tradingadviceblog.com » Featured http://tradingadviceblog.com Quality trading advice for struggling and beginning traders - FREE Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:41:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 10 Minute Toughness http://tradingadviceblog.com/mindset/book-review-10-minute-toughness-by-jason-selk/ http://tradingadviceblog.com/mindset/book-review-10-minute-toughness-by-jason-selk/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:05:14 +0000 Mo http://tradingadviceblog.com/?p=77 10 Minute Toughness – The Mental Training Program for Winning Before the Game Begins. Jason Selk works with many of the worlds top athletes to develop the mental toughness needed for sports success and his program translates perfectly to trading. I’ve been working with the book for a few months now -its easy to read, easy to implement and the program is excellent! As the book says “No psychobabble, no self-help cliches, no touchy feely theories. 10 Minute Toughness is the simple and effective mental-training program to help you get focused, stay on target and find a competitive edge.” The program contains short impactful exercises to help you
  • calm your heart-rate and maintain a relaxed state of mind
  • stay focused on the aspects of your trading that will most help you succeed
  • build confidence
  • perform mental run-throughs that prepare you for the market day
What I particularly find helpful is the emphasis on process goals.  Many of us focus on goal setting in terms of performance goals like making so many points a week. A process goal shifts the focus to concentrate on the specific aspects of trading that will help you achieve the performance you are looking for. It helps you keep your attention each day on the one or two things that will improved your trading. The book is very consistent with what Brett Steenbarger teaches and yet somehow I found it more accessible and easy to implement.  The detailed examples of top athletes, baseball, basketball and football players makes the book fun to read and easy to get. This book will make a great addition to every traders library. ]]> http://tradingadviceblog.com/mindset/book-review-10-minute-toughness-by-jason-selk/feed/ 1 If You Want to Make Money Trading, Stop Thinking About Making Money Trading! http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/if-you-want-to-make-money-trading-stop-thinking-about-making-money-trading/ http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/if-you-want-to-make-money-trading-stop-thinking-about-making-money-trading/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:36:17 +0000 Mo http://tradingadviceblog.com/?p=73 Clear the emotion , move on, and use that energy to refocus. Don’t be one of the large number of traders that are led around by the nosePulled by the nose by their attitudes about losing money, missing out, and leaving money on the table. Don’t let it become personal. When that happens you lose all perspective. You can tell how concerned you are about money by asking yourself two questions while you are trading that Dr Brett Steenbarger included in a recent post Where Is Your Head When You’re Trading ? Are you looking at your profit/loss for the day (week,month) and filtering trades through that? Are you wanting to get your money back after a loss or hold onto it after a gain? The other thing to do is watch your thoughts in the morning before the market opens and in the evening after it closes. How often are you thinking about whether you can make $X today, or that you lost $Y dollars today. How often do you get demoralized thinking about how many days its going to take you to make back the $Y. These are all signs that your focus, whether conscious or not, is in the wrong place. Instead you should be thinking about the market, about the trades you are going to make, about your plan for the day. If you had a losing day, be thinking about the trades you made. What happened? Analyze it.Analyze this Once thing that is common with traders that get emotional about losing money is that they tend to avoid examining their trading in detail. The pain of losing is such that they want to change the subject, take their mind off it. Journaling, replaying trades, analyzing in detail what Head in sandhappened, is too painful. But that’s exactly what you need to do if you are going to cure the problem. The good news is that it doesn’t need to be a ‘no pain, no gain’ situation. You can easily clear your emotions , take away the anxiety, so that you can face the analysis that will set you on the right track. For each trade you made today, or over a recent trading period, make notes about what the market was doing; what you were thinking and feeling; what you did (or didn’t do) in terms of entering, exiting or missing trades; what were the consequences of what you did; what you would do differently next time.Write If you can’t answer these questions it means you are not keeping enough records while you are trading. So tomorrow, keep notes, and then try the analysis again at the end of the day.
