Why You Shouldn't Feel "FOMO" AnymoreHello to you my dear TradingView readers,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
One reason I don't have fear of missing out is that after 11 years of trading, I've learned that almost no one in this game keeps the money they've made.
A person's 10 minutes of fame does not excite me.
Usually, I'm right in thinking that they'll end with nothing.
👇 Here is Why 👇
My uncle made a fortune trading stocks during the dot-com boom, so I got into it.
He came up empty-handed.
With cryptocurrencies, I've seen young men turn $1,000 into over $100,000 in a matter of weeks.
They've since lost everything and are now penniless and in debt.
Robert, one of the greatest legends to me in my trading journey, was once up $60 million from trading.
He finished with nothing more than a good story.
I've seen it time and time again.
I'm no longer surprised by the rollercoaster of huge gains and losses.
It is my standard assumption.
I don't want anyone to suffer financial hardship.
Even those who appear to be clueless and act like fools.
The market gives and the market takes away.
It is extremely effective in this regard.
So let me say this: if you've made 100,000% in trading, I sincerely wish you the best.
But if you want congratulations, tell me when you’re retired.
The skills to make money are very different than the skills needed to keep that money.
The latter were more difficult for me to acquire...
If you want me to expand more on that topic, please let me know in the comments section.
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
I intend to share all facets of what makes a fantastic profitable trader and how to attain that status.
This is both the most difficult and the most rewarding job.
Thank you for reading
Dave
Risk Management
Smart Money vs Retail traders (How to Think Like Smart Money)😱 There were a few people there talking about their losses, that they had no idea what to do and I wrote this to them:
It's mostly the fault of mainstream media + youtubers + twitterers etc. It's really easy to communicate the simplest approach that everyone understands and subscribes too. Note that if everyone is on the same side... Usually most people are wrong. They take past events too much at face value. But the market is constantly changing. Its to buy on the upside and not during pullbacks + HODL HODL HODL. With that said they really have no idea where they should get out and get in. That's fine by the way. News can be picked up by any of us from the news portals. They don't inform anyone about the negative side of things. It's a tough place to be and you can't take it half as seriously as it is communicated. Unless you are an investor (REAL) you are looking at the market long term. A multi-year perspective. Of course it doesn't pay off here either. The crypto market is still pretty damn small. No one is too late. Now most of you are losing time, but everyone has to start somewhere. I was in the same situation in 2017. I was drowning. Now I'm still looking at these corrections from + xxxxx% profit. Unfortunately we have to give ourselves time in the market and endure pullbacks of -20-30-40-50-60% to see 3000% profits. Realizing upwards during the upswing is not a bad thing. For me, a huge part of my strategy is to have a lot of money on the sidelines. That's why. Especially on 4H trend changes I sell everything that is not bullish. Then I sell others too if they break the trend and just trade.
💡 We are in the best market in the world, but psychologically the hardest market. If you learn to manage these things and use volatility to your advantage rather than your disadvantage, then it's a game changer.
💡 Institutions (fund managers, pension funds, banks and whales) think in long term horizons and monitor price action based on that (Years, Decades) Small investors, retail traders monitor things in low time frames (Minutes, hours, days). Small investors quickly switch between optimism and pessimism based on current price movements and news in the media. It can be a bull market one day and a bear market for a small investor the next. Institutional investors are not sentimental, they assess the growth rate of the market sector, the total market size available, the adoptation/acceptance, the growth of the network, the analysis of revenues (to predict profitability years and decades in advance). If an institutional investor draws a conclusion, they hold it until the underlying financial situation changes. Small investors usually have limited money to invest, so they often resort to leveraging, which typically results in full liquidation. Leveraged trades have "unlimited" potential losses, and therefore small investors (who do not like to buy spot because it is not "cool") can easily "drop out" of trading because of the "unlimited" losses from leverage. Think about it... as a retailer, you have your precious and hard-earned money on the line. Do you have time to lose what you've worked hard to earn, or even more? Why can't you accept that this is a profession? We study in university for 3-10 years to get an average salary afterwards. But here we are not willing to spend a couple of years without constantly taking time away from yourself with losses? Levrage are not bad. The user is the dangerous one.
😱 There is a reason why 90% of retail traders lose money.
💡Institutionalists brazenly exploit those with few resources and fear. Institutional investors have access to billions of dollars worth of resources and have teams of quantitative/statistical experts who control the automated trading algorithms.
Institutional investors have deep pockets and can influence the general sentiment of the market through the press (news, social media and interviews). Institutional investors influence the news that small investors read. Institutionalists are well known for advertising higher prices to retailers to "buy at the top", This is the FOMO factor (Fear of Missing Out). They are also notorious for creating tremendous market fear (FUD - Fear Uncertainty and Doubt), which encourages retailers to "sell at the bottom".
💡 Institutions are also actively involved in futures, options and derivatives markets. They all actively benefit from short-term price cycles as well as longer-term accumulation strategies. The institutions are sophisticated, financially strong and have expertise. Institutions make money by attracting small investors into the market (via FOMO) and then liquidating their positions (via FUD). In the market, one person's loss is another person's gain.
💡 There is a learning curve that 90% of your people want to skip and get rich overnight. Unfortunately, this is not reality. Knowledge is incredibly important. If you want to be a doctor, or a surgeon, you don't just walk into the operating room and say give me a knife and I'll cut this guy open and operate him without any knowledge. You really have to know what you're doing. If you're an engineer or you want to be an engineer, without training or knowledge, it would be very difficult for you to build a bridge or a skyscraper. You need the knowledge. If you want to be a teacher, but you don't know the subject matter, it would be very difficult to teach students in a meaningful way if you don't even know what you are teaching. So it is essential to acquire knowledge, but that knowledge has to come from the right people. So mentoring is also vital. Everyone must also understand the psychological aspects of investing and trading. Because a lot of people lose money in the financial markets. Not because they are stupid, but because their emotions get the better of them. Focusing on learning is incredibly important, it changes your life. Of course, this doesn't just apply to investing and trading. It applies to everything, which is why the financial markets are so incredible in their ability to create meaning in life, if people are open to it, and if they don't focus too much on money, then money will simply be the result of doing things the right way. Over time, if you do things the right way, you will become rich, you don't have to become a millionaire overnight. If you want to do that, you will probably lose all the money you put into the hands of institutions that want your money, want you to be captivated by a fantasy world.
