Do not get caught in this trap!Good time of the day, friends! Rushing into trades is definitely among the top #3 common mistakes done by relatively newer market participants who we would call early sellers in this context.
The chart/infographic above is pretty self explanatory, but let’s still cover some aspects of it by considering a following scenario:
Market was moving sideways the whole week, you almost lost hope to finish the month in profits and now you see the up-trending channel with already 2 lower trend-line touches. You instantly get excited and set a long position in the area of a third touch. Well, next thing you know it plummets right past through it. Lesson learned, but what can be done to avoid that?
Well, first of all “look for multiple confluences”. Does the third touch coincide with a potential support zone? If not, that already weakens the point. Was there any signs of bottom forming and reversal? Another strike if not. Did it coincide with any Fibonacci levels, for instance? No? You’re out.
Going over mistakes is easy, as there are always so many things that can go wrong, but what’s an alternative then, you may ask. On the chart above, we also indicated a point where we would consider entering the mentioned trade. Patient execution with a proper Risk-Reward is a way to do it.
Hope this helps, and tune in for more content for us!
Trading Plan
Your Ability To Stick To a Strategy MattersHello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Your ability to stick to a strategy matters more than the strategy itself
As a systemic trader, I've always said knowing what to do is the easy part.
Applying a proven strategy with unconditional conviction is when it starts getting hard.
Trading against your deep beliefs
You want to believe a narrative
You want to believe it has to go up or down because someone from CNBC/Twitter said something
When any trading strategy then gives a signal in the opposite direction of your beliefs, you're undecided, you can't take the trade.
I've heard those sentences from unexperienced traders
"It has to go down because the FED increased the interest rates so I'm not taking that Long"
"It has to go up because ABC is an inflation hedge and we're only 3X from the previous ATH"
Let me ask you this...
Don't you think most traders are losing money because of their beliefs?
Trading against yourself
There is a signal to exit but you don't want to exit because the last few exits made you exit too early..
There is a signal to enter but you don't want to enter because the last few entries weren't winners...
Then comes an entry that you decided to ignore, the trade worked wonderfully but you ignored it....
Then comes an exit for a trade you're in that you decided to ignore leading to a bigger loss....
See a pattern here?
Following a strategy is hard because it's trading against who we are and what we think.
But, once we learn to ignore as much as possible our "human" side, is when we start making the sweet gains!!!
Quotes of the day
- “Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.” ― Albert Einstein
- “Any system was a straightjacket if you insisted on adhering to it so totally and humourlessly.” ― Erica Jong, Fear of Flying
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
BIGGEST TRADING MISTAKES YOU MUST KNOW
While some trading mistakes are unavoidable, it is important that you don’t make a habit of them and learn from both successful and unsuccessful positions. With that in mind, these are the 10 most common trading mistakes.
1 - Not researching the markets properly
Some traders will open or close a position on a gut feeling, or because they have heard a tip.
It is important to back these feelings or tips up with evidence and market research before committing to opening or closing a position.
2 - Trading without a plan
3 - Over-reliance on indicators
4 - Failing to cut losses
The temptation to let losing trades run in the hope that the market turns can be a grave error, and failing to cut losses can wipe out any profits a trader may have made elsewhere.
5 - Overexposing a position
6 - Overdiversifying a portfolio too quickly
While diversifying a trading portfolio can act as a hedge in case one asset’s value declines, it can be unwise to open too many positions in a short amount of time.
7 - Not understanding leverage
8 - Not understanding the risk-reward ratio
The risk-to-reward ratio is something every trader should take into consideration, as it helps them decide whether the end profit is worth the possible risk of losing capital.
9 - Overconfidence after a profit
10 - Letting emotions impair decision-making
Emotional trading is not smart trading. Emotions, such as excitement after a good day or despair after a bad day, could cloud decision-making and lead traders to deviate from their plan.
Every trader makes mistakes, and the examples covered in this article don’t need to be the end of your trading. However, they should be taken as opportunities to learn what works and what doesn’t work for you.
How To Improve Decision Making SkillsHello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Decision & Outcome
As a trader, I often noticed a disconnect between the right decision and the right outcome.
If you read my previous content, I talked about repeating successful trades, finding a trading strategy that works and keep trading it over and over again.
Your decision-making process in the most valuable thing that you have.
It’s what make you decide who you’re going to marry, what business opportunity you’re going to pursue, which mentors you’re going to follow, what assets you’re going to trade etc…
You could take the money away from the most successful traders or entrepreneurs and they’ll make it back again.
Ray Dalio, Elon Musk for example, lost everything and made it all back.
The hardest part about trading (and life in general) is you can make the right decision and have the wrong outcome.
Warren Buffet
Warren Buffet says “I wouldn’t touch Bitcoin” because it’s speculative, has no intrinsic value and would buy it only because someone else will buy it at a higher price.
Plus, a Bitcoin doesn’t produce anything… unlike a stock that produces dividends….unlike some real-estate that produces some rental income…unlike a business spitting out profit.
Those who listened to him chose to not buy Bitcoin years ago.
And until 1 year ago, the amount of money if would have been worth would have been a lot more.
Was the decision wrong? Or was it that the outcome did not match the quality of the decision?
If you’re going to change the way you made decisions because a decision you made in the past ended up bad, you have to apply the same decision making context/framework to everything else.
If I say, I’m now going to be a speculator - someone who buy things in the hope to sell it later for more even though the things themselves don’t have more value.
If I choose to start making this kind of decision, I have to think about all the other investments I would have and lost money on as a result of that decision making framework.
I heard this first from Ray Dalio.
Ray Dalio
He said, the hardest things is passing up on an opportunity and then seeing it do really well.
If I were to use the decision framework that would have made that deal a winner then I’d have to apply that same framework to all the other trades that would have been losers.
And my net net of having that decision making framework would ultimately cause me to lose.
This has been one of the most powerful concept for me as a trader because it allows me to separate the outcome from the quality of the decision.
Most speculators don't make money so that's why even if I feel pain when assets I don't own go up, I comfort myself thinking I made the right decision to choose to only trading cryptocurrencies and not holding any long-term.
And god bless..... I was right based on the events from last week #FTX
Reflecting on my trading
It’s not because I missed some opportunities or failed some trades that my decision-making framework was wrong.
