Scaling-in and Scaling-outHello 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.
Scaling-in
There are times when I will scale into a position.
When the price dips into the my Moving Average pullback zone, I'll typically get 25% of my position there.
I'll then add a full position if the price dips past that MA
Don't add to winners
I wouldn't advise adding to winners
I would advise adding to losers IF it's part of your plan.
Though, most traders adding to losers end up losing more statistically.... then even I don't do it.
You should always have a stop in place and get out at your stop (or preferably use our hard exit system)
NEVER add to your position after your stop has been hit
That's not what I'm advising
I always make sure to get in a very small position early in case I miss the real entry.
It allows me to still have a decent entry if the price drops lower AND allows me to catch the move if the price decides to rip
Alright, let's talk about exits👇
Scaling-out
Your exit strategy will ultimately depend on your overall strategy
However, for ALL small accounts, I'd recommend NOT to scale.
Scaling exits should really only be for accounts that can afford to take multiple contracts (5-10+)
Otherwise, it's better off just take 100% off at your first target
And I really mean it
Remember, when your Stop-Loss hit you take 100% of a loss.
This should be obvious.... though I see plenty having multiple Take Profit levels and 1 Stop Loss level
And they wonder why they're losing.... mostly because of basic mathematics (literally additions and subtractions).
A big loss is very hard to offset with multiple partial profits across multiple trades.
If you do have a larger account, here's how I'd recommend setting up your exit strategy
IMO, it's best to only have 3 targets/exits MAX.
After 3, there's really no need to complicate your trading anymore
I'm taking the MAJORITY of my profits out at first target... 80+% of your position
Otherwise, I very often end up taking the trades, having a lot of unrealised gains but bringing back home nothing.... which is NOT ACCEPTABLE for me.
It's UNFORGIVABLE to earn a decent amount of $$ and letting everything go because I thought the trade should have gone further.
I like moving my stop to breakeven after I've taken my first partial
After you've taken your first partial, that's when you can leave 20% for runners.
You can either take the remaining runners out at your second target
or
Take half out at your second target and leave 10-15% for your last target
The larger your account size, the more targets I recommend you have
I also like moving my stops up after each target to make sure the trade doesn't go red
Why do I use this scaling strategy?
By taking the majority of my size off at my first target, it allows my strategy to keep a decent R/R rate, assuming I move stops to breakeven
It also leaves my trading more stress-free since I have less of a position on.
Allows for the trade to come back breakeven and I've already taken most off
On top of that, I have 20-30% of my position as runners in case this stock starts to explode
Doesn't happen often, but sometimes the remaining 20% ends up netting me more profit than the original 80% did.
At the end of the day, it's up to you how you want to scale
These are the methods I found most effective, depending on your account size and your strategy.
Conclusion
- As a beginner, I used to stick with 1 TP/1 SL only and that's how I brought home gains
- Once my trading account reached the 6 figures threshold, I allowed myself to have 2-3 TPs but I was taking most off the table at the first TP level and automatically moved my SL to Breakeven
- Adding to losers (aka the Dollar Cost Average method) also called martingale is a solid way for most beginners to depart from their money quickly - I'll make another article on martingale and why I think it's not for everyone
Trading Psychology
A Beginner's Guide to Candlestick Charts
A candlestick chart is a type of financial chart that graphically represents the price moves of an asset for a given timeframe. As the name suggests, it’s made up of candlesticks, each representing the same amount of time. The candlesticks can represent virtually any period, from seconds to years.
While candlestick charts could be used to analyze any other types of data, they are mostly employed to facilitate the analysis of financial markets. Used correctly, they’re tools that can help traders gauge the probability of outcomes in the price movement. They can be useful as they enable traders and investors to form their own ideas based on their analysis of the market.
The following price points are needed to create each candlestick:
Open — The first recorded trading price of the asset within that particular timeframe.
High — The highest recorded trading price of the asset within that particular timeframe.
Low — The lowest recorded trading price of the asset within that particular timeframe.
Close — The last recorded trading price of the asset within that particular timeframe.
Collectively, this data set is often referred to as the OHLC values. The relationship between the open, high, low, and close determines how the candlestick looks.
The distance between the open and close is referred to as the body, while the distance between the body and the high/low is referred to as the wick or shadow. The distance between the high and low of the candle is called the range of the candlestick.
Being able to read candlestick charts is vital to almost any investment style, learn different candlestick patterns and you will be surprised how accurate they are.