The reality is that you need the knowledge to fight the big players and win.
💡Self-control is also a must. All wealth will pass without self-control. Self-control makes you keep the money you earn. There are many examples of this among people who have won huge amounts of money without earning it. For example, people who win lottery. These people basically give back all the money they made because they didn't really earn it. A lot of times, the money they didn't earn is put back. When you earn money with self-control, you never have to give it back! It is yours and will continue to grow.
💡 The key is to get off your ass and get moving. Remember these things and you'll be fine.
The Lesson From The Biggest Trader I've KnownHello to you TradingView traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
I was fortunate enough to work alongside a trader making 7-8 figures a month.
👇 Here is what I learned from him👇
The Pareto law
The Pareto principle or law of the vital few, stating that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
Took me quite some time to truly understand it
Throughout the years, I've had a sneaking suspicion that a small percentage of my trades were responsible for the vast majority of my profits.
Basically, trades I entered early, in the expected direction and held until the next support/resistance zone.
Such trades, where the next S/R confluence zone is "far" tend to give the best results.
Then I started to wonder if I should prioritise only those setups over others because of how lucrative they are.
Why bother taking the "less easy" trades right I asked to a senior trader at the prop?
His answer was enlightening
He said, "because we don't know upfront if those trades will work... we only know they have a better chance of giving bigger rewards.... though it's not a guarantee"
And that's why we have to take the other trades too because "even those ones could bring a lot of gains even though the initial configuration is probabilistically less rewarding"
This piece of wisdom killed me inside because I'm lazy and as everyone, I want to make the big money taking a few trades per day/week only
I felt some pain to learn there is no guaranteed way to know upfront even if a likely high rewarding trade will finance my future fancy lifestyle....
He told me then "If you want to make a soccer player wage, you'll have to take bigger position sizes for those high reward setups"
Sounds obvious right?
When you know your trading system gives 20% of very rewarding trades and 80% of small gainers, it makes sense to increase one position size for the rare high reward trades.
Very quickly, I learned that any other strategy for making money in trading is doomed to failure.
To balance out my losing trades and have a decent profit at the end of each month, I had to bet big on high reward setups.
Might sounds shocking to most of you but even with a low win rate, as long as your winners size and PnL are far higher than all the other trades, you'll be profitable.
This simple change was one of the main things that helped me become a very successful trader.
Success defined as how consistent I am at making the desired monthly/yearly salary and at increasing it every year.
If you struggle making money out of your trading, take some time to reflect and identify which trades setups usually bring you most of the available gains.
Then backtest visually what you would have made if you'd had 2X, 3X, 4X the position size on those trades, keeping all the rest equal.
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
I intend to share all facets of what makes a fantastic profitable trader and how to attain that status.
This is both the most difficult and the most rewarding job.
Thank you for reading
Dave
What Every Trader Should Know About Margin
Margin can be a powerful tool to leverage your investment returns or to finance purchases apart from your portfolio.
Margin is an extension of credit from a brokerage firm using your own eligible securities as collateral. Most traders typically use margin as a means to purchase additional securities, but there are other uses too. Interest is charged on the borrowed funds for the period of time that the loan is outstanding.
Benefits of a Margin Trading Account:
Use the cash or securities in your account as leverage to increase your buying power.
Get the lowest market margin loan interest rates of any broker.
Diversify trading strategies with short selling, options and futures contracts, or currency trading.
Borrow against a margin account at any time and repay the loan on your own schedule.
Margin borrowing is only for experienced investors with high risk tolerance. You may lose more than your initial investment.
Before trading on margin, understand the following risks:
Trading losses may be greater than the value of the initial investment
Leveraged investments create a greater potential risk of loss
Additional costs from margin interest charges
Potential margin calls or liquidation of securities
Hey traders, let me know what subject do you want to dive in in the next post?
Learn Cup & Handle Pattern | Profitable Trading Strategy For Beg
A Cup and Handle is a bullish continuation chart pattern that marks a consolidation period followed by a breakout.
Chart patterns form when the price of an asset moves in a way that resembles a common shape, like a rectangle, flag, pennant, head and shoulders, or, like in this example, a cup and handle.
There are two parts to this chart pattern:
The cup
The handle
The cup forms after a downtrend and is followed by an uptrend and looks like a bowl or rounding bottom.
As the cup is completed, the price trades sideways, and a trading range is established on the right-hand side and the handle is formed.
A breakout from the handle’s trading range signals a continuation of the previous uptrend.
The cup should resemble a bowl or rounding bottom.
The perfect pattern would have equal highs on both sides of the cup, but in the real world, just like when finding someone to marry, perfect doesn’t exist.
After the high forms on the right side of the cup, there is a pullback that forms the handle.
The handle is the consolidation before the breakout.
The handle needs to be smaller than the cup. The handle should not drop into the lower half of the cup, and ideally, it should stay in the upper third.
If the Cup and Handle pattern completes successfully, the price should break above the trend established by the “handle” and go on to reach new highs.
The buy point occurs when the asset breaks out or moves upward through the old point of resistance (right side of the cup).
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THE POWER OF STOP LOSSHello again! Here I prepared for you what I consider the most important tool when it comes to risk management and developing a discipline, which helped me a lot in my trading journey: stop loss!
At first, I have to admit that I found it truly frustrating to see how 2 pips can trigger the stop loss and right after that my position reaches my target, but in time, I realised that in order to stick to my trading strategy and become profitable, I have to also accept the losses, even when I consider them
"unfair". Using the stop loss order not only that it helps cutting the losses, but can also help you lock in the profits. What helped my account the most was, after a while when the price goes in the desired direction, to move the stop loss at the entry point (so whatever happens, there will be no loss), and it honestly eliminates a lot of stress, especially during night.
Hopefully you will find this information as useful as I did, and feel free to ask anything in the comments section!
Why Your Backtest Results May Not Give Realistic ResultsHello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Timeframes
A lot of models work on high timeframes on the charts.
They work visually at least and that's why many are only sharing with high timeframes charts greater than 4H.
We all built a backtest based on a moving average cross and got a shooting 95%+ win-rate when running the backtest engine for the very first time.
