New To Trading? Avoid These Mistakes!Starting out in trading is definitely an exciting experience but you must be very careful not to make these dangerous mistakes that most beginners make.
While there are many dangerous mistakes for forex newbies to make, I’ve highlighted the two that are subtle enough not to be noticed but can have a big influence on your trading career.
1. Undercapitalization
Insufficient initial capital is the first mistake by beginners, and it usually ends up killing them.
I’ve seen traders, including myself, blow their whole trading account during the first month or week.
Your trading capital is lost even before you have the time to properly learn to trade.
This is what usually happens to new traders:
They don’t have sufficient trading knowledge and experience.
They are not familiar with risk management principles.
They underestimate the risks involved in their setups, which leads to impulsive and often expensive execution.
Another habit I’ve seen among trading newbies is using tight stops on small lots and even smaller trading accounts.
Using small trading lots is not a death knell for newbies’ accounts but using small and tight stops might be.
By using short and tight stops, you increase your chances that the stops will be triggered more frequently and your total loss will consist of many small losses.
Your trading account should be as large as possible in order to correspond with market conditions and provide the necessary flexibility in making trade decisions. Position size matters, too!
Like any business, you have to make sure you are adequately funded. Don’t try to lower risk by only depositing a portion of your available trading capital.
Fund yourself right but use proper money and risk management!
2. Overtrading
Overtrading is a process of buying and selling Forex pairs, stocks, or other securities excessively. It involves trading all-day without stopping and eventually, making ineffective decisions that lead to financial ruin.
Considering the typical market activity, it’s easy to lose half or even all your trading capital with this. This problem is sometimes directly connected to boredom, the thrill of making money, or lack of education and guidance.
Your trading capital is used to earn money. You should treat each dollar like a newborn baby.
Your first and foremost responsibility is to protect it. If you lose it, you have less to help you earn money.
Have you ever made any of these mistakes? Please share your experience in the comments below. I’m sure we’d all be interested in possibly learning from each other.
What additional advice would you give to a newbie trader?
Psychology
📌Position Sizing AND Stress CurveTry to find where your current stress level is on the diagram.
If you are a trader and already have taken position , how much is your position size % ? Do you think there is a correlation between your stress level and your current position size , then subsequently your performance ?
If you are in red level, now is a good time to seek some serious change. Trading in itself is a very stressful job, especially when we are not proficient in the psychology of trading and do not pay much attention to the important rules of risk and capital management. maybe Slipping only one 1% of these rules has terrible consequences for us.
WHAT IS STRESS (in general)?
Everyone experiences stress at different points in their life, and in small doses it is essential to motivate us. Too much stress, though, can be overwhelming and leave us burnt-out, filled with anxiety or anger, and unable to act. Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand. In short bursts, stress can be positive, such as when it helps you avoid danger or meet a deadline
Stress causes wear and tear of our bodies due to demands made by our life. The Public Health Services estimate that there are one million premature deaths in America each year. In this, 75% of the people were suffering from stress-related disorders. Americans are suffering from various problems. The number of Americans suffering is high in number. The various problems are:
30 million blood vessel diseases
1 million heart attacks
8 million cases of ulcers
12 million cases of alcoholism
WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?
Problem stress can manifest in many different ways:
wanting to relax but being unable to let go
feeling prolonged anxiety or worry
feeling depressed and unmotivated
sleep problems
increased use of alcohol / drugs to self-medicate
Stress can also cause a variety of physical symptoms:
change in appetite
tightness and pain in shoulders, neck and back
increased use of alcohol / drugs to self medicate
digestive problems
autoimmune problems (eczema, arthritis, ulcers)
Trading-Specific Stresses:
In the above paragraphs, we have seen the different stress subsequences in our social life. But there are also many stressful situations in trading that traders perceive.
Trading is inherently a job full of anticipated and unforeseen risks. .Each of which can cause stress on the trader and affect his performance!
Even Being idle and not doing anything can also be stressful. The fact that you could make money if you were present in the market is itself very stressful. You can watch your position double overnight sometimes if you don’t do anything. Similarly, you may sit on a losing trade while it goes down in value. This loss situation is stressful, which is a result of doing nothing.
As a trader ,we trade the risk to make money , it sounds very exiting and enjoying when we can control our risk and profit ! there is a tiny distinction and span between successful traders and unsuccessful traders ! When they can manage their position size and risk/reward in such a way that they can have the most profit and the least loss with maximum performance.
abnormal Stress limits our ability to handle a large amount of information in trading. Which is why we are not successful most of the times. For some traders who use to trade with big position size( more than1%- 5% of their total net) , stress is equivalent to losing. If they suffer a lose In these cases, because a large amount of position is involved and it is difficult to control it can be the Biggest in the speculative loss, which is a trading-specific stress. Since losses are unacceptable for many, they tend not to close their position in the hope of recovering their losses , so their losses will get bigger and bigger . The psychological impact of a large loss upon an average trader can be devastating, because Daniel Kahneman in the book of Thinking, Fast and Slow by , he says that for human- being the impact of any loss is bigger than impact of equivalent profit !
-In a pessimistic scenario ,Suppose you open an average of 10 positions a day, and if all your positions are closed at a loss
>>With a risk of 1% per trade; You do not lose about 10% at the end of the day
>>But with 5% per trade, you lose more than 37% at the end of the day
>>And with 10%,you lose more than 60% of whole capital after 10 unsuccessful trade per day . So in the same proportion; Size position can greatly affect our stress level and disrupt our performance!
In this situations, our brain can no longer make any right decisions and emotions overwhelm us especially when we are at a loss, and then the likelihood of committing human error is greatly increased.