My father and mentor taught me during my first year to only trade based on a convergence of indicators - to never use fundamental analysis nor blockchain analysis for those trading cryptos.
My decision-making process is 100% based on the chart and nothing else.
Whenever I get a bad outcome but traded my system as I should, it’s okay as I know overtime it gives me more winners than losers.
However, if I trade based on something I read on social media then more often than not, I end up losing money.
I've been trading using the same trading system for almost a decade - the convergence of indicators used encapsulates automatically a list of checkpoints verifying if a trade has enough momentum/strength/volume for me to consider whether I should take it or not.
Quotes of the day
- "We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us." — Ken Levine
- "Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance." — C.S. Lewis
- “It's not about making the right choice. It's about making a choice and making it right.― J.R. Rim,
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
The path to becoming a good trader
When a beginner learns to trade, they progress through stages as they develop their mindset.
The most commonly used learning model for trading is an adaptation of the 3 stages of competence model.
1. Unprofitable trader
This is the first stage that a trader goes through and they do not know that they have a lack of knowledge. In this stage, beginner traders will take their first few steps by downloading a platform, opening an account and begin to place trades.
However, they are influenced by emotion – usually lured by the thought of making a great deal of money in a short period of time.
Either one of two things are likely to happen for traders in this stage:
The trades turns against the trader immediately. They simply lack the experience to deal with the market environment.
New traders take large risks without a basic knowledge of risk management and they wipe out all previous profits and more.
2. Boom and bust trader
Boom and bust traders will realise that successful trading comes down to the psychology of the trader and their approach to the markets.
A basic understanding that you will never be able to predict what will happen in the markets, starts to form. You begin to realise that making money is based on a series of trades that incorporate winners and losers, and that it takes discipline to stick to a system, cut losses short and let profits run.
A trader in this stage will begin to enter and exit the markets whenever their system tells them to, without judgement and despite the emotion they are feeling.
3. Profitable trader
A trader is said to have reached the stage of unconscious competence once they have traded with so much practice that they are able to trade in an almost automatic mindset.
A disciplined approach requires very little effort and has become second nature.
At what stage are you at the moment?
How To Know When To Quit (Part 2/2)Hello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Sharing the second part of this article posted yesterday
5. Know your limits and set rules around it
Set out the rules beforehand rather than waiting until you are in it.
Because you will not make good decisions then.
There are particular states where you’re going to feel suboptimal that have to do with your own physical state.
You’re tired, you’re stressed, whatever, but then there are also cognitive states where you’re going to behave sub-optimally.
And the particular cognitive state where you’re really going to behave sub-optimally is when you’re in the losses.
And the reason that you’re going to be a terrible decision-maker is, except for the part it’s going to cause you to be emotional, is that you’re going to want to get your money back.
And this is a really big problem for investors.
You start down a path, it starts to lose and you don’t want to sell, because you can’t get your money back.
That’s the moment that you go from a loss on paper to a sure loss.
It’s when it becomes a realized loss.
And that is a moment that we do not like.
And so we will come up with all sorts of reasons to think we’re being rational in continuing on, when we’re being completely irrational because we’re just trying to protect ourselves from having that moment of having to take the sure loss.
6. Loss aversion
Our loss aversion prevents us from selling investments at a loss.
But this extend beyond trading too.
Decisions should be made based on the future, not the past.
I think people are familiar with loss aversion.
We don’t like to start things that carry with them a chance of loss, even if we’re winning to the decision.
When you already have a loss on the books, or even a cognitive loss on the books, it was trading at one level and now it’s trading lower, we don’t like to sell.
In other words, this becomes loss aversion stops us from starting aka taking trades sometimes.
Of course this is irrational, because what matters is, is the next dollar that you spend worthwhile, not did you already spend a dollar.
We shouldn’t care.
7. Endowment effect
We value things we own, much more than things we don’t own.
Even though the opposite might be true.
It could be stocks, bonds or our IDEAS.
We wrap our identity in things and won’t quit despite the warning signs.
And then we also have the issue, which I think is really important for investors, you have something called an endowment. We value things we own, much more than we value things that we don’t own.
And it’s not just ownership over investments, we actually own the stock, or we own the bond, or whatever, we own the option, but it’s also our ideas.
And every time we invest, we have ownership over our thesis.
And here’s the interesting thing, is that when the thing that we’re doing is out of consensus, this is when it gets really bad.
So when we think about these issues of sunk cost, and sure loss aversion, and the way our identity gets wrapped up in things, and the way we have ownership over things, and the way that affects our inability to stop, you have to put a big huge blinking warning sign when the thing we’re doing is out of consensus.
9. The kill criteria
Think in advance the signals you might see in the future that means that it is time to quit.
To continue holding this investment, what do you need to see in the next few quarters or years?
Sticking to things too long denies us future opportunities.
Think in advance about what are the signals that I might see in the future that would tell me that it’s time to walk away and you will get better at it.
What do I need to see within the next quarter or the next two quarters from the way that this investment might perform?
Essentially think, “How long can I tolerate this, or how much time do I need in order for me to actually get the information that I would need in order to be able to make a decision?”
Figure out what that time period is and then figure, at the end of that time period
“What would I have to see?
What are the benchmarks that this thing would have to hit in order for me to feel like I ought to continue?
And if it doesn’t hit these things, then I should walk away.
Quotes of the day
- "Losses loom larger than corresponding gains" ― Amos Tversky
- "If we could be freed from our aversion to loss, our whole outlook on risk would change"― Alan Hirsch
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
JS-Masterclass: Sell Alerts / RulesJS-Masterclass #10: Sell Alerts / Sell Rules
In recent tutorials, we have covered different techniques and ways to identify low-risk entry points. We have talked about the perfect buy points and several entry patterns.
In this tutorial, we will discuss general rules for selling once we have entered a trade. Also, we will present a comprehensive list of warning signals which suggest to close a trade long before hitting the Stop-Loss.
1. Selling into strength
By far the best option for a swing-trader is to sell into strength. You will feel like a hero once you have mastered this technique!
Here are some guidelines for that:
a) Sell if you have achieved a gain which is a multiple of your risk. The minimum gain before selling into strength should be 2x the risk. Consider selling half and moving stop on remaining position to breakeven.
b) If your profit is more than your average gain and a multiple of your risk (generally 2-3x) consider trailing a stop or selling half and moving your stop up. You could also “backstop” your average gain or an amount you want to lock in.
c) The stock is extended and opens up on a gap; consider selling at least half or trail a tight stop.
