Is it your strategy or you???What is your strategy? If asked, could you explain it to one of your friends or family members? More importantly, does it make sense? Is it clear?
Teaching or Sharing your thoughts & methods leads to a deeper understanding of the content. If nothing else, speak aloud and hear your reasoning out of your own mouth before taking a trade.
My current strategy is to take a defined structure from Swing High to Swing Low or Swing Low to Swing High and use it as the basis for my analysis. Naturally, the structure will indicate a trend, and I would need to decide if that trend is in alignment with or contrary to the broader market. Either is fine, but this distinction is essential when assessing targets and risk.
I have to constantly remind myself that I don't know what the market will do. Since I don't know what the market will do, it follows that I should be open to changing my mind and also safeguarding against my ignorance. With this being said and firmly in mind, there are three levels that I like to pay attention to. They are:
Breakouts of previously established key levels.
The .618 Retracement & 1.618 Extension (current and previous structures)
Between the .786 & .886
Simple enough. I'm sure that your strategy for entry can be explained in layman's terms as well. The issue typically doesn't lie in the analysis it lies in the trader's ability to follow said analysis and follow it consistently.
Does this sound relatable?
You spend hours or maybe even days conducting your analysis, waiting for the market to make its move and give you some indication of what might happen in the near future. As time passes, things seem to become more clear, and you see your opportunity coming. Sure there are a few unexpected movements that happen along the way but that's just how markets move. Price approaches your entry but not yet. Hell, it may not actually reach the level at which you established as a good entry. So you enter early and let the candles fall where they may. If you have fixed stops, now your levels are thrown off. If you don't, then any concept of risk that you had in your mind has been altered and you now bear the task of making mental adjustments to compensate for a completely different trade. Because that's exactly what it is, a completely different trade, with new numbers, figures, distances, R&R ratios, and new implications of risk. The market moves in your favor, possibly even nearing your predetermined target. If it's a fixed number of pips, then that number has changed. If it was a fixed target then your projected profits have changed. This may not seem like a big deal but for beginning traders who are establishing their system, this means everything. Every decision you make against yourself has future implications on your equity curve, but also on your confidence and understanding of what you are doing in the market. In order to be consistent and profitable in the market we must learn to trade in a consistent manner with a strategy that will prove to be profitable over time. The market continues to move but it has taken a sudden turn against you, whatever profits you had are quickly erased and price action now edges toward your stop loss. You've been stopped out only to learn that if you had been patient at entry and kept your original strategy in place, you wouldn't have been stopped out, and price action would have ultimately gone in your favor reaching your target.
The point of all this is to illustrate that we unconsciously make changes to our strategies as we are deploying them. These changes have a compounding effect on the outcome of our trades. Even if you are made a winner by these changes you've made, you will have reinforced a bad habit that will undoubtedly lead to many losses in the future. There is power in understanding the unique set of tendencies and preferences that make you the type of trader you are. If you continue to ignore this, you will rightfully take your place amongst the other 90% of failing traders. When you start to pay attention to your own uniqueness and figure out what concepts, ideas, strategies, tools, and methods resonate with you, then you will be on your way to developing a system that you can trade consistently.
Losing is a part of the game. You may as well lose in a manner that produces feedback that can be learned from. Are you losing because your strategy needs adjusting or are you losing because your psychology needs adjusting?
It should be stated that any given trade, from start to finish, can be, and typically is, more nuanced than what I've just described. Its simplicity should not overshadow its intent. The chart attached to this post shows that there are multiple opportunities for entry for mine and, quite possibly, your strategy. All a trader needs to do is be patient and allow the market to tell you what it is doing. Along with entries are maintenance and exits. Targets are just as important as entries if not more so. Your unique perspective as a trader will heavily impact the decisions you make in all three phases of trading.
Levels of Development LLC is providing this material for this site and any other related sources (including newsletters, blog post, videos, social media and other communications) for educational purposes only. We are not providing legal, accounting, or financial advisory services, and this is not a solicitation or recommendation to buy or sell any stocks, options, or other financial instruments or investments. Examples that address specific assets, stocks, options or other financial instrument transactions are for illustrative purposes only and may not represent specific trades or transactions that we have conducted. In fact, we may use examples that are different or the opposite of transactions we have conducted or positions we hold.
All investing and trading in the securities market involves risk. Any decisions to place trades in the financial markets, including trading in stock or options or other financial instruments, is a personal decision that should only be made after thorough research, including a personal risk and financial assessment, and the engagement of professional assistance to the extend you believe necessary.
Risk Management
Sizing & how to manage riskThe easiest part, if everything's perfect you just trade as much as the market allows before the diminishing returns hit hard. However usually everything is not perfect at the beginning, so continue reading.
Logically, in order to operate successfully & continuously (you can't market make much you if loose money aye?), your equity chart should represent a smooth movement from down left to the top right corner. What factors affect an equity chart?
1) Market activity itself;
2) An operation principle (strategy/system);
3) An operator(s).
So our potential sizing formula/algorithm should, lol, contain these 3 factors. Makes sense?
1) If market activity is too narrow we increase size, if market activity is too wide we decrease size, otherwise if its normal we don't change anything;
2) After a systemic loss we decrease size, after a systemic profit we increase size, otherwise after a +- breakeven we don't change anything;
3) If there's real confidence about what's coming you increase size, if there are doubts you decrease size, otherwise you don't change anything.
Number 3 needs a lil clarification, I didn't say "you're confident/have doubts", I said "there's confidence & there are doubts". It's not only you and quality of your operation, what you also need to feel is whether all of us, as the collective, whether the market itself is confident. And there you can use all the available info, all the other assets, all the non-market data. Understand that we are all the market, you're part of it when you trade. Every1 looks at the same data. The Collective. The Feedback loop.
Ok, so how to increase/decrease exactly?
First you need to calculate the maximum size.
1) Come up with the maximum tolerated loss in money for one trade (more on that later);
2) Look at the chart and find the maximum distance between the entry & exit-at-loss points;
3) Find out the maximum size that won't allow you to loose more than max tolerated loss in case of passing the distance you've just found out.
These numbers should be reevaluated when there's a change. Don't forget that a change can be seasonal, just like volatility on ES futures changes after US open.
Imagine you ended up with 70 lots. Divide it by 7 equal chunks. Why 7? Because of number of factors, we had three, 3*2 + 1.
So now one chunk is 10 lots. One decrease/increase = 10 lots.
Then you start trading at 4 chunks (40 lots) (3 + 1) (this way you got more freedom, you can both increase and decrease after the first trade).
Then you just and increase/decrease according to the plan. For example, you made a profitable trade at 4 chunks, and the next level is very tight, so you have 2 systemic increases, so you increase by 2 chunks (20 lots).
If you hit zero chunks you make a imaginary trades and then come back to the real account when your size becomes one chunk, if you hit 7 chunks you don't go higher (maybe couple of 8 chunks trades might make sense tho).
You're free to fine tune this adjustments live, you can eg see a serious vola increase and decide to decrease by 13-16 contracts instead of 10. Calculating these things precisely won't magically turn a loosing operation into a profitable one, but will make you focus on the wrong thing & steal your energy. Don't calculate, trust yourself & let your brain approximate and feel da thing.
Let's come back to the maximum tolerated loss in money. Making it 1% or 2% or 37565476% of deposit doesn't make any sense.
First of all, a deposit can be financed externally, with a credit line, with a prop shop etc. You deposit should never be touched, only the risk capital above this deposit.
