facebook  youtube  blogger

Trading Educators Blog

#1 Trading Blog Site
Mar
05

Knowing too Much

​It sounds crazy, but you can know too much about anything you want to trade.  This is hard for people to accept in our "Knowledge Is Power" society… where the Internet puts thousands of pages of information, data, and news in front of us with a few clicks of a mouse. People like to believe that with enough information, they can make a perfect decision… That by adding fact after fact, data po...

Continue reading
  2288 Hits
Feb
27

Focus on the Obvious

Humans have a tendency to forget the obvious. We often think that life is more complex than the issues right in front of us, and that obvious solutions offer little solace when trying to find solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems. The markets are complex at times, but the psychology of the market is not. And the psychology of winning isn't all that complicated either. It is vital to accen...

Continue reading
  2152 Hits
Feb
20

Objective State of Mind

As you trade, have you ever heard a little voice inside talk about only what is going wrong? As the market moves against you, the voice whispers, "My money is on the line. What if I lose? What am I going to do? How will I meet my financial obligations this month? I need to win! The little voice moves you away from your ongoing, immediate experience to your emotions, what may go wrong in the next m...

Continue reading
  2078 Hits
Feb
12

Paper Trading

Paper trading cannot replace real trading for many (mainly emotionally based) reasons, but it can be an important part of the process of finding and trading a new method. First you might have an idea about how to trade a market based on price bars, candlestick charts, indicators, or whatever you use for your trading. Next you would back test it with older data. You would do it manually or by using...

Continue reading
  2301 Hits
Feb
12

More on Impulsive Trading

When your money is on the line, it's difficult to remain calm, rational, and in complete control. What happens if you lose? How will you recover? It's natural to become consumed with self-doubt and abandon your trading plan, or act irrationally in the midst of the chaotic market action. But winning traders control their impulses. They execute a trading strategy effortlessly and flawlessly, even un...

Continue reading
  1955 Hits
Feb
06

Opinion Doesn’t Count

​In most other fields of activity we need to convince people around us that our opinion is correct. In the market, it just doesn't work that way. It's suicide to try to trade from your opinion. Instead of insisting that you are right, you have to get rid of your ego and any opinion you have of the market. What you want, is simply to be in tune with what's happening at the moment. Connect to the re...

Continue reading
  1804 Hits
Feb
06

Clear Perspective

There are times when our judgment is cloudy. Perhaps we want to win so badly that we optimistically see trading opportunities that aren't there. At other times we may be so stressed out, busy, and tired that we can't concentrate, and end up making an impulsive decision or a trading error out of a sense of frustration. As much as we search for a rational, robot-like perspective on the markets, it i...

Continue reading
  1853 Hits
Jan
31

Wiping out the Trading Account

​Most successful traders failed at some point in their careers and wiped out their account. Many traders lose because they do not understand the nature of the decision-making process, which should be based on rational price action analysis versus emotional, irrational reactions to price action. A reason should be required for each market action taken. When fear exits a trade, it is more difficult ...

Continue reading
  2336 Hits
Jan
30

So, You Made a Mistake…

​John is kicking himself right now. He just made an unexpected losing trade and he feels especially down. He expected to make a killing, and he was looking forward to winning and celebrating big. He thought he had done everything to prepare for the trade. He had looked at the moving average to discern the trend. He looked at the highs and lows of the stock for the past two months, and set his stop...

Continue reading
  1894 Hits
Jan
23

Question from Student

 First and foremost, thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge, its much appreciated. For scalping/daytrading CL, EC, GC, RTY, what would be the suggested time-frame to set up the charts as per the Trading with More Special Set-Ups Webinar--Stochastic 5,3,3 and BB 18,2, but what time-frame do you suggest, 3min/9min? The time frame and the setups are independent of each other—mutually excl...

Continue reading
  1842 Hits
Jan
16

Beliefs About Randomness: Do They Impact Profits?