We all thought we were geniuses right :)
"Way too easy" we all thought
There is a caveat though...
For derivatives trading (CFDs, options, futures, ..) backtests always account for real trading fees.
Let me explain... We all heard/saw those rollover fees that we need to pay overnight.
This is basically how the brokers are forcing the overnight/over weekend traders to pay more fees.
While the explanation longs to pay for the shorts, and shorts to pay for the longs is poetic - those fees could eat out your position capital way before the price action has even moved.
Imagine a range during days/weeks.
You'll end up paying a lot of fees and might end up with a very negative position size way before anything interesting (from a trading perspective) ever happened.
I saw many trades being minus double digits percent PnL only because of fees.
Then, imagine trading contracts with an expiration date - this adds another challenge - and most of backtests don't even account for that either.
Leverage
Leverage increases disproportionally the risk compared to the opportunity.
Leverage 2 does increase the risk by 2 but the opportunity won't be multiplied by 2.
Well.... it would be in case the analysis is good in the first place. (assuming the risk/entry/exit plan is correctly calculated).
Assuming those analyses are made by experienced traders, then using leverage makes sense - otherwise I'd stay away from it.
I surely sound like a broken record with this...
But, I know what you're thinking
You calculated already how many trades and pips you need to earn $1M and you concluded it won't be possible without leverage.
This statement is true if you want to get rich quick which anyway always lead to get poor quick.
"Past performance doesn't guarantee future performance"
Probably the quote we hear the most in trading guys...
Generally in trading, what worked before has a probability to not work anymore the more time has been elapsed.
I don't mean it won't work anymore.
This only means we should be cautious when trading setups valid from a while ago on a specific market.
A way to not get that burden on our psychology is to indeed reduce the position sizing.
Until we are comfortable and not stressed anymore.
That's the sweet spot you guys have to find.
For some, it might be a few hundreds per trade, for others a few thousands.
There IS NOT a well-formulated generic universal valid answer for what's the best position sizing.
Apart of course from starting with tiny baby positions and scaling up from there
But for sure, once we get comfortable with one position size range level, we should go to the upper level direct above.
Direct above means, if we trade 100 USD position sizes, the next one could be in the 110-150 USD range. (and not 1K right off the bat...)
We wouldn't lift 100 kg after getting used to only 10 kg.
Trading isn't different than any skill requiring training and dedication
The challenge is to not change our goals midway after a few wins or a few losses.
And to stick with them for a few months at least.
Literally takes me weeks of training to add a few kg to my chest press barbell or biceps curls.
That's how much it took me also to increase the average position sizing by 10% or so.
Thus the more I increase it, the more time I need to get comfortable with it.
And it gets increasingly difficult from a psychological perspective the bigger the position size gets
Applies in a lot of areas in life, sport, career also.
It takes time!
The worst thing for new traders is getting early very lucky and rewarding trades.
That's what happened with many crypto traders in 2017 and 2021
They got too cocky and made that money too quickly and too easily.
Then, when the market turned bearish... they gave all it back because their experience/backtest/psychology/beliefs weren't ready for a market shift.
We're at a time where markets change constantly.
And perhaps that's why the patterns used by our predecessors 20 years ago aren't relevant anymore.
My father told me that trading 40 years ago was as "easy" stealing a candy from a baby.
Now it’s a lot more complicated due to the noise, trading bots, etc..
Often orders aren't filled
In paper trading or with a backtest, when a Take Profit is hit... well we make profit and that's cool.
But those LIVE trading know that sometimes... the limit orders aren't filled and no one can give us a logical explanation why the F... they weren't filled.
Even though the charts clearly show we should have been filled...
Your broker will say slippage.
Your guru will say "I got a nice 1000% profit - Hope you all exited when I told you so"
You will say "But my backtest claimed that an order should always be filled..."
I'm saying blaming the casino isn't useful and won't bring you anywhere
And that's why trades need to be managed because we're playing against the house (exchange) & competition (i.e. SMART-MONEY - understand bankers/funds with real advanced financial education) that want us liquidated.
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
I want to teach you guys every aspects of what makes a great trader and how to get there.
This is the most challenging and the most rewarding job at the same time
Thank you for reading
Dave
Cognitive Biases in Forex Trading
This article explores the cognitive biases in forex trading. The biases discussed in this article can play a significant role in any form of speculative trading and investing, not just forex trading.
A cognitive bias is a systematic flaw in how we think. Cognitive biases are present in every decision we face.
Anchoring Bias.
People rely too much on reference points from
the past when making a decision for the future -
they are "anchored" to the past.
Loss Aversion.
This is when people go to great lengths to avoid
losses because the pain of loss is twice as
impactful as the pleasure received from a win.
Confirmation Bias.
The confirmation trap is when traders seek
out information that validates their opinions
and ignore any theories that invalidate them.
Superiority Trap.
Many traders in the past have lost large sums
of money simply because they have fallen prey to
the mentality of overconfidence.
Herding.
Many traders in the past have lost large sums
of money simply because they have fallen prey to
the mentality of overconfidence.
Pay close attention to your decision making to spot the fallacies.
What do you want to learn in the next post?
Swing-Trading: Real-Time Signals ✅Our swing-trading strategy is based on the timeless and success proven strategies developed by stock market legends like Jesse Livermore, William o' Neil and Mark Minervini - 3x US investing Champion 🍾🍾🍾
In this video, I go through the details of our swing-trading strategy and explain how to get free access to Real-Time-Trading signals.
What Are The Pros And Cons of Intraday vs Swing TradingHello traders,
There is not such a good or bad timeframe.
Like cooking, everything depends on how you use the ingredients for your meals.
Intraday timeframes
Pros
Earlier entries
Earlier exits => losers are smaller compared to losers with SWING trades
You make your daily goals earlier
With Intraday trading, we're not impacted by contracts expiration, rollover, over-weekend, overnight fees
It's rarely boring (especially with indices trading)
Leverage isn't needed
Perfect for beginners or small capital
Cons
More in/out entries => you have to enter, exit, enter, exit until the real move happen
You have to be more reactive and accurate when taking a position or exiting.
Swing timeframes
Pros
More time to react and prepare
We don't need to be too accurate with our entries and exits
You're less impacted by news/events/rumours/tweets - They have a real visible impact on intraday but generally don't change a thing for the swing trend
Cons
Bigger drawdown by design
Forces to hold trades over multiple days/weeks.