Conclusion
So in this article, we can figure out what can greatly affect our stress in trading is the amount of volume in a trade especialy in perpetual future markets ,
Why does a trader increase the position size with thoughtless, recklessness and carelessness, maybe it is due to ignorance or maybe it is high self-confidence.
Anyway, if one can 100% predict the future trend of a trade, one might be able to earn hundreds or thousands or even millions of dollars in a short time with the Leverage X100, but the problem is that we are in the trading and financial markets with probabilities. We are dealing and no one can predict even 10% of the next moves with confidence. So It's so important to control the exact amount of your risk ,loss and possible profit in each trade by choosing the right amount for position size and then the risk /reward ratio.
Every person reacts to stressful events differently. What might be stressful for one person might not be stressful for another one or maybe a pleasurable game . All these together produce fear and anxiety in people.
The purpose of this article is not to let you know various types of stresses in trading , It was more about the stress of position size in particular and how it can affect your trading style.
But the result being in high stress level for all is loss in trading. You can at least now realize how dominating stress can be. In coming articles, we will help you protect from its effects.
You can self-evaluate yourself on parameters like stress susceptibility, stress exposure and stress protection.
In general, we will try to reduce general stress and trading specific stress. Later we will also discuss stress prevention techniques, relaxation procedures, and how not to allow stress to affect your trading performance.
(The reason that inspired me to write this article was mostly because of a friend who is a trader and he had invested in Luna and was severely bankrupt and now more than his financial problems he is struggling with a lot mental and psychological problems , and was asked me for help.
Maybe it was his bad luck but his problem was when He was optimistic for a immediate recovery after any Luna's downfall , he traded in a large position and with every further reduction he bought again at a lower level in the hope of a return to compensate, but we all saw how far Luna decreased . although this strategy( DCA ) may work well sometimes , but if he had considered the position size and risk measurement , he didn't lose more than 200k overnight.)
Source: lifehack.org- wetalktrade.com- phil-hills.com
Three pillars of trading success 📈💲It's time for my mid week educational post.
Today I want to talk about the three pillars needed by all traders for success in the markets.
This isn't just the forex market either this applies to trading all financial markets.
Be it forex, crypto or stocks, so lets get into the the three pillars of success.
PILLAR NUMER ONE- STRATEGY
You MUST have an edge before entering the markets.
When will you enter the market?
When will you close?
What % per trade will you risk?
What pairs will you trade?
What timeframes will you trade?
If you don't have any answers to the above you are entering the markets blind and it will end in tears.
In trading, edge is your ability to select trades that perform better than random.
You can think of edge as the process used to generate and execute entry and exit signals.
Do not enter the markets until you are working a strategy with a proven edge.
The stronger your edge, the more profitable you’ll be.
PILLAR NUMBER TWO- RISK MANAGEMENT
We can't avoid the white elephant in the room on average 80% of trader lose money or fail in the markets.
Some say its even more and you will become one of the stats if risk management isn't applied to your trading.
Some of the reasons losses like these exist in trading is down to the fact that aspiring traders don’t put any thought into their risk management tolerance.
We only ever see the upside when we start out and many never do anything to protect themselves from potential losses.
If you never made any money as a trader before or entered the markets before ask yourself the question below before starting out.
How much money am I comfortable losing?
Your first priority with trading is to stay in the game
So manage your risk per trade and total risk at anyone time.
Understand probability and ensure you are comfortable with your maximum exposure at any one time.
Understand the maximal draw down in your testing when finding your edge.
That way it will help you see what a potential losing run you could experience.
PILLAR NUMBER THREE- TRADING PSYCHOLOGY
We need good trading psychology to keep a balanced mind whilst trading, this stops your emotions leading the trade.
The trade outcome cannot be controlled and you MUST detah yourself from each trade outcome.
You will know when your trading emotions are nailed on when you do not 'FEEL ' anything when trading.
If you have 'emtions' with your trades or when trading simply reduce your risk further.
Two emotions that need particular attention are GREED and FEAR.
You need discipline in controlling these two emotions or you are going to end up making losses as a trader.
We all been there we make a few profits confidence kicks in and then greed before you know it your in whole world of pain.
We all be there at some point with fear to and not executing trades due to a fear being in our trading game say from a poor run of form.
Emotions will always be there we are emotional beings, but they will need controlling in order for you to be a successful trader.
Practice developing the emotional control needed to trade successfully.
FINAL THOUHGHTS
Trading requires 100% commitment most see it as a hobby to start with but this can be costly hobby if commitment to trading is lacking.
The sole reason most get into trading is to make money. One purpose of a business is to make money.
Treat trading as a business at the end of the day it's your personal money that's on the line.
Every trader needs to have a disciplined approach to the markets. Following these three steps will help you.
In order to be a successful trader and run a profitable account, it is essential that you have these three pillars in your trading.
Thanks for taking the time to read my idea.
Darren 👍
Confirmation bias in trading, why 99% crowd drain deposits?A lot of material has been written on the topic of psychology in trading. Especially often you can stumble upon unpretentious articles on the Internet, where the author, like any self-respecting “psychoanalyst”, is trying to talk on the topic: “Why are deposits being drained”.
And everywhere, as if according to one learned pattern, they write about fear, about greed, about the fact that one should not sit out losses, one should allow profits to grow, one should put stop orders, observe risks, keep a diary, work according to the system and other banality, oh which everyone has heard.
Our idea is that in trading there can be only two options - either you know what you are doing and then just systematically work on your trading setups, or you don’t know and just play “guess the tune”. Unfortunately, most traders are bright representatives of the second category.
