Is GBPUSD low at 1.2616 going to hold and become a W bottom(2)This is in reference to our previous idea of us entering on the 4H timeframe bottom confirmation towards a daily bottom and then a weekly bottom to confirm. It was entered based on price and volume spread analysis rationale. Let us check and see if the bottom confirms today according to the smart money framework. So far, the daily is going in our favour.:)
Refn Images as below.
Tradingtips
Trading Exposed: The Hard-Hitting Truth Behind the 99% Who Fail
The picture above completely represents the real nature of trading:
We all came here because we all wanted easy money.
Being attracted by catchy ads, portraying the guys on lambos, wearing guccies and living fancy lives, we jump into the game with high hopes of doubling our tiny initial trading accounts.
However, the reality quickly kicks in and losing trades become the norm.
The first trading account will most likely be blown.
In just one single month, 40% of traders will be discouraged and abandon this game forever.
The rest will realize the fact that the things are not that simple as they seemed to be and decide to start learning.
The primary obstacle with trading education though is the fact that there are so much data out there , so many different materials, so many strategies and techniques to try, so the one feels completely lost .
And on that stage, one plays the roulette: in the pile of dirt, he must find the approach that works.
80% of the traders, who stay after the first month, will leave in the next 2 years. Unfortunately, the majority won't be able to find a valid strategy and will quit believing that the entire system is the scam.
After 5 years, the strongest will remain. The ones that are motivated and strong enough to face the failures.
With such an experience, the majority of the traders already realize how the things work. They usually stuck around breakeven and winning trades start covering the losing ones.
However, some minor, tiny component is still missing in their system. They should find something that prevents them from becoming consistently profitable.
Only 1% of those who came in this game will finally discover the way to make money. These individuals will build a solid strategy, an approach that will work and that will let them become independent.
That path is hard and long. And unfortunately, most of the people are not disciplined and motivated enough to keep going . Only the strongest ones will stay. I wish you to be the one with the iron discipline, titanic patience and nerves of steel.
Is BTCUSD low at 28477 going to hold and become a weekly bottom We are looking at a potential entry on daily seller bar high to be taken out for price to continue further upwards and go onto confirm the bottom on daily and then weekly according to our smart money framework indicator.
BTCUSD(Long)
E - 30035
SL - 28476
T - To be confirmed(TBC)
We will be tracking this move and updating the post as we go along on the charts and on video. Keep a look out for it traders.
Is GBPUSD low at 1.2616 going to hold and become a weekly bottomWe are looking at a potential entry on 4h bottom confirmation according to our smart money framework indicator and for it to go onto confirm the bottom on daily and then weekly.
E - 1.2711
SL - 1.2615
T - To be confirmed(TBC)
We will be tracking this move and updating the post as we go along on the charts and on video. Keep a look out for it traders.
Analyzing Confirmation Bias in Forex and Gold Trading
Psychological biases play a significant role in shaping trading decisions, and one such bias that demands scrutiny is confirmation bias.
Confirmation bias refers to the tendency of individuals to seek out, interpret, and emphasize information that supports their existing beliefs or preconceptions while ignoring contradictory evidence.
In the forex and gold trading , confirmation bias can have profound implications for traders, influencing their decision-making processes and potentially leading to suboptimal outcomes. This article aims to provide an in-depth understanding of confirmation bias and its impact on forex and gold trading, along with strategies to mitigate its negative effects.
Impact of Confirmation Bias on Forex Trading:
1. Selection and Interpretation of Information: Traders under the influence of confirmation bias tend to cherry-pick information that supports their existing beliefs and ignore or downplay evidence that contradicts them. This can result in an incomplete and biased assessment of the market's true conditions.
2. Overconfidence and Undue Risk-Taking: Confirmation bias can breed overconfidence, leading traders to overlook potential risks. Traders may take excessive risks by holding onto losing trades in the hope that the market will eventually validate their initial belief.
3. Missed Trading Opportunities: By focusing solely on information that confirms their existing beliefs, traders may overlook potential trading opportunities that could have been profitable. This bias restricts their ability to adapt to changing market conditions and identifying alternate trade setups.
Identifying Confirmation Bias:
1. Selective Information Gathering: Traders may exhibit a tendency to seek out sources of information that align with their existing beliefs while ignoring or avoiding contradictory viewpoints.
2. Narrow Framing: Traders might frame and interpret market information in ways that support their pre-existing assumptions, inadvertently excluding alternative perspectives.