Second, what you care about 4 real is how much risk capital do you have. For example let's say $10k, that's actually a good amount of money.
Third you divide the risk capital by 7, and end up with max tolerated loss in money for one trade. No, consecutive loss streaks have nothing to do with coins & binomial distributions, so number 7 is not worse, but better cuz it's simpler. I think 4-5 consecutive losses are "OK", but 10 is too many.
P.S.: if you've lost you risk capital/thing ain't going, you just stop, evaluate, fix the problems, test on simulator & start fixing another risk capital, and go again, until the victory!
Why do you need trading plan? If you make a mistake while trading on the market, you will be punished very quickly. The market doesn't like mistakes or carelessness, so the price will be a minus from your DEPO. This is just how things work. Because of this, planning is an important part of successful trading and not just a feature of an option that doesn't help you reach your goals. Today, we'll talk about what a trading plan should look like and lay out a clear set of rules that a trader can rely on in his work, no matter what the market is like, how long the investments are, or how much money they have to invest.
If you don't have a plan, you're setting yourself up to fail.
Remember this simple rule and stop trading based on how you feel. The market is not the place to make hasty decisions.
If you have a clear trading plan that includes all possible ways to respond to changes in the market, you won't doubt the rightness of your trading decisions, and you'll be much less likely to make emotional trades that hurt your trading account.
A trading plan and a trading diary will help you become a more disciplined trader and use your time, money, and nerve cells more wisely.
In trading, what is a trading plan?
If a trader doesn't have a plan for how to trade, he or she is likely to lose money in the market over time. As a broker, I have seen dozens of examples of this rule being true. This was also clear when I opened my first trading accounts. Most traders who consistently lose money on the financial markets do not have a trading plan. They open and close trades on a whim, or if they do have a plan, they ignore it when it would be best to follow it.
Keep in mind that one of the hardest things about this kind of business is to stick to a trading plan. Just ignoring it once is enough to erase the trading results from the last few weeks or months. Trading is based on discipline, but it won't make sense if you don't have a clear plan of what can and can't be done.
In trading, what is a trading plan?
There must be at least five parts to a trading plan. Also, each of them could be a possible answer to the question:
Can you trade on the market right now?
Which way should you trade? (if it's a directed trade)
How to figure out the right time to enter the market?
How to define the goal and limit the risks?
How to figure out the best size for a position?
This is the "skeleton" of a trading plan. Each part needs to be written in detail on its own, based on the trading method, risk tolerance, and details of the markets being traded.
Not every part of a trading plan is as important as the other parts. Some of them need to be changed to fit your trading style (Points 1, 2, and 3),while others should never be ignored or changed in a big way, or trading on this account will end very quickly and tragically (Points 4 and 5).
To sum up what has been said, the following can be said:
In the trading plan, you should list all the ways you could react to a change in the market. If this happens, you won't have to worry about "force majeure" anymore. Sharp market movements and losing trades will definitely happen, but the risk of negative trends will be taken into account in the trading plan and will not be able to cause a trading account default.
Most of the time, the market is just like any other place. And if a trader loses money because the market went up or down by 5–10%, the problem is probably with the trader's plan and the fact that he or she didn't follow money and risk management rules, not because a Fed official said something.
The most important thing for new traders is to learn how to work with a trading plan and risks. They shouldn't think about how easy it is to get into the market, how many Xs they can have, or how carefree their life could be. You can only stay in the market and start to fully grow and develop as a trader if you stop making rash decisions that cost you your deposit.
Hope you enjoyed the content I created, You can support with your likes and comments this idea so more people can watch!
✅Disclaimer: Please be aware of the risks involved in trading. This idea was made for educational purposes only not for financial Investment Purposes.
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DON'T TRADE ON HOLIDAYS | 4 Crucial Reasons Explained
In this educational article, we will discuss why is it recommendable not to trade during the holidays season.
🏦 The main source of problems comes from the fact that the big market players like banks, hedge funds and investing firms are absent. Similarly to ordinary people, bankers and investors prefer to spend the holidays with their relatives and friends instead of staring at charts on Christmas Eve.
But how does it affect the market? Big players are the main source of the market liquidity. The liquidity itself is the measure to which an asset can be quickly bought or sold in the market at a price of its quotes. Therefore, when the big players are missing, the market liquidity drops.
1️⃣ That fact instantly reflects in the market spreads. They become substantially bigger, directly increasing the costs of each trade and making it problematic to open a position at a desired price.
2️⃣ Secondly, low liquidity leads to a decrease in volatility. The market becomes weak and indecisive.
As traders, we make the money on market moves. Our goal is to catch a bullish or a bearish wave. Their absence deprives us of profits or, at least, dramatically decreases them.
3️⃣ Thirdly, when the liquidity is low, even small market participants can move the market. It dramatically increases the probabilities of false signals. Relatively low trading volumes may manipulate the market, substantially decreasing the efficiency of technical and fundamental analysis.
4️⃣ The increased costs of trading, low volatility and manipulations should have convinced you to stay from charts during the holidays season. However, the main reason to not trade on holidays is much simpler. Holidays give you an opportunity to stay with your family, to take a break, to recharge and relax. Even a part-time trading is very exhausting and requires a constant attention. Let yourself be distracted and return after holidays.
I wish you a great holidays season, traders!
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
The Importance of a Trading PlanIntroduction
One of the most overlooked parts of trading is the simple act of having a plan. Having a well-defined trading plan is crucial for traders looking to improve their chances of success. A trading plan helps traders make informed and disciplined decisions and can serve as a roadmap for navigating the market. A trading plan can also help traders stay focused and avoid making impulsive or emotional decisions, which can be detrimental to trading performance.
Defining your trading goals and risk tolerance
Before developing a trading plan, it's important to define your trading goals and determine your risk tolerance. Setting clear and realistic trading goals can help you stay focused and motivated while understanding your risk tolerance can help you make decisions that align with your financial resources and risk appetite. For example, if you have a low-risk tolerance, you may choose to focus on more conservative trading strategies that aim to generate steady, consistent returns rather than styles that aim for big returns with high risk.
Identifying your trading style
There are many different types of trading styles, each with its own unique characteristics and potential benefits. Some common types of trading styles include day trading, swing trading, and news following. Identifying the trading style that aligns with your goals, risk tolerance, and personality can help you develop a trading plan that is suited to your needs and preferences.
Developing your trading plan
Your trading plan is a set of rules or guidelines that define how you will approach the market. Components of a trading strategy may include entry and exit rules, risk management techniques, and position sizing. It's important to fully develop and test a trading strategy before implementing it in the live market. This can help you identify any potential weaknesses or problems with the strategy and make adjustments as needed.
Managing your emotions
Emotions can play a significant role in trading and can impact decision-making. One of the great benefits of having a trading plan is that it can reduce the impact of emotions on your decision-making. It's important to manage your emotions and stay disciplined in the face of market volatility. Strategies for managing emotions in trading may include believing in and sticking to your trading plan, taking breaks to clear your head, and seeking support from a mentor or trading community.
Improving your plan over time
It's important to regularly review and adjust your trading plan to ensure it is still aligned with your goals and risk tolerance. This may involve evaluating the performance of your trading strategy and making adjustments as needed. You should analyze both winning and losing trades to find strengths and weaknesses in your plan. Nearly all strategies will work better under certain conditions, and it’s your job to determine what that looks like for your plan.