2. Selling into weakness
a) The price hits pre-determined stop-loss – OUT… NO QUESTIONS! You will have to stick to this discipline before you will become a successful trader.
b) The stock closes below 20-day moving average, below your purchase price soon after a breakout from volatility contraction pattern; reduce shares when you have 3-4 days of lower lows without supportive action on day 3-4. This increases the odds of a failure.
c) Heavy selling with full retracement soon after low volume breakout. This is a bad signal – get out of the trade.
d) Key reversal on heavy volume when stock is extended – sell at least half.
3. Sell Alerts
Stocks will flash warning signals long before a big decline. Here are some to watch for:
a) Accelerated rate of advance (parabolic “blow-off” price action)
b) After extended move stock moves up 25-50% in 1-3 weeks (12 of 15 days up over 3 weeks)
c) Largest up day since beginning of move (look for reversal or churning over the next 1-4 trading days). This could mean that the stock is in its final leg up and almost exhausted.
d) Largest daily price spread since advance started
e) Largest weekly price spread since beginning of advance
f) Exhaustion gaps (after stock is extended – usually 2nd or 3rd gap )
g) New high on low volume which sometimes indicates the beginning of a phase 3
h) Heavy volume with little price progress (stalling action)
i) Drop below the 50-day moving average line on the heaviest daily volume since beginning of move
j) Largest one-day decline since beginning of move
k) Largest weekly decline on huge volume
l) Downwards action on large volume
Perfect Buy Points: IPO’s – The Primary BaseJS-Masterclass #8:
Perfect Buy Points: IPO’s – The Primary Base
When it comes to investing in IPO stocks, new issues don't play by the usual rules.
Companies making initial public offerings draw a lot of investor attention. That often results in unusual and brand-new chart patterns. Volatility can rise as investors size up demand for the new stock. Yet there are opportunities in these cases, if you can spot the correct characteristics amid the price-and-volume action.
The framework of a good IPO base is simple. The decline from peak to low usually doesn't top 20%, but the most volatile markets have produced declines of up to 50%. The length is often less than five weeks and can be as short as seven days. These two factors alone make IPO bases wayward cousins compared with proper bases, such as the cup with handle and flat base, which need at least five to seven weeks of work.
In an IPO base, the pattern typically starts within 25 days of the stock's first day of trading. Know the important similarities with regular bases. For example, the buy point is drawn by taking the prior high and adding 10 cents. The price gain on the breakout should be strong.
There are ways to evaluate these blind spots, however. Important factors include seeing a shallow correction within the base during normal market conditions, a large increase in price and a close near session highs on the breakout day, and heavy volume on the breakout day and week.
Also, the stock should generally form the base above its IPO price.
Example - ServiceNow (NOW)
The business software company, went public in June 2012, at 18 a share and has built its primary base during the period from the initial offering to April 2013 when the stock developed its first perfect buy point.
Be that traderA structure is necessary to actively improve all the skills required to master trading.
Start by rating yourself on a scale of 1 to 100 for all these skills to come up with "stats" as you would have in a videogame.
Next step is to take the same approach as you would to level up in a said video game. Focus on the grind and to complete a couple of "levels" per day. You will see that with this concept in mind you will attain higher stats that you would want for your "perfect build".
Cheers to many pips.
How To Know When To Quit (Part 1/2)Hello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Splitting this article in 2 parts because it’s dense and I don’t want to lose people who might think “too much text I won’t read”
Let’s talk about:
– Cognitive biases
– Decision-making
1. Be at ease with a bad outcome
Focus on the decision-making process instead.
Think in probability and play to the best of your hand.
Don’t dwell on a bad outcome if the process and decision-making were sound.
You have no control over outcomes when luck is involved.
Embrace uncertainty.
Understand that you have to get down to what do I have control over, and what don’t I have control over.
And I have to accept the tremendous influence of luck, I have to accept the fact that I’m having to make these very high-stakes decisions without being able to accurately predict where the candles are going.
2. Advice from Eric Seidel: Do not dwell on unlucky events
Eric Seidel is a 9-time world series of poker bracelet winner who made $40 million.
By all means, discuss what could have been done better.
If you played to the best of your "cards", that’s all that matters.
He goes, “I don’t want to hear about it if there’s not a question. I don’t care that you got unlucky.
I get unlucky too.
And I have to deal with losing with two jacks against two nines all the time also.
I certainly don’t want to take on your emotional trash about it myself.
And what’s the point of talking about it? You made a great call and lost, who cares?
Would you have changed anything about what you did? Do you think you got the read wrong?
It sounds to me like you did everything right. So why are we even talking about this?
I mean this is the thing, if it really was just bad luck, who cares?
This is about embracing that uncertainty, right?”
3. All decisions are probabilistic
And we make these probabilistic decisions all the time.
Consciously or subconsciously.
Whether its choosing your partner or the route you are taking to work.
You’re making a forecast.
The moment we make it explicit, we start to create feedback loops we can learn from.
Even if you don’t think you’re doing it explicitly, literally every single decision you make is probabilistic, because it’s a forecast.
It’s a forecast made under conditions where you don’t have all the facts.
You generally know very little in comparison to all there is to be known.
We have to reject the idea that if you’re not doing it explicitly, that you aren’t thinking probabilistically because every decision is a probabilistic decision just by its nature because the world is probabilistic, that is how we decide.
Now the act of trying to make these things explicit will make you better at it, because what it will start to do is allow you to create good feedback loops.
4. Don’t trade if you don’t have an edge
And we are very good at fooling ourselves into believing that we have an edge.
Set up structures, write down your thesis.
What new information will break your thesis?
When should you quit?
I think we’re very good at fooling ourselves into believing that we have a rational reason, that we have an edge.
And I think that that’s particularly so when we’re in a situation where the thesis would affirm other things that we already believe about the world.
I think it’s particularly so when we’re already in the investment/trade.
So one of the things that we need to do is set up structures around us that will allow us, first of all, to be better at those, are we really being rational and starting… but more importantly, because the starting decision is always uncertain, is to say, as we discover new information after we’ve started, are we stopping, right?
Are we figuring out when we should stop?
