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Psychology

The Escalation Of Failure In TradingThe escalation of failure in trading ! : 5 reasons why most of traders lose their money ! Reason 1 / Step 1 : The "I DON'T ACCEPT LOSING" syndrom Reason 2 / Step 2 : The "I MOVE MY STOP LOSS" temptation Reason 3 / Step 3 : The "AVERAGE DOWN" disease Reason 4 / Step 4 : The "RISK EVERYTHING" game Reason 5 / Step 5 : The "I SWEAR IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN" lie to yourself Let me tell you the story of JOE the gambler : Joe creates an account with $1,000 with a broker offering a x500 leverage. Virtually, Joe could invest almost $500,000 on the market ! Amazing ! Joe thinks that he is a reasonable investor and start investing with 0.05 lot. Joe creates an account with $1,000 with a broker offering a x500 leverage. Virtually Joe could invest almost $500,000 on the market ! Amazing ! So Joe has $1,000 on his account. He has a very good investment strategy which has worked very well for 1 month on demo account. Joe's projections gives $250 profit in one month. It is time now to pass on real account. Joe has read many articles about money management and joe wants to risk only 3% of its capital on each trade. Joe's strategy is to take trades only if a combination of several indicators give the same signal. Joe always use stop loss and take profit. The plan is the plan no matter what ! Right ?! Joe bought 0.05 lot on EURUSD at 1.2200 with a SL at 1.2150. He thinks that the price will increase from 100 pips at least in the next hours to reach 1.23. Reason 1 / Step 1 : The "I DON'T ACCEPT LOSING" syndrom Problem, the price falls from 40 pips. Joe starts panicking. Reason 2 / Step 2 : The "I MOVE MY STOP LOSS" temptation Joe decides to move the SL from 50 to 100 pips at 1.21. Reason 3 / Step 3 : The "AVERAGE DOWN" disease Problem, the market decides to go down again and the position shows a 80 pips floating loss. Joe decides to move the SL from 100 pips to 150 pips at 1.2050 and take a new position of 0.05 lot on EURUSD at 1.2120 with a SL at 1.2050. Problem, the market continues its fall and the price displays 1.2070. Joe thinks OK. I move my SL from 1.2050 to 1.1950. It gives more margin to let breathe the market and Joe takes a third position of 0.05 lot at 1.2050 with a SL at 1.1950. The average price is now 1.2123. Problem, the next days the market starts a range between 1.20 and 1.21 and Joe wants absolutely to leave the overall position in profit. Pride ! Joe loses patience and decides to take a new postion of 0.1 lot on EURUSD at 1.2070. The average price is now 1.2102. Joe is stressed and tired of this situation and decides to put an overall TP at 1.2120. The probability to hit the TP is high. Finally the market goes up and hit the TP during the night and when Joe wakes up the the price on EURUSD is 1.2200. Oh my GOSH ! Joe is frustrated ! Why did I change my TP ? I missed a lot of profit on this movement !!! Joe decides to take a new trade on EURUSD at 1.2200 without SL this time because this time is the right one !!! Pride !!! Problem, the market falls from 25 pips at 1.2175. Joe is convinced that he is right so he takes a new BUY pending position at 1.2150. And now the market makes a huge falls from 1.2175 to 1.2050 during the day. Joe has now 2 positions of 0.05 lot size. At this moment, Joe decided reasonably to close all positions with losses at 1.2050. Joe lost 275 pips on these 2 hasardous trades.
