Trading Psychology - Long Term Sustainability in the MarketHello traders:
Today I want to discuss an important topic on long term sustainability.
It is no surprise that trading any financial market has proven to be difficult, and stressful.
Many new traders come and go so fast in the industry, and it's often due to the wrong mindset, trading plan, risk management and expectations.
I want to focus on the psychology part of trading for sustainability,
as I have made many trading plan, risk management related videos already, though I can discuss more on mindset and emotion today.
My vision in trading psychology has always been: Consistency, and Sustainability .
These are a few things I tell myself each and everyday in my trading journey to help me stay sustainable in the market.
-I am NOT here to get rich quick, traders who have that mindset often failed fast and quit
-I am here to make a reasonable % return per month, based on proper risk management and trading plan.
-I understand in order to make a ridiculous return per month, it requires over-risking and over-trading,
but it's unsustainable on a larger account size. I do not wish to lose a larger account or ability to trade for larger prop firms’ accounts.
-I understand the uncertainty in the market, any strategy, method and approach will run into drawdowns and losses.
-To prevent revenge trading, over trading and over leveraged, proper mindset and emotion are needed to survive and sustain in the market
-I believe in long term sustainability, and looking to “win the lottery” by going all in on trades. 1
% per account risk with 5-7% return per month is reasonable, achievable, and sustainable in the long run.
These are just a few pointers and reminders I tell myself each and every day.
This year will mark my 9th year in trading, and I am thankful to have gone through all these trading experiences in the past that made me a better trader today.
I am still continuously learning and growing, very happy with the consistent and sustainable approach that I do.
I am sure there are many other traders with different opinions, methods, approaches in trading, with different mindset, expectations and goals.
I respect all trading strategy, perspective and options. At the end of the day, it's up to each individual trader to identify their journey and what method they wish to implement in trading.
I sincerely hope I can help some of the traders to understand the importance of long term sustainability, and that will enable traders to continue to be a part of the financial market for the years and years to come.
Thank you :)
Jojo
Risk Management Educational Video:
Risk Management: When/How to move SL to BE and to profit in a running trade ?
Risk Management 101
Risk Management: Combine everything you learn to prevent blowing a trading account
Trading Psychology Educational Video:
Trading Psychology: How to deal & manage losses/consecutive losses in trading ?
Trading Psychology: Revenge Trading
Trading Psychology: Fear Of Missing Out
Trading Psychology: Over Leveraged Trading
Trading Psychology: Is there Stop Loss Hunting in Trading ? How to deal with it ?
Risk Management
Your strategy will inevitably go through a Drawdown!Your strategy will inevitably go through a Drawdown. And there's nothing you can do about it to stop that. However, you can learn how to survive it!
Today I will give you actionable steps, that you can use for the next time the market hit your strategy and you feel that everything is going wrong.
Let's start with an idea of what a drawdown is, and why drawdowns happen.
There are an infinite amount of trading strategies and tools that people use to trade and take advantage of specific market conditions.
Some traders are better in trending markets, they trade breakouts. Other traders feel more comfortable in ranging markets, where they trade quick reversals on key levels.
The Math is simple here. Trending strategies will have a poor performance on ranging markets, while reversal strategies will have a poor performance on trending markets.
Detecting the beginning and end of trending cycles or ranging cycles, is blurry. So, if you agree with that, as I do, you can expect your strategy to start failing at some point. And that's the beginning of the drawdown. (This is true for the best traders in the world, as for the worst traders in the world. Nobody scape drawdowns, the quickest you accept this, the faster you can learn how to handle them properly)
So let's start by saying that drawdowns are situations where your strategy experiences a lasting decline in performance, even if you are doing everything perfectly. Drawdowns, happen because strategies are made to take advantage of specific anomalies that can be found in one part of the market cycle, and when that market cycle finishes, or changes, your strategies become less accurate.
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It's important that you become aware of the Psychological consequences of Draw Downs , so you can have a countermeasure for this. Let's take a look at the most common ones:
1) Decrease in confidence (constant negative thoughts about your system)
2) Fear of entering the next trade.
3) Thinking about changing things in your strategy (deviations from the original plan)
4) Thinking about modifying the risk you are using to cover losses quicker.
5) Ceasing your trading execution, and looking for a new strategy.
ALL THESE ITEMS, are the main situations you may start feeling when going through a drawdown. IF you are going through that, it's important that you understand that you are under a delicate emotional state, where your confidence is low, and you are prone to make more emotional decisions that 99% of the time, tend to increase the drawdown.
So the way we handle drawdowns is by having logical and systematic processes in place instead of emotional ones.
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Here you have actionable steps to handle drawdowns:
STEP 1 : You handle drawdowns by getting ready before they happen, not when they are happening.
This is true for almost all disciplines, not only for trading. Airplanes have clear plans in case things start going wrong, instead of figuring out the problem at the moment, pilots go to the manual book, and use the template for this situation, plus the fact that they trained those situations several times in simulations.
So, if you want to understand what a drawdown situation looks like in your strategy, you MUST go into the past, and when I say this, I'm not saying making a 3 week backtest. You need to go as far as you can in the past, to find that exact moment where your strategy is not working as expected.
How many consecutive stop losses do I have? 3? 5? 15? 20?
How long does this period last until everything goes on track again? 1 month? 3 months? or a year?
These are the kind of answers you are trying to solve. When doing a backtest you are trying to understand two things. The first one is if your strategy has an edge. The second one is how hard you get hit when things go wrong!