3. Dismissing Contradictory Evidence: When presented with evidence that contradicts their beliefs, traders may either reject it outright or rationalize why it is irrelevant or unreliable.
Overcoming Confirmation Bias:
1. Seek Diverse Perspectives: Encourage a broad range of viewpoints by actively seeking out perspectives that challenge your existing beliefs. Engage in discussions with other traders, join forums, or seek professional opinions to diversify your understanding.
2. Consistent Record-Keeping: Maintain a trading journal that accurately documents your trades, rationale, and outcomes. Regularly review this journal to identify any patterns or biases that might be influencing your decision-making process.
Confirmation bias represents a significant cognitive obstacle for traders in forex and gold trading. Understanding its nature and recognizing its impact are crucial steps towards minimizing its negative effects. By adopting strategies focused on self-awareness, diversification, and collaboration, traders can enhance their decision-making processes and improve their overall profitability while navigating the complexities of the forex and gold markets.
Hey traders, let me know what subject do you want to dive in in the next post?
Learn The 5 Possible Outcomes Of Your Trades
Hey traders,
Depending on your actions, you can get 5 completely different results
taking just one single trade.
1️⃣The first outcome is a small win.
By a small win, I mean a winning trade producing up to 2.5% account growth.
2️⃣The opposite situation leads to a small loss.
To me, a small loss is a losing trade producing up to -1% account decline.
3️⃣Occasionally once the price starts moving in the predicted direction, one can protect his trading position moving his stop to entry and making a position risk-free.
Being stopped out such a trade produces 0% profit. The level where the position is closed is called a breakeven point.
4️⃣If one perfectly predicts a future direction of the market and opens a trading position accordingly, occasionally, a huge profit can be made.
5️⃣Being wrong in the predictions, however, one can adjust and trail a stop loss not letting himself be stopped out. Such behavior may lead to a substantial loss or even a margin call.
❗️Learning how to trade, I strongly recommend you eliminate the 5th outcome. Managing not to lose more than 1% of your account will substantially improve your trading.
Let me know, traders, what do you want to learn in the next educational post?
EURAUD - Strong support levelEURAUD has reached significant support, which is the same as Fibonacci level 50-60, so I expect a bounce up to the descending trendline and if it breaks it could target higher resistance levels. If the support breaks, the nearest support level may be the target.
Daily chart:
Good trading!
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Improve Your Trading | The Ultimate CHECKLIST For Your Trades
If you are looking for a way to increase the accuracy of your trades, I prepared for you a simple yet powerful checklist that you can apply to validate your trades.
✔️ - The trades fit my trading plan
When you are planning to open a trade, make sure that it is strictly based on your rules and your entry reasons match your trading plan.
For example, imagine you found some good reasons to buy USDJPY pair, and you decide to open a long trade. However, checking your trading plan, you have an important rule there - the market should strictly lie on a key level.
The current market conditions do not fit your trading plan, so you skip that trade.
✔️ - The trade is in the direction with the trend
That condition is mainly addressed to the newbie traders.
Trading against the trend is much more complicated and riskier than trend-following trading, for that reason, I always recommend my students sticking with the trend.
Even though USDCHF formed a cute double bottom pattern after a strong bearish trend, and it is appealing to buy the oversold market, it is better to skip that trade because it is the position against the current trend.
✔️ - The trade has stop loss and target level
Know in advance where will be your goal for the trade and where you will close the position in a loss.
If you think that it is a good idea to buy gold now, but you have no clue how far it will go and where can be the target, do not take such a trade.
You should know your tp/sl before you open the trade.
✔️ - The trade has a good risk to reward ratio
Planning the trade, your potential reward should outweigh the potential risks. And of course, there are always the speculations about the optimal risk to reward ration, however, try to have at least 1.3 R/R ratio.
Planning a long trade on EURNZD with a safe stop loss being below the current support and target - the local high, you can see that you get a negative r/r ratio, meaning that the potential risk is bigger than the potential reward. Such a trade is better to skip.
✔️ - I am ok with losing this trade if the market goes against me
Remember that even the best trading setups may occasionally fail. You should always be prepared for losses, and always keep in mind that 100% winning setups do not exist.
If you are not ready to lose, do not even open the position then.
✔️ - There are no important news events ahead
That rule is again primarily addressed to newbies because ahead and during the important news releases we have sudden volatility spikes.
