Trading Secrets Revealed: Mindset Shift from Beginner to Expert
In the today's post, we will discuss the evolution of a mindset of a trader as he matures in trading.
✔️Beginner
For some unknown reasons, beginners assume that a couple of educational videos and books about trading is more than enough to start trading successfully.
They believe that they got a comprehensive knowledge and that very few things remain to learn.
They start trading, but quickly realize that their knowledge is not enough to make even small gains.
✔️COMPETENT
After practicing a couple of years, traders come to the conclusion
that they know everything in that field. That they learned, tested and tried all concepts and techniques that are available.
They consider themselves to be the experts in the field BUT
for some unknown reasons, these traders still are not able to trade profitably.
✔️EXPERT
After many years of learning, training and practicing, eyes finally open.
Traders realize how limited is their knowledge and how much more there is to learn.
While they already have the skills to trade in profits, they understand now that even the entire life is not enough to learn all the subtleties of trading.
And here is a little lifehack for you:
if you are a beginner, embrace a mindset of an expert.
Start from realizing how little you actually know and how much more there is to know, that will help you a lot in your trading journey.
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Learn 6 Common Beginner Trading Mistakes
In the today's post, we will discuss very common beginner's mistakes in trading that you should avoid.
1. No trading plan 📝
That is certainly the TOP 1 mistake. I don't know why it happens but 99% of newbies assume that they don't need a trading plan.
It is more than enough for them to watch a couple of educational videos, read some books about trading and Voilà when a good setup appears they can easily recognize and trade it without a plan.
Guys, I guarantee you that you will blow your trading account in maximum 2 months if you keep thinking like that. Trading plan is the essential part of every trading approach, so build one and follow that strictly.
2. Overtrading 💱
That mistake comes from a common newbies' misconception: they think that in order to make money in trading, they should trade a lot. The more they trade, the higher are the potential gains.
Same reasoning appears when they choose a signal service: the more trades a signal provider shares, the better his signals are supposed to be.
However, the truth is that good trades are very rare and your goal as a trader is to recognize and trade only the best setups. While the majority of the trading opportunities are risky and not profitable.
3. Emotional trading 😤
There are 2 ways to make a trading decision: to make it objectively following the rules of your trading plan or to follow the emotions.
The second option is the main pick of the newbies.
The intuition, fear, desire are their main drivers. And such an approach is of course doomed to a failure.
And we will discuss the emotional trading in details in the next 2 sections.
4. Having no patience ⏳
Patience always pays. That is the trader's anthem.
However, in practice, it is extremely hard to keep holding the trade that refuses to reach the target, that comes closer and closer to a stop loss level, that stuck around the entry level.
Once we are in a trade, we want the price to go directly to our goal without any delay. And the more we wait, the harder it is to keep waiting. The impatience makes traders close their trades preliminary, missing good profits.
5. Greed 🤑
Greed is your main and worst enemy in this game.
It will pursue you no matter how experienced you are.
The desire to get maximum from every move, to not miss any pip of profit, will be your permanent obstacle.
Greed will also pursue you after you close the profitable trades. No matter how much you win, how many good winning trades you catch in a row, you always want more. And that sense main lead you to making irrational, bad trading decision.
6. Big Risks 🛑
Why to calculate lot size for the trade?
Why even bother about risk management?
These are the typical thoughts of the newbies.
Newbie traders completely underestimate the risks involved in trading and for that reason they are risking big.
I heard so many times these stories, when a trading deposit of a trader is wiped out with a one single bad trade.
Never ever risk big, especially if you just started.
Start with a very conservative approach and risk a tiny little portion of your trading account per trade.
Of course there are a lot more mistakes to discuss.
However, the ones that I listed above at the most common
and I am kindly recommending you to fix them before you start trading with a substantial amount of money.
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Learn the KEY PRINCIPLES of Technical Analysis
In the today's article, we will discuss the absolute basics of trading - 3 key principles of technical analysis.
1️⃣History Repeats
History tends to repeat itself in the Forex market.
Certain trends are cyclical and may reemerge in a predictable manner, certain key levels are respected again and again over time.
Take a look at the example:
Silver perfectly respected a historical horizontal resistance in 2011 that was respected in 1980 already. Moreover, the price action before and after the tests of the underlined zone were absolutely identical.
2️⃣Priced In
All relevant information about a currency pair: economical and political events, rumors, and facts; is already reflected in a price.
When the FED increased the rate 26th of July by 25 bp, EURUSD bounced instead of falling. Before the rate hike, the market was going down on EXPECTATIONS of a rate hike. The release of the news was already price in.
3️⃣Pattern DO Work
Some specific price models can be applied for predicting the future price movements.
Technicians strongly believe that certain formations - being applied and interpreted properly, can give the edge on the market.
Depending on the trading style, different categories of patterns exist: harmonic patterns, price action patterns, wave patterns, candlestick patterns...
Above, I have listed various price action patterns that are applied by many traders and investors as the main tool for analyzing the financial markets.
If you believe in these 3 principles , you are an inborn technician!
Study technical analysis and learn to apply these principles to make money in trading.
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Improve Your Trading | The Ultimate CHECKLIST For Your Trades
If you are looking for a way to increase the accuracy of your trades, I prepared for you a simple yet powerful checklist that you can apply to validate your trades.
✔️ - The trades fit my trading plan
When you are planning to open a trade, make sure that it is strictly based on your rules and your entry reasons match your trading plan.
For example, imagine you found some good reasons to buy USDJPY pair, and you decide to open a long trade. However, checking your trading plan, you have an important rule there - the market should strictly lie on a key level.
The current market conditions do not fit your trading plan, so you skip that trade.
✔️ - The trade is in the direction with the trend
That condition is mainly addressed to the newbie traders.
Trading against the trend is much more complicated and riskier than trend-following trading, for that reason, I always recommend my students sticking with the trend.
