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 👍
Risk Management
Risk management in tradingWhen trading on the stock exchange, you need to know at least the basics of risk management, but it is better to understand it professionally, because the main attribute of any transactions made in the financial markets is risk. Without competent, professional management, without risk management, it is impossible to stay in such markets for a long time. To be a successful trader, you must learn to assess risks, balance and reduce them. Only in this case, the capital will not only be saved, but also increased.
Fundamentals of risk management
To properly manage capital, you need to know about the following principles:
1. You should not invest even in the most tempting project more than half of the total capital.
Among financial experts, this principle is also called "don't put your eggs in one basket" or "diversification." That is, in order to successfully continue your activities in the financial market, it is best not to invest all your funds in only one undertaking. More than half of the money must be left for other projects and for the continuation of their work
2. Invest in one position no more than 10-15% of the total amount of funds you have.
Another advice from the category of diversification, which insures against ruin. He warns that one cannot invest a lot of one's funds at once, it is better to distribute them correctly and limit one's risks, and make the profit more stable.
3. The rate of risk in the transaction must not exceed 5% of the total amount of funds you have.
If you follow this principle, then the loss ratio of any trader will be less than 5% of the total capital. Depending on which market and which strategy is used to trade, the percentage of risk can be reduced to 1%.
4. There must be a balance between diversification and concentration.
While diversification is one of the most reliable risk management techniques for reducing risk, even its application must be measured. It is necessary to balance the diversification and concentration of funds. There is no need to turn your portfolio into a "stuffing" of investment instruments, you will only need to open positions in 5-7 groups of instruments. Before compiling a portfolio, it is necessary to determine the correlation between trading instruments. It may be zero, but it is preferred that it be negative. In this case, the future fall of one group of instruments will be compensated by the growth of other groups.
5. Place stop orders.
In order to avoid large losses if the price change is not in your favor, it is best to take care in advance and set Stop Loss. It makes the price fixed, which will allow the trader to close the position at this price. The way the Stop Loss will be set is influenced by market analysis, as well as the personal readiness and ability of the trader to make dangerous, risky, but profitable transactions.
When placing a Stop Loss, you need to correctly assess not only the totality of technical factors, but also the characteristics of personal qualities, in particular, your ability to take risks.
6. Determine the rate of return.
For any operation in the market, it is necessary to determine what the ratio of profit and loss will be. Such a forecast is necessary so that, in the event of undesirable phenomena on the market, the risks are balanced.
In the financial world, a good ratio is 3:1.
The simplest example: if a trader risks $100, then his profit from the transaction must be at least $300 (300:100 is the same as 3:1). If for some reason such a ratio cannot be achieved, then it is better to refuse the deal.
Managing Drawdowns - Do This When You're Underperforming!Hello Traders. It's been awhile since I last uploaded a workshop. Myself as a full-time trader, to be frank, the past 6 months have been tough for my personally. I've gone through some really bad drawdowns, mostly due to my external pressure that's causing me to have lower performance.
In today's topic, I am going to talk about "Drawdowns", which is not something people usually talk about. Social media, Youtube, all these platforms are made to make you 'feel bad'! People are constantly showing off their profits, but who'd willing to really open up to their drawdowns and bad trades?
Drawdowns are inevitable in trading, the only you can eliminate drawdown is to not take any trade/ risk. Make sense?
From my humble six years of trading experience, i realize most of the successful traders have one thing they are very good at - which is managing drawdowns and negative emotions. Think about it, we're all human, we're all a normal trader, why would some constantly achieving such a high performance while some constantly losing?
These are the four simple steps to help you in refining your drawdowns and hopefully get you out of it.
1. Understanding probabilities
- While we're in a drawdown (negativity), it's vital for us to take a step back and look at the numbers. Three things to read - trading plan, strategies data, market condition. If you're whatever you do is wrong, that's usually due your forcing trades during uncertain market environment/ condition, try to re-assess everything.
2. 3R Process (Review, Reflect, Revise)
- This is the most important process i've utilized for years to improve my trading consistency. Review your trading plan and all your journaling, then reflect what's the root of the problems, then find solutions around it. Remember to simplify things! By over-complicating your journaling, trading plan, or trading systems, really don't help things to be better.
3. Eliminate negativity
- Us, especially as a full-time trader, is common for us to blame ourself due to our bad decisions. But sometimes understand that no one wants to be in a drawdown, as it is all probability-based. Who want to lose money? But over the years, i found that the most successful traders out there have one very common personality - Confident.