A typical beginner's decision-making scheme: open any instrument, choose a “convenient” timeframe, try to draw a line, throw in a couple of indicators, and then sit and carefully watch the price... Many people call this self-hypnosis “market analysis”. And then something happens - the price goes down sharply and we begin to "see" the entry point for the purchase - now the price will return, it always rolls back. Click on BUY, choose a fatter volume in order to earn more - the deal is open. We sit, tremble, wait for the price to rise and... oh my God, the market gives us 2 points of profit! We cut profit immediately. We repeat this operation N times, and when the market does not give immediate profit, we average it by the same volume.
The account sometimes goes into a small drawdown, but this is not terrible, in most cases the “system” works like a Swiss watch. Having calculated the profit, we already imagine ourselves as millionaires and market gurus. But suddenly the moment comes when the system gives a small failure - we see a drawdown of half an account, the price continues to fall down ... What to do? We go to analytical sites, feverishly read reviews, especially lingering on those that say that the market is oversold, somewhere near a strong level, we are waiting for a reversal. Having calmed down a bit, we look at the sentiment and see that 85% of traders are also buying ... phew, the majority cannot be wrong!
After reading the analytics, looking at the sentiment, we return to the chart. Looking at it from a different angle, we make an expert opinion - no, it definitely won’t go lower, now let’s turn around. We add to the rest of the margin and, with bated breath, look at the monitor. And then, unfortunately, the price stubbornly ignores analysts, the market goes further down, and our trades are closed by stop loss. There is no limit to disappointment, how is it, everyone predicted a reversal, and the chart is moving further along the trend!
This is the so-called confirmation bias. When we act not according to a pre-arranged plan, but for good luck, we are looking for confirmation of our innocence in every possible way and completely ignore the opposite information.
From this, the main conclusion is - if you are not sure, do not play! We need to be open to the perception of all the information available, and not just the one that “suits” us. Only a systematic approach can defeat cognitive distortions!
How to save your nerves and make trading enjoyable?!How to save your nerves and make trading enjoyable?!
What to do if you have already decided to embark on the path of trading, but are facing psychological problems. First of all, let's identify these complexities and reiterate them:
1. Fear of entering a position. Even when the formation being traded is familiar to you, and the entry seems obvious, you look at the candle going up, but you still cannot force yourself to press the BUY / SELL button. The market goes in the expected direction. The mood is spoiled today.
2. Fear of being in a deal. You made an entry according to the trading system, provided for all the nuances, placed a stop order, but the sensations of a possible loss of money are so unpleasant that they make you drop everything, deviate from the plan and, in the end, close the deal.
3. Bad mood, irritability from a deal closed in the negative. You skillfully entered the position, checked the entry on the trading system, at first everything was in order, but catch the stop loss.
Familiar? So know. These emotional reactions are typical for those who have just begun to connect their path with trading. Medicines for these "diseases" are also known:
A. Formalize your trading system. If the deal matches it, enter. Why is it so easy? The fact is that in the long term, a high-quality trading system has a statistical advantage. And if you follow it correctly, then a positive result is almost guaranteed.
B. Start trading with those amounts and those risks that are insignificant for the deposit. But not a demo account. If you are responsible for small amounts, then the risks at first will be insignificant. But the emotions will be quite similar. Mistakes made at first will teach you to do the right thing. But the fee for this will be much lower than the merged deposit. Gradually increase the amount of risk as you grow in experience.
Q. Periods of negative values in a position will have to come to terms. If you are confident in your actions and the trade corresponds to the trading system, know how to wait and hold the position. This is the nature of this profession. After all, even if something goes wrong, then you are insured by a powerful medicine - a stop loss.
G. And, finally, the last. To get rid of psychological fears and trade easily - you need to trade. Psychological stability will come with experience and professionalism, when you get a feel for the trading system and get your hands on trades.
Good luck with your quality deals!
👁️🗨️ You See what YOU WANT to See 🧠Further to our idea:
:
In other, more simple words: We See What We Want to See
Obi-Wan Kenobi once advised Luke Skywalker to not trust his eyes, because “your eyes can deceive you.” Most of us can recall an instance from our own non-Jedi lives when these words rang true. Think of a time when your eyes saw what they wished to see: a person you were thinking about on a busy street, a heart-shaped pebble you were looking for on the beach.
This phenomenon, called motivated perception, has been explored in psychological research for decades. Indeed, the world as we conceive it in our awareness is not exactly an accurate representation of what it truly is. Our perception is often biased, selective, and malleable.
Even our desires can affect what we see by impacting the way we process visual information.
IN TRADING:
We see what we want to see. You guys can see a million different ideas but your eye is just a gateway to the brain and that's where the problems start:
You will See what YOU WANT to see..and you will act accordingly.
Will make a small video to elaborate on this with some tips on how you can protect yourselves from your own EYES!
One Love,
the FXSHRINK
👁️🗨️Watch the video, i explain in the most simple way how you can stop letting your eyes (and brain basically) fool you 🧠
FOMO - Analysis from a Trading PsychologistFOMO.
Fear of Missing Out.
I can feel FOMO’s omnipresence in the trading world right now. We have seen some large career changing moves in Commodities & Futures as of late. Extend the lookback time a few years and the Cryptocurrency universe is surely included.
I decided to turn to my favorite trading psychologists, Brett Steenbarger,PhD. Brett has been in the trading game since the late 1970’s and his Nov 21’ speech on Trading FOMO piqued my interest. Below is a summary of what I took away from it, and some preventative ailments attributed to Brett’s psychological evidence-based outcomes.
FOMO is a P&L Killer! At its core FOMO is a fear. The problem is not that we missed the trade, it’s that our brains perceive that missed trade as a threat to our future, our success, our reputation. When humans are afraid of something, or see a threat, it produces anxiety. This fear takes blood away from the part of the brain where higher level thinking takes place and sends it to the part that impulsive thinking lives. There WILL be poor decision making under the influence of anxiety. The key to solving this issue is to take the threat out of the situation.