Even though USDCHF formed a cute double bottom pattern after a strong bearish trend, and it is appealing to buy the oversold market, it is better to skip that trade because it is the position against the current trend.
✔️ - The trade has stop loss and target level
Know in advance where will be your goal for the trade and where you will close the position in a loss.
If you think that it is a good idea to buy gold now, but you have no clue how far it will go and where can be the target, do not take such a trade.
You should know your tp/sl before you open the trade.
✔️ - The trade has a good risk to reward ratio
Planning the trade, your potential reward should outweigh the potential risks. And of course, there are always the speculations about the optimal risk to reward ration, however, try to have at least 1.3 R/R ratio.
Planning a long trade on EURNZD with a safe stop loss being below the current support and target - the local high, you can see that you get a negative r/r ratio, meaning that the potential risk is bigger than the potential reward. Such a trade is better to skip.
✔️ - I am ok with losing this trade if the market goes against me
Remember that even the best trading setups may occasionally fail. You should always be prepared for losses, and always keep in mind that 100% winning setups do not exist.
If you are not ready to lose, do not even open the position then.
✔️ - There are no important news events ahead
That rule is again primarily addressed to newbies because ahead and during the important news releases we have sudden volatility spikes.
Planning the trade, check the economic calendar, filtering top important news.
If important fundamentals are expected in the coming hours, it's better to wait until the news release first.
Taking a long trade on Gold, you should check the fundamentals first. Only after you confirm, that there are no fundamentals coming soon, you can open the position.
What I like about that checklist is that it is very simple, but you can use it whether you are a complete newbie or an experienced trader.
Try it and let me know if it helps you to improve your trading performance.
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Learn 4 Proven Methods of Applying Moving Average Indicator
Hey traders,
The moving average is one of the most popular technical indicators.
It is applied in stocks/forex/crypto trading and proved its high level of efficiency.
There are hundreds of trading strategies based on MA.
In this post, we will discuss the 4 most popular ways to apply the moving average.
1️⃣The first method is applied to identify the market trend.
While the price keeps trading above the MA, one considers the trend to be bullish and looks for buying opportunities.
Once the price starts trading below the MA, the trend is considered to be bearish and a trader is looking for shorting opportunities.
In the example above, Moving Average is applied for showing the identification of the market trend. Its upward climb signifies that the market is trading in a strong bullish trend.
2️⃣The second method applies the combination of 2 MA's: preferably a long-term one and a short-term one.
The point is that once a short-term moving average crosses above a long-term MA, with high probability, it signifies the initiation of a bullish trend.
Alternatively, a crossover of short-term and long-term MA's to the downside indicates a start of a bearish trend.
In the example above, there are 2 Moving Averages: short term and long term ones. Their cross signifies the bullish trend violation and initiation of a bearish trend.
3️⃣The third method applies MA as a structure.
While the moving average is lying above the price, it is considered to be a dynamic resistance.
Staying below the price, it serves as a strong dynamic support.
Perceiving MA as the structure, one applies that for trade entries.
In the picture above, Moving Average is applied as support on GBPJPY and the price starts growing after its test.
4️⃣The fourth method is aimed to track the crossover of the moving average and the price.
The idea is that a bullish violation of the MA by the price gives an early signal for a possible trend reversal.
While a bearish breakout of the MA by the market indicates a highly probable bullish trend violation.
In the example above, the crossover of the moving average and the price is a perfect indicator of coming bullish and bearish movements.
Backtest different MA's inputs and learn to apply that for predicting the future direction of the market and for trading it.
Let me know, traders, what do you want to learn in the next educational post?
Learn the ONLY REASON Why You Should Try on RETEST!Hey traders,
Being breakout traders we have two options for trade entries:
when the breakout is confirmed, we can either open a trading position aggressively once the candle closes above/below the structure, or we can be conservative and wait for a retest of the broken structure first.
What is peculiar about the second option is the fact that the majority of pro traders prefer the retest entries. In this article, we will discuss the pros and cons of retest trading.
✔️First, let's discuss whether the retest is guaranteed. NO. How often do we see that? Around 50-55% of the time. Does it mean that 45-50% of breakout trades
will be missed? YES.
The main disadvantage of retest trading is that a lot of trading opportunities will be missed. Occasionally the breakout triggers a strong market rally, not letting the price return back to the broken structure.
Take a look at that triangle pattern on Bitcoin. The price broke its support BUT did not retest it, so trading only the retest, the opportunity would be missed.
So what is the point to wait for a retest then? Why let the market go without us in case if there is no retest?
✔️Most of the time the breakout candle closes quite far from a broken level. Opening the trading position once the candle closes and setting a stop loss below/above the broken structure, one can get a very big stop loss. Such a big stop that its pip value exceeds or equals the potential return.
🖼In the picture, I drew a classic channel breakout trade.
The aggressive trader opened a long position as the candle closed above the channel's resistance.
His stop loss is lying below the lower low of the channel.
Analyzing his risk to reward ratio, we can see that his reward equals his risk.
On the right side is the position of the conservative trader.
His stop loss in lying on the same level.
However, instead of opening a trading position on a breakout candle, he decided to wait for a retest of the broken resistance of the channel. Just a slight adjustment of his entry-level gives him a completely different risk to reward ratio.
❗️Patience pays in trading. Missing some trades a retest trader will outperform the aggressive trader in the long run.
Trading is about weighting your potential gains & losses. Paying commissions and swaps for every trade, it is much better for us to trade less but pick the setups that give us a decent potential reward.
What type of trading do you prefer?
Let me know, traders, what do you want to learn in the next educational post?
Real Example of a TRADING PLAN Revealed
Hey traders,
In this post, we will discuss 6 crucial things in your trade planning and the main elements of trade results assessment.
1️⃣ - Before you open a trading position, make sure that you analyzed the chart. You should identify a market trend and spot major key levels.
Here on WTI Crude Oil I have analyzed key levels and came to the conclusion that the market is trading in sideways.