INVESTING VS TRADING VS GAMBLING | Know the Difference
Hey traders,
In this post, we will compare investing and trading with gambling.
📈Investing
Investing is the act of putting money in a financial market with the expectations of a long-term positive return.
The investing decisions are usually made using fundamental analysis.
The main goal of an investor is to predict the long-term market trends and benefit on them.
Professional investing also involves assets allocation and diversification aimed to hedge potential risks.
💱Trading
Trading is the process of selling and buying financial instruments expecting a short-term (occasionally, mid-term) profit.
The trading decisions are usually based on technical and fundamentals analysis.
The goal of a trader is to predict local price fluctuations and catch them.
Professional trading implies strict, rule-based actions following a trading plan.
🎰Gambling
Gambling is the act of betting on a specific event with the expectations of winning some value.
Being completely luck-based, gambling usually involves get rich quick schemes and pursuit of easy money.
What differs professional trading and investing from gambling is the fact that professional trading / investing involves objective analysis and strict planning, while gambling remains purely intuition based.
Unfortunately, most of the market participants pretend that they trade and invest professionally while acting as gamblers in fact.
Remember that long-term, consistent profits can be achieved only with the plan. Your intuition may bring some short-term profits, but in a long-run it will most likely lead you to a bankruptcy.
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
How to get mentally prepared every dayYou're trading at a disadvantage without a proper mindset
Here's how I get mentally prepared to trade each day: 🧵
Trading stars with your body
Recognise that everything in your life connects to trading
That means if you want to be disciplined in trading
Start...
- Eating well and enough - I track my calories and my macros
- Working out daily - I work out twice a day because I'm learning high-level calisthenics skills
- Drinking a gallon of water a day - drinking more tends to make me eat less junk food
- Getting 7h+ sleep - going to bed at the same time every day, taking some supplements to be relaxed + self-massage
Those things will translate into high-quality trading as well as put you in the right mindset for everything you want to achieve in life.
But let's dive into my early morning mindset routine👇
My mindset routine
I have a list of manifestations that I read OUT LOUD every morning
Yeah it may sound stupid
But it literally works
Here's some of what I say:
- David is going to CONQUER this day
- Sticking to his traits of patience and discipline, David will not let emotions get the best of him
- His drive and work ethic will cause him to get ALL of his goals done, no matter what
You can make them trading specific or just about life in general
I mix in both.
The next important key to having the right mindset is Preparation.
If you are prepared every morning with a plan... you'll have a lot more confidence coming into the market.
The last thing I do to get in the right mindset is put on music
This can be a hit or miss but personally, I love trading while listening to music
Maybe I should drop my trading playlist? :)
Final words
To Summarise:
- Make manifestations and read out loud every day
- Have a pre-market routine
- Jam out to some music
The main reason you're blowing up accountsAlmost all blown-up accounts happen quickly
Typically from only 1-3 trades
There are 2 main causes for this:
- Risk Management
- Emotions
Let's dive into both👇
Risk Management
Risk management is crucial to becoming a successful trader
The best way to grow an account is to risk the same % of the account per trade
I suggest no more than 5%, but the lower the better
For example...
If you're risking 3% of your account per trade, you have to lose 33 trades in a row.. to blow up your account.
That's very unlikely.
The reason most traders blow up is because they full port or go all-in on every trade and risk way too much
This is the fastest way to destroy your account.
ALWAYS risk a small % of your account per trade
It not only will prevent you from blowing up... but will also be the fastest way to help you grow your account
Emotions
The second way is Emotions.
Maybe you are using risk management, and are only risking 3%.
Then your stop hits and you don't get out
And price keeps dropping and dropping and dropping...
It will come to my breakeven and I'll get out, you tell yourself
But it never does
Then once you finally get out, your account is gone.
I've done that LOADS of times
So how did I fix that?👇
I realised that I wasn't getting out at my stop because I didn't trust my strategy.
At the time, I wasn't trading with conviction
I'd take a trade because it just looked like price was going to move higher.
No real strategy or reasoning for the trade.
It's extremely difficult to control your emotions when you shouldn't be in a trade in the first place!
Once I noticed this I got a grip on my strategy and really started being strict on my entries
After clearly defining my strategy, it gave me more confidence in my setup and my edge
which ultimately led to me becoming more disciplined and allowing myself to take the loss.
Conclusion
So if you're looking to stop blowing up your accounts...