Conclusion
Having a well-defined trading plan is essential for traders looking to improve their chances of success. A trading plan can help traders make informed and disciplined decisions and serve as a roadmap for navigating the market. By defining your trading goals and risk tolerance, identifying your trading style, developing a trading strategy, managing your emotions, and regularly reviewing and adjusting your plan, you can improve your chances of success and achieve your trading goals.
THE FOREX SUCCESS PYRAMID
What is your recipe for success in trading?
Developing traders often don’t understand, when you are asking to be a successful (or professional) trader, you are asking not just to build a pyramid, but to sit on top of it. What most forget is the base is the biggest part of the pyramid and the foundation for building higher levels.
As the pyramid continues to grow higher, it gets a little more complicated, but you have a base (foundation) and structures in place to carry the stones up to the higher levels.
But just like a pyramid, there are more stones at the base and this takes more time to build. Also like a pyramid, there are more traders at the base (not making money or breaking even) then there are at the top.
However, with structures and rhythm in place, the fruits of your labor will result in a steady conditioning of your muscles (discipline, diligence and psychology). This will allow you to take on greater and greater heights, challenges and climb the pyramid of trading. Having forex trading discipline, diligence and psychology will give you a sense of confidence and a feeling of mastery over the process.
This is the pyramid of trading and the attributes needed to climb to higher levels.
While most traders spend time trying to find profitable trades, or the next great system, make sure you take time out to build the attributes which develop your trading muscles (discipline, diligence and psychology). By yourself this can be a very difficult task so it helps to create mechanisms in your life to build these habits.
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The unknown obvious: equity controlIt's easy to get a mili a year if you trade 100M account, that'll be 1% a year. A lil bit harder but still easy af to get a mili of you have 10M capital, that'll be 10% a year.
That's how many of "skilled" and famous market participants earn dem money. You might say, "Wait, but that's really not a lot, markets can give much more for these capitals".
Yes but given what they have it's all they can do. They been running very shitty bots for decades, they don't really understand how the market works & how to operate. It's especially widespread in cryptos, a lot of people got rich by accident and now they tryna run a business xD
Anyways, there's a tool that helps dem all to get that 10%/y for investors money, a very obvious thing that is called equity control.
Look at the chart here, is this an equity chart of some1 who've bought TSLA stock during IPO or is it price chart of TSLA stock?
If you think deeper, you don't really care about the price of an asset, you care about your equity. If you buy an asset and then look at your account equity after a while, these two charts will be the same. Every strategy can be viewed as a response modifier, it takes an asset chart, for example, IBM stock, and transform it into a different equity chart, with the ultimate goal of having constant always rising equity chart. Market is fractal, the same principles propagate through all the resolutions, they also propagate to your equity chart.
How can you affect an asset chart? You can buy or sell, 2 actions.
How can you affect equity chart? You can reduce size (down to zero) or increase size, 2 actions.
So what these "skilled" and famous participants do, they stop sending they orders to the real market when a shitty bot/trader/manager starts to loose money, but continue trading on a simulator. When this entity starts to earn money again, it gets "connected" to the real market again. How do they define earning/loosing money? They apply the same strategy/quantitative method they use on asset charts. It could be an SMA, I won't be surprised.
Thing is, you can use the same concept in the right way, you can apply a good method on your equity chart to boost the performance in certain times.
Why Having a Daily Max Loss Will Save You From Going BankruptHello traders,
A personal story
When I was building scripts for traders back in my Quant days, I often overheard them talking about the "lockout loss" (also called "max daily loss") concept.
Once reached, the trading buttons were literally disabled and they couldn't do anything.
When I became a trader, I quickly realised when I lost 2 days in a row, something was wrong with me... could be with my sleep, my mood, my lack of focus or energy, my personal life getting in the way.
More often than not, I am the reason I'm not profitable regardless of which trading strategy I use.
Meditating helps me getting back in a calm state whenever I feel emotions too strongly.
If I keep losing for more than 1 week, then I start reconsidering my strategy and tweaking it accommodating for the lack of volatility....
Can only be the lack of volatility because when it's volatile, it's easier to make money...
Most traders lose during ranges and markets tend to range most of the time.... here you go... now you know the hidden well kept secret why trading is so difficult...
That's because most traders trade what's not moving + they don't have a max daily loss....=> a sure mix to head to Rektland
While traders and investors are generally focused on increasing profits, it is also critical to manage risk and reduce possible losses.
Setting a maximum daily loss, also known as a stop loss or a loss limit, is one approach to do this.
A maximum daily loss is the most amount a trader is prepared to lose in a single day of trading.
This may be stated in either monetary terms or as a percentage of the trader's total account balance.
Setting a maximum daily loss helps traders maintain discipline and avoid allowing their emotions to take over when things don't go as planned.
Setting a maximum daily loss has many major advantages:
1) Cash preservation
By establishing a maximum loss amount, traders may guarantee that they do not lose too much of their capital on a single deal.
This may assist them protect their total trading account balance and allow them to trade in the future.
2) Managing risk
Trading has inherent risk, and it's critical for traders to determine how much risk they're ready to accept.
Setting a maximum daily loss assists traders to manage their risk and make better educated, measured transactions.
3) Discipline
It's easy to get caught up in the thrill of a transaction and lose sight of the overall danger.
A maximum daily loss encourages traders to be disciplined and avoid making rash, emotional judgments that might result in larger losses.
It is crucial to remember that a maximum daily loss is not a guarantee against loss; rather, it is a tool to assist traders in managing risk and remaining disciplined.
Traders should also be mindful of the possibility of slippage, which occurs when market circumstances change fast and the transaction is completed at a price higher than the stop loss threshold.
This one is very hard because even when we stop pushing on the long/short/buy/sell buttons, we see what's going on and we think "if I kept trading, I would have make it all back..."
No, you wouldn't have not because the reason you kept hitting your max loss for multiple days is because something is wrong with YOU and you didn't figure out what that is yet.
=> then you certainly would have failed that "easy" pump/dump move too
Conclusion
Every 2/3 weeks, assuming I kept increasing my capital consistently, I allowed myself to increase my daily max loss by 20% ish.
The percentage here doesn't matter - what matters is increasing it slightly every X weeks to reward ourselves for being consistent.
Setting a maximum daily loss is an essential part of risk management for traders and investors in general.
Traders may make better judgments and preserve their wealth by defining their risk tolerance and creating explicit loss limits.
I wrote tons of other useful FREE articles here: www.tradingview.com
Thanks for reading
Dave
Position sizing 101 - how to avoid crippling lossesPosition sizing is determining the correct size of the position based on the amount of money you risk on the particular trade.
Before you can do that, you need to figure out what is the maximum acceptable risk of the trade.
That risk is usually expressed as a % of your balance, that you are willing to lose.
To make sure you don’t lose more than this amount traders set a Stop Loss order which is the real maximum exposure of your position.
If you don’t use a stop loss, you are exposing your entire portfolio!
Where to put a stop loss?
That’s where Technical Analysis can be handy. The majority of retail traders would look at the chart to find out – usually behind some support/resistance level or based on some volatility indicator, such as ATR
Rule of thumb:
Risk between 1-3% of your portfolio balance on each position. This way any single individual loss won’t wipe your account and break your spirit. And more importantly, even a string of losses will leave you with enough ammunition to recoup the losses.
Have a clear approach to risk:
1. Set a risk limit for each trade, asset in general, day, week, and month (you won’t risk more than X account)
2. Determine the right position size and start small
3. Increase the position size of trades slowly if your account grows
4. Lower size or switch back to paper trading if your account doesn’t
Two types of position sizing methods: Fixed and flexible
Fixed position size
Using the same position size for every trade
Good for finding out if your strategy has an edge
Make sure you come back and reevaluate position size periodically.