- Be confident on yourself, that's the easiest element that allows you to execute trades consistently and fearlessly. Believe in your system, the drawdown is only temporary, you still got a long way to go. FInd a solution, fix it.
4. Take a step back - Re-evaluate
- When you're in a drawdown, most likely your rational behaviour and emotion have been negatively impact. So stop trying to force things, take the time you need to refresh your mind, re-set your mental state then come back stronger.
- By not giving yourself time to re-set your mental state, you're not just halting your performance, it could be self-sabotaging as well. Because by that means you're not applying the 3R process, certainly not fixing the problems too.
- Most of the losing streaks have one common losing pattern (that is hidden), so it is our accountability to find our the root of the problem, then frame a set of routine and action plan to solve it.
Hope this short workshop helps you a little bit.
Let me know in the comment section below what's your worst drawdown and how do you fix it!
Do not forget to like if you enjoy the content, and share with someone who'd enjoy reading this.
Calculate your 1% risk per Trading Account to identify 3:1 R:RHello traders:
Lately there are more and more newcomers in my community,
and some are not quite familiar with risk management, especially when it comes to calculating R:R based on 1% of your account size.
Risking 1%, simply means risking 1% of your total account size.
For example, $1000 account size, is $10 per risk at 1% of trading account
$100,000 account size, is $1,000 per risk at 1% of trading account
The goal is to forecast and plan out an entry that will potentially give you at least 3:1 RR per trade or more.
Meaning by risking 1%, $1000 of your $100,000 account, you should look to achieve a $3,000 profit or more, hence giving you 3:1 RR, or +3% profit.
There are many websites that help you to calculate your R:R and position size in relation to your account.
Utilise them to calculate exactly your LOT size position in relation to your SL amount so you have a proper risk management in place.
Any questions, comments or feedback welcome to let me know.
Thank you
Risk Management: When/How to move SL to BE and to profit in a running trade ?
Risk Management: How to filter trading opportunities if multiple setups are presenting entries:
Risk Management: 3 different entries on how to enter the impulsive phrase of price action
Risk Management: What Is Capital Partitioning ? How will it help you as a trader ?
Risk Management 101
Risk Management: How to set a Take Profit (TP) for your trades
Risk Management: How to Enter and set SL and TP for an impulse move in the market
Risk Management: How to scale in the impulsive phrase of the market condition?
Risk Management: Combine everything you learn to prevent blowing a trading account
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 👍
What Time-Frame Should You Trade?Hey Traders!
One of the reason new traders don't do as well as what they first perceived is sometimes they could be trading a multitude of different things in the wrong style. That doesn't suit the way they are attempting to attack the market, or even their personality.
Today I wanted to have a look into trading the different time frames, what's required? What are the pros and what the cons of each time frame? Now there's a million different ways to trade the financial markets. The time frame you're trading is one of the most important. I wanted to jump in and provide clarity for some of the newer traders that perhaps are trading the wrong market based on what they are actually trying to achieve. I see a lot of people coming into the market to earn profits (obviously) and they come in because they want time freedom, yet they all seem to gravitate towards the scalping one minute, 5 minute and 15 minute charts, which are not going to provide time freedom even when you are successful.
I understand the adrenaline pumping in the intraday setups and then it can help people have and feed that get rich quick feeling that gravitates so many people to the market. But it's time we take it seriously. Let's seriously dive into the pros and the cons and analyze what's actually going to benefit you as a trader moving forward.
INTRADAY
Intraday trading is definitely the most frequent out of all the traders that come into the Forex market. The Forex market advertises intraday trading a lot more because the commissions and spreads are extremely affordable compared to trading other markets. Intraday traders, also known as scalpers, trade the markets on the lower timeframes, usually between the one minute and 15 minute, and trades are held throughout a day session and usually closed by the end of the day. You usually see these traders have your typical eight or nine hour window in which they sit in front of the charts and trade.
There's plenty of pros to intraday trading the high frequency of trades, the great adrenaline pumping feeling, the more opportunities across a range of different markets, you hold no overnight risk and it's very easy to dodge fundamental news. You also less reliant on those one or two big winners to bring in your yearly profits.
In saying that, there's also plenty of cons. Transaction costs are much higher when you're scalping. You have to incorporate spreads and commissions can sometimes eat up your profits. Mentally an emotionally, it is an extremely difficult task. You have to be able to be disciplined enough to make quick reaction decisions with money and risk on the line. As mentioned above, unlike the other trading systems and timeframes, it does require quite a lot of time and concentration throughout a trading session, which is why if you're chasing time freedom, I wouldn't recommend intraday trading.