- Use Risk Management
- Trade with conviction using a clearly defined strategy
Big Bank Imbalance Strategy (Go With The Flow) Example on 1 hour EurChf Chart for Friday ( sell trade, but can do on buy trade too)… its Friday: Don't be greedy).
Note the following:
1) Big Banks selling (note large 1 hour candlesticks- on charts)- only people that can do that are big banks and/or institutions (not retail traders).
2) Two areas of sell imbalance (they must be filled with buy either today or in the near future). In all probable's, I would side with today and big banks are just selling to buy back later today - because the big banks do not want many imbalances when Forex is closed (and/or the weekend)
3) Look for a higher bullish LOW and higher CLOSE candlestick for your reason to enter into a long and/or setting up buy trade soon.
4) After the #3 above has happen (wait patiently)- why? because that candle happened at 3:00 a.m. and/or after Tokyo closed and before NY session opened.
London session does three more hours of accumulation 1 hour candles (see large bottom & top wicks- both buying and selling pressure)- so all big banks and institutions are happy with the current price at this moment.
5) When NY session opens, what happens? Big banks and institutions are buying (large candles)- your sign to by was actually the 1hour sell candlestick (red) before the large blue candlestick happened. Why? because the big banks and/or institutions are trying to tell you to sell, but you being smart did not fall for that one, right? You said above price action are two areas of sell imbalance that I except to be fill today, so I will plan to buy when that pa reverses and goes north and/or blue above that last red candlestick.
*On Chart related to its Friday & both scalpers and/or day traders should not be holding over the weekend. Why? because Forex is closed and when Forex starts back up- their could be small or large GAPS which take you out, which you have zero control over. Trading is 100% on you, your decisions only- control as much as you can- do not give your broker and/or big banks or institutions any more control then they already have in the Forex world.
If you are scalping and/or day trading these Big Bank imbalance strategy should be 1:1 or: 1:2 risk reward maximum. You can trade this of course buy or sell on pairs. You need to always use risk management. This trade would have seen you doing a 1:1 RR with 17 pip stop vs 17 pip target. Trading is not about pips that you make, but the risk that you take= PER TRADE.
WHY 95% OF TRADERS DO NOT SUCCEED?
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.
WHY THE RICH GET RICHER
The general trend, in a capitalist economy governed by private property, would be for the rich to get richer—for inequality to increase steadily over time. That had been true in the initial stages of industrialization and remains the fact nowadays.
One reason: The wealthiest 1 percent put three-quarters of their savings into investment assets. By contrast, the middle class had 63 percent of their assets tied up in their homes, with home equity accounting for about a third since they have large mortgage debt.
The differences reflect the greater share of high-yield investment assets like stocks in the portfolios of the rich and the greater share of housing in the portfolio of the middle class.
Of course, the rich can afford to lose more—so they can take more risks and make more when times are good. But the lesson is clear: the wealth gap is caused in large part by the investment gap.
Some other psychological reasons should be considered as well, they are nicely reflected on the chart above, so spend some time to examine that.
Secret Key to Becoming a Disciplined TraderDiscipline is the hardest trait to become good at in trading. We need it in analyzing charts and news updates as well as being aware of risk management and psychology. It's difficult to keep track of all those all at once. It can overwhelm us to become impatient and not aware of our mental and emotional states. Which results in poor performance.
I was in that phase in my life for 4 years straight. No coach was on my side guiding me through the journey. I had to teach myself everything that makes a person become a successful trader. It was tough, especially mastering the mental and emotional side of the game. Not being aware of those two and how to improve them is what led to consistent failure.
But when I began studying and applying what profitable traders do to be successful, I became one of them. It was hard though. I had to change my internal monarchy by facing my demons and tearing down old limiting beliefs. I used various techniques to make that happen. The results were astonishing. I became more mindful and self-aware. I understood my emotional nature, which allowed me to be quick to spot and tone down bad emotions.
I did the following to achieve that results:
1. Journaling.
It is a process of recording the what, why, and how behind the trade as well as your thoughts and emotions before, during, and after the trade. Doing this will keep a record for you to reflect on in the future when you want to improve your performance. That feedback will raise your self-awareness which will protect you from sabotaging your trading performance.
2. Meditating.
It is a mental exercise that trains the brain to be mindful and self-aware of your emotional triggers and behaviors that disrupt your performance. Moreover, it will allow you to improve your focus levels for a trading session. So, every day, sit quietly on your chair with your back straight and your eyes closed, then focus on your breathing pattern for 10-15 minutes.