Flexible position size
Using a percentage of the current balance
Cluster of wins makes every following win larger
Cluster of losses makes every following loss smaller
How to calculate the correct position size:
You need to know
1. Trading account size
2. Acceptable risk (in % per each trade)
3. Invalidation point (in form of a distance from the open price)
The formulae:
Position size = Trading account size x Acceptable risk / Invalidation
Example:
1. Trading account size = $10,000
2. Acceptable risk = 1%
3. Invalidation point = 4% drop in market price
Position size = $10,000 * 0,01 / 0,04 = $2,500
This way you will always risk losing $100 no matter where your Stop Loss goes! If Stop Loss must be wider, say 8%, the calculation is:
Position size = $10,000 * 0,01 / 0,08 = $1,250
Doubling the distance to our stop loss has us reducing our position size by half to maintain the same possible loss.
How to set position size in Tradingview
1. Use the Long position or Short position drawing tool
2. Input your account balance
3. Select the risk you're willing to undertake - either as a % of your account balance or as a monetary value
4. Enter the market price of your Stop Loss
5. Look at the "Quantity" field in the drawing tool = that is the position size you should use to adhere to your risk settings.
9 lessons from Traders Who Made Multiple 8 figuresHello Traders
Losses
Losses are an unavoidable element of trading, and it is important to understand that they are a regular part of the process.
It's critical to remember that even the most successful traders suffer losses, and how they deal with such losses defines their total performance.
Setting stop-loss orders, which are orders that automatically end a trade when it hits a specific degree of loss, is an important component of loss management.
This may assist traders limit their losses and safeguard their wealth. It's also critical to have a strategy in place for dealing with higher losses, such as reducing transaction sizes or taking a vacation from trading.
To new traders reading this, don't get scared... you're going to blow up your account at least once.
Because, if you never did it, you never experienced how painful that is to lose your gains, initial capital, dreams.
You need to experience that once so that your brain knows you'll never get to that dark place again.
There is no other way, even if you follow guidelines from successful traders... I guarantee you that sooner or later, you'll blow up your account if it never happened to you yet.
Every successful trader I know blew one or more accounts
My wish for you is that it happens early in your trading journey so that the capital loss is small relative to your future potential gains
Discipline
Discipline is an essential characteristic for every trader to have.
Trading can be a turbulent and fast-paced atmosphere, and it's easy to get caught up in the market's enthusiasm or anxiety.
Discipline, on the other hand, enables traders to remain focused and adhere to their trading strategy even when emotions or other events attempt to distract them.
My discipline strategy is two-folds:
1) When I capture a 1 or 3 great intraday moves, I stop for the day. I don't want to give my gains back.
I close my trading station and stop watching the market as I'll always end up thinking "oh it keeps moving, I could have made X USD more"
2) It's being patient as it could happen I'm getting ready to trade at 6 am but nothing happens before 5 pm... leading me to wait wait wait.... for a decent setup to appear.
This is not a natural skill at all, I acquired it
Preparation
Proper planning is crucial for trading success.
This involves having a sound trading strategy in place as well as a clear grasp of the market and the instruments being traded.
It is critical to evaluate and update this strategy on a frequent basis to ensure that it remains effective and current.
Preparation also include maintaining current on market news and events that may have an impact on the assets being traded.
Reading industry journals, following financial news sites, and engaging in online groups or forums may all help with this.
As an intraday trader, I check every morning what are the main events of the day and make sure to not be in a trade or be at least SL/breakeven around macro events such as CPI, FOMC, etc...
Risk
Risk management is an important component of trading.
This involves knowing the degree of risk associated with various instruments and techniques, as well as ensuring that only a suitable level of risk is taken on given the trader's risk tolerance and money.
It's vital to remember that profit potential is exactly proportional to the degree of risk taken.
This indicates that although greater risk tactics have a larger potential for profit, they also have a higher chance for loss.
I'm a risk adverse trader overall... though when I identify a very profitable potential setup... I push on the pedal for real... meaning I increase drastically my position size.
Emotions
Emotions may be the deadliest adversary of a trader.
If left uncontrolled, fear, greed, and overconfidence may all contribute to bad trading judgments.
Meditation helped me a lot for that
It is critical for traders to identify and manage their emotions when trading.
Setting limitations on the degree of risk taken, placing stop-loss orders to safeguard against excessive losses, and taking pauses as needed to clear the mind are all examples of this.
Frustrations
Trading may be unpleasant at times, particularly when you're dealing with losses or a streak of bad transactions.
Traders must remember that setbacks are a typical part of the business and keep focused on the long-term objectives.
Taking pauses, finding support from others, and being disciplined may all help traders get through these trying times.
Being ok with being frustrated is also NOT a natural skill and has to be acquired.
I know now when to label when I'm frustrated and what to do to relax (meditation, stretching, deep breathing, self-massage, classical music, ...)
Frustrations have a compounding effect leading to greater and greater frustrations and losses.
And we get frustrated because... we lost money or didn't make as much as we could...
The richest traders I know are the ones who are able to disconnect completely their trades from the monetary value.
Which kind of impossible when for most 1 trade >= 1 month worth of rent => leads to too much mental pressure and stress.
Failure
Failure is an inevitable part of the learning process, and traders must understand that it is OK to make errors.
What matters is how traders react to and learn from their errors.
It's critical to assess what went wrong honestly and make the necessary changes to prevent repeating the same errors in the future.
Hesitation
Hesitation may be detrimental to a trader's success.
In the fast-paced world of trading, traders who are hesitant may lose out on chances or join transactions too late.
Traders must make judgments swiftly and confidently, while also understanding the possible risks and benefits of each deal.
Journey
Trading is a journey, and traders must approach it with a long-term view.
This entails accepting that there will be ups and downs and being dedicated to ongoing learning and growth.
Setting reasonable objectives and celebrating minor accomplishments along the way are also crucial.
Thank you for reading
David
What Is the Margin of Safety in Investing/Trading?Hello traders,
The gap between the true worth of an investment and its current price on the market is referred to as an investment's margin of safety.
The margin of safety is a concept that is utilized in trading and investing.
It is a buffer that protects investors against the possibility of incurring losses as a result of the volatility in the market or the occurrence of unanticipated occurrences.
It is possible to incur a loss while investing in stocks, bonds, and other securities since the value of these assets is subject to significant shifts during the course of their ownership.
Investors may mitigate this risk with the assistance of a margin of safety, which ensures that they are not paying more for an asset than what the item is really worth.
This indicates that the investor may still make a profit when selling the asset, even if the price at which it is traded on the market drops.
The difference between the market price of an item and its intrinsic value may be subtracted to arrive at one method for calculating the margin of safety.
If a company's intrinsic value is $100 and it is now trading at $120, for instance, the margin of safety for that stock is $20.
This indicates that the investor will still be able to sell the shares at a profit even if the current market price of the stock drops by $20.
You may also determine the margin of safety by dividing the asset's intrinsic value by its current market price.
This is still another method.
The investor will get a percentage as a result of this calculation, which will indicate the level of protection they have against prospective losses.
If a share of stock has an intrinsic value of $100 and is now trading at $120, for instance, the margin of safety is 16.67% (100 divided by 120 equals 8333).
This indicates that the investor will still be able to sell the shares at a profit even if the price of the stock on the market drops by 16.67%.