Because it turns out that we’re very, very dense when it comes to actually paying attention to the signals after we’ve started something that we ought to stop it.
And that’s where we get particularly irrational.
Quotes of the day
“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” ― Lance Armstrong
“The elements of good trading are: (1) cutting losses, (2) cutting losses, and (3) cutting losses. If you can follow these three rules, you may have a chance“ ― Ed Seykota
"Confidence is not “I will profit on this trade.” Confidence is “I will be fine if I don’t profit from this trade." ― Yvan Byeajee
I'll post the second part tomorrow
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
How to Blow Your Account | Step-By-Step Guide 💰 to 🪙
Hey traders,
In this article, we will discuss the set of actions, habits and beliefs that will blow your account.
1. Trades are based on emotional decisions
Behind each trading position must be a reason.
The entry reason of a professional trader is based on a very strict and objective conditions, while an unprofitable trader follows emotions and intuition.
2. Stop loss placement is for losers
A lot of traders consistently neglect placing a stop loss. Remember, just one single trade without that may blow your entire account.
3. Set unrealistic goals
There is a common misconception concerning trading: that the equity size is not proportional to potential gains. Such a reasoning leads to various false conclusions.
One who is trading with 100$ account and expecting to buy lambo, will inevitably blow the account.
4. No time for trade journaling
Why to even bother yourself with trade journaling?! It is just waste of time.
Remember, that trading journal is one of that best tools for learning. Constantly assessing your past decisions, you identify the flaws of your strategy and fix that, increasing your future gains.
5. Trading plan is for fools
I know a lot of traders who trade without a plan.
Remember, that the trading plan is your roadmap. Without that, it is impossible to become a consistently profitable trader.
6. Blindly following other's view
While you are learning how to trade, your task is to learn the reasoning behind the trades of the pro's in the industry. Following them without reflections, you are not learning and, moreover, you are becoming dependent. Losing, you put the responsibility on their shoulders instead of yours.
Such an approach will lead you to failure.
Learn to become responsible in your trading decisions and execute your own analysis before you follow any other trader.
7. Who needs economic data
As we discussed many times, fundamentals are the driver of the market. Neglecting the trends and global situation, not studying the news, you will unavoidably be fooled by the market.
8. Indicators are the magic pill
I know a lot of traders, who spend thousands of dollars looking for a magic indicator - the instrument that will make tons of money.
The fact is that indicators are just a tool in your toolbox. Its goal is to provide some minor additional clues to your analysis.
Overestimating the importance of indicators, you will most likely blow your account.
9. Not investing in education
Many traders are spending their money not on education but on fancy tools, signal services, robots and indicators.
However, the fact is that only knowledge gives freedom, only skills can make you independent.
10. Back testing is pointless
Trying different strategies, many traders intentionally skip the back testing part.
Remember, that back testing is the most proven way to verify the efficiency of a strategy, allowing you to save time and money simultaneously.
11. Paper trading does not make any sense
Same thing with paper trading. For some reason, the majority of the traders skip demo trading, quickly opening a real account.
However, the fact is that demo trading is the best, risk-free tool for learning how the market works.
Unfortunately, these 11 fallacies and misconceptions are very common. Analyze your trading and make sure that you are not making these classic mistakes.
What would you add in that list?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
The 7 Levels of Financial Freedom
Hey traders,
In this article, we will discuss the ladder of financial independence.
Level 1 - Solvency
You cover your debts and living expenses with your income.
Being solvent is considered to be shaky states. Once you stop earning for any sake of a reason, you immediately become in debt.
Level 2 - Stability
Besides being able to cover your living expenses and debts, you also have an emergency savings.
The emergency savings usually cover 1-2 months of your basic expenses, making your state more sustainable.
Level 3 - Debt Freedom
You are free of debts and that lets you start investing and save even more.
It is the transitional level in our ladder from unstable to a secure state.
Level 4 - Security
Your investments cover your basics expenses.
While you keep earning, the money that you invested start bringing more money fortifying your state.
Level 5 - Flexibility
While your investments are still not sufficient to cover all your costs of living, it fully compensates 1-year costs of your basic expenses.
Level 6 - Independence
Your investments cover all your living costs, letting you live wherever you want and spend on luxuries.
Level 7 - Abundance
Money is no more a concern to you. You have more than you and your children will even need.
The understanding of the level where you are is crucially important for building your investment strategy.
Keep working and learning to constantly climb the stairs and grow your wealth.
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
10 Trading Rules I Used To Stop Losing MoneyHello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
I) Hard work versus efficient work
Work ethic doesn’t matter.
You can work as hard as possible and not get rich.
So getting rich is not about pure hard work.
Getting rich is about knowing what to do, when to do it, and with whom to do it.
It is about understanding.
Once you figure this out, the next is about executing the path —> which will probably require the hard work.
But as we see, the work comes implicitly in the execution of the path/destination.
So, don’t do the hard work for its own sake, that would be a waste of time.
II) The Understanding
You can develop this skill by becoming a perpetual learner.
And when feeling confused during the learning sessions ==> that’s OK.
Your brain is like a muscle, and it means that is being “trained”.
Foundation of “axioms” (based on full truth) are critical for learning and interpreting new information.
So, when developing the “axioms” make sure you are consuming high quality information.
III) How do we make sure that our foundation is high quality
Step 1 : Stick to hard science, mathematics, the “basics”.
Why? There is no disagreement between people in these areas, so they are solid foundations.
With trading, simple always outperform complicated.
I’ve seen price action traders outperforming traders with multiple dozens of indicators on their chart.
In hindsight now the answer to why that is is obvious to me….
That’s because we tend to overcomplicate things and tend to believe that a more complex trading strategy leads to better results.
This couldn’t be further from the truth - this is untrue.
Sharing here a non-exhaustive “axioms” list I learned the hard way (not listed in a specific order)
1. Cut social medias completely when trading.
I literally block my own access to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tim Tok… giving my access away to someone I trust and telling that person to change my password/email so that I can’t access them anymore.
2. I don’t necessarily need more winners than losers but I need my winners to be at least 2X in pips value my losers
3. More trades doesn’t mean more profit
4. Less trades doesn’t mean more profit either
The profit isn’t correlated to the number of trades I’m taking per day but to me being reactive whenever a great opportunity presents itself
5. This one is very personal and based on who I am as a trader
Leverage is OK in the 2X/3X range at most and only for rare opportunities with a huge risk to reward ratio.