Education
by Traderscope
8
BTCUSD breaks crystal ballsEverybody is interested to find out where BTCUSD is going!! Well, if you only knew where it was heading you'd have an edge on the rest of the world and make loadsah money - right? Too often on Tradingview and other places - even among some so-called expert traders and trainers - I've heard the words, " I predict.... blah blah... ". These are the folk who claim to have some 'greater' insight on the future - these are the chaps and chappesses who claim to have amazing crystal balls. Well - a majority of these folks have had their crystal balls broken by BTCUSD, in the last couple weeks! I'm not surprised, at all. Why? Nobody owns the future. Many a trader confuses a probability estimate with the word 'prediction'. If a probability is 60% for the north, all it means is that there is a 40% chance it'll go south. That's by no means a prediction. The word prediction has a specific meaning. If I predict that the sun will rise in the East tomorrow morning, I do not think anybody would be impressed by that. If however I predicted that the sun would rise in the West on 09 December 2019, that would require some looking into for foundations of evidence leading to such 'prediction'. Note that a prediction requires a lot of specificity and a pretty well defined range of time to make it meaningful. BTCUSD has been a bearish market for several weeks. All the available evidence - right on the charts - show that a down trend is the greater probability. Yet many a trader/trainer has been predicting various high levels. Their so-called predictions are actually statements of speculation for the most part, given with some degree of assertiveness. The markets do not respect anybody. They do as they like. Lots of traders find a great sense in being right - after an event happens - in what they call ' their prediction ' (come through). If a ' predicted ' event happens it seems to confirm their 'predciction'. No - it simply happened their way by chance (and I'm not talking about luck). 'Sense of victory' is a thief in this business! It'll rob you of your money in the long run. How? You come to feel that you were so right the last time, that you'd be right if you do the same thing in the future. Seasoned traders know that it just doesn't work like that. Note the above paragraph excludes traders who have developed a sound strategy that matches their personality characteristics, and who have a proven expectancy ratio over a long period of time across several markets. The following is not advice (I'm sharing my personal long experience and methods): 1. I cannot predict the future - and therefore predict nothing, ever! 2. I can estimate probabilities relevant to a particular time frame. 3. For every probability that favours my estimate, there is a counter probability that I'll be wrong. 4. I chose my trend time frame very carefully. 5. I base my stop-losses mathematically on the ATR and other tools. 6. I agree with myself to accept the loss in advance of making the entry. In other words the money is gone! It's an accepted/acceptable loss at the time of entry. 7. I don't know where a trend will go (being mostly a trend-follower). So, I have no targets but have exit criteria relying on mathematics. 8. I aim to become a 'robot' (not easy) when trading the markets. This is some protection from my inner enemies (never perfect). 9. Nobody has authority over my assessment of probabilities. 10. I do not rely on confirmations on charts, the news or opinions out there. I do not suggest or imply that others should follow my methods. I claim no successes nor do I need to impress anyone. I believe all new traders should be helped to help themselves totally for free. Supplemental/optional (some of my personal thoughts from my diary): On luck, chance and prediction: goo.gl What is and is not prediction: goo.gl
BITSTAMP:BTCUSD
by Captain_Walker
INTENSE moments! BITCOIN and The Uncertainty Principle...! Dear Friends! D4rkEnergY is here with an exiting update on Bitcoin. But before D4 will jump in, he will spread some wisdom to you guys. So trading is basically like quantum-mechanics. Have you ever heard about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle? It is one of the most famous ideas and principles in physics. It tells us that there is a fuzziness in nature, a fundamental limit to what we can know about the behavior of quantum-particles and, therefore, the smallest scales of nature. Of these scales, the most we can hope for is to calculate probabilities for where things are and how they will behave. The same goes for TA and trading. We can NEVER be sure of where we are going, but the best trader is the one who is best at figure out what is most plausible! So this is a follow up on D4rkEnergYs chart from yesterday. As you can see, as predicted, the small HS pattern is taking form. We are squeezed into the decending triangle, and we will most likely go down. D4 already predicted days ago, we would go under 10,000 USD. But how low will we go? D4rkEnergY thinks 9,100-9,300 USD would be optimal. We need this LONG JUMP and momentum if we want to go way above 10,000 USD. And history shows that. We can see that if we look at the yellow dot, and also further back on the chart. From there on, we will finally go up. The pink inverse HS pattern and the descent retracement will finally allow us that. Kiss and hugs D4rkEnergy is Everywhere PS. Again. It would mean a lot to D4 if you gave him a LIKE if u liked his analysis. It is much appreciated! Thx in advance, my friends!