2️⃣ - Once the chart is analyzed, you should identify the safest trading areas for your strategy (preferably the zones of supply and demand).
You should patiently wait until one of these zones is tested.
Back to our example. The support that the market is approaching is a safe area to buy from.
3️⃣ - Once the zone is reached, you should look for a confirmation. You can either look for a reversal candlestick/price action pattern, some fundamental trigger, or some indicator. The point is that you should rely on a trigger that is backtested and that proved its accuracy.
In our example, the confirmation pattern - the ascending triangle is spotted on lower time frames.
4️⃣ - Getting your confirmation, you should have a precise entry strategy. Some traders prefer aggressive entries on spot while others are waiting for a retest of some major/minor level.
Trading Oil, the perfect entry point will be on a retest of a broken neckline of a triangle.
5️⃣ - You must set a stop loss. Remember that your stop-loss defines the point where you become wrong in your predictions. Be extremely careful on that step and give the market some space for fluctuations.
Back to our example - our safe stop loss will be below the lows.
6️⃣ - Know your exact target level(s). Know the point where you start protection of your position, where you start profit-taking. Be very strict and don't let your greed and fear intervene.
Returning to our trade, the Perfect target level is based on a closes strong resistance.
Only then a trading position is opened.
No matter what will be the end result of your trade, you should assess it:
1️⃣- You should journal the trade outlining its end result, trading instrument, and your entry reason.
2️⃣ - Note any peculiar thing about this trade that you noticed.
3️⃣ - Record your gain/loss percentage.
4️⃣ - Identify whether any mistake was made and if so, learn from that.
Here is your minimum plan to follow. Of course, as you mature in trading your trade assessment plan will be more sophisticated.
Do not underestimate its importance and treat it as the main element of your trading routine.
Let me know, traders, what do you want to learn in the next educational post?
Learn The Market Volatility | The Double-Edged Sword
Have you ever wondered why the certain trading instruments are very rapid while some our extremely slow and boring?
In this educational article, we will discuss the market volatility, how is it measured and how can it be applied for making smart trading and investing decisions.
📚 First, let's start with the definition. Market volatility is a degree of a fluctuation of the price of a financial instrument over a certain period of time.
High volatility reflects quick and significant rises and falls on the market, while low volatility implies that the price moves slowly and steadily.
High volatility makes it harder for the traders and investors to predict the future direction of the market, but also may bring substantial gains.
On the other hand, a low volatility market is much easier to predict, but the potential returns are more modest.
The chart on the left is the perfect example of a volatile market.
While the chart on the right is a low volatility market.
📰 The main causes of volatility are economic and geopolitical events.
Political and economic instability, wars and natural disasters can affect the behavior of the market participants, causing the chaotic, irrational market movements.
On the other hand, the absence of the news and the relative stability are the main sources of a low volatility.
Here is the example, how the Covid pandemic affected GBPUSD pair.
The market was falling in a very rapid face in untypical manner, being driven by the panic and fear.
But how the newbie trader can measure the volatility of the market?
The main stream way is to apply ATR indicator, but, working with hundreds of struggling traders from different parts of the globe, I realized that for them such a method is complicated.
📏 The simplest way to assess the volatility of the market is to analyze the price action and candlesticks.
The main element of the volatile market is occasional appearance of large candlestick bars - the ones that have at least 4 times bigger range than the average candles.
Sudden price moves up and down are one more indicator of high volatility. They signify important shifts in the supply and demand of a particular asset.
Take a look at a price action and candlesticks on Bitcoin.
The market moves in zigzags, forming high momentum bullish and bearish candles. These are the indicators of high volatility.
🛑 For traders who just started their trading journey, high volatility is the red flag.
Acting rapidly, such instruments require constant monitoring and attention. Moreover, such markets require a high level of experience in stop loss placement because one single high momentum candle can easily hit the stop loss and then return to entry level.
Alternatively, trading a low volatility market can be extremely boring because most of the time it barely moves.
The best solution is to look for the market where the volatility is average, where the market moves but on a reasonable scale.
Volatility assessment plays a critical role in your success in trading. Know in advance, the degree of a volatility that you can tolerate and the one that you should avoid.
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What Should Be Inside Your Trading Plan
Find out why you should have a trade plan—and the five elements that may help you put it to work successfully.
Element 1: Your time horizon
How long do you plan to hold a position? This will depend on your trading strategy. Generally, traders fit into one of three categories:
Single-session traders are very active and look to gain from small price variations over very short time periods (minutes or hours) throughout the trading day.
Swing traders target trades that can be completed in a few days to a few weeks.
Position traders seek larger gains and recognize that it often takes longer than a few weeks to achieve them.
Element 2: Your entry strategy
Look for entry signals—for instance, divergences from trend lines and support levels—to help you place your trades. The signals you employ and the orders you use to make good on them hinge on your trading style and preferences.
Element 3: Your exit plan
When it comes to an exit strategy, plan for two types of trades: those that go in your favor and those that don’t. You might be tempted to let favorable trades run, but don’t ignore opportunities to take some profits.
Element 4: Your position size
Trading is risky. A good trade plan establishes ground rules for how much you’re willing to risk on any single trade. Say, for example, you don’t want to risk losing more than 2%–3% of your account on a single trade. You could consider exercising portion control, or sizing positions, to fit your budget.
Element 5: Your trade performance
Look over your trading history to calculate your theoretical trade expectancy, meaning your average gain (or loss) per trade. You start by determining the percentage of your trades that have been profitable versus those that haven’t. This is known as your win/loss ratio.
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Secret of Success in Trading: Patience, Emotions, Psychology
I vividly remember how I started to trade 8 years ago, how I was learning, and the things that I was doing.
Contemplating my old self, I notice a dramatic shift in my mindset in regard to trading.
Staring at the charts and desiring to make money on price action, I wanted to become a consistently profitable trader. Making the priorities, I decided to sacrifice my time on studying technical analysis, totally neglecting trading psychology and risk management.