Planning the trade, check the economic calendar, filtering top important news.
If important fundamentals are expected in the coming hours, it's better to wait until the news release first.
Taking a long trade on Gold, you should check the fundamentals first. Only after you confirm, that there are no fundamentals coming soon, you can open the position.
What I like about that checklist is that it is very simple, but you can use it whether you are a complete newbie or an experienced trader.
Try it and let me know if it helps you to improve your trading performance.
❤️Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
THIS IS THE REASON YOUR STRATEGY DOESN'T WORKThe title is brash, I know. But before you click away, answer these two questions:
1) How many strategies have you tried?
2) How many strategies have you backtested through several years and thousands of trades?
If you have tried more strategies than you've backtested rigorously, then stick around because that's probably the reason why you're losing money.
Imagine this. Florence is a novice trader. He's seen the thousands of dollars in profit a kid 10 years younger than him can generate. He's seen the kid flexing his Lambo on Instagram. The kid mentions RSI a few times, so Florence assumes the RSI indicator is the secret to insane profits. Florence is chomping at the bits and loads up a fresh Webull account with $3,000. Every time the RSI is above 70 on a stock, he shorts that stock.
Lo and behold, after 5 trades, Florence's account now sits at $2,300. He concludes the indicator does not work.
Florence perseveres and is determined to find the secret strategy to quick profits. He scraps the RSI and studies "support and resistance" trading from a few youtube mentors. He reloads his Webull account back up to $3,000. With a refreshed vision, he shorts anytime a stock is at resistance and longs anytime a stock hits support. Sadly, after 10 trades, his account is down again, this time to $2,600.
Florence is flabbergasted.
The story goes on. He attempts implementing strategy after strategy and continues to lose money. Unfortunately, many of us are Florence. We did what he did. We got into the game without a blueprint or game plan.
And this is why my title is brashly stated, "If you don't read this you are going to lose money," because it's true. If you resemble Florence even in the slightest, basing the success of your trading strategy on a handful of trades, then how do you expect to know what strategy is actually successful?
I don't blame you for approaching trading like Florence. In today's age, we are seeing the market oversaturated with traders and trading coaches, or even worse, "trading influencers". As with any influx of the masses, we are going to get the scumbags trying to get you to buy their image and product by falsifying the simplicity and ease of trading.
If you are jumping between strategies without quantifying its success and failure rates over thousands of scenarios, then stop trading right now because you are going to continue losing money. Find a backtesting service or at the least log every single trade you take. Whatever it is, slow down and find proof of failure before declaring failure. I don't want you to fall into a never-ending hole of searching for the "right" indicator/strategy. The truth is, most of the strategies you've thrown away probably work and you don't even know it.
3 Best Market Trading Opportunities to Maximize Profit Potential
Hey traders,
In the today's article, we will discuss 3 types of incredibly accurate setups that you can apply for trading financial markets.
1. Trend Line Breakout and Retest
The first setup is a classic trend line breakout.
Please, note that such a setup will be accurate if the trend line is based on at least 3 consequent bullish or bearish moves.
If the market bounces from a trend line, it is a vertical support.
If the market drops from a trend line, it is a vertical resistance.
The breakout of the trend line - vertical support is a candle close below that. After a breakout, it turns into a safe point to sell the market from.
The breakout of the trend line - vertical resistance is a candle close above that. After a breakout, it turns into a safe point to buy the market from.
Take a look at the example. On GBPJPY, the market was growing steadily, respecting a rising trend line that was a vertical support.
A candle close below that confirmed its bearish violation.
It turned into a vertical resistance.
Its retest was a perfect point to sell the market from.
2. Horizontal Structure Breakout and Retest
The second setup is a breakout of a horizontal key level.
The breakout of a horizontal support and a candle close below that is a strong bearish signal. After a breakout, a support turns into a resistance.
Its retest is a safe point to sell the market from.
The breakout of a horizontal resistance and a candle close above that is a strong bullish signal. After a breakout, a resistance turns into a support.
Its retest if a safe point to buy the market from.
Here is the example. WTI Crude Oil broke a key daily structure resistance. A candle close above confirmed the violation.
After a breakout, the broken resistance turned into a support.
Its test was a perfect point to buy the market from.
3. Buying / Selling the Market After Pullbacks
The third option is to trade the market after pullbacks.
However, remember that the market should be strictly in a trend.
In a bullish trend, the market corrects itself after it sets new higher highs. The higher lows usually respect the rising trend lines.