BITFINEX:BTCUSD
by D4rkEnergY
26
BITCOIN will now go UNDER 10k - and then UP to 13k!Dear beloved D4-fans! D4rkEnergY is here with an update on BTCUSD. The last 3 BTCs updates have been spot on - this one will probably also be nailed. Remember guys, D4 is here for you. He does not come with bad news, nor does he come with goods news. D4rkEnergY only brings the truth to the crypto community! Let us begin. We are here taking a look at the 4h BTCUSD chart. As D4 before has described we finally not long time ago managed to get out of the descending channel. D4 predicted the inverse HS pattern, which let us through in the second attempt. We got the way up to 11,3k, as D4 also predicted in an earlier post. Not so long after BTC had an expected pullback. We are right now at around 10,7k. Seen from a psychological point of view this is really not a good place to be in for the BTC-holders. There are not that many new buyers right above 10k. The bulls has lost a bit of momentum, which the bearish MACD-cross indicates. Also take a look at the volume bars. 3 red bars all above the MA20 volume. The RSI shows its soon overbought. D4rkEnergY thinks we need to go down under 10k again, to get up again. We have more buyers under 10k and we need that long jump and momentum to get us up, up up... and way over 10k. D4 has made a Trendbased Fibonacchi Extension to figure out where we are heading. He has also made the Elliot Wave counts, and if we look at wave 3 we still need a bigger retracement which will let us down under 10k. But only for a short time. We will hereafter go even higher to about 13k. D4rkEnergY loves you! OUT. PS. Just to be clear. D4 is not saying that we will go down right after this post is made. We might go a little bit higher before we go under 10k.
BITFINEX:BTCUSD
by D4rkEnergY
42
SECRET: A traders No. 1 ability...I'm gonna share a secret with ya'll. You want to know how every great, rich, famous trader got there? How they crawled out of nothingness eating instant noodle soup to driving Maserati's and eating premium bamboo? Ask your friends...what would they say? They'd say “Those guys know their edge”, “they push their winners”, “they trade their strategy”, or “nah they just got lucky”. How’d pushing their winners work with Bitcoin in January? And if you don’t know your edge or strategy, are you really a trader? Maybe you’re just getting lucky? ^^ Call me honest panda...just for saying it like it is. Your greatest tool as a trader is your willingness and ability to admit you were wrong. When you don’t admit you were wrong you resent the loss. Resent is an emotional response, that clouds your judgement. This takes you down the road of seeing what you want to see in the chart. Over trading. And more emotional trauma. Admitting your trade was your own making, and taking responsibility for everything in your control is a step toward preventing all this pain. So guys, I was wrong on the last copper swing up to $3.50. :( Slow panda walk with me…what happened? Price did indeed rally briefly from our key support at 3.15 to 3.20...up to a whopping 3.24 and instead of continuing, it became a reversal point. And considering the price action around that level, I suspect we’ll see a run down to 2.95 - basically to the bottom of the big consolidation we have been in (not without a few upside hiccups of course). If we get there, that’s where things get tricky. Will our new key support level find support? Or will we fail and go even lower down to… dare I say it…. 2.750. (you knew I would because I’m bad) Damn that's a long way….is Copper still bullish? Don’t get me wrong, I still see $3.50 as a target, question is when do we go for it? Ask me and copper’s gonna have a good year. Just gotta wait for it. My overall outlook on fundamentals tells me price is supported at a minimum of 2.20. Yeah that’s a long way from where we are. If we establish we are in a retracement, long or short, our best bet is to wait it out. So what do I like? Get yourself some sweet bamboo and enjoy the show. Trade something else if you’d like, but just wait for the next major buy signal at a key support level. And don’t worry I got your back when it gets there ;) Like my commentary and analysis? Follow The Bad Panda and like my posts! Your trading account will thank you ;) Note: All ideas expressed here are presented solely for learning and educational purposes only. Any gains or losses assumed by trading ideas presented by The Bad Panda are done so at your own risk.
C
by TheBadPanda
BTC will NEVER go under 8k again.. and here is WHY!Hello, my beloved fans! D4rkEnergY will once again spread wisdom to his followers! Evil voices in the Crypto community has for a long time tried to convince D4rkEnergY, that we again will go down to 7k again. Even 5k or under has he heard mentioned. First of all... D4rkEnergY acknowledges that the chart he posted is not THAT relevant in this case. This is more a matter of psychological analysis But let us anyway just shortly take a look at he 4h BTCUSDT chart. As you can see on the MACD, the bulls are starting to lose momentum after a long uptrend. A bearish MACD cross is on its way. At the same time the RSI has just made a confirmed double top. Therefore there are no doubt a retracement is on its way. A 50 % percent pullback is pretty normal, which is also equal to 8,000 USD. BUT!.... The reason, that we probably not will see such big of a retracement is because of 2 things. 1. We have HUGE support at 10k and 8k. Also we have great support on 9,5k, 9k and 8,5k. Fans, always remember that the BIG EVEN numbers acts as heavy support and resistance levels. 2. And this is probably the most important thing. Weeks ago we were in a situation, where all the noobs and new cryptoholders for the first time saw a huge retracement. They were fudding out like crazy. Today is a different story. The noobs who is still here, have now experienced that BTC is able to recover and go up again. There is a new reborn trust in the market. The EMA100 and EMA200 are getting closer and closer which emphasizes my point. You are welcome! --D4rkEnergY is everywhere, D4rkEnergY knows everything!