In a range, we pay a lot in funding/rollover fees before the real move happens.
Being double digits percent down because of fees isn't pleasant.
Big capital required to afford to lose a few percentages sometimes with those trading fees
1 click takes 5 seconds.
Then you wait and wait and wait and wait, and then look on Twitter for ideas to invalidate your entries.
When your favorite guru shares a contrary setup, you follow his/her call and wreck yourself.
You really need patience with SWING trades.
If the patience for you is an issue, I'd stick with Intraday.
Have a great day
Dave
Do That BEFORE You Start REAL ACCOUNT Trading
Here is the list of thing that you should learn in advance before you start trading on a real account.
1) Open a demo (practice) account and learn to execute trades without making errors
2) Study the methods of great traders and financial minds throughout history - Jesse Livermore, W D Gann, Charles Dow/Dow theory, Paul Tudor Jones,Richard Wyckoff.
Learn their methods and employ them. Learn their mistakes and avoid them.
3) Focus on learning, not winning. Forget about money and profits. Think about developing a winning strategy and a winning trading mindset. Always be open-minded. Observe. Be flexible.
4) I recommend reading the following books. These books will help you to start to think like a trader and realize what you are getting yourself into:
a) "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefevre
b) "Art of War" by Sun Tzu (Not a trading book but an old book on rules of war and how to protect yourself from being outsmarted and defeated by your enemies)
c) "The Trading Methodologies of W.D. Gann" by Hima Reddy
d) "Time Compression Trading: Exploiting Multiple Time Frames in Zero Sum Markets" by Jason Alan Jankovsky
e) "Trading in the Zone: Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline and a Winning Attitude" by Mark Douglas
5) Watch YouTube videos. Absorb all the info you can as the more you know, the more the pieces of the puzzle fit together later on. You can learn the basics of trading on your own and then when you are ready to take your trading to the next level.
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. The beginning traders in the market are not your competition-they are incidental. You need to trade with the professional traders who run the market.
I wish you luck on a battle field!
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10 Important Trading LessonsWhat are most useful trading tips you have heard so far?
Today, I am going to share with you 10 important trading lessons which market taught me after years of experience and I wish these tips to help you in your future trades :
1. We should Only do trading whenever we can obey all the following items or we had better leave trading forever.
2. Never enter into a stressful trade. This means you have to set you stop loss and calculate you target before executing a trade and possible loss should be small enough that you can tolerate.
3. If you feel to need to sit behind your laptop or PC to monitor and check your trade after opening a position, you are entering into a wrong one !. Do not open it.
4. Doing an analysis in relax and comfortable condition is necessary before any trade. Opening a position without " an already done analysis " is a great mistake ! .
5. Running an immediate analysis when market has strong momentum and trading based on that is very risky. Try to avoid such trades.
6. Never fade the gain of a good trade with a loss of a bad one. Good here means trading based on pre-defined strategy and bad means throwing it away .
7. Using leverages can be dangerous as much as it can be fascinating.
8. Only use leverages when all elements of your trading strategy are present.
9. Stick to your Stop loss and Take profit which you set and calculated outside of any market excitation.
10. Being optimistic and over pessimistic is forbidden. Trading is all about being realistic.
please share your own experiences as comments. I am eager to learn from you my friends.
Good luck.
What is really up with the Funded Programs?Before we go any further, I want to state that
1) This post is NOT PROMOTING ANY prop firms/funded trader programs,
2) I do not hate or have anything against any prop firms/funded trader programs, I am just sharing my understanding from what I have read and experienced, and
3) Info here is not complete. If you choose to embark on any programs, please make sure you do your own due diligence.
Traditional Prop Firm
Typically refers to a group of traders that focus on buying and selling financial assets with the firm’s capital. The trader uses that firm's money to trade and in exchange receives a small wage and a large percentage of the profits. In practice, proprietary trading firms provide the capital, proprietary technology, training, coaching, and mentoring for you to become an elite trader.
Funded Programs
There has been an ever-increasing number of funded trader programs, marketing to retail traders about the huge profit-sharing potential (75-90%) when they become "a funded trader." And all that is required is paying for and passing an evaluation/testing period. You would pay anywhere from $84 to $184 for a $10,000 account and it could go as high as you want (almost)
A trader in the evaluation/testing period would have
- Profit target of 8-10% in phase 1 (typically 30 days)
- Profit target of 5% in phase 2 (typically 60 days)
- Daily drawdown of no more than 5%
- Overall drawdown of no more than 10-12%
From my experience coaching retail traders, newbie or average trader has an account size of no more than $10,000. This makes the idea of being funded to trade become really attractive, limiting the downside while almost maximizing the potential. However, there has also been a lot of negativity about these funded programs;
- the evaluation and actual trading accounts are demo accounts
- the company makes more money from traders failing than from profitable traders
- some traders claim to have never received their payouts
Are funded programs scams?
Again, I have not evaluated ALL funded programs to say this, but probably not. (Do your own due diligence!)
Companies running funded programs are likely just deploying a good business model, addressing a pain that most retail traders have (funding their account) and filling that gap.
Should you jump into a funded program?
There is a lot more information (more than discussed above) that needs to be considered before you jump in. A brief checklist:
1) Do you have a profitable trading strategy to deploy? ( if you don't have a profitable strategy, keep reading, learning & testing )
2) Have you used it for at least a year? ( avoid using funded programs as a testing ground, it can get costly! do it on a demo or even a $1,000 account first )
3) Does the strategy meet the max drawdown conditions? ( 5% a day, 10% total? For example, a martingale strategy is not likely to work )
4) How likely are you to bend your trading rules? ( rules set by the programs are set in stone, a breach even by the slightest and you would have failed )
5) Is it the right time to start? ( are markets in consolidation, on a holiday period, or super volatile with no clear trend )
Remember that the average annualized return of the S&P500 is 11.88% (1957 to 2021). Trying to make 8-10% in 30 days and then 5% in 60 days just to pass, tends to put the trader under a lot of stress. How do you perform under significant pressure?
What are your views of the funded programs? Share it with me in the comments
I have never thought much about the funded programs. But recently have been considering giving it a shot and live-streaming the trading process daily. Would you join me on the stream?