The margin of safety is a tool that investors may use to decide whether or not it is worthwhile to make an investment.
It is possible that purchasing the item would be a wise decision if there is a large margin of safety.
On the other hand, if the margin of safety is minimal, it is probably best to steer clear of the investment and hunt for something else that has a bigger margin of safety.
When it comes to trading and investing, one of the most crucial concepts to understand is the margin of safety.
Investors are able to better protect themselves against the possibility of loss and make choices on their investments that are more informed as a result.
What about crypto assets?
I'm not a big believer but most blockchain indicators are right now in the mega buy zone for Bitcoin - telling us the margin of safety to buy now is big
The reason I don't like them much is that they could stay in that zone for years, and I'd invest blocking my money for years before the real pump happens - which represents a missed cost-opportunity if I'd invested that money elsewhere
My preferred way is to get a swing H4 or H8 buy signal based on my trading strategy as it's more reliable because most of the actions justifying a price move happens on the exchanges regardless of the hashrate, difficulty, number of addresses holding Bitcoins, etc.
Thank you for reading
Dave
Ask yourself this questions before investing money in any coinHow to DYOR? Quick guide
90% of the time, the market is in a condition of uncertainty, which necessitates analysis. Before any investment, you need to ask yourself the question "is it worth it?" or "why can this project be profitable?". And, in order to fully comprehend the project, I've compiled a thesis list of questions that you should always ask yourself when conducting your own study.
We always begin at the project site.
There, you will be welcomed with a brief summary of the project, so be sure to read the Whitepaper/Docs to learn more.
At this point, you should ask the following questions:
What exactly is this project?
What is the point of it?
What possibilities does the project offer?
What are the project's RoadMap plans?
Next, you must determine who is the success guarantee:
What sources of funding aided the project?
What are some examples of these funds' success?
Will the funds be interested in the project's and the token's subsequent development?
It is also critical to assess the hype surrounding the project as well as the audience's involvement. Be cautious and double-check official sources. The more successful the initiative, the more scams will surround it, and you will be added to various groups where they will offer to send money. Don't fall for these ploys!
How active are the project's social networks? (Telegram, Twitter, Medium, GitHub, and so on.)
How involved is the team in social media support?
Is there a program for ambassadors?
Nodes (do they update and function properly)?
We assess other initiatives' trust and application.
How many other projects have already offered assistance?
How can they be of assistance to one another?
Check out the feedback from partners on our pages (after all, you can merely tag that Solana supports you, but they have no idea).
Check out the social subscription networks of notable people for this project. A nice technique to keep an eye out for such "friendships" on Twitter.
Avoid anonymous teams and projects that do not identify their developers or team at all. Admins or project members will never send you a personal email offering to acquire their tokens!
From a personal standpoint, would you trust these guys with your money?
What country does the team represent?
What projects have the team members previously worked on?
How interested are they in the project's progress, or do they prioritize obtaining funds and creating the token?
We assess the demand potential and the technological quality.
What competitors are there already?
How popular is the competitor's technology?
How much more advanced is our technology?
It is critical to understand which and how many tokens will be available for purchase on the listing, therefore we investigate the unlocking / vesting periods for each item. You can calculate the approximate capitalization at the latest sale price and assume the expected price pressure after receiving the number of tokens available at the time of listing.
Why is a token required?
How will the token be put to use?
To whom are tokens given?
How many tokens are there in total?
How much does the team own?
How many tickets were sold in the Seed and Private rounds?
What price did you enter these rounds at?
What are the terms (locks, vesting)?
How many tokens were given out to society?
How many tokens will be given out as rewards?
How many tokens will be sold during the Public Sale?
What networks is the token compatible with?
What kind of liquidity will be available as a result of the listing?
Following that, we went out to compare the data to the projects of competitors. We will be able to estimate the growth potential in this section.
And now that you've gone through all of the questions, you've decided to put money in this project:
We decide when and under what conditions it is best to deposit money.
We investigate the terms of selling.
We consider the format as well as the sales platform.
We research the platform from which we intend to make a purchase.
If the sale is not at a predetermined price but on Balancer or Mesa, we consider the token's fair price.
If the sale is in the form of a lottery, try opening multiple accounts to maximize your chances of winning.
Consider the averaging method on the listing depending on the condition and format of the transaction.
Examine the project's scheduling carefully; otherwise, the funds in the project may be frozen for an extended period of time.
At the outset of the voyage, you must determine a reasonable price and set profit goals.
In the event of failure, you must plan ahead of time to make up for the loss.
Divide your sale into various objectives, the first of which is the return on your initial investment.
Conclusion
Furthermore, you may always avoid conducting your own study by reading other people's pre-written project assessments. After all, they could simply pay for the review in order to attract money and then dump it on you. As a result, there is no place in the cryptosphere without DYOR.
You make all of the decisions.
You must also accept responsibility for the outcome.
Make sure to pay attention to money management and dangers.
Do not put more than 5% of your deposit into a single project.
The 5 Outcomes Of a Trade | How not to blow your account
Successful traders know there are 5 outcomes that can come out of a trading position. When managed well these outcomes can lead to great success. However, when manage badly can cause disaster to a trader’s account.
Below I’ll highlight and discuss the possible 5 outcomes of a trade and how you can manage them.
1. Small Profit
This is when a position ends in a very small profit, for trend traders, this is usually the case. However, in this situation, there is no loss.
2. Small Loss
This is when you lose a small amount at the close of your position. This is part of normal and good trading. In fact, you should cut your losses early. Taking small losses or cutting your losses early will help you stay in this business long term.
3. Breakeven
This is a position where you really didn’t make or lose any money. They’ll come too, they are not necessarily bad trades. These types of trades may just mean you should find re-entry to the position or may just be a quick exit without a loss or profit.
4. Big Profit
This is when a position ends in a very big profit. This type of trade does not come too often but when they do come they are the trades that move your general account return for the period to the next level. As a trader, these are the type of trades you should look forward to.
5. Big Loss
This is when a position ends up closing at a very big loss. This type of trade should never happen on your trading account as a pro-trader. This is the type of trade that can blow your trading account. It’s why you should know how to cut your losses quickly and take a small loss.
I’m glad I’ve been able to share with you the possible outcomes of a trade and how you can manage them properly. A simple knowledge like this can suddenly turn your trading account to become profitable.
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The Biggest Mistake Novice Traders Make When Learning To TradeI wasted a lot of time from years one to four in my trading career.
Being scammed led me to decide to create my unique trading strategy. I used the course material I bought and google to do so. It worked but after years of pain and suffering. If I had continued searching for a legit trading coach, I would've succeeded much quicker.
But I'm grateful because I learned a valuable lesson, which is to always...
Start By Mastering An Existing Trading Strategy Before Creating A Brand New One.
Ignoring this advice, especially as a novice trader, will stop you from succeeding on time.
For that reason, trying to create something new that you don't have experience with is useless. Because it will waste the mental energy and time you need to master what you already have to move forward. Thus committing to grasp the details of a trading strategy will save you from mental battles that hinder your growth. You'll also free up time to develop the following key ingredients for trading success:
1. Trading and Risk Management (Business) Plan.
2. Risk Management edge.
3. Psychological edge.
4. Journalling Habit.
With that said, let me show you how to flourish as a novice trader, below.
Find a legitimate trading coach with a proven track record.
Having a professional trader coaching you through your journey will make it a bit easier and more fun.
But there aren't many legitimate professionals who will make that possible. The industry has a lot of scammers who only make money from selling courses. That's not a problem though as there are traders who live off trading. Your job is to find them.
