facebook  youtube  blogger

Trading Educators Blog

#1 Trading Blog Site
Nov
14

​Carefree or Stressed Out?

Winning traders approach the markets with an optimal mindset. They trade "in the zone," but it's surprising how stress can impact your ability to enter this ideal state of mind. You can carefully delineate a complete trading plan, for example, in which every aspect is spelled out clearly, from when to enter and when to exit, and you may have a wealth of experience executing such plans, but when yo...

Continue reading
  256 Hits
Mar
05

Accepting Smaller Losses

​Traders are willing to gamble a lot of money to avoid a potential loss, rather than immediately accepting a smaller but certain loss. Likewise, traders will hold on to a losing trade, and continue to watch it loses money, rather than face the loss. Why is it that we see money as being so important? The answer stems from our culture. What we esteem as good things are associated with money. Money i...

Continue reading
  2095 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...

Continue reading
  1804 Hits
Jun
23

State of Mind

​Making profits as a trader is often a matter of trading in the proper state of mind. Trading expert Dr. Van K. Tharp, author of several best-selling books on trading psychology and head of the Van Tharp Institute, describes three states of mind that may dictate how you approach trading. As traders gain experience with trading the markets, they move from a "having" state of mind to a "doing" state...

Continue reading
  2434 Hits
Mar
27

Manage the Trade

​Once you get into a trade, you must eventually get out. Some argue that this is more important than where you get into a trade. My experience has been that any fool can get into the market, but it takes a successful trader to consistently get out with a win. As I follow the markets, I find there are four reasons to get out of a trade. Prices move significantly against my position. Prices stop mov...

Continue reading
  2271 Hits
Mar
15

Mental Momentum

​Mental Momentum drawdown, you can feel a little disappointed, a little stunned, as if you have fallen, and you are having trouble getting up. After you've made a series of successful trades, however, you can feel much more powerful, as if you can relax a little bit. And when you feel relaxed, you also feel creative, and can think of winning strategies. Everything seems to click and you start...

Continue reading
  1769 Hits
Jan
31

Managing your Trading Business

​Keeping Losses Small I cannot say this enough times, so I'm saying it again, you must learn to keep your losses small. It is the single greatest concept that I can show you that will help you make profits in the market. This principle is of such magnitude that it dwarfs all other principles for trade, money, and risk management. Did you know that if you keep your losses small, you can flip a coin...

Continue reading
  1876 Hits
Mar
23

Handling Success

In his book, "Trading to Win," Dr. Ari Kiev notes, "winning days are often followed by plateaus and losing streaks." Behavioral economist Dr. Terrance Odean observed that novice online investors who had a series of winning trades tended to have periods of overtrading. It's as if they believed they could take more risks, and potentially lose profits, since they had just made more than they expected...

Continue reading
  2095 Hits
Jun
09

5 Tips to Improve your Day Trading

5 Tips to Improve your Day Trading

Day trading has always been a tough game, requiring a very strong psyche, discipline and a high level of trading skills to succeed in.  Nowadays though it's even harder due to the stronger competition, not only by humans but especially by computers trading at a speed a human trader simply can not match up to. High-Frequency Trading is happening in literally all of the popular markets out ther...

Continue reading
  3260 Hits
May
10

Is it really possible to be consistently profitable?

Is it really possible to be consistently profitable?

When you are in a slump and feeling frustrated and disappointed, you tend to think, "I'll never be profitable, and there is nothing I can do about it." The consequences of such reasoning are that you'll never feel like putting on a trade ever again. It is better to think, "Profitable trading is almost impossible, but I can learn how the markets work, develop the necessary skills, and eventually ac...

Continue reading
  2880 Hits
Mar
31

Maintaining Discipline: When Past Choices Influence Future Decisions

Traders and investors have difficulty "letting their profits run." When you see your investment increase in value, it's hard to avoid selling early to lock in profits. But not every trade goes your way, so when you come upon a trade that does produce a profit, it's vital for your long-term success to optimize the profits for that particular trade. You must make more profits on your winning trades ...

Continue reading
  2450 Hits
Feb
08

How to Approach Trading? Part 1

Develop a Trading Plan The main message, I want traders to understand is how important the disciplined execution of a well thought out trading plan is in today's markets. Nobody knows for sure what a given market will do next. Having a plan of attack will allow you to successfully cope with the uncertainty that is an inherent part of trading. I think it makes good common sense to have a well t...

Continue reading
  2992 Hits
Nov
10

Develop a Trading Plan

The main message I want traders to understand is how important the disciplined execution of a well thought out trading plan is in today's markets. Nobody knows for sure what a given market will do next. Having a plan of attack will allow you to successfully cope with the uncertainty that is an inherent part of trading. I think it makes good common sense to have a well thought out plan of attack fo...

Continue reading
  3571 Hits
Jun
02

Controlling Emotions

Winning traders cannot afford to be influenced by their emotions. The nature of trading demands an objective, logical approach. If you experience extreme excitement after a win and extreme disappointment after a loss, you will be living on an emotional roller coaster: up and down, up and down. Many beginning traders have head knowledge of what it means to control their emotions. They can imagine a...

Continue reading
  3321 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.