Learning different trading strategies, I always came to the same result: the account went blown and nothing seemed to work.
Strategies of fancy traders on YouTube, strategies from best-selling books on Amazon, nothing could produce any penny.
Not giving up and pursuing my ultimate goal, I came to the conclusion that I set my priorities absolutely incorrectly.
To be honest, I always thought that trading psychology (like psychology in general) is s*cks. Moreover, I considered risk management to be kind of obvious, banal topic not deserving much attention.
Learning risk management techniques, applying them in day trading, I finally saw a glimmer of hope.
Reading a dozen of books on trading psychology, contemplating my mistakes, and observing my behavior I noticed so many wrong, incorrect things that I did on a daily basis.
With time and practice, my mindset shifted.
I realized that most of the strategies that I applied and that seemed losing to me, in fact, were decent.
It turned out that mastery of technical analysis is not enough for profitable trading. Instead, that is just a tiny part of what must be learned.
Now, when my students ask me about the most important things to learn & study in trading, I always say:
trading psychology and risk management go first, technical analysis is the secondary.
❗️ Do not neglect these topics and give them due attention. They are an essential part of your success in trading.
🤔 Do you agree with the pyramid that I drew?
Learn Why Most of the Traders Fail
The evidence suggests that only a very small proportion of day traders makes money year over year.
There are certain patterns which may separate profitable traders from those who ultimately lose money. And indeed, there is one particular mistake that in our experience gets repeated time and time again. What is the single most important mistake that led to traders losing money?
Here is a hint – it has to do with how we as humans relate to winning and losing.
Our own human psychology makes it difficult to navigate financial markets, which are filled with uncertainty and risk, and as a result the most common mistakes traders make have to do with poor risk management strategies.
Traders are often correct on the direction of a market, but where the problem lies is in how much profit is made when they are right versus how much they lose when wrong.
Bottom line, traders tend to make less on winning trades than they lose on losing trades.
Humans aren’t machines, and working against our natural biases requires effort. Once you have a trading plan that uses a proper reward/risk ratio, the next challenge is to stick to the plan. Remember, it is natural for humans to want to hold on to losses and take profits early, but it makes for bad trading. We must overcome this natural tendency and remove our emotions from trading.
That will help you to be a consistently profitable trader.
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5 Easy Steps for Beginners to Start Trading in Forex 📝
Being a beginner, it is natural for you to feel overwhelmed when you first start forex trading. But that doesn’t mean that you should shy away from the market. By following the 5 steps listed below, you can start your trading journey in currencies in a smooth and efficient manner.
1. Get to know what drives the market 📈
When it comes to trading in currencies, the first ever step that you would need to make as a beginner is educate yourself about the market. Although the forex market works in a very similar fashion to the stock market, the factors behind the movement of the currencies tend to be different.
2. Choose the right broker 🤝
Selecting the right forex broker is as important as getting to know how to trade in currencies. Not all brokers offer the same level of services or are always reliable. Therefore, it is essential for you to spend some time looking into the various brokers offering forex trading services.
An ideal forex broker should have an easy account opening process, a simple trading platform, offer exceptional customer support and have low transaction costs. While evaluating brokers, make sure to look into their downtime frequency.
3. Establish your financial goals and targets💰
The next step is to work on your financial goals and targets. Introspect and ask yourself what you hope to achieve by trading in currencies. Also, before you actually buy and sell currencies, it is a good idea to first determine your financial targets.
For instance, you can set a target for each forex trade you make or a target for each day or month of trading. Establishing these goals can make you plan your trades much better by helping you come up with a trading plan, which will ultimately make you a better trader.
4. Practice with demo (paper) trading 📃
Through extensive virtual trading practice sessions, you can quickly get the hang of currency trading and try out new trading techniques and strategies. Since you’re not really trading with real money, you don’t have to worry about losing money on trades. Instead, you can spend some quality time learning the ropes and trying to analyze the trades that you make. This can give you some much-needed perspective on how to tackle forex trading in real-time.
5. Start slow and go easy on your trades🐢
Once you’ve gotten the hang of trading in currencies on demo account, you can slowly move onto the real thing. Now, there are a few things that you should keep in mind. The forex market’s volatility tends to be quite high and can lead to wild swings in the price. Therefore, it is a good idea to start slow by using just a fraction of your total investment amount.
Now that you’re aware of the 5 steps that you need to take to start trading in forex, go ahead and begin your journey. Good luck to you!
Hey traders, let me know what subject do you want to dive in in the next post?
Learn How to Improve Your Forex Trading 🔝
Whether you're new to Currency Trading or a seasoned trader, you can always improve your trading skills. Education is fundamental to successful trading. Here are some tips that will help hone your Currency trading skills.
⭐️Plan How You Will Trade
You may have heard the adage, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail." This is particularly true in Forex speculation.
Successful traders start with a sound strategy and they stick to it at all times.
⭐️Most traders fail because they make the same mistakes over and over. A diary can help by keeping track of what works for you and what doesn't. Used consistently, a well-kept diary is your best friend.
⭐️Patience
Once you know what to expect from your system, have the patience to wait for the price to reach the levels that your system indicates for either the point of entry or exit. If your system indicates an entry at a certain level but the market never reaches it, then move on to the next opportunity. There will always be another trade.
⭐️Discipline
Discipline is the ability to be patient—to sit on your hands until your system triggers an action point. Sometimes, the price action won't reach your anticipated price point. At this time, you must have the discipline to believe in your system and not to second-guess it. Discipline is also the ability to pull the trigger when your system indicates to do so. This is especially true for stop losses.
⭐️Realistic Expectations
Even though the market can sometimes make a much bigger move than you anticipate, being realistic means that you cannot expect to invest $250 in your trading account and make $1,000 each trade. Although there is no such thing as a "safe" trading time frame, a short-term mindset may involve smaller risks if the trader exercises discipline in picking trades. This is also known as the trade-off between risk and reward.