How?
Do research before buying a course:
1. Pick 2-3 traders you perceive as legitimate.
2. Check if their course will help you develop the 4 ingredients for trading success.
3. Check the coach's Trustpilot for course/community reviews.
4. Do research by contacting people who have bought it.
5. Ask for the coach's trading (Myfxbook) statistics.
6. Join their free communities to ask questions.
Once you’ve found your perfect match, focus on studying and mastering his/her course material till you become a profitable trader.
And while doing that teach other people your skill for free. This will quicken the process of learning, understanding, and mastering. After that form new trading strategies to maximize your gains and sell to other people for extra cash.
Following the advice above, will save you years of pain and suffering in exchange for fun years of rapid growth and success.
So trust the process and you’ll make it.
Learn How to Apply a Position Size Calculator
Hey traders,
In this educational article, I will teach you how to apply a position size calculator and calculate a lot size for your trades depending on a desired risk.
First of all, let's briefly discuss why do you need a position size calculator.
Even though, most of the newbie traders trade with the fixed lot, the truth is that fixed lot trading is considered to be very risky.
Depending on the trading instrument, time frame and a desired stop loss, the risks from one trade to another are constantly floating. With the constant fluctuations of losses per trade, it is very complicated to control your risks and drawdowns.
A lot size calculation, however, allows you to risk the desired percentage of your capital per trade, limiting the maximum you can potentially lose.
A lot size is calculated with a position size calculator.
It is integrated in some trading platforms like cTrader. If it is absent in yours, there are a lot of free ones available on the internet.
Step 1:
Measure a pip value of your stop loss.
It is the distance from your entry level to your stop loss level.
In the example on the picture, the stop loss is 290 pips.
Step 2:
Open a position size calculator
Step 3:
Fill the form.
Inputs: Account currency, account balance, desired risk %, stop loss in pips, currency pair.
In the example, we are trading with USD account. Its value is $20000. Trading instrument is EURUSD.
Step 4:
Calculate a lot size
The system will calculate a lot size for your trade.
0.069 standard lot in our example.
Taking a trade on EURUSD with $20000 deposit and 290 pips stop loss, you will need 0.069 lot size to risk 1% of your trading account.
Learn to apply a position size calculator. That is the must-use tool for a proper risk management.
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
Reflecting on 12 years of Trading - Do's and Dont'sHello traders,
Feeling a bit emotional today while writing this piece of content.
From my trading journal I kept updated for more than a decade... I want to share what differentiate a profitable trader from the crowd (losing money)
In trading, you are guaranteed to lose your time and money if one:
can't sit on his/her hands when there is nothing juicy to trade
plan trades he/she never execute and execute trades he/she never planned
let emotions from the last trade(s) affecting his/her next trade(s)
can't understand markets can remain illogical longer than he/she can remain solvent
end your trading day with his/her last trade... it must end when one has journalled them all and learned lessons
bury his/her head in the sand instead of studying the mistakes made
wants to forget previous mistakes... you have to remember them...writing them down on a post-it and having them staring at you whenever you take a trade.
Great process to remind to not repeat the same mistakes.
doesn't add onto winners because doesn't know how to identify strong momentum... instead take profit too early
is confident when he/she should be fearful and vice-versa
treats trading like an entertainment and not a job
Feel free to read my numerous other educational FREE content from my profile page
Thank for reading
Dave
Expectations and TradingExpectations and Trading
When you trade, you look at chances that either come true or don't. You can't expect or demand anything from the market or from other people who take part in the market. No one owes anyone anything in this world, and trading is no different.
In trading, you have complete freedom of expression; you can do almost anything and however you want. This freedom will show you how irrational people are and how they can't just control their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
All traders lose money because they take too many risks and don't have enough self-control. How long does it take for a trader to lose control of himself? A feeling of being left out It all starts with the idea that money has been lost. This feeling is exactly what makes people want to take more risks.
You open the chart and see that the price of your favorite asset has been going up for more than a day. Then you start thinking about how much you could make and where you could spend that money. This makes you want to buy an asset with a larger volume so you can make more money. You make a trade that is set up to have the best possible outcome, but you have no idea or acceptance of the possible consequences.
Revaluation
Take a look at what you have done so far. Are you ready to put everything on the line? If the answer is no, you should ask yourself, "Why do I want to put everything I have at risk?" Most likely, you feel this way because you want to make a big change in your life. But do you really know what's at stake?
"Filter of perception" or what are the risks of expectations?
What happens after you have set up the expectation that the trade will go well for you? When you go into a trade with more money than you need, you somehow set yourself up for a good result. Your mind starts to ignore information and signals from the market that don't fit with what you already think, as if you were wearing blinders. You won't know for sure how this filter works until you close the deal and stop having false hopes.
Is trading something that everyone can do?
Trading is not something that everyone should do. To get good at this craft, you have to work on yourself all the time, get over your emotions, control your thoughts, and question your own decisions while always following the rules. Don't give up on trading if you think it's not for you. You can be successful if you only do what you really want and work to improve yourself and show off your inner potential.
What is it to trade?
Trading is a game of chances, and you should have the right mindset for it. You shouldn't feel bad when a stop loss happens, because if you use a method that has a certain chance of working, you know that in the end, you'll still have made money. It's just a matter of time. You can survive and put off the so-called "trader's cycle" only if the trading process makes you feel good.
System trading
System trading means that you only make a trade under a certain set of rules. Your system could include chart patterns, candlestick formations, indicators, a certain astrological date, and more. No matter what, it's important that the chance of success and the risk vs. reward are both high. As soon as you make your own trading system, start keeping a trade diary, write down the rules of your trade, and answer when you enter a trade, you will be in the big leagues of traders, and nothing can stop you from making money on the market. If you stick to your own rules, you'll be happy with both your take profit and your stop loss, knowing that you did things in a planned way. It is not your fault that the stop loss worked or your credit that you got a take profit.
Worry and concern
Before making deals, many traders are afraid and have doubts. These feelings are bad for you, so don't give in to them. They will only get in the way. You might be scared to open trades because the amount of money you risk in each trade is too high. Let's draw an analogy. You and a friend make a bet on the flip of a coin. The coin is strange, so it comes up heads 70% of the time. If it comes up heads at least once, you lose. If it comes up heads twice in a row, you win. Can it happen that heads come up twice in a row by accident? What's four? Yes, it sure can! Your task is in increasing the number of coin flips to win the bet as often as possible over time. The same is true of the business you do. When you act in a systematic way on the market, you might get four stop losses in a row. But at the same time, you shouldn't lose a lot of money that will change the way you live. One to two percent of your capital is the best amount to put at risk in a single trade. Getting a stop loss only won't throw you off your emotional balance and let you fall into the "trader's cycle" if you have so much used volume. If you don't think this is enough, ask yourself, "Is the goal of your trading to try to increase the size of your capital no matter what, or to keep it and grow it?"
How often you trade ?
Overtrading, which leads to "trading burnout," is not a small mistake made by new traders. Your job is to wait in a humble way for a new system to set up on the chart. You don't have to look at the chart every ten minutes. Instead, decide on your own what timeframes you will use to trade, and keep in mind that the longer the timeframe, the more reliable the signal.