Stay tuned, it might just happen.
17 Money Rules Everyone Should KnowHello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
1. Pay yourself first
As soon as you get paid, put money into savings.
Automating this is even better.
2. Keep a 6 months emergency fund
If you have multiple streams of income, you can go as low as 3 months.
If starting out on your own, you could need as much as 12 months.
3. Budget using the 50/30/20 rule
50% for needs
30% for wants
20% towards saving/retiring
4. Divide your bonus into thirds
1/3 for fun
1/3 for retirement
1/3 for debt paydown
5. Put a large percentage of your raised into your savings
This helps avoid lifestyle inflation and moves up your retirement date.
6. Avoid high-interest debt
If you have it, use the snowball or avalanche method to pay it off
7. US only: Always take an employer 401K match
Many employers match a percentage of your paycheck.
This money gets an immediate 100% return.
Turning this down is the same thing as turning down ra raise.
8. Your home payment
Mortage + interest + insurance should cost less than 25% of your monthly income
9. When buying a car, use the 20/4/10 rule
20% down
4 years loan
< 10% of your monthly income
10. Save at least 15% of your monthly income for retirement
11. The stock market has a long-term average return of 10%
So, when the CPI inflation of your country is 10%, you're actually at breakeven in term of buying power
12. The rule of 72
Example: The stock market returns 10%, so 72/10 = 7.2 years to double your money
13. The 4% rule
This rule says you can safely withdraw 4% of your starting investment balance each year (adjust for inflation in subsequent years) and not run out of money.
14. The wealth ratio
Take what your spend divided by your income
If it's below 10%, you're "wealthy" because you can live off 10% of your income
15. Have at least 5 times your gross salary in term life insurance
16. Before spending money
Wait 24 hours and ask: do I still want it? If you do, go and buy it.
This will save you from a lot of impulse purchases
17. Value time over money and experience over things
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
How To Master Your SleepHello traders and investors,
This week, I'll talk about physiology, but I'd like to relate how I went from being an overly worried, under-slept, overfed, under-muscular person to the MAN I am today.
Let's start with how I conquered my sleep to get at least 7 hours of sleep per night, including hours of REM and DEEP sleep.
Trading after a bad night's sleep is extremely difficult, if not dangerous.
Because we can't think clearly when we have brain fog.
And trading necessitates that we be hyperaware.
I've had trouble sleeping virtually my whole life....
Even if I went to bed early, I usually experienced insomnia, woke up at 2/3 a.m., and couldn't fall back asleep.
It made my life unpleasant by causing chronic mental fog and an inability to be motivated.
I'm happy to report that I've mastered my sleep issues and discovered routines and tools to help me stay and fall asleep.
The majority of what follows was taught to me by Andrew Huberman, a well-known physiologist with about 2 million subscribers on YouTube (at the time of writing).
Protocol: Right after waking up
I go to my patio and soak up 10/15 minutes of sunlight.
I'm fortunate to reside in a sunny location.
On cloudy days, you'll have to increase your time outside first thing in the morning to 30 minutes.
This approach is for awaking your circadian cycle and signalling to your body that the day has begun.
It's critical to start as early as possible in the morning.
I conduct a 10 minute HIIT workout on my terrace.
You don't necessary need to do this; going for a walk outside is also a great morning routine.
I've read several times that this early workout is highly useful for letting our brain know that it's time to start waking up the "machine."
Protocol: During the day
- I don't drink coffee after noon.
Some folks do and sleep well.
I'm one of those guys who is hypersensitive to caffeine and can't fall asleep anytime I consume coffee in the afternoon.
- I don't consume junk food nor just eat whole foods.
I eat a well-balanced diet consisting of 60% carbs, 30% protein, and 10% fat because I work out for 1 hour every day.
I also always eat below or at my calories maintenance - studies show metabolism are the healthiest when we don’t overeat - I don’t want no hormones, health issues - I want to live healthy, rich and for a very long time.
This contributes to the development of my body, charisma, testosterone, and courage.
Courage is essential while dealing with difficult circumstances, especially when our trades are underwater.
- I don't consume alcohol or smoke.
I don't feel smoking is harmful to sleep; I simply don't do it for health reasons.
However, alcohol is known to have a bad impact on our brain and sleep.
Protocol: 2 hours before going to bed
I go to bed around 9:30 p.m. every night.
Going to bed at the same time every day trains our brains to allow us to fall asleep around that time.
The caveat is that anytime I go out at night and go to bed beyond that time, I tend to have poorer sleep quality.
- Beginning with the most important: I am closing ALL of my intraday trades
I don't want my intraday trades to turn into swing trades or, worse, long-term investments.
I don't want to wake up stressed every night to check my trades PnL.
I want to go to bed stress-free.
- Blue light glasses
I still work late at night, so I wear blue light-blocking glasses.
Our brain associates blue colors with "hey, it's still day time."
That is why protecting our eyes from bright lights (even those in our homes) is essential for a healthy night's sleep.
Looking at your TV or computer at night without them guarantees that you won't sleep well, that you'll wake up in the middle of the night and won't be able to fall back asleep.
- Self-massages
I use a foam roller to roll my back and neck on, as well as a massage tool.
Eric Berg: shop.drberg.com
I have no affiliation; that product improved my life by allowing me to remove nodes in my back and neck without visiting a chiropractor
- Stretching
Shaolin Monks are famed for being highly flexible; they say flexibility is a sign of an extremely healthy physique, and I couldn't agree more.
Stretching my hamstrings and back on a daily basis greatly fixed my lower back/neck pain.
Protocol: Back/Neck Pain
75% of the persons I spoke with were suffering from back/neck pain.
Some people sleep on their stomach, which is bad for their neck, and they know they should sleep on their side, but they can't fall asleep that way.
Some are extremely stressed and cringe.
Cringing frequently causes neck pain.
I needed a dental tray to prevent my cringing from causing nodes in my neck.
Really a life-saving, or should I say sleep-saving, device.
Protocol: What to Do If You Wake Up in the Middle of the Night
- Self-massage using the foam roller and the Eric Berg’s massage tool.
- Never check your phone or social media
According to Andrew Huberman, checking your phone at night depletes your dopamine for the next 48 hours.
Dopamine is the hormone giving us motivation
How could you manage difficult trades without being motivated?