3. Breathing.
I know you can breathe, but I bet you that your breathing is incorrect. Most people breathe through their mouths, which is wrong because the air doesn't get to the brain. The air we breathe through our nose releases certain chemicals in the brain that makes it awake and calm. It also does other things in the body that helps control it when fight/flight emotions trigger. Breathing techniques allow us to gauge those triggers during the trading session. Thus, whenever you tap into a negative state, stop and sit back on your chair, then do the following 4-7-8 breathing exercise. Inhale on the count of 4. Hold your breath on the count of 7. Then exhale on the count of 8. Do this 3-5 times.
5 Elements of a Smart Trade 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.
Understanding what goes into a smart trade plan is the first step to prepare you for your next trade.
🌱Weekly quote: We know what we're doing wrong🌱🟢For many of us, our trading accounts are our cluttered homes. What we desperately need is to find our inner quiet; review our trades and trading statistics in detail and truly experience the horror of betraying our potential; and fully appreciate what we do well and embrace it with gratitude. Out of that energized awareness, we can replace the clutter with what is meaningful.
Our great enemy is routine. Many times, we know what we're doing wrong, but we keep making the same mistakes. Indeed, that is the way of life's curriculum. If we fail to learn from the first lesson, we get a second and a third and a fourth: one painful opportunity after another to commit to a different path. Is that failure, or is that something to be grateful for: a curriculum that is trying, trying, trying to teach us the lessons we need to learn to be successful?
🟢We've seen that gratitude is an essential component of psychological well-being. The grateful trader is not self-focused, absorbed in how much money they could/should make. The grateful trader is thankful for the opportunities coming their way. When we look heavenward with thanks for what we've accomplished, there is an essential humility to our perspective. It's not just about us. It's not just about profits and losses.
A great metric in evaluating your trading journal is to count the number of frustrated statements versus the number of grateful ones. A great metric in evaluating other traders is to count the number of self-aggrandizing statements with the number of humble, grateful ones.
🟢If losses are opportunities to learn and improve, we can sustain a grateful mindset even in times of adversity. A humble mindset is one looking to learn. A grateful mindset appreciates every opportunity to grow.
A life perspective that instills and strengthens humility grounds us in the awareness that there is always something more important than me. There is always something more significant than what is simply happening here and now. We cannot succeed in trading--or any life endeavor--if it becomes our end-all and be-all. Once trading and P/L are placed on a pedestal, they control us and our experience. And that is precisely what interferes with profitability!
It's great to correct your mistakes, but it's in your shining successes that you can find your path to fulfillment--and your future in markets. Hidden in your winning trades may be the key to your development as a trader.
🟢 So many developing traders look for one edge after another, one market after another, one trading style after another--all in a frantic search for success. The reality is that our best trading is hiding in plain sight, when we explore what we're trading and how we're trading it when we're most fulfilled and successful.
Brett Steenbarger, Trading Psychology
What is an ETF? (exchange traded fund)
An exchange traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund that invests in a basket of stocks, bonds, or other assets. ETFs are traded on a stock exchange, just like stocks. Investors are drawn to ETFs because of their low price, tax efficiency and ease of trading.
ETFs seek to provide the performance of a specified index, such as the S&P 500, and typically have low fees.
Like mutual funds, ETFs offer investors diversified exposure to a portfolio of securities, such as stocks, bonds, commodities and real estate.
Why are ETFs popular?
While investors often associate ETFs with large stock indexes, such as the S&P 500, ETFs provide access to virtually every asset class, sector, region, theme and investment style.
ETFs are popular because of their low fees, tax efficiency, liquidity and transparency. Since the first ETF was launched in 1993, the ETF industry has grown substantially, with more than $3 trillion now invested in ETFs.
What are the benefits of ETFs?
ETFs cost significantly less than comparable active mutual funds — and that savings can add up over time. Other benefits include:
Access and liquidity. Because ETFs are traded on stock exchanges, they are easily bought or sold.
Transparency. Just like mutual funds, ETFs report performance quarterly and fees daily.
Diversification. ETFs provide access to a wide range of investment options, covering a broad range of asset classes, sectors and geographies. They also make it easy to select specific themes or investment styles.
What are the risks associated
with ETFs?
Like mutual funds, ETFs carry investment risk depending on their asset class, strategy and region. Some ETFs are riskier than others.
In addition, if you invest in an ETF that holds securities in a currency other than your own, movements in the foreign exchange rate may affect your returns.