SWING
Swing trading is a common way of trading, as a lot of people are able to do it part time away from whatever their main career. Swing traders trade the markets on a mid-range time frame, usually between the one hour to the four hour chart (sometimes going a little bit above). Trades are held for hours to a week and they try to profit from the larger moves in the market.
The pros to swing trading? There's plenty of opportunities, plus more than enough time to sit back and thoroughly think through your analysis. The ability to make money while doing something else, which I touched on just before, you can still have your full time job and trade after hours, and then also there are much lower transaction costs compared to intraday trading, as spreads and commissions don't tend to eat up as much as you kind of aiming for those larger moves in the market.
The cons? Swing trading of a sudden introduces this overnight risk. You're going to have to sleep at some point and you may have positions open during that time. That right there is a window of risk where you can not react to the market. I have also found that many people tend to lose sleep while they have open positions. Fundamental news releases start affecting your decision making. You're going to have to incorporate the economic calendar. It does require a lot more patience to be able to hold positions over long periods of time. You will have to be making decisions without your emotions affecting and changing your overall bias.
LONG-TERM
Finally, we start looking at our long-term investors. I call it investing because they tend to trade the markets on a higher range time frame like the daily, weekly or monthly chart. Trades are held throughout week and sometimes months trying to profit from the really large fundamental moves of the market.
The pros to long term investing or trading are you do not have to watch the market in today, the lower timeframes mean nothing to your analysis which allows you to step back and think clearly. You have much fewer transactions which relates to much lower transaction costs. You have more time to think about your trades and much more time to react to different news releases or change in market bias.
The constant long term trading are the very few opportunities per year. Fundamental knowledge is 100% required. There will be people that say you don't need it, but honestly I highly recommend you have a great deal of fundamental knowledge. It requires exponential amounts of patience and the ability to sit on your hands for weeks or months on end. It does require bigger account for more buying power so you can open multiple positions over long periods of time. Finally you will incur frequent losing months as you do not have many trades to bring that initial balance too profit.
I hope that bought a bit of clarity to the multiple timeframe traders and where you're currently sitting. Have a look at what your goals are with actually being involved with trading. Where do you want to get to? Is the time frame you're trading is actually going to allow you to get there? If you're here as a part time trader and you'd love to have that time freedom that so many people advertise. Maybe look for the bigger time frames as you can have that time to go do whatever it is you need, and you don't need to be sitting at a computer desk. If you love intraday trading and scalping and you're willing to put in the hours of work and more or less work a nine to five type role. Your scalp trading is going to be one for you.
Trading Psychology - Long Term Sustainability in the MarketHello traders:
Today I want to discuss an important topic on long term sustainability.
It is no surprise that trading any financial market has proven to be difficult, and stressful.
Many new traders come and go so fast in the industry, and it's often due to the wrong mindset, trading plan, risk management and expectations.
I want to focus on the psychology part of trading for sustainability,
as I have made many trading plan, risk management related videos already, though I can discuss more on mindset and emotion today.
My vision in trading psychology has always been: Consistency, and Sustainability .
These are a few things I tell myself each and everyday in my trading journey to help me stay sustainable in the market.
-I am NOT here to get rich quick, traders who have that mindset often failed fast and quit
-I am here to make a reasonable % return per month, based on proper risk management and trading plan.
-I understand in order to make a ridiculous return per month, it requires over-risking and over-trading,
but it's unsustainable on a larger account size. I do not wish to lose a larger account or ability to trade for larger prop firms’ accounts.
-I understand the uncertainty in the market, any strategy, method and approach will run into drawdowns and losses.
-To prevent revenge trading, over trading and over leveraged, proper mindset and emotion are needed to survive and sustain in the market
-I believe in long term sustainability, and looking to “win the lottery” by going all in on trades. 1
% per account risk with 5-7% return per month is reasonable, achievable, and sustainable in the long run.
These are just a few pointers and reminders I tell myself each and every day.
This year will mark my 9th year in trading, and I am thankful to have gone through all these trading experiences in the past that made me a better trader today.
I am still continuously learning and growing, very happy with the consistent and sustainable approach that I do.
I am sure there are many other traders with different opinions, methods, approaches in trading, with different mindset, expectations and goals.