6. I must NOT trade what I want to BUT trade what’s moving
7. It is OK to feel GREED/FOMO/FEAR, I can always adjust my position size to hedge my doubts.
8. It is NOT OK to make some good trades and keep trading for that trading session out of GREED/FOMO
9. It is NOT OK to not take a trade because the previous trades were losers
That one required me years of self-mastery to accept it
10. I MUST ALWAYS expect the unexpected => leading me to banking profit automatically when the candles hit a Supports/Resistances zone AND withdrawing to my bank account on a weekly basis
Step 2 : Read the classics and listen to trading podcasts where the top traders explain their strategies, mindset, psychology when approaching trades.
I really like the Youtube channel SMB traders and the podcast “Chat with traders”
PS: I have no affiliations with any of them.
From those 2 sources of information only, you’ll have a good spectrum of what could work and certainly what will never work with trading.
Once you acquire the solid foundations:
1. You won’t fear any book, and will have the confidence to learn anything you want.
And the more you learn, the more options you’ll have on how to make money from your trading.
Because you can understand whether a trading strategy could even be profitable without backtesting it.
2. You can then pick the thing where to achieve mastery.
You will achieve “mastery” only on the few things you’re obsessed about.
For me, I’m a “master” at trading indices futures and CFDs.
I’ve been doing it for more than 10 years.
I can trade them even without indicators as I know how the DAX, DOW, SPX often react after a gap or a macro event or after a specific price action.
Quotes of the day
Leaving you now with a few quotes from some of the brightest minds
“Study game theory, psychology, mathematics and computers” - Naval Ravikant
“Opportunities come to the prepared mine” - Abraham Lincoln
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” - Benjamin Franklin
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune” - Jim Rohn
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
ELON MUSK QUOTES FOR POWERFUL THINKING
ELON MUSK QUOTES FOR POWERFUL THINKING
Elon Musk is today's Nikola Tesla. Here are 11 Elon Musk quotes to make you start working on your dreams, no matter how impossible they might seem.
“I do think there is a lot of potential if you have a compelling product and people are willing to pay a premium for that. I think that is what Apple has shown. You can buy a much cheaper cell phone or laptop, but Apple’s product is so much better than the alternative, and people are willing to pay that premium.”
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
“What makes innovative thinking happen?… I think it’s really a mindset. You have to decide.”
“I’ve actually not read any books on time management.”
“It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”
“The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.”
“I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.”
“I say something, and then it usually happens. Maybe not on schedule, but it usually happens.”
“If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.”
“As much as possible, avoid hiring MBAs. MBA programs don’t teach people how to create companies.”
“It’s very important to like the people you work with, otherwise life your job is gonna be quite miserable.”
Remember that your mindset is 80% of your future success, dear traders.
How To Get What You Want Out of Your TradingHello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
The today’s lessons coming from my experience is me sharing how I got what I wanted out of life
Whether, it’s a 6 packs, money, success etc…
I) Is writing down your goals even useful?
A keystone habit that served me very well in retrospect, when there is something that I want that I do not have, so I have a desire which means I’ve made a contract with myself to be unhappy until I get what I want.
So there is this thing external that I wanted - think of 6 packs, money, success, ...
Writing down goals means nothing and I know it’s contrary to common belief or practice - which states people writing down their goals are more likely to succeed.
Sure having a direction is more likely to achieve them than not having a direction right
I don’t disagree with that.
Here is an interesting statement that may hit you: winners and losers have the same goals
Successful traders and unsuccessful traders have the same goal namely increasing how much money they’re making.
Then, having goals cannot be the main driver of success
We have to dive deeper to understand what are the behaviours making our goals being achieved.
II) Mimic the behaviours of very successful traders
We all already know the activities that are going to generate the result we want.
- Maybe, it’s not trading what you want to trade but trading what’s moving
Yes, I’m thinking of crypto traders scalping ranges while recent events brought an insane intraday volatility with futures, commodities and even FX pairs
- Maybe, it’s trading with a demo account, tiny baby trades for months, and scaling up progressively the position size.
Self-mastery is a skill that MUST be acquired - going outside of your lane too quick INEVITABLY results in a catastrophe
- Maybe, it’s not trading from our phone but from our computer only....
We tend to miss some obvious data on the charts, screeners when trading from a small screen
- Maybe, it’s also not trading when we’re tired or sick or frustrated
Trading is hard - trading without a body/mind in a decent shape is...... not smart....
I bet every reader knows how to lose fat right? Burning more calories than we eat...
Even fat people know that
....
They know what kind of activities they should do to lose fat but they don’t do it.
The same goes with unsuccessful traders.
The vast majority of traders know what to do to become successful but don’t want to do it because it’s too time-consuming and boring right?
A new trader, looking to get rich quickly will be poor quickly
III) A simple hack
I’m often asking myself the question, what would a person who does this type of thing do in this instance?
Your identity is a weighted voting system where you can votes based on your activities and what type of person you want to become.
What Paul Tudor Jones or Jesse Livermore or Ed Seykota did to be successful?
A simple google search gave me a list of common behaviours/habits shared from the most successful traders.
Instead of writing a 50 points checklist of all the activities I need to do to achieve my goals, I wrote down a list of behaviours commonly shared between extremely successful traders and investors.
If you’re a millionaire, ask yourself, what would a billionaire do?
If you’re not a millionaire yet, ask yourself what would a millionaire do?
Another great question to ask ourselves: what would someone 10 times smarter than me would do in that situation?
It’s a different way of saying, what would someone 10 times richer than me would do
Word it in whatever way resonates with you.
I wrote those questions on a post-it and sticked it on my wall above my computer - it’s a constant reminder for me to reflect and think before I take a trade.
And that type of person, when you’re asking yourself the question “what would that person do in that situation?” is who you will eventually become as you continue to cast votes that reinforce the stories that we tell ourselves about who we are.
Those are the things that create long-lasting changes
.
This hack isn’t about telling ourselves affirmations such as:
- I’m a successful trader
- I’m rich
- I’m a high value man/woman
Just saying them doesn’t make them true
.
What makes them becoming true is creating some level of evidence through behaviours/actions for an extended period of time.