STEP 2: Work your risk management around the stats of your system. Imagine we reach the following conclusion "I have a system, that executes 10 setups per month" and the worst-case scenario I have found is 20 consecutive stop losses during 2 months. What I would personally assume is that 20 consecutive stop losses can be 30. So how much capital percentage should I risk on this system so I don't get knocked out if this TERRIBLE scenario happens.
The answer for me would be 1% per setup. Under the assumption of this unique scenario, I would be 30% down, which is something acceptable, compared to the drawdown of conventional investment vehicles like S&P500 where we observed those kinds of declines, in the last years. The main point here is that you need to adapt the risk you are using on the strategy, to the stats of it, and your risk tolerance.
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Let's recap the key aspects of this post.
1) Drawdowns are inevitable, your strategy will be hit by this scenario eventually.
2) Drawdowns cause an emotional disturbance and are the main reason why people make really bad decisions.
3) We handle drawdowns by getting ready in advance. Through backtest, we can understand the edge of our strategy and the worst-case scenarios.
4) We adapt the risk of our strategy, by considering a terrible scenario, like 30 consecutive losses.
This will not eliminate the feeling during this period, but it will bring you a work frame to make logical decisions based on data, instead of emotions. Implementing this type of thinking will make your strategy more robust, it will help you go through these situations, and most importantly it will protect you from making stupid things with a strategy that has an edge, and actually works!
Thanks for reading!
SETTING REALISTIC GOALSHey Traders,
Traders whether they are new to the world of finance or have been involved for a while can benefit greatly from setting specific goals in correlation to what it is they actually want to achieve. There's a million different ways on focusing and goal setting in trading and a lot of people get it wrong straight out of the gates. To this day I still see some professional traders still setting their goals wrong. Traders need to get to focusing on the process of trading, including strategies, structures, journaling, whatever it may be. You have to focus on these processes set in place for yourself regardless of results. This can be so much more effective with getting to an area of consistency compared to just focusing on returns.
One key takeaway I want you to get from this post is all traders, whether novice or whether you're experienced, you should be basing your trading results off of how well thought out the trading plan was, which includes how the trades will be entered, exited, how the money will be managed. That right there is how you measure performance, not the Profit and Loss that comes from the trades.
Process Goal Setting -
Initially, when getting into trading, most traders look for some kind of goal surrounding numbers. We are all here to make money, to make percentage gains. So we tend to gravitate towards setting our goals based on what we want to return, what type of money we want to make, what time are percentage yield we want to bring in. This is damaging in its own right. It's very easy for people to say, OK, I'm going to try an make 1% per day and I'm going to do all my trading to make 1% per day. Then all of a sudden they start planning in the future. "Okay, I make 1% per day everyday for the rest of the year," and then all of a sudden they start calculating what they're expected to return and they give themselves these high hopes in achieving that. But The thing is, what they're not understanding is given their strategy, 1% per day might not be possible. We can't say yes. I'm going to make 1% per day and our strategy not allow that to happen. We may only find one opportunity per week given our strategy, we might only find three opportunities, but we have a 33% win rate. So having these unrealistic, number focused goals are really damaging because no matter how much work you put into it, it may not be possible.
Just like any other business, we need to develop a process. Anna system and our goals need to be set on doing that process an working that system correctly and consistently. So rather setting goals for, I want to make 5% this month. Set goals like I want to only take trades which are an A-Grade set-up in accordance to my strategy. I want to journal every trade for the next 4 weeks. Goals like these make you focus on the process, and I don't know a single business that is successful without a good process. Most businesses don't get profitable for a set period of time. Some even just fail. Without a process and without setting goals aligning with those processes will make your results be based on chance and not based on skill.
Aim for consistency -
When it's early on and you may still be demo trading or trading with a small amount of money, I want you to start aiming for consistency. Now I know that can be hard when running in drawdowns or perhaps even trading a strategy that isn't profitable, but what you can do is aim to be consistent in your process aim to be consistent in your decision making. Aim to be consistent in your risk management. What you will learn is whether your strategy is profitable or not. You will learn a lot about the market. What you will notice after a long period of consistency (Trade for at-least three months) is your areas that need improvement. let's stay consistent and every single day you do the same thing, you trade the same setups, you trade exactly the same way, which a lot of people don't have the self discipline to do. You will notice areas where you can improve on based off of those results. Most people give up and fail because they're not disciplined enough to remain consistent in a strategy which isn't providing them with the unrealistic returns that they're aiming for. If you sit down and you take it seriously for three months, win or lose, I guarantee you will take about 18 steps forward in the right direction compared to just sitting on the balance rope jumping from strategy to strategy.
It is okay to not trade -
This is where consistency and discipline delivers the reality check. The market is constantly moving, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, and that gives people the impression that their strategy is always valid and they always have to be risk on and always have to be trading. This isn't the case. Trading during slow times or making impulsive trades outside of the scope of your plan is such a common issue that I feel the need to point it out in today's message. So many people will try and force their strategy or force themselves to get in and make money when the opportunity isn't there. Have a plan. Understand what it is you want to see. Understand what it is you want to trade and wait patiently until that opportunity arises. Do not try and force trading. It will only result in one way and it will not result in you achieving the goals that you want to achieve.
Start small, then grow -
I witness day in day out, traders just trying to get onto big accounts because they believe if they had more money they would achieve better results. They build the most complex strategies and trade four different strategies across 12 different assets straight out of the gates. This is not an easy game. This is not an easy money grab. It can generate thousands and thousands of dollars if done right. But it has to be done right. The learning process is the exact same. Start small, be a niche trader focused on a few manageable goals. Results will come in time. If you trade according to your trading plan you've remained disciplined and you do everything I spoke about today, you will see improvements and progress. Set goals, realistic goals that have nothing to do with profit and loss, but have everything to do with being a consistent, self disciplined trader and you will see returns come in the long run. If you develop the foundations to being a profitable trader, the profits will be delivered once you get a greater understanding of what needs to be done.