Solutions:
Taking a break from the screen is healthy but it is not a long-term fix. Brett explains how to train in exposure therapy (His presentation explains this in greater depth.) Slow breathing and visualization are more adept at battling FOMO. If you can visualize a calming place or situation and pair it with that fear, daily practice and dedication will prevent blood flow to the impulse zone. Gradually, when FOMO comes around, you will experience feelings of safety. Combined with expanding your time of reference, understanding, and acknowledging FOMO will make those events look like potholes on a long highway.
Missing a trade is unfortunate, but will it end my career? No. Will buying at the top, and then being so irate that I add to a losing trade and forgo stop orders end my career? It might. Will I be thinking clearly on my next trade with a fresh mistake permeating my thoughts? No.
The best motivation to avoid FOMO is to develop emotional hate towards the negative consequences of it. In the fullness of time, the desire to avoid negative outcomes becomes self-reinforcing with repetition and therefore cements as an internal priority. This works across the board in other life scenarios as well.
Tapping into other motivations besides P&L is one that really hit home with me as well. Brett dives into the desire to learn and grow as a greater motivator than just P&L alone. This addition will create a dual purpose to each trade. You are diversifying your outcome! If you come away from a trade with a negative P&L, but with a positive learning experience, you are building your Learning Capital. With time under this premise, your Learning Capital will be indistinguishable from your monetary statement.
Instead of tying your value as a trader strictly to your P&L, tie your value to your consistency and risk management. The magnitude of your P&L is nothing without consistency. Risk management begets larger positions, lower drawdowns, and an overall better quality of work life.
A Day comes with myriad experiences. Create a diversified life with people and activities that fulfill you outside of trading and your trading will improve. Reminding yourself daily of this is important.
Tying all of this together is the practice of keeping a daily ABCD Journal.
A - Activating Event – What got you upset? - Missing the trade in this case.
B - Beliefs about the event – Little voice in your head – Why is this upsetting to you? “Other people are getting ahead of me, I’m not as good as they are”
C - Consequences from the event – How does negative thinking affect your subsequent trading? I’m so upset about missing the opportunity I go ahead and miss the next one!
Becoming proficient in ABC will allow you to recognize the triggering event in real time. You begin to identify the negative beliefs and become a pro at understanding the magnitude of the consequences. You can change the pattern of your behavior because the consequences are so front and center.
D - Disputation- You are talking back at that negative thinking. How would you talk to someone you care about who is in that situation? Mentoring a teammate that missed a big play involves constructively lifting them up and helping them learn from it with a comforting tone. You aren’t going to beat them up.
I welcome all feedback and am also here if you want to chat about a particular experience. Happy Trading!
-Paul Wankmueller, CMT
Blue Line Futures Director of Content & Education
4️⃣ Trading habits that have to go 👋We've all done it.
At some point in your trading journeys bad habits set in.
Here is my four trading habits you've got to kick in order to stay profitable.
1. Overtrading
We all been there with this one.
We think we have to be in the market all the time.
We don't and its okay to be flat at times.
No strategy should have excessive trade volume.
More time in the markets the more chance of catching a cold.
Overtrading can happen when we also start revenge trading.
You've caught some losses and your trying to get it all back.
Don't overtrading combined with revenge trading is a no no. Take a break.
Trading with no strategy or system
Should never be in the markets with out a plan or system.
More importantly no trader should be entering markets with out a proven edge.
Back test and forward test your strategy and make sure you are entering markets with a proven plan.
Psychology wise it makes trading so much easier to deal with.
No plan will lead to nothing but stress and losses.
No stop loss
Trading with no stop loss is biggest sin of all.
It's just not worth risking huge amounts of your trading capital on the line.
One big crazy move in this uncertain world could do damage.
Plus how can you develop a proven plan if stop loss is not included.
Also moving your stop loss should not be part of your trading.
As you've just altered any strategy being trading into the unknown category.
No risk management
So I've mentioned stop loss but that is only one element of risk management and it doesn't stop there.
Risk management includes many aspects you'll need to consider.
That includes position sizing relative to your capital size.
The psychology behind losing runs and how they are factored into your trading plan.
Work to set and proven trading rules as part of your risk management.
Be sure not to add to losing positions.
Know when you are wrong and move on to the next.
Failure to follow risk management means you will essentially be gambling.
Be realistic in expected returns is a big factor in risk management.
Sticking to all of the above and not allowing these habits to enter your trading will ensure you keep that trading account growing.
Thanks for taking the time to read my idea.
Darren 👍
LET'S GET REAL: Fear of Losing! Hey Traders,
Most traders battle it. I myself had to progress past this in order to achieve consistent returns trading the markets. It is seen as one of the hardest challenges to pass in terms of emotional discipline. Understanding yourself better so you can make decisions in a calm, composed and consistent manner is crucial to success.
Today I wanted to touch on that. I wanted to talk about the fear of losing what spurred from my fear of losing, how I progressed through it (it still creeps in from time to time). Hopefully you can take from my story and how it improved your trading or how it can help you progress past that fear of losing.
If anyone has any questions or maybe some other stories in the way they progressed through a fear of losing or a fear of being a failure, please feel free to share in the comments and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Have a fantastic trading week!
Educational Post about Defining zones : Read the CaptionIf you have been led to believe that the prices move depending on the number of buyers and the number of sellers; if the number of buyers is greater than the number of sellers, prices go up, & if the number of sellers is greater than the number of buyers, prices go down. Then you would be wrong...