  1. What the market was doing
  2. What you were thinking and feeling
  3. What you did or didn’t do
  4. What the consequences were of what you did
  5. What you would do differently next time.
Push itIf you are feeling resistent to doing this – its even more reason why you need to push yourself to do it. That resistence is your mind/body trying to keep you anaesthatized from the pain/fear of losing. But its the very fog of that emotion that is clouding your trading. Clear the emotion and do the analysis. The key part of this exercise is taking the things that you say you would do differently next time, and using them to set goals for your trading day tomorrow. This brings conscious awareness to the things that you need to focus on. If you stay focused on your goals, you willGoal improve. If you do this diligently for a few weeks, and keep doing it, you’ll see a significant improvement in your trading, as you become more aware. And yes eventually, you may even make some money!!]]> http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/if-you-want-to-make-money-trading-stop-thinking-about-making-money-trading/feed/ 0 How Hard is Trading Really? http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/how-hard-is-trading-really/ http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/how-hard-is-trading-really/#comments Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:50:04 +0000 Mo http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/how-hard-is-trading-really/ Is trading really that difficult? Are consistently successful traders the equivilent of brain surgeons and nuclear physyicists or is trading open to those of us on a slightly less rarified level? Do we need to be Tiger Woods or can we make it if we can regularly hit par?

]]> believe is the holy grail – the perfect method that will give them easy access to consistent profitability. The second group will tell you that there is no holy grail of trading. They’ll tell you that successful trading is the domain of an elite few who have mastered the impossibly difficult conditions of trading to become consitently profitable. This apparently elite few have been compared to expert surgeons or chess grandmasters! Is trading really that difficult? Are consistently successful traders the equivilent of brain surgeons and nuclear physyicists or is trading open to those of us on a slightly less rarified level? Do we need to be Tiger Woods or can we make it if we can regularly hit par? Here’s my take on it. I’m convinced that there is a holy grail of trading and its available to those that want to find it – it won’t be found by searching for the perfect method, but at the same time its not impossible to find if you look in the right place – if you are willing to go on a challenging quest to find it! Its certainly not easy, but its certainly not impossible. The mechanics of identifying profitable trades and executing them are no harder than any other skilled profession. It takes study, effort, and practice, but what skill doesn’t? What makes successful trading appear to be so unattainable – and become so for many – is that it requires each trader to do something extraordinary. It requires you to adopt new beliefs, to retrain your mind to think differently, and to first face and then learn to manage your emotions. This is not difficult in and of itself, but most new traders simply do not do this crucial work. Its interesting that the type of people that gravitate towards trading are actually the people least likely to succeed at first blush. Predominantly male, successful professionals, cocky young twenty somethings, doctors and dentists – why would this group have the predisposition to fail? Because they (I was once one of them) believe without question in the validity of the way they think. Changing beliefs, confronting emotions is outside of our initial comfort zone. Only the few that take the bold step of focusing on the mechanics of their own thoughts and emotions become complete traders, and ultimately achieve the success that they are looking for. So here’s another question. If I’m to go on this quest to the find the holy grail within myself, is there a map? Again the answer is yes, there is a clearly charted path that you can take. BUT…don’t mistake the fact that there is a map, for it being easy. Nobody can walk the path for you. No matter how many people have blazed the trail before you – you will still need to walk it yourself and fight your own dragons. Your goal is a state of mind and being in which you can stay focused in the ‘opportunity flow’ of the market. Fear of loss cannot touch you, because you’ve learned how to accept risk, how to safeguard yourself, and how to trust in your ability to do whatever is necessary in the moment to protect your capital. In that state, free of distraction, you can see the opportunities that present themselves. You can take profits from the market effortlessly. A trader in that state can take even a mediocre trading method and make it a gold mine. The interesting thing about learning to trade is that no matter what path you take, you need to find a method with positive expectancy – an edge that you can rely on. And here’s the challenge – no matter how committed you are to a quest for the grail within yourself, watch out! Many a trader, with the best of intentions, has been distracted by the siren call of their method. They end up on a detour, constantly focused on method and never make it to the next step. Every trader that wants to be successful must understand that their method is just the beginning, its just the entry requirement. The true quest to find expertise and consistent profits lies in mastering a different kind of methodology – a new way of thinking. Have a great week! Mo]]> http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/how-hard-is-trading-really/feed/ 1 Book Review: The Trading Method That Can Make You Rich – by Roy Kelly http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/book-review-the-trading-method-that-can-make-you-rich-by-roy-kelly/ http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/book-review-the-trading-method-that-can-make-you-rich-by-roy-kelly/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:00:16 +0000 Mo http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/book-review-the-trading-method-that-can-make-you-rich-by-roy-kelly/ me for years. I finally decided to buy “The Trading Method That Can Make You Rich” and see what the fuss is all about.  