I wish you all great success and cannot wait to hear about your consistency in trading!
ow to Apply Trailing Stop | PRICE ACTION TRADING 📚
Hey traders,
In this post, I will share with you my strategy to apply a trailing stop.
Please, note that I am applying a trailing stop only in trend-following trades and only when a trade is opened on a key level. I trade price action patterns, so the following technique will be appropriate primarily for price action traders. Moreover, my entries are strictly on a retest.
1️⃣
Spotting a price action pattern I am always waiting for its neckline breakout. (if we talk about different channels, then by a neckline we mean its trend line)
Once I see a candle close below/above the neckline, I set my sell/buy limit order on a retest.
Stop loss will strictly lie below the lows of the pattern if we buy and above the highs of the pattern if we sell.
2️⃣
Once we are in a trade, you should measure the pattern's range (distance from its high to its low based on wicks) and then project that range from the entry to the direction of the trade.
In the picture, the pattern range and its projection are the underlined blue areas.
Once the price reaches the projection of the pattern's range, you should move your stop loss to entry and make your position risk-free.
Move stop to breakeven in traders' slang.
3️⃣
Then you should let the market go.
📈If you are holding a long position you should let the market retrace and set a higher low and then a new higher high or AT LEAST an equal high. Once these conditions are met you can trail your stop and set it below the last higher low.
📉If you are holding a short position you should let the market retrace and set a lower high and then a new lower low or AT LEAST an equal low. Once these conditions are met you can trail your stop and set it above the last lower high.
Catching a trending market you should trail your stop based on new higher lows / lower highs that the price sets. Occasionally you will catch big winners.
How do you apply a trailing stop?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
What Are My Daily Trading Routine As A Consistent TraderHello everyone:
Today I want to share my personal daily routine in trading.
Many have asked me about how a typical day of mine would be,
and I have no problem sharing that with everyone in hope to provide some examples on how you can construct your own day as well.
It's important to know that each person is unique, has different priorities, business, jobs, family, and other things to attend to.
So it's best to understand that what I propose here is more of a guideline that you can utilize, and ultimately comes down to your own schedule and time.
I am a strong believer in not needing to be on the chart all day long, in order to create a healthy trading lifestyle.
Morning 6-9 AM
-check the chart, go through all my flagged watchlist
-prepare for my weekly and mid-week market update live stream OR private quick daily market updates
-answer any questions within my community, platforms, and areas
-go on with my day (family, other businesses)
-wont need to check the chart again until the roll over time
-will set alerts to monitor any trades, entries..etc
Afternoon 3-5 PM
-after the day is rolled over
-construct a new daily watchlist for the day ahead
-check or uncheck flag in my watchlist to see if there's anything developed or confirmed my forecast/analysis
-answer any questions within my community, platforms, and areas
-go on with my day (family, other businesses)
-wont need to check the chart again until my night time before London Session starts
-will set alerts to monitor any trades, entries..etc
Evening 10-11 PM
-check the chart, go through all my flagged watchlist
-will set alerts to monitor any trades, entries..etc
Always remember to have a healthy trading lifestyle and don't get burn out
Have priorities in life
Thank you all :)
What Does Consistency Mean In Trading ? Hello traders:
Today let's talk about “consistency” in trading.
Many traders understand they need to be consistent, but what exactly is consistent in trading ?
To me, it's not just making consistent “profit”, rather it's being consistent with your trading strategy, risk management, trading psychology, mindset and emotion.
Let's take a look at a few examples of consistency in trading:
Consistency in profits:
More often traders think about hitting a set amount of % return in consistency.
This is certainly one way to look at it, but I would say to challenge ourselves to do more.
Each and every month, the market will develop differently, hence our profits are not gonna always be the “same” each and every month.
Some month with more profits, some month with more losses. We need to have the ability to stay “consistent” no matter what the market condition is.
Consistency in strategy and Trading Plan:
Remember, there are many different trading strategies out there.
The ability to stay “consistent” with your current trading strategy, and not jump from strategy to strategy.
Even if your strategy right now isn't getting any entries available in the current market condition, while others are entering trade, you need to stay consistent with your strategy and let the probability play out.
Understand no strategy can catch every move in the market. Some will catch this particular run, while others will catch other developments.
Consistency in risk management:
When you are at a series of drawdowns and losses, the ability to stay “consistent” with your risk management.
Not risking more than 1%, not entering more than 2-3 trades at a time. No revenge trade, and/or over leverage trade.
Respect your SL and honour the SL. More often traders fall into this stage while they take a number of losses and throw their risk management out the window.
Consistency in mindset and emotion:
When your strategy isn't playing out on a short term, the ability to stay “consistent” and not to start randomly taking trades based on FOMO, Greed and emotion.
Sometimes traders get impatient and feel like waiting for setups to happen is a hassle and they don't want to wait.
This is when they start to rush their trading journey and backfires on them.
Consistency in your goal:
Set goals for your result and progress. The ability to stay “consistent” with yourself and don't let external factors like social media, fake guru, scammers affect you and your goal.
If you plan to have 5% per month profit, then don't let other people affect you in a negative way.
Everyone trades differently, and with different strategy, method and approach. No need to compare and compete with others, rather, with yourself each and every year.