The number of sellers or buyers is not what moves the price. What if one seller is doing all the selling to thousands of buyers? The price will go down. The answer to our question is that it is the degree of aggression of the buyers or the sellers and the volume of order-flow they submit is what moves the price. That's what creates the imbalance between buyers and sellers. Your goal as a trader is not to try to catch tops and bottoms that would be absolutely crazy. Your goal as a trader is to find suboptimal zones or in other word good deals.
What is a Optimal Zone?
A zone in which price has already a trend defined by a rally or drop. Most of the time it is a breakout and pullback structure close to a very strong supply and demand level. Most important is that:
Buy optimal zones are close to a macro buy zone In other words price is cheap = good deal to buy.
Sell optimal zones are close to a macro sell zone. In other words price is expensive= good deal to sell.
What is a Sub-optimal Zone?
Buy sub-optimal zones are close to a macro sell zone In other words price is expensive = bad deal to buy.
Sell sub-optimal zones are close to a macro buy zone. In other words price is cheap= bad deal to sell.
please if you find this idea interesting make sure to follow this profile and drop your comment and like :) thanks family! I wait your comments
Don’t bite the bait. Time is money. This is a case of comparative advantage. Which means the less time it takes the coin to produce oil or energy, maybe even transactions. All will go down and then pop back up, much like a sinking ship.
Within the next 5 hours, an entry point will be present. It’s time to glean for Q2, because after this the prices will hit an all time high and then go back down until July. A lot will assume now is too soon, but yesterdays price isn’t todays price.
However, the cup and handle has presented its self. Now the next sign of equilibrium the price will make will be like a Nike check. Or a Wolfe wave. The eagle has left the nest.
2. API CRUDE OIL U.S.: anything under 5 is a sink. Forecast is in the -1.0 range.
TOTAL VEHICLE CAR SALES: Elon and Twitter
Don’t hire the bait just yet.
Four trading fears you will have to overcome 😱The stats for retail traders are not pretty.
It's no secret around 80% of all retails traders lose money.
The reason most fail is the four fears not being overcome.
Fear of being wrong!
We are emotional creatures and lets be honest none of us like being wrong.
This trait shows in some more than others but there is no place in trading for this trait.
It's impossible to 100% right all the time it's not even possible being 90% or 80% right all the time.
Once the reality sets in your not going to be right all the time we then as traders have fear of being wrong when seeking our trades or strategies.
Fear of losing money
We all suffer this fear at some point.
What we need to understand is all accounts suffer periods of drawdown.
I firmly believe the 80% of all retail traders stat is so high due to people losing money and quitting.
The reason money is lost is due to poor strategy or no strategy.
Once in a whole the fear of losing more will push people away from trading.
Fear of missing out
It's probably the fear of missing out that led you here in the first place.
You see all the lambo's on social media and the life style and fear of missing out is already in play.
Then comes seeing what everyone else has profit wise.
Then comes paying attention to everyone else and full blown FOMO instead of sticking to your own game.
Fear of leaving money on the table.
No better feeling than seeing your trades run in profit.
The screen is lit up blue and your loving it.
But now comes the fear of letting them trades play out.
Your leaving money on the table and it's now a fear you'll lose that money.
It's one of the biggest mistakes a trader makes!
Cutting winning trades to soon and letting losers run for to long.
So how to overcome these fears?
There's many elements to overcoming the four fears .
There's so may and then even sub elements of those.
Hence why this idea had the two brainstorm bubbles on the chart of what fears haunt us as traders.
Followed by the bubble of all the thoughts you need to take in to consideration as a trader.
It's imperative as traders we build a robust tested plan.
Sticking to your own plan and lane is crucial.
Just avoid others that blur your plan.
Losses are a part of trading quicker you accept this as a cost of business quicker that fear of losing money disappears.
There is many more on the chart drawing but quicker these behaviours are followed as a trader the quicker the four fears will disappear.
Here's to a good rest of the week🥂
Thanks for looking at my Idea
Darren 👍
How to win over greed?🎃1. Greed is the problem
Many beginners and even experienced traders face greed. It's a feeling that makes you believe in your superiority over the market:
• Opening a lot of trades, breaking risk management
• Continuing to trade after incurring a loss
• Refusing to take profits, hoping to earn more
• Averaging losing trades, because everything is about to change.
• Believing in the reliability of your pattern, although no pattern or indicator always works out 100%.
2. Why does greed take over?
We all have our own desires and goals. Society teaches us that we shouldn't deny ourselves comfort. This leads the vast majority to take out loans for new clothes, iPhones, Cars.. This is how people get used to greed's superiority and put it before discipline, getting accustomed to being able to live beyond their means.
What do you think happens to such people when they come into trading?
God forbid, such a person immediately learns about futures, then he will lose everything in a month at most. This is exactly the 95% who lose money in the market.
They suddenly see an opportunity to make a million out of $10,000 in a month, and, inspired by the stories of dogecoin millionaires from YouTube and Reddit, start to long bitcoin with x125 leverage.
There is another type. They do not rush to make money, they act more cautiously. They set themselves up right away that "trading is a long game and there is no hurry". They develop steadily and study pattern after pattern. However, their game pays off very slowly, and under the influence of their expertise they allow themselves more and more "experiments". They are like King Theoden from Lord of the Rings, who was slowly losing his mind under the watchful eye of Wormtongue.
3. How do you get around greed and start using it to your advantage?
Change your perspective. Instead of being greedy for money, become greedy for your professional growth . Ironically, if you stop focusing on money, they will come.
Create a journal and start analyzing your trades:
• What were your reasons for entering?
• Did you need to open that trade or was it suboptimal?
• Did you act under the influence of emotions, and if so, which one and why?
