I went to a small high school in a small town in one of the least populated counties in Indiana. I graduated with 67 people. One of which was my step brother. I dated the same girl off and on for 5 years. I am not certain she wanted to get married but I know…
Tag Archive: risk
Don’t be this “trader”.
I was just talking with a “trader” here is how it went. “The market is rigged” “What do you mean, give me an example?” “Well I was trying to be long at X price and it did not trade my price.” “Ok, so the market cared about your 1 lot order?” “Yes.” “So in a…
Do you care about sinking if you know you can swim?
Have you ever seen two people in the same situation act differently? With trading futures this is really evident. Only one side gets to make money. How a person handles sinking (losing money) will help shape what they become as a trader. The second thing that my mentor every told me was learn how to…
Misplaced focus.
One of my best friends from high school thought he was Deion Sanders. After playing football together for many years our list of pre-game superstitious and rituals were lengthy. It was a production. Finally a coach stepped in and the madness came to an end. Habits can form for little or no reason but end for a…
End of month bull market tendencies.
In bull markets there is a tendency to sell the end of the month and buy the first of the month. This is also a time when there is rotation among markets. We look at markets on a relationship basis. By looking at these relationships we can adjust our execution, be bigger or smaller or…
The worst thing that can happen to a trader….
There are obviously things that are more important than money. Family, friends, your health, your dog, maybe even your cat (that is pushing it). But the worst thing a trader can do is forget their objective, to take what the market gives you in money and learning. In other words, make money. When a trader…
Futures returns math and how you might be taking too much risk.
Futures is one of the last business opportunities where the good are rewarded more than the bad are punished. This is because of leverage and how much discipline is required. I was talking to trader who trades 1′s and 2′s. They were not happy with making $200 a day. First, I think it is important…
Eating like a bird, sh@#ing like an elephant syndrome.
Trading is simple, take in more than you give out. There, my work here is done. Ok I guess not. When trading is going bad it is because I am taking in less than I am giving out. The title of this post is a more dramatic way to say that. Something that my mentor…
Three stages of trading objectives.
I am looking back on how my objective as a trader has evolved. It is funny how much theory and application changes how you view things. Letting the market/situation change how you view it is important. Everybody comes in with some expectations and it is constant race to keep the spread tight between expectation and reality….
Dangers of trading in small and distributed days.
There is danger in every type of market but nothing scares me quite like small and distributed days. Here are the dangers as I see it: Boredom: I lose that sharpness. Watching a market trade in a few dollar range is one of the more painful, energy sucking circumstances in trading. It provides a very false sense…