Well….it’s harder….
Tool
I use an OURA ring to track my REM and DEEP sleep.
It's Bluetooth-enabled and linked to my phone.
Every morning, the OURA app gave me a score; the greater the score, the better my sleep was.
It also distinguishes between REM, DEEP, and STANDARD sleep.
Supplements
Supplements I consider myself to be in a deep level of calm. I follow the dosing guidelines on each product label.
- Magnesium L-Theanone
- Zinc
- Argenin
- Tart Cherry
- I used to take Ashwaganda, but I discovered it reduced my overall happiness/excitement during the day, so I stopped taking it.
How long should you do these protocols before seeing some effects
Talking from experience, it’s a matter of days.
Yeah really, it’s amazing how quick our body and brain adapts to weather great or terrible inputs.
Feeding your body with mostly great inputs leads to a great mind, mood and is the first step at getting shot at being profitable with your trading.
The second step is mastering your anxiety and stress.
Article coming up on that topic on Monday :)
Have a good weekend everyone
Dave
Gambler's Vision VS Pro Trader's Vision 👁
Hey traders,
In this article, we will discuss the perception of trading by individuals.
We will compare the vision of a professional trader and a beginner.
The fact is, that most of the people perceive trading performance incorrectly. There is a common fallacy among them that win rate is the only true indicator of the efficiency of a trading strategy.
Moreover, newbies are searching for a strategy producing close to 100% accuracy.
Such a mindset determines their expectations.
Especially it feels, when I share a wrong forecast in my channel.
It immediately triggers resentment and negative reactions.
Talking to these people personally and asking them about the reasons of their indignation, the common answer is: "If you are a pro, you can not be wrong".
The truth is that the reality is absolutely different. Opening any position or making a forecast, a pro trader always realizes that there is no guarantee that the market will act as predicted. Pro trader admits that he deals with probabilities, and he is ready to take losses. He realizes that he may have negative trading days, even weeks and months, but at the end of the day his overall performance will be positive.
Remember, that your success in trading is determined by your expectations and perception. Admit the reality of trading, set correct goals, and you will take losses more easily.
I wish you luck and courage on a battlefield.
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
What is margin trading & How does it work?
Margin trading is when you pay only a certain percentage, or margin, of your investment cost, while borrowing the rest of the money you need from your broker.
Margin trading allows you to profit from the price fluctuations of assets that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford. Note that trading on margin can improve gains, but increases the risk and size of any potential losses.
But what is the margin in trading? There are two types of margins traders should be aware of. The money you need to open a position is your required margin. It’s defined by the amount of leverage you are using, which is represented in a leverage ratio.
There are also limits on keeping a margin trade running, which is based on your overall maintenance margin – the amount that needs to be covered by equity (overall account value).
Brokers require you to cover your margin by equity to mitigate risk. If you don’t have enough money to cover potential losses, you may be put on a margin call, where brokers would ask you to top up your account or close your loss-making trades. If your trading position continues to worsen you will face a margin closeout.
Hey traders, let me know what subject do you want to dive in in the next post?
Why You Should Meditate - And How To StartHello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Why to meditate?
It will help you closing these unsolved thoughts that come from living and are based on fear, pain, ...
Eventually, you will have resolved all of these unsolved issues, and you get into a state of bliss and peace = true happiness.
If you can get there, it changes your life.
Protocol to get started
- Timeline: 60 days
- Duration: up to 1 hour a day, start with 5 minutes your first time but the end goal is reaching 1 hour a day.
I started with 5 minutes, then added about 5/10 minutes more every week
- Protocol: First thing to do in the morning - No music, No sound, No apps.
Get super comfy because you don't wanna move for the next hour.
If you really struggle to stay within yourself, you can use an app or any guided meditation content - there are plenty for free on Youtube and Spotify.
Why do I even meditate?
I'm doing it every day as it helps turning off my "monkey mind"
You know that state of mind when we take trades we shouldn't or with a position size we shouldn't :)
Basically, acting like animals living in a pretty blank state...living in the moment.... following their instincts, feelings, wants.
Trading is very often going against what I feel.
Then, meditation helped me kind of suppressing this "FOMO/FEAR/OH CRAP I HAVE TO TAKE THAT TRADE BECAUSE EVERYONE IS IN IT" state of mind
When we let the monkey mind governing us, we may develop a strong self of self/ego.
We then tend to see the world as we want and mold it to our desires and preconceived notions, instead of seeing it as it actually is.
The huge issue with this is it leads us to trade based on on our vision of the World and not based on the charts.
For an investment or a SWING trade, it's always uncomfortable and painful to see it as it is.
How many times was I plain wrong and I held because I wanted to believe it would sort itself out and I'll end up making a profit.
The longer I waited to react and cut my losses, the higher the odds that trade could wreck me
Anyone else got in that situation?
Conclusion
The mind should be a servant and a tool, not a master.
My monkey mind should NOT control and drive me 24/7.
I want to break the habit of uncontrolled thinking, which is very hard.
Quotes of the day
- “Meditation is not about stopping thoughts, but recognising that we are more than our thoughts and our feelings.” — Arianna Huffington
- “Mediation is not spacing out or running away. In fact, it is being totally honest with ourselves” – Kathleen McDonald
- “I meditate so that my mind cannot complicate my life” – Sri Chinmoy
- “Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.”– Ajahn Brahm
- “Meditation is not about feeling a certain way. It's about feeling the way you feel.” — Dan Harris
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
JS-Masterclass: Risk Management #1JS-Masterclass: Risk Management #1
Risk Management in Trading – What does it mean ???
Risk management in trading is following a set of principles for minimizing losses. It’s an essential part of a trading plan that helps to minimize the losses and capture sustainable profits.
One of the biggest mistakes traders make is focusing on maximizing profits while overlooking the potential for loss. Unfortunately, that’s the best way for losses to get out of control. Traders need to leave this notion of greed behind them and always think risk first. Once a trader has mastered this principle, the successes will follow.
Implementing risk management techniques into your trading strategy can mitigate your risk when the market moves in the opposite direction.
Fundamental risk management principles for minimizing losses
Whether you are new in trading or an experienced trader, you always need to consider the following principles. They need to be a central part of your trading plan and strategy.