Develop, grow, and reward yourself when you get better, even if your trading results are unchanged. Your brain needs to get used to the fact that the most important thing now is discipline and small improvements. Step by step, you will become a profitable trader and, when you do, withdraw your honestly earned profits into fiat to reward yourself for your fortitude and persistence. You will succeed, because unlike all casino players, you will have the backbone and endurance!
Good luck on your journey! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments, I always check and answer them.
Leave a like so you can enjoy the trader psychology posts in the future as well, and thanks for reading to the end. You are the best!
Sunday afternoon backtesting sessionToday I am backtesting trades on EURUSD to further improve my strategy and my ability to apply my strategy. It is important to keep your tools, and mind, sharp so that you can execute your trades in a live market that has major market players, news events, volatility, liquidity with experienced traders with high end technology with a high end education trading these markets. This means you must find your edge and constantly practice it to refine it, improve it, and remember it anywhere, any place, any time.
The myth of risk management - Hack it :) I speak to a lot of traders, new and veteran.
It's surprising to see how so many are not sure how risk is calculated and what the exposure really means in terms of P&L.
This obviously is a major block in the road on the way to gaining confidence necessary to avoid losses.
So let's break it down -
*P&L is calculated by lot size * movement.
Example: If you have 100 ounces of Gold (1 lot) - That's $100 in P&L (Profit/loss) for each $1 Gold moves in value, so if the price 1890 and you are buying 1 lot , price moves by $5 higher - That's a $500 profit ($100*$) , same thing in reverse, if it would drop by $5 that's a negative of -$500 in open P&L.
Leverage decides what you are technically able to open in terms of margin used.
So if your leverage on Gold is 1:100 - The value of a 1 lot trade is the price of Gold multiplied by the amount of ounces , so let's say 1890*100 = $189,000 value trade, but your leverage is 1:100, so you would only need $1,890 of used margin (189,000:100) to open the trade.
But if you have 1:20 as leverage, you would need 5 times more used margin to open the trade.
So a common misconception is that your risk is your leverage.
That's not true.
Your risk is your lot size.
But if you have very high leverage , than you can open very high lot size with a small account - Which is extremely dangerous and not advised.
So what does an experienced , smart trader do? No matter what his leverage is, he understands the short-term and the long-term range of movement, and opens a lot size that fits the size of his account considering the range of movement.
If the account size is $100,000 , and you are buying 1 lot of Gold:
The weekly range is 1840-2,000 , the short-term range is 1880-1910 - Price is 1890
So the exposure is ~$1,000 in the short-term (1%) back to the short-term support 1880 , compared to $2,000 on the short-term resistance (2%) of 1910.
The long-term exposure is to 1840, meaning a $5,000 exposure 5% ($100*$50) from 1890 - but 2,000 is the top of the weekly range, meaning - $110 up ($110*100) = $11,000 (11%).
So didn't really matter what the leverage is 1:20 or 1:100, what matters here is the range and the lot size.
Thank you for reading!
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Why Less Trading Gives Better Results!Hey hey traders!
We're coming to you with a nice and short video on why trading less is actually better for you, atleast based on our experience!
Being a full time day trader I found it hard to actually be at my best and trade all day long... at the end of the day trading is a means to an end, its only purpose is for you to exchange your knowledge, effort and focus for money, yet you do not need to sit there all day to do that, 60mins of focus is better than a whole day of nothing.
Try what we preach for the rest of the week and you'll be amazed at your performance!
Good luck trading!
How to distinguish a fake guru from a real professional💯How to distinguish an online conman from a real professional
In 2016-17 there was a boom in the info business, and this field grew so fast and unregulated that it opened the door for many scammers. And, unfortunately, many newcomers are caught by them and lose money.
After all, scammers are not limited to the truth and can draw the sweetest pictures in the head of their potential victims.
And what industry attracts these online conmen the most? Of course, our favorite crypto. It is so attractive because it has the following properties:
• No punishment for fraud
• The ability to promise endless profits
• The unawareness of the masses about its nature
Last year, crypto enthusiasts lost more than $14 billion to fraudulent schemes. This is more than the annual budget of Serbia 🇷🇸, Nigeria 🇳🇬, and 3 times more than Georgia 🇬🇪.
So that you don't lose your hard-earned money, I have prepared for you a simple list of how to distinguish a pseudo-expert from a real pro:
The presence of real statistics. And not for one month, but at least six months. When giga traders sell you a VIP pass to a super-mega-secret group and show you how they made fifty X's by longing doge, ask for real statistics with all trades, or let them return under the rock from which they crawled out.
Talks not only about the victories, but also about his defeats, analyzing mistakes and showing opportunities for growth. Don’t confuse it with a heartbreaking story to get attention.
Never saying something will happen with 100% probability. No one is Nostradamus, and if your favorite expert is yelling about having a crystal ball and going to Mount Sinai at night to ask God if the bitcoin will grow, then I have bad news for you.
Not showing off. For a successful pro, earning thousands of dollars in trading is the norm, he's used to it. He does not need to prove to everyone that he is worth something, showing his park with Lamborghini, he knows himself that he is cool.
Having a huge number of real reviews. He doesn't hide the bad ones and communicate with his dissatisfied audience, because he knows that the truth is on his side and he is responsible for his actions.
Do you think this post would be helpful to a newcomer? If so, click the like so more newbies will see it trending and I can boast to my mom)
Anything to add? Have you ever faced scammers? Tell us about your situation in the comments
FOMO - Analysis from a Trading Psychologist FOMO.
Fear of Missing Out. We have all heard this phrase. It could pertain to that VERY LAST concert of your favorite band in the middle of the week and coming late to work the next day. Scrolling through Instagram and making a split-second purchase that never works out. We get the idea.