Below I will forward some good educational videos on the above topics that we have discussed:
Trading Psychology: Revenge Trading
Trading Psychology: Fear Of Missing Out
Trading Psychology: Over Leveraged Trading
Risk Management: Combine everything you learn to prevent blowing a trading account
Four trading fears you will have to overcome 😱The stats for retail traders are not pretty.
It's no secret around 80% of all retails traders lose money.
The reason most fail is the four fears not being overcome.
Fear of being wrong!
We are emotional creatures and lets be honest none of us like being wrong.
This trait shows in some more than others but there is no place in trading for this trait.
It's impossible to 100% right all the time it's not even possible being 90% or 80% right all the time.
Once the reality sets in your not going to be right all the time we then as traders have fear of being wrong when seeking our trades or strategies.
Fear of losing money
We all suffer this fear at some point.
What we need to understand is all accounts suffer periods of drawdown.
I firmly believe the 80% of all retail traders stat is so high due to people losing money and quitting.
The reason money is lost is due to poor strategy or no strategy.
Once in a whole the fear of losing more will push people away from trading.
Fear of missing out
It's probably the fear of missing out that led you here in the first place.
You see all the lambo's on social media and the life style and fear of missing out is already in play.
Then comes seeing what everyone else has profit wise.
Then comes paying attention to everyone else and full blown FOMO instead of sticking to your own game.
Fear of leaving money on the table.
No better feeling than seeing your trades run in profit.
The screen is lit up blue and your loving it.
But now comes the fear of letting them trades play out.
Your leaving money on the table and it's now a fear you'll lose that money.
It's one of the biggest mistakes a trader makes!
Cutting winning trades to soon and letting losers run for to long.
So how to overcome these fears?
There's many elements to overcoming the four fears .
There's so may and then even sub elements of those.
Hence why this idea had the two brainstorm bubbles on the chart of what fears haunt us as traders.
Followed by the bubble of all the thoughts you need to take in to consideration as a trader.
It's imperative as traders we build a robust tested plan.
Sticking to your own plan and lane is crucial.
Just avoid others that blur your plan.
Losses are a part of trading quicker you accept this as a cost of business quicker that fear of losing money disappears.
There is many more on the chart drawing but quicker these behaviours are followed as a trader the quicker the four fears will disappear.
Here's to a good rest of the week🥂
Thanks for looking at my Idea
Darren 👍
How to win over greed?🎃1. Greed is the problem
Many beginners and even experienced traders face greed. It's a feeling that makes you believe in your superiority over the market:
• Opening a lot of trades, breaking risk management
• Continuing to trade after incurring a loss
• Refusing to take profits, hoping to earn more
• Averaging losing trades, because everything is about to change.
• Believing in the reliability of your pattern, although no pattern or indicator always works out 100%.
2. Why does greed take over?
We all have our own desires and goals. Society teaches us that we shouldn't deny ourselves comfort. This leads the vast majority to take out loans for new clothes, iPhones, Cars.. This is how people get used to greed's superiority and put it before discipline, getting accustomed to being able to live beyond their means.
What do you think happens to such people when they come into trading?
God forbid, such a person immediately learns about futures, then he will lose everything in a month at most. This is exactly the 95% who lose money in the market.
They suddenly see an opportunity to make a million out of $10,000 in a month, and, inspired by the stories of dogecoin millionaires from YouTube and Reddit, start to long bitcoin with x125 leverage.
There is another type. They do not rush to make money, they act more cautiously. They set themselves up right away that "trading is a long game and there is no hurry". They develop steadily and study pattern after pattern. However, their game pays off very slowly, and under the influence of their expertise they allow themselves more and more "experiments". They are like King Theoden from Lord of the Rings, who was slowly losing his mind under the watchful eye of Wormtongue.
3. How do you get around greed and start using it to your advantage?
Change your perspective. Instead of being greedy for money, become greedy for your professional growth . Ironically, if you stop focusing on money, they will come.
Create a journal and start analyzing your trades:
• What were your reasons for entering?
• Did you need to open that trade or was it suboptimal?
• Did you act under the influence of emotions, and if so, which one and why?
Develop, grow, and reward yourself when you get better, even if your trading results are unchanged. Your brain needs to get used to the fact that the most important thing now is discipline and small improvements. Step by step, you will become a profitable trader and, when you do, withdraw your honestly earned profits into fiat to reward yourself for your fortitude and persistence. You will succeed, because unlike all casino players, you will have the backbone and endurance!
Good luck on your journey! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments, I always check and answer them.
Leave a like so you can enjoy the trader psychology posts in the future as well, and thanks for reading to the end. You are the best!
10 Trading Commandments of a Successful Trader 📜
Hey traders,
In this post, we will discuss 10 divine rules that every trader must obey:
1️⃣ - Accept that risk and losses are a necessary part of trading.
Even though most of the traders are looking for a holy grail, for a system that produces 100% win rate, in fact, losses are inevitable, they are part of the game.
No matter how good you are as a trader, occasionally, the market will outsmart you.
2️⃣ - Have a proven trading system.
Trade only with a trading strategy that you backtested, that proved its accuracy and efficiency.
3️⃣ - Concentrate on the risk, not the reward.
Cut losses, and control your risk. Remember about risk management and never neglect that.
4️⃣ - Never trade without stop loss.
Some traders say that they can easily control losses without stop loss. Don't listen to them. Always set a stop loss once you are in a trade.
5️⃣ - Have an attainable target.