Buying the market from such a trend line, you open a safe trend-following trade.
In a bearish trend, after the price sets lower lows, the correctional movements initiate. The lower highs quite often respect the falling trend lines.
Selling the market from such a trend line, you open a safe trend-following trade.
On the chart above, we can see EURAUD pair trading in a bullish trend.
After the price sets new highs, it retraces to a rising trend line.
Once the trend line is reached, trend-following movements initiate.
What I like about these 3 setups is the fact that they work on every market and on every time frame. So no matter what you trade and what is your trading style, you can apply them for making nice profits.
Good luck!
Gold: Long-Term Upward MomentumGold is moving within a long-term upward trend. It has retraced back to the Fibonacci 0.618 level and reacted to it, breaking the corrective trendline. I anticipate that after a pullback, it will once again target higher levels.
If you find it useful, like, follow, share!
Good trading!
Seasonal TrendsSEASONAL TRENDS
Time to trade and time to rest
BINANCE:BTCUSD
There are not only days or weeks in the market with a high probability of working out trading patterns. But there are also seasons and months in which trade acquires its own specific characteristics, which may either offer favorable market conditions or be completely uninviting to trade.
Seasonal trends are not a magic pill. It is always necessary to analyze each asset class separately.
But if your analysis is consistent with the seasonal trend, then you will be trading the most probabilistic patterns.
December - January
During the final and initial months of the calendar year, it is common for markets to experience consolidation, resulting in less favorable price behavior for the formation of trading patterns. This trend is primarily influenced by the busy holiday schedule and bank holidays, which lead to a reduction in market liquidity.
Many traders choose to take vacations during these periods or dedicate more time to observing and testing new trading patterns. As a result, market activity may slow down, and the formation of distinct trading patterns becomes less prominent.
It is important for traders to be aware of these market dynamics and adjust their strategies accordingly during these times of consolidation.
February - March - April
Since February, the markets have transitioned out of consolidations and have started to show movement and the formation of trends, which provide more favorable price action for traders. This shift can be attributed to the entry of smart capital into the market in significant volumes.
During these periods, traders have the opportunity to witness the emergence of optimal and highly probable trading models. The increased market activity and participation of smart capital contribute to clearer price trends and patterns, allowing traders to potentially capitalize on profitable trading opportunities. It is important for traders to closely monitor market conditions during these periods and utilise appropriate strategies to take advantage of the favorable trading models that arise.
May - June - July - August
The saying "Sell in May and go away" has some justification as it relates to the behavior of smart capital in taking profits on their positions before the summer period of low volatility. This phenomenon can result in the formation of a downward trend and subsequent consolidation in both stock and cryptocurrency markets during what is commonly referred to as the "summer depression."
During this time, many professional traders, particularly in August, take vacations as market activity and trading opportunities may be limited due to decreased liquidity and overall subdued market conditions.
It is worth noting that while this saying has been observed in the past, market dynamics can vary, and it is important for traders to adapt their strategies and remain vigilant to potential opportunities even during periods of lower market activity.
September - October - November
In the last quarter of the year, the markets typically experience a resurgence in activity. The stock market often sees a rally, with an increase in buying interest and positive market sentiment. On the other hand, the foreign exchange market tends to exhibit more favorable trading conditions, characterised by increased volatility and opportunities for profitable trading patterns.
During this period, many professional traders actively participate in the markets, taking advantage of the improved trading conditions and seeking to capitalize on potential profit opportunities. The renewed market activity marks the beginning of a new cycle, where market trends and dynamics may undergo significant changes.
I repeat once again that you need to take into account the stage of the cycle and not rely only on seasonality + take into account the macro situation in the world and the news background
I wish you all good trading
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✅Disclaimer: Please be aware of the risks involved in trading. This idea was made for educational purposes only not for financial Investment Purposes.
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Bitcoin: range-bound, scenariosThe Bitcoin is currently in a range-bound state. It is moving within an upward long-term trend, making it more likely to break out to the upside.
However, I see a possibility of it touching the ascending trendline around 27,700.
Until it breaks out, there is a possibility of range trading.
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Good trading!
I want to share with you some points about Risk ManagementThis topic is so important, that´s why I wanted to share it with you and hope I can reach as much people as possible. Hope it will help some :)
I saw in the last years many who crashed their accounts very hard, they lost a lot of money and for some it was very dreadful!