I received in the mail one of the first copies of the second edition, hot off the press. It’s a large sized, hardback book with about 230 pages. The pages are well laid out with lots of visuals, making it easy on the eye. As I began reading, I started to feel a breath of fresh air. I don’t know about you, but I often find trading books are either hollow waffle, or so damn complicated that they give me a head ache. This book was quite frankly a relief. The book reads as though its sensible and real. Its simple without being simplistic, yet has the weight of 30 years of proven technique. You just have to open a chart on your computer to see that the method is immediately applicable. The first third of the book is background information for understanding the method – different market theories, and chapters explaining cycles. The real meat begins on page 91 with two chapters devoted to teaching the theory of the method – one chapter for long entries and one for short. Later there are 60 pages dedicated to real-world trades using the method. You get to follow Roy Kelly’s thought process as the trade sets up, then follow it through to completion. By the end of this section its hard not to be excited about loading up the charts and starting to trade. So having read the book, is it worth $195? Well here’s the answer from two different perspectives. Firstly in comparison to its competition. How many books or courses have we traders bought over the years from $20-$30 promising a trading method that ended up being absolutely useless. I know that in my early years I almost single handedly supported Amazon.com’s share price with the amount of books I purchased! So yes this is a bold book – to price itself at $195 – but the fact is that the method works! What’s better, 10 books at $30 that you turned around and sold again because they were rubbish or one book that lives up to its promise? From another perspective, if you study this method carefully, practice it, and get the hang of it in the live market – you’ll make back the $195 with your first trade with change to spare, so from that perspective its a bargain. The most interesting measure of this book for me, is that its very hard to find a used copy. The people that have purchased it and are trading the method don’t want you to find out about it!]]> http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/book-review-the-trading-method-that-can-make-you-rich-by-roy-kelly/feed/ 5 Profitable Cycle Trading Method – Part I http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/profitable-cycle-trading-method-part-i/ http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/profitable-cycle-trading-method-part-i/#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:58:21 +0000 Mo http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/tradingadviceblogcom-profitable-cycle-trading-method/ Principle 1 The trend is your friend – you’ve heard this trading advice a million times before and guess what – its true. This system only trades in the direction of the trend. Furthermore it only trades when the trend of both the short and medium term time frames are in the same direction (more on this later). Why? Because we want to pinpoint entries which move quickly in the direction of profitability. Entries in the direction of the trend can be precise. Counter trend trades are often sloppy and very difficult to time. Principle 2 Time is as important as price – what does this mean? The large proportion of traders absorb themselves in following price action, looking for a set up which matches what they see. While this may work for traders that have learnt phenominal levels of focus, detachment and self discipline, for the developing trader this way of trading often leads to hallucinations (seeing things that aren’t there), overtrading and getting caught in the chop. When we follow the priciple that time is as important as price, we shift the emphasis of our focus. We place our focus on timing a trade setup, watching for the entry to set up using our timing indicators (cycles) and only when we see that the time is right do we look for price confirmation and a precise entry point. The effect of this is 1) We stay fresh because we can relax our focus when our timing indicators show that the time is not right. 2) We can avoid getting caught in the chop and all the frustration (and loss!) that doing so entails 3) We focus all our energy and concentration on effectively executing the signals that have the highest probability for success. Principle 3 Use multiple time frames. In this system we trade on multiple time frames simultaneously. We use a short term chart (3 or 5 minute) and we use a medium term chart (13 or 20 minute). We only enter trades when those two charts are confirming each other (ie. That their trend and cycle direction are the same). We also use a longer term chart (60 or 102 minutes) to keep an eye on the bigger picture and we use a very short term (1minute) to effect our entries. If the short term trend or cycle is up and the medium term trend or cycle is down, what is going to happen? They will fight each other and this manifests as chop. What happens in chop? It’s very hard to time a precise entry, which is what we are all about. What happens when the short and medium term trends/cycles are in the same direction? They support each other, they strengthen each other and this leads to decisive price movement. The key here is to understand this: price moves up and down all day. We are going to let a lot of it pass us by – we don’t care. Why? Because what we are interested is pinpointing precise entries that will immediately move in our direction and give us a profit. You may see price moving strongly in one direction while you are on the sidelines, and you may say “damn, why arent I getting a piece of that?”. The question is could you have timed the entry or would you have placed 2 or 3 losing trades trying to get in, exhausting and frustrating yourself in the process?? We are looking for easeful, stress free entries that have a high probability of success. Subscribe to the tradingadviceblog.com RSS feed and make sure you don’t miss the next installment!]]> http://tradingadviceblog.com/trading_methods/profitable-cycle-trading-method-part-i/feed/ 0