Trading is nuanced and requires as much art as science to execute successfully, which means that there is only a profit-making trade or a loss-making trade. Warren Buffet said that there are two rules in trading: Rule 1: Never lose money. Rule 2: Remember Rule 1.
Stick a note on your computer that will remind you to take small losses often and quickly rather than wait for the big losses.
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Learn The Iceberg Illusion | The Fallacies & Reality
We often get mesmerized by someone’s above the surface success and don’t factor in all the below the surface opportunity-costs they paid to achieve that success.
This is the ‘iceberg illusion’. It’s been a fav analogy of mine for years. And yet, this just might be a better visual for sport than the ‘iceberg illusion’.
You see… the hyper focus on outcomes is one of the biggest failings (or façades) that comes from social media. It creates a false impression of what leads to success.
We see the success, but not the work that went into it… The unseen hours, necessary failures, setbacks, crises of confidence, the not-now’s (to the countless asks), the loneliness, the late nights and early mornings; and, all the wobbling that comes before the walking—much less running.
There are no shortcuts. There are no overnight successes.
The iceberg doesn’t move quickly. It’s not sped up. It just moves consistently; at often a barely discernible speed.
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Common trading mistakes to avoid as a trader ❌
For new market traders, review these common trading mistakes so you can avoid emotional blunders with your investments and take advantage of psychological edges.
The mechanics of trading are relatively simple. A click or two gets you into a trade, and a click or two gets you out. But the decision-making process behind those clicks is much more complex. And with complexity comes more opportunities to make mistakes that can affect your bottom line. Here are seven common mistakes that traders—both new and experienced—sometimes make.
1️⃣Mistake 1: Emotional trading/psychological trading
Trading can bring out the best and the worst in us. For a trader, nothing is more frustrating than opening a long position and seeing the market drop, bringing the value of your long position to levels well below the price you bought it. The same can be said about missing out on a move in a stock that's been on your radar for a while.
Anger, fear, and anxiety can lead traders to make quick and even irrational emotion-based decisions.
The reality is that markets are cyclical, moving through ups and downs. Trading decisions based on emotions may not always give the results you want. Instead, take a step back and think through the situation logically. Every situation is different, and instead of buying or selling in a panic, think about how you can best manage risk.
2️⃣Mistake 2: Pulling stop orders
When a position hits a stop order, it can often mean you're going to take a loss on it. Pulling—or canceling—a stop is often a subliminal attempt to avoid admitting you were wrong. After all, as long as the position is open, there's still a chance it could come back and be profitable.
The problem is every 50% loss starts with a 5% loss. It's not magic; it's just math. And it only takes one small loss that turns into a big one to make a big dent in a portfolio. Losing is no fun, but it's part of trading. Being disciplined about managing stop orders may help you come back and trade another day.
3️⃣Mistake 3: Trading without a plan
Trading plans should act as a blueprint during your time on the markets. They should contain a strategy, time commitments and the amount of capital that you are willing to invest.
After a bad day on the markets, traders could be tempted to scrap their plan. This is a mistake, because a trading plan should be the foundation for any new position. A bad trading day doesn’t mean that a plan is flawed, it simply means that the markets weren’t moving in the anticipated direction during that particular time period.
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. The main points to remember are that you should make a trading plan based on your own analysis, and stick to it to prevent emotions from clouding your decision-making.
Hey traders, let me know what subject do you want to dive in in the next post?
Top 5 Tips to Increase Your Profits in Trading 📈
In this educational article, I will share with you very useful tips how to improve your profitability in trading the financial markets.
1. Decrease the number of financial instruments in your watch list. ⬇️
Remember that each individual instrument in your watch list requires attention. The more of them you monitor on a daily basics, the harder it is to keep focus on them.
In order to not miss early confirmation signals and triggers, it is highly recommendable to reduce the size of your watch list and pay closer attention to the remaining instruments.
2. Avoid taking too many positions. ❌
For some reason, newbie traders are convinced that they should constantly trade and keep many trading positions.
Firstly, I want to remind you that the management of an active position is a quite tedious process that requires time and attention.
Therefore, more positions are opened, more time and effort is required.
Secondly, if the newbies can not spot a good setup, they assume that they are obliged to open some positions and they start forcing the setups.
Remember, that in trading, the quality of the trading setup beats the quantity. I advise taking less trades, but the better ones.
3. Let winners run if the market is going in the desired direction. 📈
Once you caught a good trade and the market is moving where you predicted, do not let your emotions close the trade preliminary.
Try to get maximum from your trade, closing that only after the desired level is reached.
4. Open a trade after multiple confirmations.✅
Analyzing a certain setup remember, that more confirmations you spot, higher is the accuracy of the trade that you take. In order to increase your win rate, it is recommendable to wait for at least 2 confirmations.
5. Don't trade on your cellphone. 📱
A good trade always requires a sophisticated analysis that is impossible to execute on the small screen of the cellphone.
A lot of elements and nuances simply will not be noticed. For that reason, trade only from a computer with a wide screen.
Relying on these tips, you will substantially increase your profits.
Take them into the consideration and good luck to you in your trading journey.
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MASTERING AND UNDERSTANDING CANDLESTICKS PATTERNS
To understand the price and candlestick analysis, it helps if you imagine the price movements in financial markets as a battle between the buyers and the sellers. Buyers speculate that prices will increase and drive the price up through their trades and/or their buying interest. Sellers bet on falling prices and push the price down with their selling interest.
☑️ If one side is stronger than the other, the financial markets will see the following trends emerging:
1 - If there are more buyers than sellers, or more buying interest than selling interest, the buyers do not have anyone they can buy from. The prices then increase until the price becomes so high that the sellers once again find it attractive to get involved. At the same time, the price is eventually too high for the buyers to keep buying.
2 - However, if there are more sellers than buyers, prices will fall until a balance is restored and more buyers enter the market.