It is hard to watch this people how they burn money and bring even his own family in financial danger. That´s why risk management in trading is so heavily important, to keep yourself and your life in balance.
May be some will find very helpful, or some will remember this rules again :)
I will keep it a bit shorter here as in my book, but the main points are still mentioned!
I can´t say it often enough, always keep your rules during trading. Trading is not the way to get rich quick, it is a serious and hard business! It take a lot of time to learn, it requires a lot of patience and it will happen a lot of failures.
This failures are even more important than your success! Success will not open up how it will not work, failures will.
But let´s talk about risk management!
For each investment you have to consider you take for each trade the risk to lose money, that´s why it is mandatory to handle each investment with a good risk/reward distribution.
You have to keep in mind, the determined risk/reward is only theoretically and can result complete different. But with knowledge you can dedicate a good entry for your trades to keep your risk as low as possible.
Determine important support and resistance levels and think about all situations what could happen and what will you do, if you are going into the red or into the green? Which levels are the best entries and exits?
This all will help you to determine your riks/reward ratio.
What is the Risk/Reward Ratio?
Successful day traders are generally aware of both, the potential risk and potential reward before entering a trade.
The goal of a day trader is to place trades where the potential reward outweighs the potential risk.
These trades would be considered to have a good risk/reward ratio.
A risk/reward ratio is simply the amount of money you plan to risk, compared to the amount of money you believe you can gain.
For example, if you think a potential trade may result in either a $400 profit or $100 loss, the trade would have a risk/reward ratio of 1:4, making it a favorable setup. Contrarily, if you risk $100 to make $100, the trade has a risk/reward ratio of 1:1, giving you the same type of unfavorable odds that you can find in a casino.
Which ratio should you desire?
Like described above, finding trades with high risk/reward ratios (1:2 or higher), will help you maintain higher average profits and lower average losses, making your trading strategy more sustainable.
The common suggestion between traders is a distribution of minimum 1:2 ratio. In reality there are often even better ratios available, if you do your technical chart analysis or financial stock analysis.
But what should you do if you have to cut losses?
We have to place our stop loss right below our support or other important levels we determined before.
The purpose is to cut losses before they grow too large. Stopping out of a losing trade can be one of the hardest things for traders to do consistently. However, failing to take stops can result in margin calls, unnecessarily large losses, and ultimately account blowouts.
How big should I enter a position?
To lower your risk I recommend to think about your size to enter a position.
Overall you shouldn´t risk money you need, only deposit money in your broker you can afford.
Entering small can be the smartest way to safe your account. I suggest that because of four reasons:
1. You don´t risk to much of your funds and your stop loss should be tight anyway.
2. You can average down if the price is going in the other direction, but consider this option only if you are sure what you are doing.
3. You can buy the dips/pullbacks if the trend is strong and still heading in your desired direction.
4. Your emotional control is stronger if the price movement is heading in the wrong direction.
This brings us to the next topic.
Should you use leverage?
Yes I know, big leverage will give you big gains...but as a beginner you will not have the experience to know which trade has a very big potential or not.
Even experienced traders use only a small amount to enter a position and not the whole fund.
If you use leverage the losses can be much higher and the problem with that is, if you lose money, your leverage will also decrease significantly and the losses are harder to recover after each loss.
So what is the answer of the question, should you use leverage?
For beginners we can easily answer: Take your hands of a big leverage!
You can so hardly blow up yourself with that tool, it is ridiculous. Your way back into the profit zone will probably take years.
But you have to save yourself and after a period of time, a period of taking profits and cutting losses you will gain knowledge until you feel much more comfortable on the market and you understand how trading really works, then you can consider to use leverage.
Conclusion:
As I said, I want to share only some big points about this topic, simple and understandable, because I think many new investors don´t understand how important that topic is!
Safe yourself and have fun in trading and learning!
Sincerely,
TradeandGrow
Trade safe!
3 Types of Stop LossesToday’s topic is going to be on three types of stop losses . This is a very critical topic because stop losses come under the category of risk management.
Risk management is such a pivotal, important and critical topic. Why? Because professional traders and investors, the first thing that they always do and constantly think about before they get into a trade or investment is not how much profit they’re going to make, it’s how much they can afford to lose.