I can feel FOMO’s omnipresence in the trading world right now. We have seen some large career changing moves in commodities as of late. Extend the lookback time a few years and we could probably open a FOMO Crypto clinic, complete with padded rooms. Why didn’t I catch that move in Euro Power? I can’t just sit here and watch my neighbor get rich; I missed the only opportunity to make money!
Well, Crude Oil, Gold and Wheat all taught traders suffering from FOMO a healthy lesson these past few weeks. Or are they doomed to repeat it again? Traders rarely want to admit weakness, but it’s essential to becoming profitable. Hi. My name is Paul Wankmueller, and sometimes I suffer from FOMO.
I decided to turn to my favorite trading psychologists, Brett Steenbarger, PhD. Brett has been in the trading game since the late 1970’s and his Nov 21’ speech on Trading Fomo piqued my interest. Below is a summary of what I took away from it, and some preventative ailments attributed to Brett’s psychological evidence-based outcomes.
FOMO is a PnL Killer! At its core FOMO is a fear. The problem is not that we missed the trade, it’s that our brains perceive that missed trade as a threat to our future, our success, our reputation. When humans are afraid of something, or see a threat, it produces anxiety. This fear takes blood away from the part of the brain where higher level thinking takes place and sends it to the part that impulsive thinking lives. There WILL be poor decision making under the influence of anxiety. The key to solving this issue is to take the threat out of the situation.
Solutions:
Taking a break from the screen is healthy but it is not a long-term fix. Brett explains how to train in exposure therapy (His presentation explains this in greater depth.) Slow breathing and visualization are more adept at battling FOMO. If you can visualize a calming place or situation and pair it with that fear, daily practice and dedication will prevent blood flow to the impulse zone. Gradually, when FOMO comes around, you will experience feelings of safety. Combined with expanding your time of reference, understanding, and acknowledging FOMO will make those events look like potholes on a long highway.
Missing a trade is a bummer, but is that going to end my career? No. Will buying at the top, and then being so irate that I add to a losing trade and forgo stop orders end my career? It might. Will I be thinking clearly on my next trade with a fresh mistake permeating my thoughts? Nope. The best motivation to avoid FOMO is to develop emotional hate towards the negative consequences of it. In the fullness of time, the desire to avoid negative outcomes becomes self-reinforcing with repetition and therefore cements as an internal priority. This works across the board in other life scenarios as well.
Tapping into other motivations besides PnL is one that really hit home with me as well. Brett dives into the desire to learn and grow as a greater motivator than just PnL alone. This addition will create a dual purpose to each trade. You are diversifying your outcome! If you come away from a trade with a negative PnL, but with a positive learning experience, you are building your LC (Learning Capital). With time under this premise, your LC will be indistinguishable from your monetary statement.
Instead of tying your value as a trader strictly to your PnL, tie your value to your consistency and risk management. The magnitude of your PnL is nothing without consistency. Risk management begets larger positions, lower drawdowns, and an overall better quality of work life.
A day comes with myriad experiences. Maybe you woke up next to the love of your life, saw your kids off to school, got an extra good boy wag of the tail from the pup, the list goes on. Create a diversified life with people and activities that fulfill you outside of trading and your trading will improve. Reminding yourself daily of this is important.
Tying all of this together is the practice of keeping a daily ABCD Journal.
A- Activating Event – What got you upset? - Missing the trade in this case.
B- Beliefs about the event – Little voice in your head – Why is this upsetting to you? “Other people are getting ahead of me, I’m not as good as they are”
C- Consequences from the event – How does negative thinking affect your subsequent trading? I’m so upset about missing the opportunity I go ahead and miss the next one!
Becoming proficient in ABC will allow you to recognize the triggering event in real time. You begin to identify the negative beliefs and become a pro at understanding the magnitude of the consequences. You can change the pattern of your behavior because the consequences are so front and center.
D- [Disputation- You are talking back at that negative thinking. How would you talk to someone you care about who is in that situation? Mentoring a teammate that missed a big play involves constructively lifting them up and helping them learn from it with a comforting tone. You aren’t going to beat them up.
I welcome all feedback and am also here if you want to chat about a particular experience. Happy Trading!
-Paul Wankmueller, CMT
Trader comfort zone journey 🥴➡️😊Let's end the week on a thoughtful note.
On the chart is a visual I see the other day that I feel relates to trading massively.
It's called the comfort zone map.
This can be applied to many situations in a person's life as a generic visual map.
But I really do think it represents the journey every trader must take in order to become successful.
COMFORT ZONE
It's where we all start any journey
Sat in the comfort zone not wanting to leave as we dont want to fail or get hurt.
Some will stay in this zone forever but will never progress.
If you are on TradingView looking at this idea then chances are leaving this zone is already being explored.
We all like this zone put you have to take the leap of faith in order to progress.
As traders we all have to leave our comfort zone in order to start our trading journey.
FEAR ZONE
This is the worse zone for any human on any sort of journey but more so for traders.
Things are really uncomfortable in this zone and pain will be felt.
Mistakes will made, as traders money well be lost but key bit is learn from those mistakes.
Plenty of people will turn their backs at this point and jump back into the comfort zone.
Those who carry on trying to achieve will have other people questioning what are they doing.
Don't let opinions sway you and find a way to find your feet in this zone.
You will lack knowledge, You will lack skills at the start but traction comes with hard work and persistence.
LEARNING ZONE
The traction gained and hurdles overcome in the fear zone leads you to this zone.
Once in this zone it's now all in the eye of the beholder.
This is now the new comfort zone but don't drop the ball you can end up dropping back in this zone.
Now's the time in this zone to really kick on but it can take time.
You are now laying the foundations of an exciting future.
Take the base knowledge gained and gain even more in this zone.
Problems are no longer holding you back as you are able to overcome.