🟢TRADING HACKS: A MIX OF TRADING ADVICE, ROUTINE, GOOD HABITS🟢When you open your charts in the beginning of the day, don't rush into first trade you see.
Step back for a little while, and check in with your emotions. If you want to trade cause you didn't have a trade in a while, or you're bored, or you want to make your money back, or if you just want to make money and now you "know the market will go up (down)" - these all are signs of emotional imbalance. if you feel like this, it's better just to make a pause. Yes, it can be hard to do it by the way, but you need to make it through your will effort.
So, instead of putting a trade right away, go through your multitimeframe analysis, mark up the zones and set your alerts for zones you really like. more on this here
While you're waiting for alerts to go off, you can do a lot of useful things for your trading.
first of all, go through your checklist or trading plan, or a journal, and remind yourself how your best, high-quality setups look like.
Now go back to previous week or two, and just look in hindsight for your highquality patterns, whatever strategy you use. See how market developed and find entry points which will be in line with your rules. You can even make a step further and journal these hindsight trades in a separate journal (I call it mark ups, or "missed trades"). This simple action will train your pattern recognition skills and also develop a habit of working with a journal. In the future you'll come back to these trades for reference of how your best setups can look like.
Now, if the alert is still not activated, do some backtesting, 5-10 trade would be enough, but also journal these trades.
Doing this, you're already few steps ahead of your competitors become not many people are willing to put such kind of effort in their trading.
Well done, and now it's time to go and check how the market is developing. More on building the routing and good habits you can read in this series of posts
The Evolution of a Trader | 3 Milestones 📈
Hey traders,
In this educational article, we will discuss 3 stages of the evolution of a trader.
Stage 1 - Unprofitable trader 😞
The unprofitable trader has very typical characteristics:
-total absence of trading skills
Most of the time, people open a live account simply after completing some beginners course like on babypips website.
Being sure that the obtained knowledge are completely enough to start trading, they quickly face the tough reality.
-no trading plan
Having just basic knowledge, of course, they do not have a trading plan. Why the hell to have it if everything is so simple?!
All their actions on the market is just gambling. They open the positions randomly most of the time, simply relying on intuition.
-poor risk management
In 99% percent of the time, the unprofitable trader does not even think about risk management. The position sizing, stop placement and target selection are completely neglected.
Trading performance of the unprofitable traders is characterized by small wins and substantial losses and negatively trending equity.
Stage 2 - Boom and bust trader 😶
Usually, traders reach boom and bust stage after 1-2 years of unprofitable trading. At some moment, winning trades start to compensate losing trades, brining non-trending equity.
Such traders have very common traits:
-not polished trading plan
Being unprofitable for so long, traders start to realize the significance of a trading plan.
Sticking to the set of rules, they notice positive changes in their trading performance.
However, trading plan requires to be polished and modified. It takes many years for a trader to identify all its drawbacks before it starts bringing net profits.
-lack of confidence
When one starts following a trading system, confidence plays a substantial role.
The fact is that even the best trading strategy in the world occasionally produces negative results. In order to not give up and keep following such a system, one needs to build trust in that.
The confidence that after a series of losing trades, the strategy will manage to recover.
Such a trust can be built after many years of trading that strategy.
Stage 3 - Profitable trader ☺️
That is the final destination.
After many years of a struggling trading, one finally sees positively-trending equity. Winning trades start to outperform losing ones, leading to consistent account growth.
Profitable trader is characterized by iron discipline, confidence and consistency.
He knows what he is trading, when and why. His trading plan is polished, he fully controls his emotions.
He never stops learning and constantly develops his strategy.
Knowing the 3 stages of the evolution of a trader, one can easily identify at what stage he currently is. That will help to identify the things to be focused on to move to the next stage.
At what stages are you at the moment?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
HOW TO GET RICH?
1. Money mindset is everything
You need to have a positive money mindset when it comes to creating wealth. Everyone carries a money story and it’s your job to understand what yours is and if it’s holding you back. Reframing your story to a millionaire’s mindset is essential for success because rich people think differently. How to get rich can’t be a passing phase in your life; it takes work and commitment.
2. Millionaires still budget
Hard to believe, but it’s true. Even millionaires follow a budget. The biggest secret on how to get rich and stay rich is spending less than you bring in. There will always be wants that exceed budget limits, even for millionaires, because there is not an unlimited supply of money.