The only control that you have when you enter into a trade and you’re in the trade is the risk factor because most of us will not have the capital power to control that trade. It’s a collective pool of people’s thoughts and a lot of other factors that come in which then determines how the price moves in the market, especially how smart money enters the market actually. So in light of all of that, the real power that you have, the real control that you have is your risk management. How much you can afford to lose. In terms of that, we’re going to be looking at the three types of stop losses and how to stop your loss when the market does something which is not favourable to you and not in line with the direction of the trade that you are taking on.
The first type is what we call the technical stop . This is the one most people will be familiar with. That’s where all your different kinds of stop losses come under: moving averages, channels, trend lines and so forth. All these are summarised under technical stop losses. Even if you use tier based stop losses, they come under technical stop losses.
The second one is called a money stop . A money stop is basically one where you write in your rules, and this is how you execute a trade as well is that you say, for example, you enter a trade and it is going well in profit. You tell yourself to trail your stop loss to break even as soon as the trade is 3% in profit. You don’t care what the moving averages are or where the price pattern is whatsoever, you would just move your stop loss to break even. So that is purely based on money. That is called a money stop because the stop loss is adjusted according to your profits or your losses. Usually it’s to your profits – that’s when you trail and adjust your stop loss.
The final one is the time stop . As you’ve already guessed, the time stop is based on time. Especially for intra-day trading it’s very important because you know certain times of the day volume is really high and other times of the day volume starts to dry up. So especially if you want to capture a certain percentage of move, you want to capture it before a certain time and you usually know that after 5pm or 6pm the volume usually dries up. Price movement is not really that much especially towards 9pm. So you can have a rule saying, for example, at 5pm or 6pm you’ll look at exiting a trade if it’s not reached an objective. If you’re a swing trader you start saying things like you know if it’s consolidating for 10-15 days in a row I will possibly exit out of the trade. So all that is basically based on time.
Let me ask you a question. Out of all the three stops I’ve talked about: technical, money and time, what do you think is the strongest stop of them all? I think, if my guess is right as we have coached thousands of traders, most of them usually tell me it’s either the technical or the money stop. In fact, let me tell you Traders, the weakest one of them all is the money stop because there’s no basis for it. It’s just based on money and just trailing it. The strongest is the time stop because everything is determined on time and you’re time bound in everything that you do. If you look at daily activities: waking up, going to work, having meals, going to bed – your life is time bound.
Here’s the final most critical point. If you actually want to make your risk management really strong, the trick is not to put emphasis on either one of them according to strength, but to make them sync with each other so that they can then adapt to market conditions. It’s basically a confluence of the types of stop losses that can help you to generate the rules which can adapt to market conditions. For example, when you start out if you put in your initial stop loss in a technical place and as time then moves by then you would then get more aggressive with your stop loss and as it’s nearing towards exit, if you’ve reached a certain profit potential as the market price is still hovering around, losing momentum, then you would then start to go into money stop. Money stop is especially useful if you’re in swing trading. For example, when we took the DOW Jones trade and we took that 2,000 point move on a mismatched strategy when it had already done 80% of the move we used a money stop because we don’t want to give back all that profit back to the market. So that’s when we start to us a money stop and a combination of time stop, initially starting with a technical. So that’s how you do it.
Do have a good think about this because this is so critical Traders. If there’s only one thing you have total control of, it’s your stop loss, it’s your risk management. So contemplate this, revisit your strategy rules and see how you can optimise that for maximum performance of your strategy.
I believe that you have really enjoyed this topic and have some amazing value from this. Until the next time, as we always say, stay disciplined, follow your trading plan and keep trading like a master .
Exploring the Crucial Components of a Powerful Trading Journal
In one of the previous posts, we discussed the significance of a trading journal. In the today's article, I will share with you the key elements of a trading journal of a professional trader.
And first, a quick reminder that a trading journal is essential for your trading success. No matter on which level you are at the moment, you should always keep track of your results.
Let's go through the list of the things that you should include in your journal.
1 - Trading Instrument
The symbol where the order is executed.
You need that in order to analyze the performance of trading a particular instrument.
2 - Date
The date of the opening of the position. Some traders also include the exact time of the execution.
3 - Risk
Percentage of the account balance at risk.
Even though some traders track the lot of sizes instead, I do believe that the percentage data is more important and may give more insights.
4 - Entry Reason
The set of conditions that were met to open the trade.
In that section, I recommend to note as much data as possible.
It will be applied in future for the identification of the weaknesses of your strategy.
5 - Risk Reward Ratio
The expected returns in relation to potential risks.
6 - Results
Gain or loss in percentage.
