conversation, "Trading is speculative, so only risk capital should be used," and, "Limit your losses and let your winners run." It makes perfect sense. You have to wonder why, with something so logical, we still find traders "letting ...

Making a profit in the trading world is hardly a sure thing. How you deal with this fact of trading, though, depends on your personality. Some people take risks in stride, while others obsess over them. Which type of person are you, a natural born risk taker or an obsessive, fearful seeker of safety? Life is a matter of taking risks, but some people embrace it while others superstitiously try to a...