by D4rkEnergY
7
A Breakout or Another Bull Trap? Market Fundamentals Included*Today is an interesting day, most people who are looking at hourly and daily charts (or shorter term charts) are thinking that Bitcoin is on a breakout. Short term charts are signaling a breakout. But do not be fooled, market makers know how to play with people's psychology. If we look at weekly and monthly charts, the bull case is still not there. In fact these moments may be the worst moments to buy into FOMO. Before taking a look at weekly and monthly charts, let's analyze the current market fundamentals. There are 3 top issues that needs a resolution: Tether & Bitfinex G20 Commodity vs Security Probably over 90% of the market thinks that Tether manipulated the market many times, and they don't have the money they have been telling in their banks. Audit issue, subponea, and the days that tether printed heavily (i.e. market manipulation), all correspond to a negative scenario. There are almost no positives that may lead the market to think that Tether issue will be resolved without any problems. Tether is used in most exchanges, and if it collapses, the whole market will go into a crash, and media is going to make it even worse. Bitfinex, who is known to be closely connected with Tether, will probably take a big blow too, if Tether collapses or fails to show the money they printed in their banks. G20 is another key issue that most people only heard about 3 days ago in this post by Coindesk: www.coindesk.com . Since the overall panic atmosphere that we have seen last week is kind of gone after the CFTC hearing, market didn't seem to care so much about G20, yet. A month ago there were news about "Monsieur Bitcoin" (a well known critic who was former deputy governor of the Banque de France), being appointed to regulation task force in France. In the meanwhile, there are lots of hints that cryptocurrency is going to be a hot topic of G20, during March gatherings in Argentina. G20 is the biggest international gathering, and it is very likely that there will be news that will create panic in cryptocurrency markets. I believe this issue is even bigger than Tether issue, because if nations take offensive approaches to cryptocurrencies altogether, we might go through a very rough market. Tether collapse might be forgetten in a couple weeks, but if G20 decides to act harsh on cryptocurrencies, we might see months of trouble. Commodity vs Security issue has been talked in CFTC meeting, but it was only the tip of the iceberg. While most ICOs and cryptocurrencies like to defend themselves as commodities, regulators will most likely see most cryptocurrencies and ICOs as securities in the future. J. Christoper Giancarlo became the hero of cryptocurrency fans and evangalists by defining cryptocurrencies as commodities. However, there was an opposing side during the hearing, which was suggesting cryptocurrencies as "undercover securities". While CFTC meeting brought a relief to a crashing market in general, there are a variety of nations' regulators and SEC, who might decide to see cryptocurrencies as securities. G20 meetings become even more important in that sense, because nations will gather there to decide whether to see cryptocurrencies as Commodities or Securities. If cryptocurrencies become defined as securities, this will cause problems for both ICOs, exchanges, and cryptocurrency investors in general. Even though bulls got encouraged by CFTC meeting, market makers probably do not feel as positive as bulls about these unresolved issues. Whether the market is bearish or bullish, they always find great opportunuties to make money. The CFTC meeting gave the market maker whales the opportunity to buy during 6000s and lower 7000s, however, they have a different greed than we do. They love to make profit during bull traps, and get even more greedy to push the prices even lower.