Setting a stop loss remember to know where to close your trade in profit. Follow strict rules and do not let your greed take you under control.
6️⃣ - Take your emotions under control.
No matter whether you are losing, winning, or do not see any trading setups to trade, your emotions will always try to distract you.
Be cold-hearted.
7️⃣ - Always stick to your trading plan.
Never break your rules, follow your system, and do not deviate.
Your trading plan is your only map.
8️⃣ - Limit your losses, never limit your profits.
While your gains can be scalable, your risks and losses must be fixed.
9️⃣ - Treat your trading as a business.
Trading should be treated with the same discipline as a business.
Every business has a solid business plan which entails how the day-to-day running of the business is done, and this also guides the decision-making process.
🔟 - Always journal your trades.
Always keep a trading journal. Record your winners and losers, entry reasons, mistakes, failures etc. Revise and learn from your mistakes.
Of course, that list can be extended and more commandments and rules can be added. However, these 10 in my view are the most important. Print this list and let it guide you in your trading journey.
What would you add to that list?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
The basics of back-testing (HOW TO)Hey Traders,
Today I wanted to follow on from the fantastic amount of comments that we are receiving from the previous video, "stop strategy jumping." It seems that so many of you took a whole heap of value from that video and for that I am very thankful and to everyone who reached out and told their story or let me know that it really touched them.
As highly requested, I wanted to run through a basic way to start getting the grips with strategy back-testing. How can we go about back-testing our strategies to ensure that they are profitable for us in the long run? Take a look, have a listen and tune in. Set up an excel sheet the way I do and get back testing. There's only one way to do this, and it is to do the hard work.
Let me know what you guys find. I can go more in depth in the future, but for now. It seems like most people wanted to get to grips with the absolute basics, which is what I'm going to show you today.
If you have any questions at all, please the comment section is the place to be. As always, have a fantastic trading week and a fantastic weekend traders. I'll see you very soon.
How to use relative strength/weakness in Forex — GBPUSD exampleIchimoku makes identifying trends very easy, but it can be difficult to know when to enter a trend. This factor is often overlooked by newer traders, and it makes a significant difference to risk-adjusted returns.
One of my favourite ways to identify when to enter a trend is to use the concept of relative strength or weakness. Put simply, relative strength or weakness is when you compare a security to an "index" and try to understand whether:
The index is moving up, and your chosen security is moving up even faster = Relative Strength
The index is moving down or ranging, and your chosen security is holding ground or moving slightly higher = Relative Strength
The index is moving down, and your chosen security is moving down even faster = Relative Weakness
The index is moving up or ranging, and your chosen security is holding ground or moving slightly lower = Relative Weakness
This concept is incredibly important to understand. It can turn a B+ setup into an A+ setup.
The question is then, how do you find relative strength? The really easy, beginner-friendly, way is to plot the "Rate of Change" (ROC). This is an included indicator in TradingView and simply tells you how quickly something is moving up or down. What you can do with ROC is to plot it against the symbol you're trading, and then plot it again against an index. An example of an index could be $DXY for the USD. This index would work for pairs like USDJPY, USDEUR, USDGBP, etc. Any pair where USD is the base.
I found a perfect example of relative weakness on GBPUSD. I plotted the ROC for GBPUSD (green) and the ROC for all GBP pairs (red). Ichimoku already told me that GBPUSD was bearish and I was looking for an opportunity to go short. Notice, that when GBPUSD becomes weaker than all GBP pairs, there is almost no bullish pressure.
If you short when there is relative weakness, your trade would have almost zero drawdown, and you would be in profit almost instantly. Yes, you could short anywhere on this chart and make money if you didn't have a stoploss, but this is not how to trade like a professional. If you tried to short this morning when there was no relative weakness, you would have to suffer through +37 pips of drawdown before it started moving down again. Could you take that? Could your risk manager take that if you were trading someone else's money?
I encourage all traders to explore Relative Strength/Weakness. It is one of the most powerful concepts in trading, and as long as you have your "index" right, you can use this anywhere. Stocks, Forex, Crypto, Commoddities, etc.
MAIN ELEMENTS OF YOUR TRADING PLAN | Trading Basics 📝
Hey traders,
One month ago I wrote an article about the importance of a trading plan. Now it is time to discuss what should be inside your trading plan.
Before we start let me note that a trading plan is a very personal thing and depending on your personality you may have some other elements. In this article, we discuss key elements that must be in every trading plan.
🔰Trading Strategy.
I want you to realize that a trading strategy is not a trading plan. A trading strategy is simply one of its main elements.
A trading strategy defines a set of rules and market conditions that one is looking for to open a trade and then manage that.
🔰Trading Time.
Relying on your trading strategy you should know exactly when you trade. The time range must be precise and fixed. If you think that today you can trade the opening of the London session, tomorrow the Asian one, and then the US opening, I have very bad news for you.
Your trading hours must be fixed and objective.
🔰Trading Instruments.
As with your trading time, you should have a fixed trading list. A set of financial instruments that you monitor on a daily basis.
🔰Trading Journal.
You should learn to journal your trades. Just a single performance is not enough. You should note the exact market conditions that made you open the trade and many other factors that you consider to be important.
Then learn from your mistakes and improve your trading strategy based on your journal.
🔰Risk Management.
Having the best trading strategy in the world one can fail simply because of neglecting the rules of risk management.
Define your risk per trade, maximum drawdown, and biggest losing streak you can take.
Optimize your trading to keep your losses under control.
Of course, that list can be extended. We can add, for example, trading psychology into that.
As I said, a trading plan is a very personal thing and while you mature in trading it will become more and more sophisticated.