You enjoy the challenges and tackle them head on while still learning.
Putting the time in here takes you to the next step but also stands you in good stead for rest of lives hurdles.
GROWTH ZONE
This where the fruits of your labour are felt but not just in trading profits.
Mindset and contentment are on point.
Due to the above continued learning never stops.
Objectives are now smashed.
Purpose and fresh identic is now found within yourself.
Continued Personal growth as well as financial growth is now a element of life.
In this zone the end game is infinite but shouldn't be taken for granted.
Hard work has got you here but don't get complacent.
Treat everyday as an opportunity to fulfil your life even more in many ways not just money.
You earnt the right to be in this zone so enjoy.
But be grateful in this zone and take nothing for granted.
Stay level headed and with the right mindset this becomes your new comfort zone to enjoy forever.
Enjoy the weekend folks and see you next week 👍
Darren✌️
The Dunning–Kruger effectAfter recently doing a review of my last 6 months of trading, I recognized that my portfolio value over this period looked very similar to the Dunning–Kruger effect curve. (a psychological phenomenon that suggests people are not always the best evaluators of their own performance). The theory is often applied to trading because most retail traders experience a similar effect.
After spending 3 months of a practice simulator, I deposited real funds into a trading platform. Within the first week I saw a 24% increase which was shortly followed by loosing half my account value in the coming months. I then decided to take two weeks out and reflect on my performance. It was in these two weeks where I stumbled across an article called "5 steps to becoming a trader" (which I have linked to this post). I came to realize that I was completely incompetent. I didn't follow my trading plans, I got caught up in emotions and I was almost gambling money away in the hopes of getting rich quick.
The harsh reality is trading is hard. After a total of 9 month, I have only just managed to see a net positive return. I have spent thousands of hours only to be outperformed by an Index fund. One article won't change your performance, but these are some things that I learnt which could get you closer to conscious competence:
1. Don't trade with emotions, trade with your plan
2. Keep your risk/reward >1.75
3. Never risk enough money to loose sleep (enter each trade as if you have already lost the money you placed)
4. Reflect on performance and learn from mistakes
5. You don't need to win lots, you just need a mathematical edge
As a trader gains more experience, they become increasingly confident and more likely to see positive returns.
Stay dedicated!!!
How to lose your deposit quickly? Easy to follow Step-By-Step🔥Why am I qualified enough to teach you this?
I lost 16 deposits and in 6 years I heard dozens of stories of people who lost their life savings in a couple of months by trading. I have personally tested many of these rules and confirmed that they work.
So what are we waiting for? Lets get it started!
1. Trade with maximum leverage
There is no need to trifle, the bigger leverage is, the greater your profit will be🤑
2. Don't use stop losses
SL’s are for the weak. You probably remember how many times your positions went in the right direction after you closed them by stop loss. Stop losses are evil🤮
3. Average losing positions
Everything is simple here - the more you average, the less you lose. That means you can keep going. Nothing ventured, nothing gained🥂
4. Use your last money and don’t be shy to borrow
The more money you put in, the more money you pull out. Since you are 100% sure that BTC will grow, take loans not only in banks, but also from shady organizations, do not look at interest - you will repay everything back in a month anyway, and your profit will cover any losses💵
5. Trade only when you have been fired from work, haven't slept all night, your girlfriend/wife has left, or you have quarreled with relatives
When everything is bad in your life, it is better to do what you do best - trading. Having earned a lot of money, you will not only be distracted from everyday problems, but also regain confidence and a smile on your face!😉
6. When you closed a losing position, immediately open a new one with double volume to recoup losses
You came into trading to win! So win and never admit defeat! You are Hercules and defeating everyone in the market - this is your 14th feat! No step back, only forward!✊
7. Prioritize Elon Musk's conspiracy theories and tweets over technical analysis
Do you already have the conviction that the Illuminati run the market and every time you open a position and the market goes in the opposite direction, the Illuminati move to harm you? If not, then quickly look at your lost trades. You did everything right, but you still lost money. Why is that? Just don't tell anyone...🤫
8. Believe that trading is luck and the odds are always 50/50
This makes it much easier to make decisions. If black has fallen out on the roulette wheel 2 times in a row, then the chances that red will fall out are much greater. Therefore, do not hesitate to go against the trend, probability theory is on your side 💪
9. Stop exercising your body and mind
You will need neither a healthy body nor a focused mind in trading. You only need your eyes to see “buy“ and “sell“ buttons, you don't need much intelligence for this. Being in the green zone? The green zone is a myth for suckers who engage in self-deception.😏
10. Quit your daily job
Since you already created an account on Binance a week ago, watched a couple of trading videos, sorry, I meant in-depth educational materials, and even have already made a couple of successful trades, then it's time to finally quit that boring job. The road to millions is open, it remains only to take the last step.🤩
11. Manage your friends money
Why getting rich alone? Take your friends and family with you. They will be grateful later.🙌
12. Don't look away from the screen until you've regained every last cent.
Winners don't walk away with losses. Make sure your deposit has at least doubled before ending a session.😎
13. Never fix profits. If it has grown a little, then it will grow more.
Do you remember how you closed the position when the coin grew by 5-10%, and then it rose another 200%? That’s what I’m talking about. Don't close too early, keep trades for the maximum profit.📈
14. Trade at night
If you don't have time, don't give up. There is always an opportunity to earn. Even after a hard day at work.🤜🤛
15. Analyze the market on a 5m timeframe and trade on the 1m.
Opportunities are always there - the main thing is to be open to them.🤞
I hope these tips will help you quickly drain your deposit down and return to a normal life. If you liked them or you are already using them, please click Like and leave a comment so that I understand that it is valuable to you and will continue to write educational materials in the future.✌️