3 - The greater the imbalance between these two market players, the faster the movement of the market in one direction. However, if there is only a slight overhang, prices tend to change more slowly.
4 - When the buying and selling interests are in equilibrium, there is no reason for the price to change. Both parties are satisfied with the current price and there is a market balance.
It is always important to keep this in mind because any price analysis aims at comparing the strength ratio of the two sides to evaluate which market players are stronger and in which direction the price is, therefore, more likely to move.
☑️ The size of the candlestick body shows the difference between the opening and closing price and it tells us a lot about the strength of buyers or sellers.
1 - A long candlestick body, that leads to quickly rising prices, indicates more buying interest and a strong price move.
2 - If the size of the candlestick bodies increases over a period, then the price trend accelerates and a trend is intensified.
3 - When the size of the bodies shrinks, this can mean that a prevailing trend comes to an end, owing to an increasingly balanced strength ratio between the buyers and the sellers.
4 - Candlestick bodies that remain constant confirm a stable trend
5 - If the market suddenly shifts from long rising candlesticks to long falling candlesticks, it indicates a sudden change in trend and highlights strong market forces.
☑️ The length of shadows helps in determining the volatility, i.e. the entire range of price fluctuations.
1 - Long shadows can be a sign of uncertainty because it means that the buyers and sellers are strongly competing, but neither side has been able to gain the upper hand so far.
2 - Short shadows indicate a stable market with little instability.
3 - We can often see that the length of the candlestick shadows increases after long trend phases. Increasing fluctuation indicates that the battle between buyers and sellers is intensifying and the strength ratio is no longer as one-sided as it was during the trend.
4 - Healthy trends, which move quickly in one direction, usually show candlesticks with only small shadows since one side of the market players dominate the proceedings.
☑️ For a better understanding of price movements and market behaviour, the first two elements must be correlated in the third element.
1 - During a strong trend, the candlestick bodies are often significantly longer than the shadows. The stronger the trend, the faster the price pushes in the trend direction. During a strong upward trend, the candlesticks usually close near the high of the candlestick body and, thus, do not leave a candlestick shadow or have only a small shadow.
2 - When the trend slows down, the ratio changes and the shadows become longer in comparison to the candlestick bodies.
3 - Sideways phases and turning points are usually characterised by candlesticks that have a long shadow and only short bodies. This means that there is a relative balance between the buyers and the sellers and there is uncertainty about the direction of the next price movement.
✅With this article we want to show you that you do not have to remember any candlestick formation to understand price. Quite the opposite. It’s very important on your path to becoming a professional and profitable trader that you start thinking outside the box and avoid the common beginner mistakes. Learn how to understand how buyers and sellers push price, who is in control and who is losing control.
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Learn What Will Really Make You Profitable in Trading
What brings the consistent profits in trading?
Talking to hundreds of struggling traders from different parts of the globe, I realized that there are the common misconceptions concerning that subject.
In this educational article, we will discuss what really will make you profitable in trading.
🔔The first thing that 99% of struggling traders are looking for is signals.
Why damn learn if you can simply follow the trades of a pro trader and make money?!
The truth is, however, is that in order to repeat the performance of a signal provider you have to open all your trading positions in the same exact moment he does. (And I would not even mention the fact that there will be a delay between the moment the provider opens the trade and the moment he sends you the signal)
Because the signal can be sent at a random moment, quite often it will take time for you to reach your trading terminal and open the position.
Just a 1-minute delay may dramatically change the risk to reward ration of the trade and, hence, the final result.
🤖The second thing that really attracts the struggling traders is trading robots (EA). The systems that trade automatically and aimed to generate consistent profits.
You simply start the program and wait for the money.
The main problem with EA is the fact that it requires constant monitoring. It can stop or freeze in a random moment and may require a reboot.
Moreover, due to changing market conditions, the EA should be regularly updated. Without the updates, at some moment it may blow your account.
Trading robot is the work: trading with the robots means their constant development, monitoring and improvement. And that work requires a high level of experience: both in coding and in trading.
📈The third thing that struggling traders are seeking is the "magic" indicator. The one that will accurately identify the safe points to buy and sell. You add the indicator on the chart, and you simply wait for the signal to open the trade.
The fact is that magic indicators do not exist. Indicator is the tool that can be applied as the extra confirmation. It should be applied strictly in a combination with something else, and its proper application requires a high level of expertise in trading.
🍀The fourth thing that newbie traders seek is luck. They open the trade, and then they pray the God, Powell, Fed or someone else to move the market in their favor.
And yes, occasionally, luck will be on your side. But relying on luck on a long-term basis, you are doomed to fail.
But what will make you profitable then?
What is the secret ingredient.
Remember, that secret ingredient does not exist.
In order to become a consistently profitable traders, you should rely on 4 crucial elements: trading plan, risk management, discipline and correct mindset.
🧠What is correct mindset in trading?
It simply means setting REALISTIC goals and having REALISTIC expectations from the market and from your trading.
📝A trading plan is the set of rules and conditions that you apply for the search of a trading setup and the management of the opened position.
Trading plan will be considered to be good if it is back tested on historical data and then tested on demo account for at least 3 consequent months.
✔️In order to follow the plan consistently, you need to be disciplined. You should be prepared for losing streaks, and you should be strong enough to not break once your trading account will be in a drawdown.
💰Risk management is one of the most important elements of your trading plan. It defines your risk per trade and your set of actions in case of losses. Even the best trading strategies may fail because of poor risk management.
Combining these 4 elements, you will become a consistently profitable trader. Remember, that there is no easy way, no shortcut. Trading is a hard work to be done.
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Top 8 Rules of a Pro Trader
Hey traders,
Consistently profitable traders have a lot of things in common. Watching how they act and following their ideas & thoughts we can spot a lot of commonalities among them.
In this article, I have collected 8 trading habits that a trader should have to become successful.
1️⃣ - Continuous Learning 📚
The markets are infinitely deep in their nature.
Trading & constant monitoring of the market always unveil new, uncharted elements and things.