COINBASE:BTCUSDShort
by CryptoPsyche1
2
BTCUSD - Venus Trap disguised as recovery after binance comebackRight now we can still observe a relative sideways movement which could be mistaken for a reversal of trends to the upside. (Volume temporarily increasing artificially as a lure but bitcoin dominance falling from 36% towards 34% as people trying to "secure" their assets in altcoins although if BTC drops everythings dips anyway). The volume resistance at the time of writing seems to be 424 bn. (falling) Today binance finally managed to stand up after an unexpected and prolonged downtime of more than 24h. The fourth largest BTC trading platform by volume is now being flooded with panic buying, fueled by an artificially increased FOMO and weekend gambling. This is not sustainable and won't be able to break the overall bearish trend and downtrend channel of BTC. The MACD seems generally bearish as well. The bulls would like to break the very strong 9000 resistance but struggling heavily. The bears are patiently waiting for people to regain trust only to form another surprising bottom. Retesting the 5800-6100 area seems necessary and potentially the bears would welcome a further drop in hope of activating a second round of panic selling so they can enter the market around 6000, 5000 and 4000. Just be patient and see how it develops. Some expect the next major dip around 10th, 11th or 12th of February 2018. Others think a large bottom will form around the asian lunar year celebration on 16th of February or even 1st of March. Some even forecast a hyperinflation of USD fiat between March-May which could be corelated to the crashing stockmarket but I think they will simply print less fiat to temporarily circumvent a 2008-2010 like crisis. It's always a good idea to have some metals and cryptocurrencies stored. Historic lows were: 5800-6000 (6th Feb 2018) corresponding to 5800-6000 (12th Nov 2017), 5500 (25th Oct 2017), 5200 (18th Oct 2017), 4200 (5th Oct 2017), 3600 (22nd Sep 2017), 3000 (15th Sep 2017).
COINBASE:BTCUSD
by katyusha
5
A Wyckoff Analysis of january 2018 Bitcoin "bubble"In Wyckoff Analysis, four main phases occur during the trading cycle: accumulation, markup, distribution and markdown. Accumulation phase is when smart money enters on a long position, when general public is not interested. Markup phase is when parabolic movements start, driving media and public attentions, when entusiasm and FOMO make their victims. Distribution phase is when smart money start exiting lasting only newbies' money. During distribution, bulls fail to stablish new highs, a big correction may be seen, driving fear to the market, this correction is followed by a lower high. Usually where traders exit positions and public think everything is back to normal, this is called bull trap. The Markdown phase is when ansiety, fear and pain make general public close positions with huge losses.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by UnknownUnicorn288635
7
Case Study for Mismanaging a Disciplined Trade StrategyIn the most recent BTCUSD dip I made a series of mistakes that put me in a slightly nervous position overall, but still generally favorable. Over a series of trades I managed to find myself in a position with an average buy price of $7486.13. Trading profitably on the dips I reduced this average buy price to $7348.21. Throughout this series of trades I had multiple opportunities to take profit and this discussion will focus on trading psychology and process failure. Early in my trading session I had managed to identify successfully entry levels that were reasonably close to where I could make a "dip" profit. Generally my target is around 2%. Given the big dip from $9.2k to below $8k and given the duration and recovery of that dip from $10k I felt confident that the market was oversold and all of the order book charts indicated an overall strong buying to selling ratio. My price target was just below $8.5k and on the first move up it hit $8.4k and I felt like there would be an orderly move over time. What I learned with this recent price action was that trading bots and whales/funds that control them have disproportionate leverage over price action. Not being fully aware of their techniques, I decided against adjusting my price target and I was "too greedy" and completely missed my profit opportunity after being presented double my normal target over two periods. Now having missed that opportunity I was forced to double down knowing that the next price move would likely be much bigger and deeper. Trading for profit on the way down I was able to recoup some of poor positioning but again, I did not quite understand the techniques of these algo bots until near the end when I was able to make an adjustment to how I choose price targets to better compensate for whale/shark algo bots. Setting price targets for exiting my position and reducing my risk came down to three possible outcomes: 1) Sell ALL at a higher price that would make profit but also leave me no room for error if I missed at $7800. This price level would have still been poor risk/reward overall so this exit strategy seemed like a mistake. 2) Sell ~half (47%) of my position at a profit at $7400 and then sell the other half at $8000 for "break even" on that part of the trade. This seemed like a prudent risk management strategy as I would have funds to take additional profit if the market moved back down while leaving in place a position that could become profitable over a longer duration. 3) Sell ALL at the higher price target that would give me a much bigger target but leave me open to poor risk management again. This was definitely the worst option. So I chose 2) which worked ok in that the first trade target was hit as expected. Then, while watching the order book I started to worry because there were big sell walls below $7500. I thought about how stressful it would be to ride that position back through another big dip and because of fatigue also overly focused on this possibility rather than going back to my pre-defined strategy of hodling for $8k on half and trading with the other half. Clearly, stress causes one to adopt a risk averse mental state. And this kind of risk aversion usually leads to the panic selling and "weak hands" phenomenon of selling at exactly the WRONG time, i.e. when you should be thinking about buying. So when I saw the price being challenged at $7k to $7.1k with very clear algo bot action pushing the price in both directions with very light buy order positioning I became a pawn in this algo bot action and decided to exit early and go take a nap rather than have to sit through another big dip with half of my fund at risk. Rather than see any huge sell wall the sell-side volume relented and the price nearly hit my price target of $7.9k. If I had been more disciplined I could have set a contingency (less greedy) target below $8k but I changed my plan using no particular reasoning whatsoever other than fear of these algo bots.