3. Money management is key
Good money management is so important to get rich and stay rich. Money management is a behavior and habit. You need to be mindful of where you are investing and spending your money. There is a specific strategy to growing your wealth and maintaining it and you must follow it like you do a workout regime.
4. Invest your money for growth
Investing in assets that will appreciate over time and provide you with a return on your investment such as dividend or interest payments is smart. The goal is to build your asset portfolio and make it so strong that you can live off the passive income in your retirement.
5. Build your business around your personal financial goals
As a business owner you have more control over the money you make versus being an employee with a set salary. If you want more money in your pockets, you can increase your revenue and your profit margins to ensure you are taking home more money. The more profits you have in your business the more you can pay yourself a dividend or bonus, depending on the legal structure of your business.
6. Create multiple income streams
Smart business owners create more than one income streamas it protects them from fluctuations in the market. That means if one source of revenue dries up due to market conditions, other sources of income can protect you from a loss.
7. CONCLUSION:
The bottom line is that knowing how to get rich is something that is learned. There are no guarantees that if you start a business that you will get rich because even the best business ideas fail due to poor execution. But if you educate yourself and get help in making your business a success, you will increase your chances of success.
✍️WEEKLY QUOTE: You don't need to know in order to make money✍️...Having an awareness or an understanding of some principle, insight, or concept doesn't necessarily equate to acceptance and belief. When something has been truly accepted, it isn't in conflict with any other component of our mental environment. When we believe in something, we operate out of that belief as a natural function of who we are, without struggle or extra effort. To whatever degree there is a conflict with any other component of our mental environment, to the same degree there is a lack of acceptance. It isn't difficult, therefore, to understand why so few people make it as traders. They simply don't do the mental work necessary to reconcile the many conflicts that exist between what they've already learned and believe, and how that learning contradicts and acts as a source of resistance to implementing the various principles of successful trading.
The answer is quite simple: The typical trader doesn't predefine his risk, cut his losses, or systematically take profits because the typical trader doesn't believe it's necessary. The only reason why he would believe it isn't necessary is that he believes he already knows what's going to happen next, based on what he perceives is happening in any given "now moment." If he already knows, then there's really no reason to adhere to these principles. Believing, assuming, or thinking that "he knows" will be the cause of virtually every trading error he has the potential to make (with the exception of those errors that are the result of not believing that he deserves the money).
If he believes that anything is possible, then there's nothing for his mind to avoid. Because anything includes everything, this belief will act as an expansive force on his perception of the market that will allow him to perceive information that might otherwise have been invisible to him.
It's the ability to believe in the unpredictability of the game at the micro level and simultaneously believe in the predictability of the game at the macro level that makes the casino and the professional gambler effective and successful at what they do
Their belief in the uniqueness of each hand prevents them from engaging in the pointless endeavor of trying to predict the outcome of each individual hand. They have learned and completely accepted the fact that they don't know what's going to happen next. More important, they don't need to know in order to make money consistently. Because they don't have to know what's going to happen next, they don't place any special significance, emotional or otherwise, on each individual hand, spin of the wheel, or roll of the dice. In other words, they're not encumbered by unrealistic expectations about what is going to happen, nor are their egos involved in a way that makes them have to be right. As a result, it's easier to stay focused on keeping the odds in their favor and executing flawlessly, which in turn makes them less susceptible to making costly mistakes.
From Trading in the Zone by M. Douglas
How To Set Trading Goals!Hey Traders,
Setting trading goals is always a fun discussion and something I actually really enjoy talking about. It is possibly one of the most simple tasks with getting started in investing or day trading, yet it is a task that so many get wrong. It's like starting a Sprint race, only you're starting the race facing the other direction. So, today we're going to dive into how to set goals, what they should look like and how we can start getting you running on that race, or even if you started the race, to give you that little speed boost so you can get back on track be sprinting for that finish line, which is where you want to be.
It is very common, especially with beginners in trading, that when asked what are their trading goals, they're going to leave you with some kind of percentage or dollar amount and what they're trying to achieve per week or per month. It's easy and it's their aspirations is why they are in the game. They want to make X amount of money and they've been able to divide it down to figure out what they need to make each day in order to reach that goal. Now, most people will sit back and judge that goal on whether or not they think it's achievable and then they'll say well done and give the trader a pat on the back. Only what that person is done by telling this trader that it is good feedback is re firmed that there facing the wrong way at the start of the race and telling him to still Sprint that direction.