With 8 years of day trading, I can't help wondering how many new things I learn each and every day.
With continuous learning you evolve, you become better and it improves your trading performance & results.
2️⃣- Emotional Stability 🙏
The market is a wild beast who always wants to bite us.
And most of the time it manages to do that:
drawdowns, losing streaks...
Those who trade for at least 1 year know how unpredictable and unstable the market is.
A perfectly looking trading setup can easily turn into a big losing trade.
Of course, that is painful, of course with more and more losers, the anxiety will pursue us, the stress will overwhelm us.
Only by remaining stable and calm, you will manage to overcome the negative periods.
Learn to control your emotions, learn to take losses!
3️⃣ - Constant Practice 💪
Pro traders never stop, they always watch the charts, they always monitor the prices, and follow the market.
Trading requires constant TRADING.
Just spending one single week on a vacation without charts, you can not imagine how hard it is to return back.
The trading skills must be constantly maintained.
4️⃣ - Trade Journaling 📝
Pro trders always assess their past performance & results.
They track each and every trading position that they opened.
Both losing trades and winning trades require analysis and observations.
Only by studying the past results the trader can improve his trading performance and evolve. Only by identifying mistakes & peculiar commonalities, the trader learns to lose less than he makes.
5️⃣ - Anticipation of Different Outcomes 👁
Everything can happen in financial markets.
Pro trader always reasons in probabilities.
He knows that 100% chances do not exist.
Accepting the probabilities the trader (even while opening the trade) is always ready for completely different outcomes and accepts each and every move of the market.
6️⃣ - Flexibility & Adaptivity 🕺
The markets are always changing.
If you were trading before COVID crisis, I guess you feel how the reality among us shifted. With fundamental changes in our daily lives, the markets changed as well.
It is hard to say what exactly has altered though, however, we all can feel it.
In order to survive in a constantly changing environment, one should adapt . One should look for ways to be one step ahead.
To beat an evolving market, the traders should constantly polish their trading strategies, drop the things that don't work anymore, and adopt the new, reliable ones.
That is the only way to stay afloat.
7️⃣ - Selection of Right Markets 📈
The trader always knows what to trade and he always has a reason.
He admits that some financial instruments are appropriate for his trading style while some are completely not.
Pro trader does not wander around aimlessly from one market to another. He has a plan to follow and rules to rely on.
8️⃣ - Realistic Expectations ⭐️
Many newbie traders drop trading just because of wrong expectations.
The desire to get rich quick, to catch 20/1 risk to reward trades without substantial losses is playing a dirty trick with them.
The true trader is not greedy, in contrast, he is humble and the only thing that he wants is simply to win more than he loses and make that amount sufficient enough to have a good living.
Adapting these 8 habits, you will see dramatic improvements in your trading.
And even though most of them require a substantial effort and many years of practicing, trust me, it is worth it and it will help you in your daily life as well.
Would you add some other habits to this list?🤓
Let me know in a comment section.
Let me know, traders, what do you want to learn in the next educational post?
Why 90% Of Traders Lose Money?
Trading is a tough business and most people who start in the business lose money.
And these numbers aren't small at all, really. In fact, they might even be scary to look at. Therefore, in this article, we will look at some of the most popular reasons why more than 90% of new traders will lose their money in trading.
____
The most common reason why many traders lose money is simply that they want to become professional traders without learning more about it first. They trade without even learning the differences between assets and how trading works. Other people start trading after seeing the hyped stories of millionaire traders on television.
____
Some traders just follow the recommendations of others and do not conduct technical analyses of their own.
Traders should review the prices, analyze the volume, check the prior trends and analyze other technical indicators before placing their intraday orders.
Rushing just to place buy or sell orders is one of the biggest mistakes intraday traders make.
One should conduct proper technical analysis and then start trading.
____
The phrase- “Trend is your best friend” always works in the market. Not following the trend is another biggest mistake that day traders make.
Unless a trader has many years of experience and understanding of the market, traders should try to avoid going against the trend.
If the market is in a strong uptrend, then one should try to trade in the up direction only unless there is any strong resistance or chart pattern breakout.
____
Some traders follow rumors and recommendations which are spread by the media houses and brokers.
This is another big mistake that intraday traders make. One should not blindly follow the intraday trading tips and rumors without their own analysis.
Going by these recommendations without conducting your own analysis can cause huge losses.
As we have discussed above traders should conduct proper research before following any recommendations or intraday tips. As we all know that the intraday trading is a mixed bag of losses and gains. Not every trade goes right or is profitable. Thus traders should put a stop loss of their trades when doing intraday trading to protect their capital from losses.
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Steps to Becoming a Profitable Trader
This is a roadmap to becoming a profitable trader. Follow these steps to avoid wasting time and bouncing around from idea to idea. We start with a basic strategy idea we like, then build off it. We MAKE it profitable by following the steps outlined.
1. Focus on One Idea or Strategy
Focus on one specific idea.
An idea is not “price action” or “technical analysis”. That is too broad.
But you could start with the idea of day trading an 8 and 21-period moving average crossover.
Or MACD signal crossovers on a 1-minute chart.
Or the rounded top or bottom or pattern, or triangles, or Keltner channel bounces off the center line in strong trends.
Basically, you need an idea and a time frame (1-minute chart, daily chart, etc).
2. Define the Strategy
Since you have your idea, you already know the basic concept of the strategy. If you don’t have a strategy yet, that’s where a bit of research comes in: finding something you like the idea of. There are loads of free strategy articles on this site, in the courses offered, and from other sources such as books, Youtube, etc.
Whatever strategy you decide on, it needs to include these key components:
A trade setup. The trade setup is what needs to happen for us to even consider a trade. It could be a specific chart pattern, moving average crossover, price action signal, etc.
Where, when, and why we enter
A trade trigger is a precise event that tells us to get into the trade. When the “trigger” event occurs, it turns a possible trade setup into an actual trade.