Take profits and stop losses in a row
The most important thing to remember is that you must keep acting according to your trading system, no matter how many stop losses you get in a row, and you must keep not acting against your trading system, no matter how many take profits you get in a row. The market can be irrational, and technical analysis may stop working at those times, but that doesn't matter. What matters is whether you are acting in a systematic way and whether you are in control at this moment. We can get several stop losses in a row if we only follow our trading system, but we don't have to worry about losing a lot of money or feeling bad about ourselves because we know that over the course of a few years, we are statistically certain to succeed if we trade on system entry points that have a 70% chance of working out and a ratio of possible profits to possible losses of at least 2:1, which guarantees us a profit even if we lose.
Conclusion
Real traders trade probabilities based on market signals in the moment instead of building expectations, because they know that expectations lead to unfulfilled expectations and missed opportunities. You can only make money with a system, self-control, and time.
Trading with 0 stress👉So you see a trading opportunity. It looks like a fair setup. You get confirmation to enter, but you hesitate. You're afraid of losing money, or you have some anxiety that keeps you from pulling the trigger. This is a problem that almost all traders face at some point in their trading career. I too have suffered from fear of losing money and this problem has led to other mistakes that have stopped me from executing my best trades. Today I share my process of what I did. To reduce my anxiety while trading and the actual steps I took to improve my trading execution.
❓ Do you think the color of the candle affects you while trading? Of course it does. Feel free to tell me if this sounds familiar in the comment section. You enter a long trade expecting the market to go up. You gain a few %, then the price turns against you and forms a red candle. And you start watching the movement, especially each candle pointing down. And you focus on the red color of the candle.
😱You get more and more anxious. When another red candle forms. This was a big problem for me in my early years. I closed my trades after a few minutes. When I saw more red candles below my entry point. The solution to overcome this is simple:
🧨 Change the color of the candles to one color. This way you will only track the price and its range.
Let me ask you, which of the texts on the screen is the one that is easier to read? The single colour or the multi-colour? There is a phenomenon in psychology called visual perception. Your brain is always looking for patterns in commerce. If you use multi-coloured candles, you reduce your ability to recognise patterns. Let me repeat that. Your brain is looking for patterns, and one of those patterns is similar colors. Colors affect your brain, your emotions, your feelings. Your psychology, potentially your trading ability. To trade best, you need to trade in a neutral, unbiased state of mind. I've bought in the past because of fast moving red or green candles, I've made bad trades, both on entry and exit. If you get anxious during an open trade, use candles of the same color. So try this simple tip to reduce your reaction to price movements. Change the colour to anything but not to red. Blue or green, yellow or white candles. Just stay away from red and give me a feedback in a week or so. I find myself calmer using a single color for the up and down candles. Maybe this little brainstorming session will help relieve some of the anxiety.
👉 Here's another situation. You see a long opportunity. The price is around the key level and you need to decide. You pull the trigger at, say, $50. You say to yourself, "Wait, I'll wait until... until the market drops a few cents. The market drops to $50.02, but you're still waiting. And then the market goes back up to $50.10 and... you say to yourself, I'm not getting in now. That's a worse price than five minutes ago. I'll wait until it goes down again. And of course the price never comes back. It goes up without you. And now you're frustrated because you anticipated the move, but your perfectionism... prevented you from pulling the trigger. Fear of losing money and perfectionism can lead to irrational behavior, overanalyzing, overthinking and slowly draining your mental energy.
🟢 One of the problems I personally struggled with was. That I wanted to be perfect in my trades. I was looking for the perfect opportunity. You know, when you enter and the price never goes against you, not even one %. Being a perfectionist in trading is stressful and always being on the edge doesn't help you make good trading decisions. In most cases, when you are waiting for the perfect entry, you realize you just missed a big move. Trying to time your entry precisely, at the entry point, is a foolish undertaking. Perfection can be your biggest enemy in trading and can cause you a lot of stress.
🟢 Here's how to reduce that anxiety. Use ranges instead of exact prices. As a day trader, you will not be able to track price movements every minute of the day. That's why you should use price ranges instead of exact prices. This gives you some flexibility. And of course you still need to be strict with yourself when executing your plan. Good traders are vigilant, yet patient. When a lineup they've been waiting for pops up, they grab it without hesitation. But until that time comes, they won't budge. The price fluctuations that lure other traders. They choose to reserve energy for what they are prepared for and ignore everything else. They don't chase the market, they let the market come to them. The opposite of this is forcing trades. You know the feeling when you wait for a trade, see some activity, and pull the trigger early. You force the trade. I did that almost every day.
🟢 Here's the solution. Stop using market orders and use limit orders instead. Basically let the market come to you. Once you have selected the assets you want and done your analysis, you need to determine the prices where you will buy and sell. Your goal is simply to buy and sell at the best possible prices, and use your research to identify reasonable prices in advance. Not only will this help you get a better deal, it will also help you avoid emotion-based trading. The simple solution to reducing stress and anxiety is to only act when the conditions are what you expect. Letting the market come to you is a difficult but valuable skill to learn. So forget market orders and use limit orders. This will reduce your emotional involvement and prevent you from making bad decisions.
🟢 If you want to reduce stress and anxiety while trading, you should switch to higher time frames. This will allow you the time needed to make informed decisions. I know you will find it difficult at first, but you will continue to struggle with anxiety and stress until you make the change. If you are feeling nervous and afraid of losing money, I highly recommend trying the higher time frames. Again, this transition to higher time frames is difficult and most traders are reluctant to switch. But you need to change your environment if you want better trading performance. If you trade in an environment like the 1-minute or the 5-minute chart, you risk the risk of market noise. True, higher time frames don't offer trading opportunities with as much speed, but the signals generated are more reliable and have a much higher chance of working. Better to trade a handful of good quality trades. Rather than trying with many poor quality trades. Daytrade trading is exciting, but it also requires you to monitor price movements for many hours. Most daytrade traders initially like the excitement and moving on lower time frames, but it's only a matter of time before they experience mental burnout, and once mental discipline is exhausted, greed, frustration, anger and impatience will bring bad trades and send you into a dangerous state of mind from which it is difficult to recover. So move into higher time frames. You'll only spend a fraction of the time in front of the charts, and you'll be at less risk of burnout. After a while, you'll find that it becomes much easier to work with a cool head while maintaining mental and emotional discipline.
🟢 How often do you enter trading? The setup looked great, then the price went straight away to your stop-loss before it got to your take profit level without you. Without profit, this is probably the most frustrating scenario many traders face on a daily basis. Because you fear losing money, you tend to use small stop losses. You don't want to make a mistake and try to keep your losses small, but keeping your levels too close to the entry candle is a recipe for having your account cut to pieces. A tight stop relies on you having very precise, near-perfect entries, and we've already talked about perfectionism in trading. If you repeatedly see your stops being hit regularly before the price turns in the original direction, it is very likely that you have placed your stops at levels that other traders use, especially if you trade on obvious price movement patterns. My advice is to start trading with a wider stop loss and a lower position size away from the entry. The position size you use should be small enough that neither a loss nor a gain will affect your mindset and ability to continue trading, only then will you really focus on proper execution.
🟢If you are trading the markets with your hard-earned money, but you don't know what your trading strategy is and you don't trust your market analysis skills. You probably shouldn't be trading with a live account. One of the biggest reasons why you are nervous and afraid when you trade is that you will lose your money because you don't trust your own trading skills. You may not have learned a trading strategy. You do not have a trading plan, you do not keep a trading diary. You are simply not prepared to take risks. Real money at risk in the markets. That is why you feel fear when you trade. Basically, trading anxiety comes from not knowing what you are doing. I have talked many times about the value of a trading log. The key is to use your trading log to keep track of when you are at your best and when you are at your worst when it comes to your trading and your emotions. I pay close attention in my trading diary to times when I make mental mistakes, such as not trading a good trade when I know I should. When I am afraid of losing money or avoiding a good trade, I look for triggers and patterns. Was I confused? Did I make that mistake in a particular market situation? Do I have certain feelings and emotions from previous trades? These are the intangible factors that you need to track in your trading log.