It all starts with activity, with doing.
And for a new trader, doing is….taking as many trades as possible while testing as many strategies as possible, one by one, until one sticks with his/her risk appetite, capital, lifestyle etc… + accumulating a tons of small activities or habits leading to success.
I’ll write next Monday an education post listing the behaviours I “copy/pasted” for years until they became a part of “ME” and how they fast-tracked my way to multiply my net worth.
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Thank you for reading
Dave
How To (NOT) Fail As A Trader? (Part 2)Hello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Today, I want to share the second part of the frameworks I’ve used across the past 10 years.
I’ve learned them from the legend himself Charlie Munger, cofounder of Berkshire Hathaway, what NOT TO DO to stay far away from being unsuccessful and poor.
You'll find the first part shared yesterday below
I) Overspend your income
Once I got to a certain level of net worth, I still didn’t spend a lot.
Actually, I never overspent my trading income, I just keep stockpiling as much as possible
I don’t buy fancy things, I don’t get a table when I go to the nightclub
.
I barely spend 3% of what I earn every month - makes me feel so free because it’s more money that I’d ever need.
And …. That’s how wealth is accumulated.
I don’t even live frugally… I go to the restaurant every day….. I buy stuff that I need and I like….
But … if you want to fail, definitively overspend your income.
II) Learn only from your own mistakes
To fail, don’t learn from the mistakes of others, don’t learn from the success of other people.
There are tons of free ressources to learn the basics of psychology, trading, self-mastery
.
There are also a few very reliable and trustworthy traders selling courses and sharing how they became successful.
Sharing their trading method, their insights, etc...
Knowing how to identify them, and listening to them is key.
To stay poor, don’t learn from other successful traders.
III) Quit Early
If you want to fail and be miserable, you definitively want to quit soon, quit early.
Because, no matter of who you are, you’re going to fail many times.
Remember that my win-rate is between 50/60% :)
Half of my trades are necessary failures for me to deserve the winners.
If you quit trading too early, that’s a guarantee you’d be miserable for a long-time.
Don’t put yourself in a situation where you blown up your trading capital and can’t trade anymore...forcing you to quit…
Stay in the game, with tiny baby trades and take many of them for a VERY EXTENDED period of time…
That’s the ONLY WAY to learn overtime
IV) Negative Visualisation
Take something very negative, and imagine it happening a thousand times in a row.
How would you feel at the 1000th time it happens?
Exactly…you’d feel nothing
If you feel that way after the 1000th time… then you might as well feel that way after the 1st time…
This mindset framework has been so POWERFUL for me.
That’s exactly why you MUST trade a lot and have a lot of losers in your “skeleton closet”
Being insensitive to losses is a skill that can be acquired only after hundreds/thousands of failed trades
.
And trust me, I have hundreds of those losers every month…
They’re not affecting me anymore… they’re a necessary “evil”
V) Expect only the best outcome
If you want to fail at trading, definitively follow traders only posting the winning outcomes/trades.
Definitively never think of setting a stop-loss, or an hard-exit
.
Definitively don’t think about your RISK
VI) Expect the worst
Bouncing back from the previous point, sharing how I approach trading.
If you’re a beginner in your trading journey, expect every day that you’re going to lose some of your money.
And that is going to be your base reality
If I happen to make gains, be profitable then…. That’s just a bonus…. That’s serendipitous … it’s just a happy coincidence.
But I expect that at every trading session I’m going to lose.
This mindset framework has been extremely beneficial for me.
If I come trading with that mindset, then I’m not surprised nor affected when I’m losing some capital and I feel that way because it’s in alignments with the expectations I have in my mind.
Thank you for reading
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Dave
JS-Masterclass #7: Trade AnalysisJS-Masterclass #7: Confirmations & Violations
In previous tutorials, we have covered the stock selection process and the identification of low risk, high probability entry point following constructive consolidation patterns.
Now that we are in the trade, the question comes up what to look for. What makes the price action healthy so that you rather stay in the trade and what are the alarm signals to look for?
The Founder of the Berger Funds and Stock Market Legend Bill Berger said:
“I buy tennis balls and sell eggs.”
What does that mean?
‘Tennis-Balls’ are characterized as follows: after a breakout under high volume out of a constructive consolidation pattern, most stock will pull back after a couple of days. This pullback for ‘Tennis-Balls’ normally happens under low volume and is followed by a strong price increase under heavy volume. Just like a tennis ball immediately pooping back after a drop to the ground.
‘Eggs’ are characterized as follows: The above mentioned pullback after a breakout happens under high volume and the stock is not able to recover from this pullback. Just like an egg which drops down to the ground.
What you do want to see after you have entered a trade:
• The trade is immediately profitable
• Good volume characteristics (high volume on up-days and low volume on down days)
• High volume rallies – low volume pullbacks
• Follow through buying (2-3 days or more) – institutional vs. retail
• More up days than down days
• More good closes than bad closes
• Look for ‘Tennis Ball Action’ after a ‘Natural Reaction’. A ‘Natural Reaction’ can be considered as a pullback under low volume following a breakout.
What you do not want to see after you have entered a trade:
• Squat directly after breakout
• Low volume out of a base - high volume back in
• 3 or 4 lower lows w/o supportive action
• More down days than up days
• More bad closes than good closes
• A close below the 20d MA on high volume
• A close below the 50d MA on high volume
• Full retracement of a good size gain
• Wide and volatile price action
• Outside day: high is higher than high of the previous day but closes below the low if the previous day. This happens on higher volume versus the previous day
How To (NOT) Fail As A Trader? (Part 1)Hello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Today, I want to share some thinking frameworks I’ve used across the past 10 years.
I’ve learned them from the legend himself Charlie Munger, cofounder of Berkshire Hathaway, what NOT TO DO to stay far away from being unsuccessful and poor.
I) Don’t ingest chemicals
Don’t ingest chemicals to alert your state
If I wanted to be really poor or unsuccessful in life, what would I do?
Well, I’d definitively get addicted to chemicals.
Sounds so logical and obvious right?
Though, many of us use them on regular basis to alter their mood because they can’t cope with how hard trading can be sometimes.
I can’t think of anyone who ever told me “oh man, now my life is so much better since I’m on drugs and I drink”
It’s not a judgment in any way; that’s what Charlie Munger says about successful people - they don’t ingest chemicals.