COINBASE:BTCUSDEducation
by powderpc
BTC to test it's limits?Looks like BTC might want to test the limits before a bounce occurs, a lot of support lines have been demolished on the this brutal fall. Big institutions wan't BTC dead, media FUD and conspiracy causing the weak hands to sell into the grubby hands of the big players. Like taking candy from a baby we could say. The whole reason BTC exists it to fight against the "man" and his big brother status, this is another attempt to secure control of money in this world. This is the chance to take back as much control as we can, they can't win only strengthen their position in the inevitable outcome. This will be the biggest transfer of wealth the world has ever seen, are you going to fall for the FUD and manipulation? Please be careful shorting at this period of time. BTC has proven resilient against all crash/fud in the past, so why would it be any different now? The crypto market only really began in 2017 to 2018, markets like this cannot go away during one price correction. Don't get me wrong, BTC was bought up in a parabolic move once again and a correction in price was expected by hodlers and traders alike. When history repeats itself, are you going to be a winner or a loser? A hodler or a seller? Only time will tell. Pick your side, for or against. C'est la vie!
BITFINEX:BTCUSDLong
by UnknownUnicorn89296
1
A Simple ExerciseThis is an exercise for everybody who is new to trading and trading cryptoassets in particular. You may want to try this before you bet your house. It's very simple: You take some money that you can afford to lose . However the amount should be substantial enough that losing it would hurt you - if only a little. You put that money on your cryptocurrency exchange of choice. You wait. Should price reach the green area in the chart within the next four weeks, you go all in and buy Bitcoin for the whole amount you deposited. To be continued... P.S. This exercise won't work if you just do it on paper. You will need to use actual money to buy actual Bitcoin. But please, be sensible when choosing the size of your investment. Remember, you might loose it all.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSD
by Nathan_the_Wise
2
Ripple XRP the Ultimate Pump n Dump or Mid-Term Play? BITFINEX:XRPUSD Genuinely watching Ripple while trying to avoid the extremes of the pumpers. Unfortunately I got into the blockchain space late but have been devouring information like crazy. While waiting for my funds to transfer in to any exchange I could get on was painful. While waiting for a wire, then Crypto Capital to CEX, Ripple moved from 0.23 to $2 (CEX was early for the move up due to low volumes). This was beyond frustrating. When I realized my Bitfinex account was set up - yes you can trade without being verified - I felt that Ripple already went too far too fast (at $1). The latest news took it to $2.40+ but the cliff is now occurring. To me, this is more like a buy on rumour, sell on facts (aka pump n dump) than a real value play. Or is it? Why? Anyone who really researches blockchains, knows the limitations. IOTA is hands down better and solves all the blockchain issues. I don't foresee banks or others going with Ripple if IOTA creates their own version, with none of the same issues as blockchain. Ripple was great for anyone who got in sub- $0.25, just as a spec trade but I don't see any future value in Ripple, once banks realize: Ripple is only needed for the short term, until they develop their own, most likely based on Tangle. IOTA's Tangle is better, with none of the blockchain issues. Financial powers use a Tangle based crypto created by IOTA. Governments create their own Tangle based cryptos. Ripple was a great spec trade and I'm sure made many people a lot of money. Can anyone tell me how Ripple can make money and why that justifies a crypto value of $100B+ in market cap? I can understand the spec trade, but not the value based on technology that is already outdated compared to the competition. IMO, the future belongs to IOTA or another block-less technology.