And again, some traders track the pip value of the gain, however,
in my view, the percentage points are more relevant for studying the statistics.
Here is the example of the trade on Gold:
Here is how exactly you should journal the following trade:
Instrumet: Gold (XAUUSD)
Date: 03.07.2023
Risk: 1%
Entry Reason: H&S Pattern Formation,
Neckline Breakout & Retest
R/R Ratio: 1.77
Results: +1.77%
Of course, depending on your trading strategy and your personal goals, some other elements can be added. However, the list that I propose is the absolute minimum that you should track.
❤️Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
3 Key Entry Rules to Boost Your Trading PerformanceToday I want to share with you this topic: the 3 Entry Rules to Boost Your Trading Performance.
Over the 20,000 traders that we have coached over the time via conferences and talks we’ve done all over the world, we have found one of the challenges that traders have is that they find themselves locked into a trade and then being stopped out when they enter into trade. So their entries are not really optimized or they are not getting the right timing for their entries. Sometimes they come during a coaching session; they say ‘Thiru, I need some help with my entry.’ So this topic, the 3 Entry Rules, can actually help you optimize your entry and overall improve your strategy performance. This is what we’re going to be looking at today in this video.
The first one is what we call “ Time Frame Correlation ,” the short form abbreviation TFC. In TFC one thing you do have to remember when you’re correlating the different time frames is that you’ve got to remember three times. Some of you may be wondering ‘What do you mean by three times?’ What I mean is that for example if you are an intra-day trader trading on a shorter time frame, like a one hour time frame, then you need to be looking at three time frames at least altogether, so the one hour and each of the time frames has to be three times the one that you are trading on, three times or four times. Now let me explain by way of an example: If you are trading on a one hour time frame, then we are looking at maybe three to four hours (1 x 4 = 4 hours) and then after that, you want four times that, approximately that is a daily time frame, 16 hours is a daily time frame.
What we’re looking at is to correlate the times frames before we take the trade. We are usually looking at three time frames and each time frame is three times each other. For example, if you are an end of day trader and you want to enter your position onto a four hour time frame then you can start to look at daily time frame and then three to four times that would be a weekly time frame as well that you’re looking at.
Let me explain why this is important. For example, imagine this – you would have probably experienced this – in a one hour time frame it looks like it’s going down and you are thinking it is looking like a very good short sell as the direction is going further down. You put your entry over here and let’s say you put your stop loss over here and you’re good to go. Let’s say your target is somewhere around there. In the next hour the trade then triggers you in and starts to go towards your target, everything is well and rosy. You are happy, you’re in profit and you are thinking ‘it is only a matter of time before I reach my target.’ Then what happens? You know the usual thing, you would have experienced it if you have traded or if you are trading at the moment as well, it will start to reverse and where your stop loss is – let’s say other traders have their stop loss here as well – suddenly the market reverses and shoots up and takes up all the stops. I’m sure you have experienced this.
Now why does that happen? It is because, if you imagine this is the one hour time frame, if you didn’t correlate between the other time frames – the four hour and the daily time frame – and let’s say the four hour and the daily time frame are in an up-trend, if that is the case, then what happens is that the orders that are inside the daily time frame are being filled by the brokers and therefore the market is reversing to fill them up on a higher time frame. This is what is happening and this is why sometimes you get these sharp reversal moves in the market. It is very critical that you correlate the time frames before you start to take your position on the one hour time frame. In fact, in the last live trading we did where we were teaching a strategy that we called “stops to cash,” what we usually do is we take contrarian move on a one hour time frame where it looks like a perfect short, where beginners and even intermediates are getting into short position, but we are looking at a contrarian position in terms of the one hour time frame but when you align it to the higher time frames, it’s just in line with the trend. That’s all we’re doing here. What we’re saying is when everybody’s stops are being taken out, we are actually converting it to cash according to this time frame correlation. I believe that concept is well clear and nice now. Definitely do consider putting that into your entry rules.
The second entry rule we’re looking at is “ Indicators .” This is quite a critical one that you can put into your entry rules also to optimize your strategy performance. In terms of indicators, the usual common ones that we are looking at are Stochastic, RSI and for example CCI as well. These are familiar names, you have all heard of them. There are thousands of indicators, but the important thing is don’t just pick an indicator and just slam it onto the screen, but ask yourself what are you looking to achieve, what is the objective of your strategy? Then pick and choose your tools. For example, let’s say you’re driving your car and it starts to break down, you can’t just choose any old hammer or spanner. You have to analyze the problem first before choosing the tool that you want to use to repair the mistake or the fault on the car. It is the same thing here, as we are looking to optimize our strategy, we have to ask ourselves what is going to be the most efficient indicator to help me optimize my strategy performance and towards what objective? That is how you actually choose the indicator that you want to have on the screen in your strategy.