The elements that we discussed in this article are crucial for your success in trading. In my view, their absence will lead you to a failure.
What do you want to learn in the next article?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
LET'S GET REAL: Stop Strategy Jumping!Hey Traders,
This one is going to be a little bit different, a little bit deeper and a little bit harder to listen to rather than usual technical analysis. I recommend you sit down and listen to this. Have a think whether it relates to you or whether you found yourself in this position, or even if you've gone through this position and share your experience on how you go through it. A lot of traders struggle with their strategy, jumping from aspects of trading and that's why so many educators out there make a lot of money off of them. It is time to stop.
In this video I outlay a challenge that I put to all the traders who may find themselves in this position to sit down and to thoroughly test their current or previous strategies and understand them on a deeper level. No more jumping around, no more looking outwards. Let's start looking inwards. Let's see the data that we have handed to us and what we can do to improve that data.
If you enjoyed this video, please leave a comment. Leave a like, if we do get enough likes and comments, I will make a Part 2 on how to go about this with a more depth avenue while using different resources.
As always, have a fantastic training week.
The Dunning–Kruger effectAfter recently doing a review of my last 6 months of trading, I recognized that my portfolio value over this period looked very similar to the Dunning–Kruger effect curve. (a psychological phenomenon that suggests people are not always the best evaluators of their own performance). The theory is often applied to trading because most retail traders experience a similar effect.
After spending 3 months of a practice simulator, I deposited real funds into a trading platform. Within the first week I saw a 24% increase which was shortly followed by loosing half my account value in the coming months. I then decided to take two weeks out and reflect on my performance. It was in these two weeks where I stumbled across an article called "5 steps to becoming a trader" (which I have linked to this post). I came to realize that I was completely incompetent. I didn't follow my trading plans, I got caught up in emotions and I was almost gambling money away in the hopes of getting rich quick.
The harsh reality is trading is hard. After a total of 9 month, I have only just managed to see a net positive return. I have spent thousands of hours only to be outperformed by an Index fund. One article won't change your performance, but these are some things that I learnt which could get you closer to conscious competence:
1. Don't trade with emotions, trade with your plan
2. Keep your risk/reward >1.75
3. Never risk enough money to loose sleep (enter each trade as if you have already lost the money you placed)
4. Reflect on performance and learn from mistakes
5. You don't need to win lots, you just need a mathematical edge
As a trader gains more experience, they become increasingly confident and more likely to see positive returns.
Stay dedicated!!!
Take Profit Screener Indicator updateWith this new version, the Fibonacci borders are calculated and placed automatically on your charts.
No need to place the top border manually any more.
You still have the possibility to move it manually if you consider that the indicator has not identified the right ATH (Pivot point)
Enjoy !
GBPUSD Using the Element of TimeThe element of time is a technical analysis tool that I've previously elaborated on -> Check links to related ideas.
The illustration is pretty self-explanatory.
First attempt failed, however price presented a better opportunity a couple hours later which ultimately yielded all our profits for the week.
I will provide my thought process, execution and exits for this trade in a subsequent recording :)
Stay tuned !
How to lose your deposit quickly? Easy to follow Step-By-Step🔥Why am I qualified enough to teach you this?
I lost 16 deposits and in 6 years I heard dozens of stories of people who lost their life savings in a couple of months by trading. I have personally tested many of these rules and confirmed that they work.
So what are we waiting for? Lets get it started!
1. Trade with maximum leverage
There is no need to trifle, the bigger leverage is, the greater your profit will be🤑
2. Don't use stop losses
SL’s are for the weak. You probably remember how many times your positions went in the right direction after you closed them by stop loss. Stop losses are evil🤮
3. Average losing positions
Everything is simple here - the more you average, the less you lose. That means you can keep going. Nothing ventured, nothing gained🥂
4. Use your last money and don’t be shy to borrow
The more money you put in, the more money you pull out. Since you are 100% sure that BTC will grow, take loans not only in banks, but also from shady organizations, do not look at interest - you will repay everything back in a month anyway, and your profit will cover any losses💵
5. Trade only when you have been fired from work, haven't slept all night, your girlfriend/wife has left, or you have quarreled with relatives
When everything is bad in your life, it is better to do what you do best - trading. Having earned a lot of money, you will not only be distracted from everyday problems, but also regain confidence and a smile on your face!😉
6. When you closed a losing position, immediately open a new one with double volume to recoup losses
You came into trading to win! So win and never admit defeat! You are Hercules and defeating everyone in the market - this is your 14th feat! No step back, only forward!✊
7. Prioritize Elon Musk's conspiracy theories and tweets over technical analysis
Do you already have the conviction that the Illuminati run the market and every time you open a position and the market goes in the opposite direction, the Illuminati move to harm you? If not, then quickly look at your lost trades. You did everything right, but you still lost money. Why is that? Just don't tell anyone...🤫
8. Believe that trading is luck and the odds are always 50/50
This makes it much easier to make decisions. If black has fallen out on the roulette wheel 2 times in a row, then the chances that red will fall out are much greater. Therefore, do not hesitate to go against the trend, probability theory is on your side 💪
9. Stop exercising your body and mind
You will need neither a healthy body nor a focused mind in trading. You only need your eyes to see “buy“ and “sell“ buttons, you don't need much intelligence for this. Being in the green zone? The green zone is a myth for suckers who engage in self-deception.😏
10. Quit your daily job
Since you already created an account on Binance a week ago, watched a couple of trading videos, sorry, I meant in-depth educational materials, and even have already made a couple of successful trades, then it's time to finally quit that boring job. The road to millions is open, it remains only to take the last step.🤩
11. Manage your friends money
Why getting rich alone? Take your friends and family with you. They will be grateful later.🙌