We trade an unpredictable market. That means no matter who you are or where you are, unless you have some kind of insider information, you have no idea which way a stock, currency or any type of asset is going to move. We base our decisions off of probability. We play on whether or not we have an edge over the market and as long as we win enough we will make profit in the long term and that is how trading works. What that means is we are never sure on how much money we will make or whether or not we will make money. Which means it is unreliable to set money based goals because we have no idea what the market is going to deliver for us. We can have expectations over the long term, but short term. As long as we are trading true to our strategy, it is honestly up to the market whether or not we take home profit or whether we cop losses. Now we understand this because it's trading, right? We got into this market knowing that. So why do we attempt to set money related goals when we know it's just unrealistic and really hard to achieve such consistency when you're looking at short term goals?
Baffling right?
Now, for some of you may just woke up to this fact, "oh yeah, that is very unrealistic." For others, you may have already known this. Either way, what we're going to do is dive into where you should be setting your goals and what should they look like.
My favorite goal to set and to see other people set is consistency within myself. It's to track your own decisions, marking your own movements. When actually trading, if you can become consistent within yourself, you will see consistency in your results, because you'll be able to trade that strategy without having to worry about your own decisions or emotions affecting your decisions. So, what I always did is obviously have a trading plan, have this trading plan and have set guidelines in what you have to do. Post trading as well. When it comes to filling out worksheets, maybe Excel spreadsheets you're trading, log your data, fill it all out.
Get yourself a spare calendar, put it on your wall and every day that you do everything to your plan, win or loss on the charts, everything you were supposed to according your strategy, your plan, and filling out all of your Excel spreadsheets, give yourself star. Then every single trading day you get a little star on that calendar and your goals should be set around that. If you find you're being consistent within yourself and consistent in your decision making, then you will be able to determine whether or not your strategy is good or bad, and you'll be able to achieve consistent results long term. Do not base your goals on dollar figures base your goals off of performance. It is the only thing you can actually control.
Stop playing around with the idea of setting goals outside of the market or outside of your results. Yes, it is fun to set dollar amount goals. Yes, it is fun to Daydream, but you get stuck in that Daydream Cloud and there may be times where you have a perfectly good trading strategy. You're able to trade it perfectly as well, but you're not hitting your goals. And the reason that might be is because your strategy may not be able to hit those dollar value goals even on perfect days. It happens. So set goals on what you can control, not on what you want the market to deliver.
How did you go about setting your goals? How do you do it now? Let me know in the comments. I hope you enjoyed this little post and I'll see you next time.
-Jordon Mellor
Handling losses like a pro!Hey traders,
Ever wondered how some of the professional traders can lose tens of thousands of dollars and still not be phased? Well, today I am going to chat about how and why they have the ability to remain consistent and trust the process, and how you can do the same.
Enjoy!
🟩TRADING HACKS: You're doing ENOUGH 🟩 This video is about the importance of thinking in RR and %. The main point is when you think you haven't earned enough is $ amount - and so you want to trade more and more, which leads to poor trade quality - remind yourself that trading is highly scalable, and so it's ok to imagine you have a 20x more capital at the moment. So x20 your profit in the trade and ask yourself how I feel now, is this enough for the day? Remember, if you're consistent, you'll be able to scale the account relatively easy.
Successful traders think like chess playersEvery day I get many questions from traders and more than half of them are: "What will X asset do today, will it rise or fall" or "Do you think X asset will reach Y price?"
With very few exceptions, I say "I don't know". Surely my interlocutor will think that I don't want to tell him/her or that I'm an idiot.
In fact, the correct answer is another: "I don't care"
And now, dear reader, you will think not that I am an idiot, but a complete one.
But bear with me a little more and let me explain using a real trading example on EurUsd
Let's say we consider taking a trade on this pair so, we ask ourselves what do we know about it?
1. Fundamentally the USD is favored
2. The trend is down for more than a year.
So, we want to trade in the direction of the trend and sell this pair
Looking closely at the chart we see that EurUsd is contained in a downwards channel and recently found support in the 0.99 zone.
Last week, the pair corrected and reached a high at 1.0150 and reversed exactly from the channel's resistance, leaving a nice and strong bearish engulfing on our daily chart.
Going further with our judgment, where do we want to sell this pair?
Now, considering my approach, I see a good place to sell in the 1.0030-1.0050 zone.
So we set a sell limit order in that zone (Remember, professional traders use pending orders)
We also consider at this moment the point where our bearish outlook is negated. We get 1.0150 for our stop loss.