The last one we are looking at is “ Price Action .” Price Action is very critical because most of our strategies use price action. It is the fastest of them all. Some things the price won’t be able to tell you and that’s when we use indicators because it involves a lot of calculations. With price actions you notice some really powerful bar patterns that give you an edge in the market and then using all these three factors together that can give you a very strong edge against all the other 99% traders. For example, price action patterns can start to look like the low test bar starts to come up over here and it’s starting to show a reversal pattern. Or even things on a daily time frame where we are looking at something like a down trend and it is starting to reverse – all those critical price action patterns that can give you and edge.
So these three rules that’s I’ve just gone through with you right now can be so important to improving your whole strategy and your trading performance.
On a final note, what I want you to remember is that just using them by themselves is not enough as Traders. But using them in a cumulative manner strengthens your edge so strongly in the market and also optimizes and maximizes your trading performance for consistent profits.
I believe this has been very useful for you all and as we always say, til the next time stay disciplined, follow your trading plan and keep Trading like a Maste r.
Just Don't Trade When...Just Don’t Do It Trader
By now, you know what to do as a trader.
I’ve pretty much drilled in your mind. You can hear my voice echo the 4 Ms.
But one overlooked thing that’s also important…
Are the things not to do.
Let’s crack into the 5 things…
#1: DON’T fear losing – It’s just the cost of trading
Losing trades are an inevitable part of trading.
So why fear losses if they are going to come.
And it’s not just one or two losses.
You’re about to take thousands of losses in your life.
But don’t see them as losses.
Instead, view them as the cost of doing business in the markets.
Every trade carries a level of risk (hence we use stop losses in every trade).
And losses are opportunities to learn and refine your strategies (if need be).
So make it natural to embrace your losses as a part of the trading process.
This way you’ll cut the ego, and take on each trade with a more objective and focussed point.
#2: DON’T dwell on past failures – You are only as good as your last trade
While it is essential to learn from past mistakes.
If you dwell on them, they will excessively hinder your hard worked progress.
Trading is an ever-evolving journey, and each trade presents a new opportunity.
Instead of fixating on past failures, blown accounts, big drawdowns and times you just F*ed up with your trading system and mentality…
Rather focus on the present and future.
There is only NOW and what is to COME.
So apply the past time lessons and focus on improving your decision-making performance in the next trade.
You are only as good as your last trade.
#3: DON’T expect fast riches – This is a slow and gradual process
Trading is not a get-rich-quick scheme.
If you expect to make it big in the first three years, I have news for you.
Unless you already have a million rand portfolio to grow and bank from, this is going to take take.
Cut out these unrealistic expectations because it’s going to be an emotional ride with excessive risk-taking.
Instead, adopt a long-term perspective, set realistic goals and understand that trading success is a gradual process.
Let the power of compounding work in your favour over time.
#4: DON’T compare yourself to others – Your personality & risk profile shape you
Each trader is unique.
You are unique.
Therefore, you have different risk tolerance levels, trading styles, and market perspectives.
If you compare yourself to others, you’re going to feel inadequate and you’re going to enter into temptation on imitating their portfolios.
It is essential to embrace your own strengths and weaknesses as a trader. Understand your personality, risk profile, and trading preferences, and align your strategies accordingly.
Find what works for you and develop a personalized approach that suits your individual needs and goals.
Trading is a self-learning journey that takes time and effort to master.
#5: DON’T give up – You only lose when you quit!
Persistence is key in trading.
It is natural to face challenges and setbacks along the way.
But the only time you truly lose is when you give up.
Stay committed, maintain a positive mindset, and keep pushing forward.
You still being in the game is what will differentiate you between failure and success.
So let’s conclude what you must NOT do…
#1: DON’T fear losing – It’s just the cost of trading
#2: DON’T dwell on past failures – You are only as good as your last trade
#3: DON’T expect fast riches – This is a slow and gradual process
#4: DON’T compare yourself to others – Your personality & risk profile shape you
#5: DON’T give up – You only lose when you quit!
Just don’t do it, trader!