Where, when, and why we exit profitable trades
Where, when, and why we exit losing trades
If and how we trail a stop loss.
3. Polish Your Strategy
Keep practicing. Keep improving your strategy.
Try that on different markets, under different circumstances.
Make it better and better till it starts making money.
Keep it simple and focused on one trading idea.
Get better and better at that idea. Keep refining and building your confidence in the method.
We gain confidence by seeing something work and being able to implement it. And that’s what all these steps are about.
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Learn 4 Classic Trade Confirmations
"Look for a confirmation!"
"Wait for a confirmation!"
When I was learning how to trade and when I was watching and reading different trading educators, these words naturally pissed me off. What the hell are you talking about? What confirmation?
It was a full-blown mystery...🤯
Then, once I started to mature in trading and trade full-time, I became an author on TradingView.
Posting my forecasts and trading setups, I frequently mentioned the confirmation.
And now the newbies that are reading me and learning from me are pissed off...🤬
That is so funny I guess.
But the truth is that the confirmation must become a fundamental part of your trading strategy. It is your key to successful trading.
What exactly is the confirmation?
It depends on many many different things, in this article I will discuss with you the 4 main types of confirmation and give you detailed examples.
1️⃣ - PRICE ACTION CONFIRMATION
That is actually what I prefer.
Analyzing different markets and searching for decent trading opportunities often times we find some peculiar instruments to watch.
Identifying the market trend and key levels we find the potential spots to trade from.
But do we just open the trade once the "ZONE" is spotted?
I wish it could be that simple...
Trading just the zone, without additional clues brings very negative figures. We definitely need something else.
Price action & candlestick patterns can be those clues.
Accurate reflection of the current local market sentiment makes the patterns a very reliable confirmation.
Dodji's, pin bars, double tops/bottoms ...
Proven by history, the skill of identification & reading the patterns will pay off quickly.
Being in some sense the language of the market, the patterns are the fundamental part of my trading strategy.
2️⃣ - FIBONACCI LEVELS
Fibonacci levels are a very popular technical tool. Being applied properly it helps the trader to confirm or, alternatively, disqualify the identified "ZONE".
With multiple different methods like confluence trading, fibs are applied in hedge funds and various banking institutions.
The main problem with the fibs, however, is complexity and a high degree of subjectivity. Meeting different traders and watching different posts on TradingView I noticed that all traders tend to have their own vision. There is no universal system to apply here, a proper fib.confirmation technique can be built only with long-lasting backtesting and practicing.
3️⃣ - FUNDAMENTAL NEWS
The figures in the economic calendar, news, tweets. Actual fundamental news can become your best confirmation tool.
However, the main obstacle right here is the promptness, validity and reliability of the data that you get.
The information shouldn't be delayed and it must be objectively true.
The search for such a source is by itself is a very time-consuming and labor-intensive business not even mentioning its potential costs.
And that is not all. Knowing how to make sense of that data, its proper perception, and understanding requires a solid economical and financial background and experience.
At the end of the day, becoming an expert in fundamental analysis , the trader can easily sort the trading zones and trade only the ones that are confirmed by a decent fundamental trigger.
4️⃣ - TECHNICAL INDICATORS
I believe all the traders apply some indicators. From a simple moving average to some complex composite algorithms, indicators play a very important role in trading.
Being 100% objective and providing up-to-date real numbers and figures, they are our allies in a battle against subjectivity.
For many traders, the various signals from indicators are considered to be accurate and reliable confirmations.
Many algotrading solutions are operating simply relying on such signals and being able to bring consistent profits proves the power of technical indicators.
What confirmation type should you rely on?🧐
I guess the main rule right here is that the confirmation must MAKE SENSE to you. You should feel the logic behind that. It must make you confident in your action, even in case of the occasional losses, it must keep you calm and humble.
Let me know in a comment section what confirmation do you prefer!
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Thank you for reading.
Let me know, traders, what do you want to learn in the next educational post?
Investment Risk Scale
When investing funds in any format, you need to understand the
investment approach and risk involved in the planning you undertake.
Example investment risk categories when investing capital or income are as follows:
1-2
Lowest Risk
Very Cautious Risk
You are not prepared to accept any exposure to investment loss although you
are aware that any investment has some possibility of loss, for example if a bank
holding your money was to collapse. The value of your money may also fall in
real terms if inflation exceeds the return that your investment achieves. You
accept that the returns from your investments are likely to be low compared to
the potential returns from investments that have a higher risk rating.
3-4
Cautious Risk
You are prepared to accept a higher risk of capital loss in return for the
opportunity to earn more than from deposits and low risk type investments but
do not wish to take as much risk as with a medium risk strategy. While there can
be no guarantee, investments in this category are not likely to fluctuate in value
as sharply or as quickly as a portfolio largely made up of equity investments.
5-6
Balanced Risk
You are prepared to accept that the value of your investments will fluctuate
with the aim of achieving higher returns in the medium to long term. You accept
that there is an increased risk of capital loss over investing in more low risk
investments. Medium risk investments can fluctuate in value more rapidly and
quickly over a short periods of time than more low risk investments.
7-8
Adventurous Risk
You are prepared to accept fairly high levels of risk with your investments,
with the aim of achieving higher investment returns in the longer term. You
accept that this may mean that the value of your investments may fluctuate
considerably over a short periods of time and that there is an increased risk of
capital loss compared with a lower risk investment strategy.
Therefore, you may consider investments mainly in equities/shares and is likely
to involve investment in various overseas markets as well as UK markets. This
increases risk because of currency fluctuations as well as investment risk. Risk
can be reduced by diversifying your investments across sectors and markets
9-10
Highest Risk
Very Adventurous
Risk
You are prepared to accept high levels of risk with your investments, with the
aim of achieving higher investment returns in the longer term. You accept that
this may mean that the value of your investments may fluctuate significantly
over a very short periods of time and you could lose a significant proportion
(possibly all) of your investment.
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