12. Don't look away from the screen until you've regained every last cent.
Winners don't walk away with losses. Make sure your deposit has at least doubled before ending a session.😎
13. Never fix profits. If it has grown a little, then it will grow more.
Do you remember how you closed the position when the coin grew by 5-10%, and then it rose another 200%? That’s what I’m talking about. Don't close too early, keep trades for the maximum profit.📈
14. Trade at night
If you don't have time, don't give up. There is always an opportunity to earn. Even after a hard day at work.🤜🤛
15. Analyze the market on a 5m timeframe and trade on the 1m.
Opportunities are always there - the main thing is to be open to them.🤞
I hope these tips will help you quickly drain your deposit down and return to a normal life. If you liked them or you are already using them, please click Like and leave a comment so that I understand that it is valuable to you and will continue to write educational materials in the future.✌️
How to analyze any market from scratch #3Hello everyone:
Many of you have asked me to continue making more of these analysing from scratch video, so I have prepared another one here for you today.
Not only will we refresh the previous 2 educational videos on this topic, I will go into a bit more details on the confirmation on the lower time frames with multiple examples in the chart.
Recall from the previous videos I made, when we want to analyze the chart from scratch, we always start:
1. From the higher time frames (HTF) to identify the impulse/correction phases of the market conditions so we can come up with a possible bias and direction of the current price.
2. Once we have a possible direction and bias, then we go down to the lower time frames (LTF) to also identify the impulse/correction phases which will lead to your confirmation and entry.
These are simple steps to follow, based on multi-time frame analysis, top down approach.
Many have told me it's not hard to identify the HTF’s impulse and correction, but what can be classified as a LTF confirmation before entry?
Let's take a detail look into a few examples:
A LTF confirmation is when the price is developing a few more price action structures/patterns that align with your HTF direction and bias.
These can be continuation/reversal corrections on the LTF; impulse phases on the LTF that go with your bias on the HTF; multiple corrections within the larger corrections (patterns within patterns)...etc.
The more of these LTF price actions you can identify, the more it strengthens your analysis and forecast on the HTF.
Thank you
Do check out my previous educational contents on this same topic to better learn my approach to analyse any market from scratch.
How to analyze any market from scratch #1
How to analyze any market from scratch #2
The Iceberg Illusion of Success in Trading 🏔️
When people see a consistently profitable trader they do not consider all the costs a successful trader has paid overtime (below the surface) to get to what they see (above the surface).
So many things happen below the surface that nobody can see.
Here are some of the below the surface things that compose the top of the iceberg that everyone sees:
🔰Dedication – you need to be loyal to your dream of becoming a pro trader. Your belief must be that strong so no one could dissuade you. You need an iron discipline to make it happen.
🔰Hard work – you should work day after day not letting yourself give up. Charts must be in front of you as much as it is possible. Trading terminal must become your best friend.
🔰Good habits – follow your trading plan, do not break your rules of risk management, avoid FOMO, etc. This is the set of habits that will be your satellite in your trading journey. Do them consistently and they will become a natural part of your life.
🔰Disappointment – it does not matter how hard you try. Occasionally things will fall apart anyway: you will face losing streaks and a strategy will refuse to work. It will hurt. "Stand up straight with your shoulders back". Treat disappointments as temporary things.
🔰Sacrifice – to become a consistently profitable trader you should pay the price. Losses, time, nerves. Your prosperous future will have a tremendous cost.
🔰Failure – while you are learning how to trade you will inevitably blow a couple of trading accounts, you will spend time on strategies and techniques that do not work. Occasionally you will fall. If so, stand up and keep going.
🔰Persistence – keep doing what you are doing no matter what. Do not let others persuade you that you can't make it. Even if things get tough, stay strong.
🔰Focus – always know what is your end goal, know where are you going, and what is your end destination.
🔰Flexibility – be prepared for sudden changes in the environment. Keep your focus on the goals that you set learning to adjust to the changing circumstances.
🔰Consistency – you will not get the desired results immediately. Be ready to do the same again and again, hundred times until the goal is achieved.
Overnight success does not exist. If you want to become a consistently profitable trade be prepared for years of struggling and pain. And do not be afraid, it is worth it.
❤️Please, support this idea with like and comment!❤️
Know When to Stop Trading⛔️
✅Today we will talk about one of the most important things in trading, about what most traders around the world cannot do, even though they are well aware of the need for these actions. It will be about suspending and completely stopping their trading activities.
✅What to do if the trading system has failed, the market has changed, emotions fail or something has gone wrong. It is in this situation that the rules of action in extreme trading situations come to our aid.
1️⃣Three shots and you're dead — the rule of stopping trading within a day
🟢The main essence of this rule is contained in the title. And its essence is to stop trading if 3 consecutive losing trades were made during the trading session. No more deals are opened on this trading day. The trader has received a clear signal that something has gone wrong and the problem is either with the strategy or with the market or with the trader.
🟢Especially psychologically strong people who are sure that they will not be drawn to recoup, can continue to monitor the market, but it would be better to just close the trading platform and do something else, and after the trading session to analyze and find out what the problem was.
2️⃣Three volleys and you're dead — the rule of stopping trading for 2 days
🟢This rule is quite simple in formulation and just as complex in execution, in fact, as all the rules of risk management and capital management.