​As you trade, do you ever just think, "It's all just random, why even bother trying at all?" If you passively think you have no control, you may end up making less money. A team of scientists studied a group of university students who played a computer game of roulette. All participants reported they had gambled recreationally in the past year. Researchers asked participants to describe the strat...

Continue reading
  1977 Hits
Jan
09

Self-Control

Self-control is often the key to trading success. Masters of the market are disciplined. They don't sporadically act on a whim. They develop specific trading plans and follow them. Trading is largely a matter of capitalizing on odds. If you assume that a given trading strategy has a past performance record of 50%, for example, it's a matter of odds as to whether that particular strategy will obtai...

Continue reading
  2384 Hits
Jan
02

Record your Trading

​You must be disciplined in following the plan of your trade religiously. Once you have closed your position, you should record everything about the trade. Write down where you wanted to enter the trade, what you expected out of the trade, and what you actually did get out of the trade. Make sure to include notes that will help you learn from the trade, reasoning what actually took place once you ...

Continue reading
  2370 Hits
Jan
02

Look at the Facts

​Have you ever made a small losing trade and thought, "It's alright.I'll win on the next one." The next trade comes along, and you lose. And then the next one is a loser, and so on, and so on...until finally, you are in a severe drawdown. Before you dig yourself into a hole that is virtually impossible to climb out of, it is vital for survival to constantly monitor your progress. Take a good hard ...

Continue reading
  2125 Hits
Dec
26

Repeating the Same Mistakes

Anyone is allowed to make one mistake. When the mistake is repeated, watch out! The third repetition of the same mistake constitutes self-destructive habitual behavior that must be reversed. Stop all trading immediately, and thoroughly examine your self-discipline. Once the reason for the repetitive mistake is understood (usually fear, anger, greed, or guilt) it must be corrected before trading ma...

Continue reading
  2308 Hits
Dec
26

Fighting Back

​It's not the number of times you fail that matters. It is all about getting back up after you've been knocked down. Ask any successful person and you'll find that he or she has experienced a mountain of failure. Trading is a challenging profession. Few make it, and of those who do, many eventually blow out their accounts and give up the profession. What's the difference between the successful, wi...

Continue reading
  2183 Hits
Dec
19

Who Are You?

A thorough understanding of who you are and what makes you tick is essential in trading. How and what you think, what you believe, and how you behave are critical parts of winning in trading as well as winning in life. It seems very few traders understand, or are aware of this subtlety in the trading profession. You can get by without knowing who and what you are in most other careers but in tradi...

Continue reading
  2429 Hits
Dec
19

Discipline and Temptation

Looking at your screen can be much like looking at a slot machine, and stopping yourself from dropping a dollar in the slot and pulling the handle. You must restrain yourself from making an impulsive trade, but there's a very human tendency to seek out excitement and receive a quick reward. You must fight temptation and maintain self-control, however. Electronic trading platforms have made trades ...

Continue reading
  2030 Hits
Dec
12

Trading is a Business

​Learning the business of trading is basically no different from learning any other business. The important thing is that you realize that trading is a business that must be studied and learned correctly, because that determines your success or failure. Winning means learning major guidelines and concepts that you repeat so often in your own behavior that they become good habits. These good habits...

Continue reading
  2077 Hits
Dec
12

The News

​What are the latest headlines? Do they impact the markets? Well, it depends. On Monday, October 17, 2005, here were some of the headlines that may have impacted you. GM reached a tentative agreement with the union. What's the impact? It seemed to satisfy long term investors. Company profits are bound to improve with lower labor costs, right? The Supreme Court refused to allow the government to pu...

Continue reading
  2356 Hits

Derivative transactions, including futures, are complex and carry a high degree of risk. They are intended for sophisticated investors and are not suitable for everyone. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific trading program which cannot be fully accounted for in the preparation of hypothetical performance results, and all of which can adversely affect actual trading results. For more information, see the Risk Disclosure Statement for Futures and Options.