Now, using again my personal trade, let's say we set the selling order at 1.0030, with a stop loss at 1.0150 we have a potential loss of 120 pips.
We know that every pip move on EurUsd represents 1usd for 0.01 volume, so 12usd potential loss on 0.01 trade for our trade.
Now, let's consider volumes.
What potential loss are we "comfortable" with?
For the sake of example let's say 120 USD, so a 0.1 volume.
Now let’s see where we can take profit.
0.97 zone is the falling channel's support, so there.
Looking at such a trade we have 120 pips or 120 USD potential loss with 330 pips or 330 potential profit. This gives us a close to 1:3 risk-reward ratio, a very good one.
And now, maintaining the analogy from the title is the market’s “move” turn
And the market can do only 2 things at this point: fill our pending order or not.
Considering that I don't hold pending orders after NY's close, if the market doesn't reach my level by then, I will remove the order, and tomorrow I will start over again by analyzing the market.
The second is to trigger our limit order as is also the case for my trade, and we are in a running trade now.
Now, with a trade running is again the market's move.
So, what are the possible scenarios?
1. The market rises and hits our SL. Although an undesirable scenario, we knew from the start that it’s a possibility and like every trade, this also carries a risk. We considered it and assumed it from the start and didn't trade more than we could afford to lose in a trade.
So, we take it like a stoic and move on to the next trade and market analysis
2. The lovely scenario in which EurUsd breaks 0.99 support and falls to our target.
So, our reasoning was correct and we now have a trade that brought 330usd in our pocket, but more importantly we traded disciplined with a good R: R
3. The market falls below 0.99 but reverses. Now we can also consider some action
- Move SL in BE and let the trade run
- Close half to get some money off the table and move SL into BE
- Close all trade
In conclusion:
As you can see, you don't need to be Gary Kasparov to be a good trader, the market's "moves” being in fact just a few. All you need to do is to be aware of these moves and have a plan for each of them.
This way you will not end up wondering every minute "where will EurUsd go, it will rise, it will fall", you will not trade emotionally or recklessly.
As Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who failed to plan, plan to fail", but it is not your case, because, as a good trader you always trade with a plan and know from the beginning all that the market can do.
Best regards!
Mihai Iacob
What Is Imbalance Of Price Action Orders?What Is an Imbalance of Orders?
An forex imbalance of orders exists when there are too many (either buy or sell) orders of a listed pair that cannot be fully matched by the opposite order on an exchange. This applies to either buy, sell, or limit orders. An imbalance of orders is also referred to as an "order imbalance."
Good news would increase the demand (buy orders) for a certain pair and would also make it attractive to hold onto. Likewise, unexpected negative news can bring a large sell-off (sell orders) and little demand for a pair that does not look promising. HIGH impact news can leave imbalances on charts- especially on 1hr or 4hr charts during a trading session. These are in my top five easy scalps or day trading trades to do during my trading. << Should be yours too!!!
Things to be aware of with Forex imbalances area:
1) Order imbalances exist when there is an excess of buy or sell orders for a specific Forex pair.
2) Most order imbalances are short-lived but can exist for hours and even the entire day.
3) Using limit orders rather than market orders can help mitigate some of the problems with buying or selling during order imbalances.
Some traders trade before or during high impact news hits certain pairs- SMART play is to wait for that one hour candle to close- and IF you see an either buy or sell imbalance in 1 hour candlestick (no price action either right or left of that candlestick and zero WICKS either)- wait for price action to reverse current trend to negate the imbalance (either buy or sell)- the opposite way. Those are easy trades- but always use risk management on all trades you do.
High impact news can leave these areas of imbalance on any timeframes (yes, gaps in price actions are considered imbalances in price too). Look for big huge candlesticks or gaps left on charts (big banks are buying or selling). A reversal point happens when filling of big orders changes the price behavior. I look and trade these price reversals when price action closely consulates around major quarter point levels ).000 or .500 levels. Then shows me one of the three following candlestick set ups (only ones I trade and need in trading): Harami (2 candles), Engulfing (2 candles) and/or Pinbar (3 candle) setups.
Look for: Large candlesticks, with no candlesticks left or right on candlestick and have zero WICKS/SHADOWS in that area either. (this is a clue/hint). RSI line (purple) when up thru BASE line (yellow) and above 50 on RSI- so only trade noted had liquidity, momentum & volume to rock price action up or visa versa.