🟢 Most traders are fixated on short-term results. They make money by pressing a few buttons and don't pay attention to the process that makes it possible. They make mistakes, learn from them, and correct them over and over again. Everyone thinks about winning, but few think about the benefits of losing . In my experience, most wins are directly attributable to a big losing trade that I learned from making money in the past. As a trader it makes no sense if you don't understand why/why you can't repeat. Similarly, losing money is a valuable experience. If you understand why you lost. Paradoxically, you cannot understand why you win. Without first understanding how you could have lost in the same situation. So change the way you think about losses, because they will show you the direction of repeatable victories in the future.
If you've already lost, at least don't lose the lesson.
Take care my friend and have a good trade!
DEMONS OF TRADING | Don't Think Like This
Have you ever wondered what helped all those professionals of Wall Street become successful? You will be surprised, but the key to their reached heights is hidden in their mistakes. Yes, that is right. Most professional and successful traders made many mistakes before they got to the top.
Making mistakes is ordinary and sometimes even necessary because you learn when you make them. The crucial point of this idea is never to repeat those mistakes because some errors may cost us a fortune. That is why we gathered 10 most common trading mistakes to prevent you from faults and losses.
Little preparation
Entry to the Forex market is relatively easy, so people have a light-minded attitude towards trading knowledge. Beginner traders, especially, think that theory is not a big deal, and they will be able to build it up without a peep. However, it does not work this way.
Miscalculating the risk/reward ratio
For some reason, many traders believe that higher win trades are more profitable than lower ones. Sometimes, this idea even gets paid off, and due to blind luck, trades, where the potential risk exceeds the reward, benefit. However, in most cases, such trades are a sure way to lose money in the longer term.
Avoiding risk management
Risk management should be the core of your trading because it helps cut down losses. Trading without risk management is like skydiving without a parachute.
Neglecting market events
Relevant market news is essential as economic events influence the direction of trading during the day. So, if you are not aware of the financial reports or earnings, you might skip the volatility.
To win the game, you need to develop your thinking and how you participate in the game. You are in a market trading against professional traders. Your goal is to think like a professional. That is the only way to survive in this game.
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The 3 Kinds of Trading Pains You Need to KnowHello everyone,
I identified early 3 kind of pains when trading/investing
Pain of missing out
How disheartening to get out of a trade and see it progressing way further leaving us with only a fraction of what we could have made.
Took me some time to make peace with the fact that banking a piece of a whole move is OKAY.
Capturing 20, 30, 50% of a trade is OKAY.
You know why? It's still more than any loss and obviously more than 0.
Pain of losing money
Basically, it's when we're either wrong on the trade direction or trade timing (= when the candles will go in the expected direction).
I feel it's more painful to lose gains aka some $$ we earned than losing some of our initial capital.
Our brains are wired that way.
It's pretty challenging psychologically to gain something and then losing it.
Think about your past romantic breakups, when you lost your sport trophy because the adversary team outcompeted you, when you give a candy to a child and then take it back... (don't do it, it's mean ^^)
Recovering from a catastrophic loss took me multiple months - I was disgusted of trading - I didn't want to open my trading terminal anymore.
I ended up blaming everyone (the market, the broker, ...), then decided to crawl my way back up trading demo and with small position sizes again.... same as a beginner should do.
If you lost money due to that FTX scam, I can relate to how you must be feeling.....
Assessing counter-party risk is complicated, especially when we see institutions, senators investing into our broker....
The only hedge for that is paying ourselves often... I do it every week... my gains (if any ^^) are safer on my bank account rather than on any broker.
Pain of being "inexperienced"
Being inexperienced is the psychological state of not thinking in a rational way anymore and letting our emotions leading our actions.
Typical scenario: we receive "easy" signals and we didn't take them because we were fatigued or furious because we lost taking previous signals with the same system.
Assuming an overall profitable strategy, not respecting the signals from your trading system leads to missing out on gainers and losing money (ending the day/week with a net negative P&L)
Respecting your signals WILL NEVER be easy .... but.... it's the less painful choice as the alternative is wasting your money, your time and your energy.
Conclusion
The pain of losing money is greater than the pain of missing out.... by far....
That's why, most profitable traders burnt 1 or more trading accounts, of course involuntary, and learned that essential lesson the hard way.
Once we feel that pain, we don't want to feel it anymore ever..... and we take a lot of actions such as journaling, meditating, sleeping/eating well, working out to shut down our "monkey brain" acting based on emotions
WHY MONEY MANAGEMENT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE OF TRADING!Hey Traders here us a quick video that explains why money mangement is essential to trading success. Regardless of what level of trading education and experience you are this can benefit your trading. Without proper risk management it is very difficult if not impossible to protect your investment capital. Trading is a game of probabilities and in order to come out ahead I think it's important to know when to risk more or when to risk less. Especially when you are on a role in a winning streak vs waiting for the tides to turn during a losing streak.
Enjoy!
Trade Well
Clifford
HOW TO MANAGE YOUR EMOTIONSHello everyone! One of the most important , and in the same time, one of the hardest aspects of trading is the ability to manage correctly your emotions and leave them aside while trading. So how can we manage our emotions in stressful situations? Here are some tips that every trader should consider when starting trading:
1. DO NOT ACT ON ANGER: every time you feel strong emotions, hold back and revisit your trading plan, is your move aligned with your initial plan or are you acting on irrational emotions? One of the worst things is to take a position based on anger after a loss in order to recover the losses. Take a deep breath and rethink your decision!
2. DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR POSITIONS: we all want to always be right, but sometimes we have to accept a bad position and close it. It is common to fall in love with our positions and hold it out of hope that the market will switch, but involving emotions just blow the account, stick to your plan!
3. ESTABLISH SOME TRADING RULES AND KEEP A TRADING JOURNAL: setting your own rules of trading and risk management is crucial for a profitable account. No matter what you hear from others and how good a position may look, if it is not aligned with your rules, do not take it! Moreover, do not change a strategy after some losses, stick to what you have learnt and planned, keep the information in a trading journal and plan your next moves based on you learnt from it.
4. TAKE A BREAK AFTER 3 LOSSES IN A ROW: it is natural to have a bad day, but when this happen do not become over emotional and over trade, but rather take a break and wait for a new and fresh trading day. Strong emotions will ruin any important decision, no matter the context, so try to avoid them.
5. SET TP AND SL AND TRUST YOUR JUDGEMENT: after establishing your trading plan and risk management plan, in order to stick to your risk to reward strategy, you have to use Take Profit and Stop Loss orders, and trust your judgment and the market. No matter what happens, this helps you have a clear forecast of your account, without blowing it. Also, avoid getting greedy and secure your profits with take profit order.
6. LOWER THE TRADE SIZE: if you feel overwhelmed by the risk on each trade, and out of fear you make irrational decisions, try to lower the trade size to what feels comfortable with you. After doing this, always update your trading strategy!
7. DO NOT GIVE UP! : there is a point when every trader feels like giving up, losing all his faith, but you should understand that this is the normal journey, with ups and downs, and if you do not let yourself intimidated by the downs, the ups are limitless!