The 1% rule
The 1% rule in trading is a crucial principle of position sizing. It refers to risking no more than 1% (absolute max. for pro-traders is 2%) of your capital on a single trade.
For instance, if you have $50,000 in your account, applying the 1% rule would mean you won’t risk more than $500 on a single trade.
Some traders use the 2% rule to increase potential profits, but that amplifies potential losses, too. Sticking to the 1% rule will limit your risk on any given trade and help you preserve your equity. New traders should start with even lower risk levels.
Stop-Losses
Stop-loss orders are sell orders that trigger automatically when a traded security’s price reaches a lower, pre-specified price. They can help you mitigate losses on trades that don’t pan out the way you hoped.
For instance, if you buy a particular stock at $32 per share, you could put a stop-loss order at $30 to close the trade if the price drops below $30 per share.
Amateur traders should work with stop loss orders that will automatically trigger when your pre-defined stop-loss is being hit. This avoids a mistake that every trader tends to do – go in with a stop-loss plan but then deviate from it when things go against you.
Using stop-loss orders is key to having complete control over your positions, particularly when engaging in day trading.
The risk/reward ratio
The risk/reward ratio is a measure for calculating expected returns for every dollar you risk on a particular trade. For instance, if your risk/reward ratio is 1:2, you could earn $20 for every 10 dollar you risk.
It’s crucial to calculate the ratio after you’ve decided on your stop-loss and take-profit orders. If the ratio doesn’t match your requirements, you need to wait for a more profitable trade.
Here’s how to calculate your risk/reward ratio:
RRR = (Entry price – Stop-Loss) / (Profit Target – Entry price)
If dividing the potential risk with the possible reward results in a value below 1.0, your potential profit is more significant than your potential loss.
Make sure you maintain a favorable risk/reward ratio and look for ways to improve it consistently. IN order to be able to do that, you need to have a trading log book.
The Batting Average
The Batting Average helps you compare your winning and losing trades. Dividing your total number of wins by the total number of trades will help you analyze your past performance and identify areas for improvement. A ratio above 0.5 (or 50%) shows your trading strategy is working.
Suppose you had 60 winning trades and 40 losing trades. Your Batting Average is 60%, which means you have more winners than loosers.
Combining your Batting Average with your risk/reward ratio will help you manage potential losses more effectively.
Here is a table which helps you better understand the relationship between the risk/reward ratio and the Batting Average:
The table shows that you should have a minimum batting average or 40% or better. Many traders would consider themselves as so called ’2:1’-traders. This means they always try to have a profit of their winners at least 2x their pre-defined risk (stop-loss). As you can see in the table, ‘2:1’-traders have built in failure in their trading strategy as they can be wrong more often than right and still make tons of money – a ‘2:1’-trader can be incredibly successful at a batting average of only 40%. This means the ‘2:1’-trader can only have 4 winners out of 10 trades and still be highly successful.
Your Ability To Stick To a Strategy MattersHello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Your ability to stick to a strategy matters more than the strategy itself
As a systemic trader, I've always said knowing what to do is the easy part.
Applying a proven strategy with unconditional conviction is when it starts getting hard.
Trading against your deep beliefs
You want to believe a narrative
You want to believe it has to go up or down because someone from CNBC/Twitter said something
When any trading strategy then gives a signal in the opposite direction of your beliefs, you're undecided, you can't take the trade.
I've heard those sentences from unexperienced traders
"It has to go down because the FED increased the interest rates so I'm not taking that Long"
"It has to go up because ABC is an inflation hedge and we're only 3X from the previous ATH"
Let me ask you this...
Don't you think most traders are losing money because of their beliefs?
Trading against yourself
There is a signal to exit but you don't want to exit because the last few exits made you exit too early..
There is a signal to enter but you don't want to enter because the last few entries weren't winners...
Then comes an entry that you decided to ignore, the trade worked wonderfully but you ignored it....
Then comes an exit for a trade you're in that you decided to ignore leading to a bigger loss....
See a pattern here?
Following a strategy is hard because it's trading against who we are and what we think.
But, once we learn to ignore as much as possible our "human" side, is when we start making the sweet gains!!!
Quotes of the day
- “Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.” ― Albert Einstein
- “Any system was a straightjacket if you insisted on adhering to it so totally and humourlessly.” ― Erica Jong, Fear of Flying
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
BIGGEST TRADING MISTAKES YOU MUST KNOW
While some trading mistakes are unavoidable, it is important that you don’t make a habit of them and learn from both successful and unsuccessful positions. With that in mind, these are the 10 most common trading mistakes.
1 - Not researching the markets properly
Some traders will open or close a position on a gut feeling, or because they have heard a tip.
It is important to back these feelings or tips up with evidence and market research before committing to opening or closing a position.
2 - Trading without a plan
3 - Over-reliance on indicators
4 - Failing to cut losses
The temptation to let losing trades run in the hope that the market turns can be a grave error, and failing to cut losses can wipe out any profits a trader may have made elsewhere.
5 - Overexposing a position
6 - Overdiversifying a portfolio too quickly
While diversifying a trading portfolio can act as a hedge in case one asset’s value declines, it can be unwise to open too many positions in a short amount of time.
7 - Not understanding leverage
8 - Not understanding the risk-reward ratio
The risk-to-reward ratio is something every trader should take into consideration, as it helps them decide whether the end profit is worth the possible risk of losing capital.
9 - Overconfidence after a profit
10 - Letting emotions impair decision-making
Emotional trading is not smart trading. Emotions, such as excitement after a good day or despair after a bad day, could cloud decision-making and lead traders to deviate from their plan.
Every trader makes mistakes, and the examples covered in this article don’t need to be the end of your trading. However, they should be taken as opportunities to learn what works and what doesn’t work for you.
How To Know When To Quit (Part 2/2)Hello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Sharing the second part of this article posted yesterday
5. Know your limits and set rules around it
Set out the rules beforehand rather than waiting until you are in it.
Because you will not make good decisions then.
There are particular states where you’re going to feel suboptimal that have to do with your own physical state.
You’re tired, you’re stressed, whatever, but then there are also cognitive states where you’re going to behave sub-optimally.
And the particular cognitive state where you’re really going to behave sub-optimally is when you’re in the losses.
