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Trading Educators Blog

#1 Trading Blog Site
Apr
17

Don't Overdo It

If you're like most traders, you are in this business to make money big money. In all probability, you are ambitious, independent minded, and ready to take on the world. With this ambition usually comes a need to be the best. Only the people at the top of the field achieve the highest level of success. Although striving for expertise is a prerequisite for success, it usually coincides with a need ...

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  2073 Hits
Apr
11

Controlling Impulses

When it comes to protecting your money, one of the biggest dangers is so called impulse trading. Resisting the urge to have something right then and there is a skill everyone needs to learn in order to build a strong financial foundation. Recently I watched an entertaining TV show called "Auction Kings." One of the pieces being auctioned off was a 1975 Cadillac Eldorado. Cars don't get much b...

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  2537 Hits
Nov
02

Getting the Job Done

Do you ever make big plans for the trading day, but fall short of your expectations? Maybe during the off-hours you decide to make a dozen trades, but when you get down to actually doing the work, you end up making only one or two trades. Do you procrastinate, feel overwhelmed, and feel like you are ready to crack under the pressure? If you're feeling overloaded, perhaps you've taken on too much. ...

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  1697 Hits
Jan
16

Beliefs About Randomness: Do They Impact Profits?

​As you trade, do you ever just think, "It's all just random, why even bother trying at all?" If you passively think you have no control, you may end up making less money. A team of scientists studied a group of university students who played a computer game of roulette. All participants reported they had gambled recreationally in the past year. Researchers asked participants to describe the strat...

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  1804 Hits
Jan
09

Self-Control

Self-control is often the key to trading success. Masters of the market are disciplined. They don't sporadically act on a whim. They develop specific trading plans and follow them. Trading is largely a matter of capitalizing on odds. If you assume that a given trading strategy has a past performance record of 50%, for example, it's a matter of odds as to whether that particular strategy will obtai...

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  2212 Hits
Jan
02

Record your Trading

​You must be disciplined in following the plan of your trade religiously. Once you have closed your position, you should record everything about the trade. Write down where you wanted to enter the trade, what you expected out of the trade, and what you actually did get out of the trade. Make sure to include notes that will help you learn from the trade, reasoning what actually took place once you ...

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  2206 Hits
Dec
12

Trading is a Business

​Learning the business of trading is basically no different from learning any other business. The important thing is that you realize that trading is a business that must be studied and learned correctly, because that determines your success or failure. Winning means learning major guidelines and concepts that you repeat so often in your own behavior that they become good habits. These good habits...

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  1909 Hits
Dec
12

The News

​What are the latest headlines? Do they impact the markets? Well, it depends. On Monday, October 17, 2005, here were some of the headlines that may have impacted you. GM reached a tentative agreement with the union. What's the impact? It seemed to satisfy long term investors. Company profits are bound to improve with lower labor costs, right? The Supreme Court refused to allow the government to pu...

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  2157 Hits
Dec
05

Getting Help

​If you're like most modern traders, you try to do it all. You study charts and historical data for trading opportunities. You struggle to devise a thorough, well-designed trading plan. You enter trades on your own electronic trading platform, and you monitor your trades to make midcourse corrections when necessary. Depending on your personality, available resources, and time commitment, you may w...

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  2107 Hits
Nov
27

Hindsight

Do you remember your first impressions of trading? Perhaps you were young and had a strong desire to achieve early success, but if you were like most people, you had unrealistic expectations about the financial resources and skill level that were needed to trade profitably. You probably figured that you could just open a typical online brokerage account and turn $1,500 into a fortune. You probably...

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  2258 Hits
Oct
12

The Long Run Is Longer Then You Think

Many traders are smart enough to know that they will win in the long run by taking only the best trades, but become impatient due to the lack of anything happening. They forget that the long run can be "long". Taking only the best trades can be frustrating. They come along rarely, and even when they do there is no guarantee of winning with them. Long gaps occur in between. We can become angry and ...

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  1943 Hits
Oct
05

Chess and Trading. What do you think?

​Although I haven't the faintest idea of how to play chess, it certainly seems like a great idea. I imagine you can improve stock and futures trading by learning how to play chess. It might also help to develop an interest in physics. Every trader should learn to develop his problem-solving and pattern recognition abilities. I've been told that nothing does this better than learning how to play ch...

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  1906 Hits

Derivative transactions, including futures, are complex and carry a high degree of risk. They are intended for sophisticated investors and are not suitable for everyone. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific trading program which cannot be fully accounted for in the preparation of hypothetical performance results, and all of which can adversely affect actual trading results. For more information, see the Risk Disclosure Statement for Futures and Options.