🟢If the three-shot rule has worked for three days in a row, then trading stops for 2 days. The principle is the same as in the previous rule, but in this case, the trader receives a signal that the problem is more serious than originally thought and it will not be possible to simply wait it out, serious measures need to be taken to analyze and correct the situation.
3️⃣The 30% trading capital rule
🟢If 30% of the trading capital was lost during trading, then trading stops completely until the moment when this loss is made up in any other way (of course legal). This rule will help to save your main working tool — trading capital and will allow you to relieve psychological stress because the trader will come out of a stressful state and realize that he has other ways of earning income, i.e. trading is not conducted with the last money.
❗️Observing these 3 simplest rules of stopping trading, you can be sure that you will never lose your deposit and even in the worst case scenario you will always be able to stop and beat the excitement that pushes many traders to return to the market again and again until zero remains on the account.However, all of the above is true only under one small condition — all three rules are strictly observed
❤️ Please, support our work with like & comment! ❤️
IGNORE THE NOISE AND NEGATIVE EXTERNAL ENERGYTrading is a one big system that consists of various different components: technicality, psychology, money management and so forth. The most difficult one out of all the elements is definitely psychology. Human psychology is a perplexing system that studies our mental process and behaviour. Our behaviour and mood rely on multiple internal and external factors. In our everyday life, our behaviour towards something can easily change when being affected by negative energy. The very same principles apply to trading. Our decision-making process can easily get fogged and mood get ruined after experiencing some losses, opportunity misses and so on. Even worse, our desire and will to keep trading and striving for success can get intercepted by some negative opinions and attitiudes of surrounding people.
It is totally acceptable to live a life that others do not understand. If you want something really bad, nothing can get in your way and stop you from achieving it. Block all the negative energy. Keep prospering, working towards your ambitions, and proving all the people that did not believe in you wrong!
Investroy
What Traders Want vs What Traders Get"It is a marathon, not a sprint". One of the statements that perfectly describes trading. But what does this proclamation really mean? I quote William Shakespeare: "Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush, stumble and fall". Great things take lots of time. 90% of all people get false expectations about trading before they enter the industry. They think it is a "get-rich-quick" scheme. In reality, it takes months/years of practice, hard work and experience to reach the doors of consistency and profitability. Furthermore, consistency in trading does not necessarily imply that every trade will be a winning one. It just indicates that if you keep following your trading plan, be risk tolerant and disciplined, you will be profitable and successful in the long-run.
We encourage you all to be patient and just ride with the trend as there is no need to rush anywhere. After all, Rome was not built in a day.
Hope you all enjoyed this quick educational and informative post! The purpose of this publication was to give you all some guidance and keep you motivated so you can continue your journey to the top of the mountain. If you have any more suggestions and recommendations on what our next educational idea should be about, feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
Investroy
HOW TO use asymmetric compounding 🧐📈The pair in question and four winning trades allows me to cover a subject I've wanted to touch on.
That subject is asymmetric compounding.
Asymmetric compounding is a money management strategy that can accelerate the equity curve of an account.
But you need the right strategy and data available to back up using asymmetric compounding.
Higher the win rate the more asymmetric will work wonders on that equity curve.
In simple terms asymmetric compounding is best suited to strategies with higher win rates as you need consecutive wins to make it work.
The main reason for using this NZDUSD chart is the four winners in a row make it easier to explain the concept of asymmetric compounding.
You traders should know the full ins and outs of your own strategies and if this can be applied.
It's not just win rate also RR along with max losing and max winning runs need to be factored in.
For this example on the four winning trades I am explaining the concept basing it on risking 2% per trade on the initial trade.
As this strategy is a 1:2 risk reward strategy risking 2% sees us gain a profit of 4% on one winning trade.
This is where you can then use asymmetric compounding on your next trade.
Instead of risking 2% again you now risk the 4% gained from the previous trade on this trade.
If the trade goes on to win the 4% risked on that trade has just earned 8% in profit.
At this point you go back to risking 2% on the next trade until you have a win and then risk the 4% gain from that winning trade.
The chart shows four winning trades at 1:2 RR so lets test the concept in numbers.
If we was to risk 2% per trade on a £1000 starting capital account the results are as followed.
Trade one 2% risked 4% gained= £1040 capital.
Trade two 2% risked 4% gained= £1081.60 capital
Trade three 2% risked 4% gained= £1124.86 capital
Trade four 2% risked 4% gained= £1169.85 capital
Now if we apply asymmetric compounding to the same trade sequence staring back at original 2% risk after two winning trades
Trade one 2% risked 4% gained= £1040 capital.
Trade two 4% risked 8% gained= £1123.20 capital
Trade three 2% risked 4% gained= £1168.13 capital
Trade four 4% risked 8% gained= £1261.58 capital
Using asymmetric compounding on these four trades see a capital increase of £91.73 more than just risking a flat 2%.
Below is an example of using a 1:1 RR strategy risking 1% per trade. If trade is a winner then risk 2% on the next trade which is the profit and the risk from the previous trade. #
If that trade wins go back to the intial 1% risk then risk 2% again if that trade wins.
This is a great concept to grow small accounts or even pass funded challenges as with the trades shown on the idea chart you would pass most prop firm challenges in two trades using asymmetric compounding.
However I can't stress enough you as the trader need to know you own risk appetite for this.
You also need to factor in how good your win rates and how often your strategy has seen winning runs that would benefit this concept.
One way to found out is to back test and forward test your strategy to see how asymmetric compounding could work for you.
Thanks for taking time out your day to read over my idea.
Ill see you on the next one 👍
Darren