II) Envy
Every single year, I outperform my previous year YoY% PnL return and have grown my net worth.
Though, I always find many guys over performing me in trading every single year.
And for me, that hit me because I’m so innately competitive… that I suffer from comparison all the time.
I even got to the weirdest point thinking “I feel the more money I make, the poorer I feel”
Yes you read that right… and I know many of extremely successful traders feel that way.
And it’s totally true because what ends up happening is our measuring stick changes.
III) Measuring Stick
I remember when I was very young, my measuring stick was a MacDonald’s meal.
It was just, how many McDonald’s meals this amount of money equates to.
When I got to a 6 figures net worth, that was probably the wealthiest I have ever felt because I had proportional to what my measuring stick was at that time…100K euros was so many McDonald’s meals, so many of those units.
Now, my measuring stick or unit is bigger is monetary value (and significance).
That stick changes....
Someone is always doing better.
I think it’s so much more about not thinking about them because the way they roll the dice and play the game has no effects on us - it’s only an imaginary way to make ourselves suffer.
If you want to suffer, be envious of people.
IV) Resent people
Another way to feel miserable is to resent people.
- Do you resent some guys for your trading failures?
- Do you blame the FED? Do you blame Blackrock?
- Do you blame the whales for YOU to not performing with trading the way you should?
Charlie Munger wrote that every time he feels the need to resent people, he’d write their name on a piece of paper and put that paper in a drawer, and periodically open it up and realise how life had dealt with those people without him having to do anything.
It’s one of those long-term mindedness that like most people live in karmic balance.
Simply, people who do bad things, eventually that catches up to them and life is becoming worse for them.
And someone doing bad things is already dealing with the suffering of being who they are.
Why am I saying this?
All your corrupt politicians, bankers, hedge funds, market makers, brokers… at some point, the karma (or the SEC :p) will make their life miserable or at least very problematic.
Again, repeating myself, don’t resent other people for your losses because this will make you feel really miserable.
V) Be unreliable
To feel miserable, say you’re going to do something and don’t do it.
Say you’re going to be somewhere and be late.
Be flaky, make tons of mistakes and don’t learn from them.
That’s why I’m a big believer of having a trading buddy because it forces me to be reliable towards myself and him.
For me, that’s my father.
We both show up on time, trading from the same room, we both trades and discuss in real-time of setups we identified.
If you’re reliable, it’s very difficult to be unsuccessful.
Even if the previous days, you lost money, keep showing up.
If you don’t feel like trading because your emotions are not in check… trade with your demo account or with smaller position sizes until you’ll bring your self-confidence back up.
My win-rate is maybe around 50/60% - which means half of the trades I take…. fail…
Though it was a tough pill to swallow, I worked on making at least 3 times more on average with my winners compared to my losers.
Meaning for every 1 dollar per trade with a negative PnL, I earn 3 dollars per trade with a positive PnL.
I’ll post the Part II of this article tomorrow .
Thank you for reading
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Dave
How to deal with uncertaintyHello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Who taught me to become a great trader?
Was it a majority of trying and failing? or was it masterminds? was it consultants? mentors? books?
I) I was not afraid to fail
I became successful because I wasn't afraid to fail.
We learn quickly when we can fail then instead of dwelling I just got back up and tried again.
And it took me weeks to figure out some issues with my trading simply from analysing my past trades AND it's way faster than reading trading books, buying trading courses taking me months to figure them out.
II) I was totally fine in the unknown
Disclaimer: you'll never be able to predict the future, what the FED is going to do, which country is going to invade which country, which bank will default, etc
Most traders, the reason they can't succeed, is because they're looking for a mentor, a book, i.e. certainty and reassurance
If you can survive and be ok with uncertainty then you realise you don't need all those things because you have common sense and thinking power.
And you can actually think on your feet, you can iterate, you can innovate => fancy words to say you can adapt your trading strategies based on how volatile and directional the market is
Great traders don't need certainty that a scenario will happen for sure.
Regardless if it happens or not, they'll handle it either way.
No blueprint is needed.
They're prepared to trade regardless of how they feel the market should do and that's how I deal with uncertainty too.
I accepted taking those risks with a demo account first and then trading micro-lots for about a year because I trusted I could make it as a trader.
III) Self-education
Now that I have a bit of money, I spend a lot in courses, mentorships, workshops, books, one-to-one coaching with 9+ figures people way above me in the "food chain"
But let me be perfectly clear, I didn't spend a dime when I learned how to trade
I learned by..... doing, failing, again and again and again.... at a 0 or low risk because I was smart enough to trade with the smallest position sizes possible.
Conclusion
The learn on the go mentality doesn't mean you learn and then go.
It means you learn while you go.
It's not because you have incomplete information that you have incomplete action.
You're going to learn more from the completed action than you would from the lesson you're trying to learn through research (book, course, ...)
With enough volume of trades, you'll be directionally correct eventually and then you can iterate from there.
Rather than looking to capture the whole trades profit from top to bottom/bottom to top, not looking for the perfect trades but looking to capture opportunity at every trade, you'll speed up your decision loop a lot.
Thank you for reading
I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :)
Dave
Fundamental Analysis in Forex Trading
Economic indicators and announcements are an essential part of fundamental analysis. Even if you’re not planning on finding trades using fundamentals, it’s a good idea to pay attention to how the overall economy is performing.
Here’s a cheat sheet covering six key indicators and announcements to watch out for.
1. Non-farm payrolls (NFP)
The non-farm payrolls report estimates the net number of jobs gained in the US in the previous month – excluding those in farms, private households and non-profit organisations.
2. Consumer price index (CPI)
The chief measure of inflation is the consumer price index, which measures the changing prices of a group of consumer goods and services.
3. Central bank meetings
As we’ve seen, most traders follow economic figures so they can anticipate what a central bank might do next. So, it only makes sense that we pay attention to what happens when they actually meet and make decisions.
4. Consumer and business sentiment reports
Multiple organisations are constantly surveying consumers and business leaders to create sentiment reports. While the number of reports they produce is staggering, they all play their part in shaping the markets’ expectation for the future.
5. Purchasing manager index (PMI)
Purchasing manager indices measure the prevailing direction of economic trends in a given industry, according to the view of its purchasing managers. They are used as an indicator of the overall health of a sector.