I respect all trading strategy, perspective and options. At the end of the day, it's up to each individual trader to identify their journey and what method they wish to implement in trading.
I sincerely hope I can help some of the traders to understand the importance of long term sustainability, and that will enable traders to continue to be a part of the financial market for the years and years to come.
Thank you :)
Jojo
Risk Management Educational Video:
Risk Management: When/How to move SL to BE and to profit in a running trade ?
Risk Management 101
Risk Management: Combine everything you learn to prevent blowing a trading account
Trading Psychology Educational Video:
Trading Psychology: How to deal & manage losses/consecutive losses in trading ?
Trading Psychology: Revenge Trading
Trading Psychology: Fear Of Missing Out
Trading Psychology: Over Leveraged Trading
Trading Psychology: Is there Stop Loss Hunting in Trading ? How to deal with it ?
Your strategy will inevitably go through a Drawdown!Your strategy will inevitably go through a Drawdown. And there's nothing you can do about it to stop that. However, you can learn how to survive it!
Today I will give you actionable steps, that you can use for the next time the market hit your strategy and you feel that everything is going wrong.
Let's start with an idea of what a drawdown is, and why drawdowns happen.
There are an infinite amount of trading strategies and tools that people use to trade and take advantage of specific market conditions.
Some traders are better in trending markets, they trade breakouts. Other traders feel more comfortable in ranging markets, where they trade quick reversals on key levels.
The Math is simple here. Trending strategies will have a poor performance on ranging markets, while reversal strategies will have a poor performance on trending markets.
Detecting the beginning and end of trending cycles or ranging cycles, is blurry. So, if you agree with that, as I do, you can expect your strategy to start failing at some point. And that's the beginning of the drawdown. (This is true for the best traders in the world, as for the worst traders in the world. Nobody scape drawdowns, the quickest you accept this, the faster you can learn how to handle them properly)
So let's start by saying that drawdowns are situations where your strategy experiences a lasting decline in performance, even if you are doing everything perfectly. Drawdowns, happen because strategies are made to take advantage of specific anomalies that can be found in one part of the market cycle, and when that market cycle finishes, or changes, your strategies become less accurate.
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It's important that you become aware of the Psychological consequences of Draw Downs , so you can have a countermeasure for this. Let's take a look at the most common ones:
1) Decrease in confidence (constant negative thoughts about your system)
2) Fear of entering the next trade.
3) Thinking about changing things in your strategy (deviations from the original plan)
4) Thinking about modifying the risk you are using to cover losses quicker.
5) Ceasing your trading execution, and looking for a new strategy.
ALL THESE ITEMS, are the main situations you may start feeling when going through a drawdown. IF you are going through that, it's important that you understand that you are under a delicate emotional state, where your confidence is low, and you are prone to make more emotional decisions that 99% of the time, tend to increase the drawdown.
So the way we handle drawdowns is by having logical and systematic processes in place instead of emotional ones.
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Here you have actionable steps to handle drawdowns:
STEP 1 : You handle drawdowns by getting ready before they happen, not when they are happening.
This is true for almost all disciplines, not only for trading. Airplanes have clear plans in case things start going wrong, instead of figuring out the problem at the moment, pilots go to the manual book, and use the template for this situation, plus the fact that they trained those situations several times in simulations.
So, if you want to understand what a drawdown situation looks like in your strategy, you MUST go into the past, and when I say this, I'm not saying making a 3 week backtest. You need to go as far as you can in the past, to find that exact moment where your strategy is not working as expected.
How many consecutive stop losses do I have? 3? 5? 15? 20?
How long does this period last until everything goes on track again? 1 month? 3 months? or a year?
These are the kind of answers you are trying to solve. When doing a backtest you are trying to understand two things. The first one is if your strategy has an edge. The second one is how hard you get hit when things go wrong!
STEP 2: Work your risk management around the stats of your system. Imagine we reach the following conclusion "I have a system, that executes 10 setups per month" and the worst-case scenario I have found is 20 consecutive stop losses during 2 months. What I would personally assume is that 20 consecutive stop losses can be 30. So how much capital percentage should I risk on this system so I don't get knocked out if this TERRIBLE scenario happens.
The answer for me would be 1% per setup. Under the assumption of this unique scenario, I would be 30% down, which is something acceptable, compared to the drawdown of conventional investment vehicles like S&P500 where we observed those kinds of declines, in the last years. The main point here is that you need to adapt the risk you are using on the strategy, to the stats of it, and your risk tolerance.