BITFINEX:XRPUSDShort
by Miykael
10
STRAT/BTC (LONG) analysisSTRAT is a coin that is following market psychology on the dot. STRAT bottomed and then hit the accumulation zone. It is currently in the phase of "Revival" and could easily repeat history by passing prior ATH. STRAT has also tested its platform and will have two ICO's being dropped on in late January: twitter.com According to the CEO, one of these companies is already huge in China. Technically, and fundamentally strong, STRAT is one to watch out for 2018.
SLong
by XtreemxZ
2
The markets are there to make you feel stupid or brilliantMany a trader will have made their best analysis based on information at the time and then taken an entry position, only to find that the market does something unexpected. Price may move violently in the wrong direction i.e. not the favoured direction and comes close to a stop loss or actually stopping out the position for a loss. Now with hindsight a trader feels or thinks, " How stupid - I should have seen it coming. I shouldn't have done that. " This happens enough times to new traders. Seasoned traders live with it and have less such self-talk. I think it's important to acknowledge those feelings. These are partly thinking processes and emotional processes. New traders often feel demoralised after 10 or so failures in a row. " Am I doing something wrong? " - they may think. This is a reasonable question. It could be that something is wrong. However, nothing may be found wrong with one's methodology or application of one's personal rules - after a careful reassessment. It's good to check. The BTCUSD chart shows what is some sort of 'head and shoulders' pattern. It's not the best picture of it in the world but something is there. Wherever one takes a position in BTCUSD, it could be wrong. Why? The markets respect no one person. A proportion of traders will have taken a position in this and made some real profits. They will punch the air and with joy go, " YESSSS!! " From my long experience I've learned that 'feelings' of being right or wrong, actually bends the mind a trader. I'm speaking for myself quite clearly. Others may have similar experience. A feeling of being good after a string of wins, often creates a subconscious sense of confidence. Imperceptibly this can creep into future trades and then one realises some major losses. My own strategy is to try at best to reduce trading frequency and exert even greater diligence in entering trades after a series of wins. I aim to expect the unexpected. It's always a tad difficult when I get stopped out for a loss. But I repeat to myself that the stoploss is there to protect against the 'unexpected' - so it's not actually unexpected. It is a limit. It is the expected limit of price moving not in a favoured direction. There is no single path to 'a promised land' in trading. Traders can adopt different methods, different rules, and be consistently profitable. The largest obstacle which is difficult to train out a trader, is their own personal psychology . By this I mean things like attention to detail, biases, emotions, discipline etc. So in many ways feeling stupid or brilliant can affect our future decision-making in imperceptible ways. Traders can lose discipline after losses or big gains. Mark Douglas spoke about these sorts of things. The BTCUSD chart is not intended to attract thoughts on whether to go long or go short. I'm not really interested in whether the H&S is there at all or correctly drawn. I'm taking it beyond that. What happens next to traders who come out of this period - some bruised, some overjoyed? Trading is not about winning one trade or a small handful. It's about the long road ahead. I'm delighted if others can share their experiences.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by Captain_Walker
New to the Cryptogame and learning painful lessons along the wayI always believed that you learn the most when you get hurt. I dove into the market with the fear of missing out on the tremendous upside and potential of this platform. I have long been programmed by the mainstream institutional investors that getting 10-15 gains are the best. I have risked a lot in the stock market before and have been fairly successful so this is yet another endeavor into something new. The first mistake that i made was getting swooped in by the herd mentality and thinking that I was still early in the game. Besides I was the only one talking about bitcoin and its potential. So I figured there's time and since everybody else was not able to take I chance. I went ahead and decided to jump in. Unfortunately I got trapped into the coinbase waiting game and wiped out about 30 percent of my initial investment on paper. When the correction was happening I kept thinking in my head that I should pull out and save the remaining capital. Fortunately, the same thing that got me trapped during the fall also prevented me from getting out and actually realizing the loss. Its just paper loss so far. Then came the lessons learned from the stock market crash during the bank crash. Dizzy and nauseated by what appeared to be an imminent crash all the way down to zero a sudden calm state emerged. Ive been here before. Ive done this before. One mistake on the upside cant be corrected by another mistake on the downside. Painful lessons being learned will hopefully translate into success into this new platform. To all the ones that are dipping their toes...educate yourself, learn from the experience, and tread cautiously. Take your time and contemplate your actions. In time if you truly believe that cryptocurrencies are not a scam or a ponzi scheme...things will be alright. Here's to learning growing and maybe making a new living!
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDLong
by bderosas1920
1