Pay close attention to these fundamentals.
They play a crutial role in trading.
How you trade impacts how you feel 😀It's no secret that managing your trading psychology is the biggest challenge in your trading journey.
Some say it counts for 80%+ of what's needed to be successful.
I totally agree...
However, there's a key factor in this for me.
How you actually trade to start with!
Correct trading psychology starts by realising you need a strategy.
If you're guessing with no real plan or risk management surely you're going to be more stressed and overwhelmed than a trader who has a plan, has the data to support his strategy and manages his risk?
So once you get your system/strategy nailed on, this in turn will help manage your fear.
Greed is another factor, but this comes from your expectation.
Expectations and reality need to be aligned with one another.
Your expectations can come from your data and your testing.
But if you've skipped this step you'll be chasing unrealistic expectations.
Not just in terms of % gains, but in understanding your drawdown periods too.
So in summary both are completely related. You give me a trader that's really struggling with his trading mindset and fear and within a month they won't be feeling the same way.
Likewise, if give me a trader who is calm and in tune with his system and emotions, we'll quickly change this by getting him to trade randomly!
No trading psychology means no trading strategy, No trading strategy means no trading psychology. These two elements are so intertwined.
Thanks for looking at my idea.
Darren 👍
The reason you are not successful...Hello traders,
All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article.
I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them.
Yesterday, I posted an article about how to NOT overtrade when you're emotions are running high:
Now, I'd like to flip the other side of that coin showing how "overtrading" can be beneficial for beginners to achieve their desired outcome. 🧵
I - Alex Hormozi
I discovered this OUTCOME equation thanks to Alex Hormozi on Youtube.
He helped me defining clearly with words how to get to the outcome I want.
Props to him for being such a wonderful business/sales/marketing/thinker.
II - The OUTCOME equation
The equation is defined as: VOLUME x SKILL x TIME = OUTCOME
VOLUME = number of repetitions
SKILL = quality of each repetition
TIME = total duration of practicing those repetitions
Based in foundational principales
The more we do.... the better we get
The better we get.... the more we do
The longer we do it....the better we get
The better we get....the longer we do it
The longer we do it...the more what we did compounds on itself (profit, reducing losses, etc)
In this way, each of the three feed the others, but it all starts with doing .
It's a virtuous wonderful cycle: imgur.com
It works for any skill you want to acquire but let's focus on trading for now.
After years of trading, any of my trade has a higher quality than my trades from my early days.
Why?
Because I spent an enormous amount of time trading intraday first with a demo account, and then with a live account trading with micro-lots/micro-pips.
Once I got profitable CONSISTENTLY for a few weeks, I allowed myself to increase my lot size slightly.
I repeated this cycle made of mini weekly cycles for more than 5 years until I'll reach a capital allowing me to trade the indices futures.
III - Why 97% of traders fail at trading
The majority of traders lose due to a lack of experience which can only come with taking a lot of trades during an extended period of time.
There is no other way....
Forget about getting rich quickly, forget about your 100% automated bots - if such wonders existed, no one in their right mind would sell them and they'd invest everything they and their family own in those magical cashflow generating machines instead...
New traders think only a few weeks of practicing is required to learn about themselves and about the markets.
Your favorite influencers won't tell you this: trading is very hard, most lose all their money, lose their family, lose their home, lose themselves in the process.
The only hedge you have is your WORK.... you can't cheat the GAME.... you have to take a lot of trades for an extended period of time.....
And then, at some point, you'll be able to capture more opportunity per trade, to lose less whenever your Stop Loss is hit, to not get frustrated when the price is leaving without you
All those skills cannot be acquired in weeks ....
One cannot develop character traits required to be a good trader in a short timeframe - talking about patience, discipline and motivated.
Motivated too because it's hard to keep one's dopamine level high after some consecutive days of losing
Don't cheat the game, it's impossible
If you're not profitable yet, forget about leverage please please please please.
How many times do you have to get margin called to understand that leverage wasn't invented for you to make money but to depart from it faster.
IV - True Effort
When learning a new skill at the beginning, everyone sucks.
I certainly sucked at it and you will too.
THAT IS FINE, THIS IS OKAY, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG
How could you not expect to suck at a skill you don't know yet.
What I'm saying is unpleasant because everyone wants to get rich quick (me included)
My only guarantee to YOU guys is that if you can afford to follow this process with a decent trading strategy and stay consistent, your gains are going to be tiny at the beginning and then PARABOLIC after some time.
As the desired OUTCOME is to become richer and/or live off your trading again, this is the ONLY way
It's IMPOSSIBLE to suck at trading after taking thousands and thousands of trades.
As it's impossible to suck at anything after months and months of constant practice and effort.
And you can learn with a DEMO account (risk-free) or with betting pennies per every trade using CFDs or other similar product.
If you want to learn how to play piano, if you follow some tutorials on Youtube every day and practice 2-3 hours a day for years, I guarantee you that you'll have an excellent playing level.
Stop being lazy, stop cheating the game, stop searching for the way to get rich quick.
Accept the magic pill doesn't exist BUT another way that no one is doing will allow you be DIRECTIONALLY RIGHT and eventually reaching your desired OUTCOME.
Conclusion
I wanted to post this content because this outcome equation is dear to my heart and changed my life for the better
I'm literally kicking ass because I outworked everyone I know
And now that I'm more skilled than them, I can put off my foot from the accelerator working less than them, making more $$ than them
Thank you for reading by dear followers
PS
To all those in the comments about to tell me they have a magical bot printing $$ for them and their community, I invite you to show me your track records and bank account statements and any proof I could believe you didn't use photoshop on to sugarcoat what the reality is...
The 12 Days of Effective Trading Learning
Hey traders,
In this article, we gathered for you 1 2-days intensive trading learning marathon.
We hope that it will help.
1 Day:
Practice placing support and resistance lines.
2 Day:
Perfect placing trend lines.
3 Day:
Study candlestick patterns.
4 Day:
Review chart patterns.
5 Day:
Practice placing fibonacci retracements.
6 Day:
Learn about moving average.
7 Day:
Master market structure.
8 Day:
Watch videos on momentum oscillators.
9 Day:
Learn about divergence.
10 Day:
Study risk managment.
11 Day:
Review fundamental literature.
12 Day:
Create a trading plan.
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