And the reason that you’re going to be a terrible decision-maker is, except for the part it’s going to cause you to be emotional, is that you’re going to want to get your money back.
And this is a really big problem for investors.
You start down a path, it starts to lose and you don’t want to sell, because you can’t get your money back.
That’s the moment that you go from a loss on paper to a sure loss.
It’s when it becomes a realized loss.
And that is a moment that we do not like.
And so we will come up with all sorts of reasons to think we’re being rational in continuing on, when we’re being completely irrational because we’re just trying to protect ourselves from having that moment of having to take the sure loss.
6. Loss aversion
Our loss aversion prevents us from selling investments at a loss.
But this extend beyond trading too.
Decisions should be made based on the future, not the past.
I think people are familiar with loss aversion.
We don’t like to start things that carry with them a chance of loss, even if we’re winning to the decision.
When you already have a loss on the books, or even a cognitive loss on the books, it was trading at one level and now it’s trading lower, we don’t like to sell.
In other words, this becomes loss aversion stops us from starting aka taking trades sometimes.
Of course this is irrational, because what matters is, is the next dollar that you spend worthwhile, not did you already spend a dollar.
We shouldn’t care.
7. Endowment effect
We value things we own, much more than things we don’t own.
Even though the opposite might be true.
It could be stocks, bonds or our IDEAS.
We wrap our identity in things and won’t quit despite the warning signs.
And then we also have the issue, which I think is really important for investors, you have something called an endowment. We value things we own, much more than we value things that we don’t own.
And it’s not just ownership over investments, we actually own the stock, or we own the bond, or whatever, we own the option, but it’s also our ideas.
And every time we invest, we have ownership over our thesis.
And here’s the interesting thing, is that when the thing that we’re doing is out of consensus, this is when it gets really bad.
So when we think about these issues of sunk cost, and sure loss aversion, and the way our identity gets wrapped up in things, and the way we have ownership over things, and the way that affects our inability to stop, you have to put a big huge blinking warning sign when the thing we’re doing is out of consensus.
9. The kill criteria
Think in advance the signals you might see in the future that means that it is time to quit.
To continue holding this investment, what do you need to see in the next few quarters or years?
Sticking to things too long denies us future opportunities.
Think in advance about what are the signals that I might see in the future that would tell me that it’s time to walk away and you will get better at it.
What do I need to see within the next quarter or the next two quarters from the way that this investment might perform?
Essentially think, “How long can I tolerate this, or how much time do I need in order for me to actually get the information that I would need in order to be able to make a decision?”
Figure out what that time period is and then figure, at the end of that time period
“What would I have to see?
What are the benchmarks that this thing would have to hit in order for me to feel like I ought to continue?
And if it doesn’t hit these things, then I should walk away.
Quotes of the day
- "Losses loom larger than corresponding gains" ― Amos Tversky
- "If we could be freed from our aversion to loss, our whole outlook on risk would change"― Alan Hirsch
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
How To Know When To Quit (Part 1/2)Hello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Splitting this article in 2 parts because it’s dense and I don’t want to lose people who might think “too much text I won’t read”
Let’s talk about:
– Cognitive biases
– Decision-making
1. Be at ease with a bad outcome
Focus on the decision-making process instead.
Think in probability and play to the best of your hand.
Don’t dwell on a bad outcome if the process and decision-making were sound.
You have no control over outcomes when luck is involved.
Embrace uncertainty.
Understand that you have to get down to what do I have control over, and what don’t I have control over.
And I have to accept the tremendous influence of luck, I have to accept the fact that I’m having to make these very high-stakes decisions without being able to accurately predict where the candles are going.
2. Advice from Eric Seidel: Do not dwell on unlucky events
Eric Seidel is a 9-time world series of poker bracelet winner who made $40 million.
By all means, discuss what could have been done better.
If you played to the best of your "cards", that’s all that matters.
He goes, “I don’t want to hear about it if there’s not a question. I don’t care that you got unlucky.
I get unlucky too.
And I have to deal with losing with two jacks against two nines all the time also.
I certainly don’t want to take on your emotional trash about it myself.
And what’s the point of talking about it? You made a great call and lost, who cares?
Would you have changed anything about what you did? Do you think you got the read wrong?
It sounds to me like you did everything right. So why are we even talking about this?
I mean this is the thing, if it really was just bad luck, who cares?
This is about embracing that uncertainty, right?”
3. All decisions are probabilistic
And we make these probabilistic decisions all the time.
Consciously or subconsciously.
Whether its choosing your partner or the route you are taking to work.
You’re making a forecast.
The moment we make it explicit, we start to create feedback loops we can learn from.
Even if you don’t think you’re doing it explicitly, literally every single decision you make is probabilistic, because it’s a forecast.
It’s a forecast made under conditions where you don’t have all the facts.
You generally know very little in comparison to all there is to be known.
We have to reject the idea that if you’re not doing it explicitly, that you aren’t thinking probabilistically because every decision is a probabilistic decision just by its nature because the world is probabilistic, that is how we decide.
Now the act of trying to make these things explicit will make you better at it, because what it will start to do is allow you to create good feedback loops.
4. Don’t trade if you don’t have an edge
And we are very good at fooling ourselves into believing that we have an edge.
Set up structures, write down your thesis.
What new information will break your thesis?
When should you quit?
I think we’re very good at fooling ourselves into believing that we have a rational reason, that we have an edge.
And I think that that’s particularly so when we’re in a situation where the thesis would affirm other things that we already believe about the world.
I think it’s particularly so when we’re already in the investment/trade.
So one of the things that we need to do is set up structures around us that will allow us, first of all, to be better at those, are we really being rational and starting… but more importantly, because the starting decision is always uncertain, is to say, as we discover new information after we’ve started, are we stopping, right?
Are we figuring out when we should stop?
Because it turns out that we’re very, very dense when it comes to actually paying attention to the signals after we’ve started something that we ought to stop it.
And that’s where we get particularly irrational.
Quotes of the day
“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” ― Lance Armstrong
“The elements of good trading are: (1) cutting losses, (2) cutting losses, and (3) cutting losses. If you can follow these three rules, you may have a chance“ ― Ed Seykota
"Confidence is not “I will profit on this trade.” Confidence is “I will be fine if I don’t profit from this trade." ― Yvan Byeajee
I'll post the second part tomorrow
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave