From email: “I guess the short of it would be what % of capital should your average trade be? I understand theres so many variables that effect the answer to that question, but still am curious. I’m trading around 40k right now, and have only been trading live for a little over a month. Most…
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Two reasons this isn’t window dressing.
The Reformed Broker has a piece out today talking about window dressing. As a technical analyst I am aware of the games that can happen but I can’t ever bet on it. The reasons why a market moves doesn’t really matter to me. Of course you put things in the back of your mind for…
The Big Picture list of at least 8 “BUY GOLD” Financial Resources
The Big Picture (TBP) has curated a list by his readers of the top 30 financial resources. It can be found here. No list is complete without Abnormal Returns who has saved all of us countless hours of our life in search of relevant information. Thanks again Tadas. You won’t find him on the list but you…
Where to find profit.
The market is a curator of information. It does not always tell the story at the same pace that it gets the information. This is partly because, depending on the participants, different parts of the story makes sense or are not important, yet. It may be that the market does not care about that input…
Signs confirmation bias is becoming a problem.
As a reminder confirmation bias is the tendency to like or seek out information that confirms what you believe. The reason confirmation bias is so dangerous in trading is that it can cause you to lose twice. By the time price or loss has proven your belief as wrong, it may force your belief into the other…
What to do after having a monster day.
Lets face it we are traders for the unlimited upside, having no customers, and no employees. When you achieve that unlimited upside, what do you do? The first time The very first thing you should do is to order a check. Take the money out. Spend some on yourself. Enjoy it. You reached the next…
Giving back profits and taking too much risk.
There is no profit too small you shouldn’t take it. If the market isn’t giving you anything it is ok to peel it off. Start again. The best traders get in and out on the best ticks. This is much easier to do trading multiple contracts because entry and exit risk is not as…
Losing the battle to win the war.
I recently had to dump a friend. The relationship stunk, neither of us were getting anything out of it and that had always been the case. We ran in some of the same circles so we kept bumping into each other. It was volatile to say the least and we were pushed to our limits….
Healing is an important skill set for trading.
This idea originally written about in Feb 2011. How do you heal? There are going to be tough times in this business and your ability to get back up or to know when to get back up is important. Let me explain that again. Some people can come back right after a loss and still…
One of the reasons I write. Thank you readers.
One of the reasons I write. Thank you readers. I’ve been trading (IBD style) on and off (blew up account – twice) for the last 7 years. I’ve learned most of my lessons the hard way and have struggled thru some tough markets. I’m finally starting to put the pieces together and for the first…