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Let's recap the key aspects of this post.
1) Drawdowns are inevitable, your strategy will be hit by this scenario eventually.
2) Drawdowns cause an emotional disturbance and are the main reason why people make really bad decisions.
3) We handle drawdowns by getting ready in advance. Through backtest, we can understand the edge of our strategy and the worst-case scenarios.
4) We adapt the risk of our strategy, by considering a terrible scenario, like 30 consecutive losses.
This will not eliminate the feeling during this period, but it will bring you a work frame to make logical decisions based on data, instead of emotions. Implementing this type of thinking will make your strategy more robust, it will help you go through these situations, and most importantly it will protect you from making stupid things with a strategy that has an edge, and actually works!
Thanks for reading!
SETTING REALISTIC GOALSHey Traders,
Traders whether they are new to the world of finance or have been involved for a while can benefit greatly from setting specific goals in correlation to what it is they actually want to achieve. There's a million different ways on focusing and goal setting in trading and a lot of people get it wrong straight out of the gates. To this day I still see some professional traders still setting their goals wrong. Traders need to get to focusing on the process of trading, including strategies, structures, journaling, whatever it may be. You have to focus on these processes set in place for yourself regardless of results. This can be so much more effective with getting to an area of consistency compared to just focusing on returns.
One key takeaway I want you to get from this post is all traders, whether novice or whether you're experienced, you should be basing your trading results off of how well thought out the trading plan was, which includes how the trades will be entered, exited, how the money will be managed. That right there is how you measure performance, not the Profit and Loss that comes from the trades.
Process Goal Setting -
Initially, when getting into trading, most traders look for some kind of goal surrounding numbers. We are all here to make money, to make percentage gains. So we tend to gravitate towards setting our goals based on what we want to return, what type of money we want to make, what time are percentage yield we want to bring in. This is damaging in its own right. It's very easy for people to say, OK, I'm going to try an make 1% per day and I'm going to do all my trading to make 1% per day. Then all of a sudden they start planning in the future. "Okay, I make 1% per day everyday for the rest of the year," and then all of a sudden they start calculating what they're expected to return and they give themselves these high hopes in achieving that. But The thing is, what they're not understanding is given their strategy, 1% per day might not be possible. We can't say yes. I'm going to make 1% per day and our strategy not allow that to happen. We may only find one opportunity per week given our strategy, we might only find three opportunities, but we have a 33% win rate. So having these unrealistic, number focused goals are really damaging because no matter how much work you put into it, it may not be possible.
Just like any other business, we need to develop a process. Anna system and our goals need to be set on doing that process an working that system correctly and consistently. So rather setting goals for, I want to make 5% this month. Set goals like I want to only take trades which are an A-Grade set-up in accordance to my strategy. I want to journal every trade for the next 4 weeks. Goals like these make you focus on the process, and I don't know a single business that is successful without a good process. Most businesses don't get profitable for a set period of time. Some even just fail. Without a process and without setting goals aligning with those processes will make your results be based on chance and not based on skill.
Aim for consistency -
When it's early on and you may still be demo trading or trading with a small amount of money, I want you to start aiming for consistency. Now I know that can be hard when running in drawdowns or perhaps even trading a strategy that isn't profitable, but what you can do is aim to be consistent in your process aim to be consistent in your decision making. Aim to be consistent in your risk management. What you will learn is whether your strategy is profitable or not. You will learn a lot about the market. What you will notice after a long period of consistency (Trade for at-least three months) is your areas that need improvement. let's stay consistent and every single day you do the same thing, you trade the same setups, you trade exactly the same way, which a lot of people don't have the self discipline to do. You will notice areas where you can improve on based off of those results. Most people give up and fail because they're not disciplined enough to remain consistent in a strategy which isn't providing them with the unrealistic returns that they're aiming for. If you sit down and you take it seriously for three months, win or lose, I guarantee you will take about 18 steps forward in the right direction compared to just sitting on the balance rope jumping from strategy to strategy.
It is okay to not trade -
This is where consistency and discipline delivers the reality check. The market is constantly moving, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, and that gives people the impression that their strategy is always valid and they always have to be risk on and always have to be trading. This isn't the case. Trading during slow times or making impulsive trades outside of the scope of your plan is such a common issue that I feel the need to point it out in today's message. So many people will try and force their strategy or force themselves to get in and make money when the opportunity isn't there. Have a plan. Understand what it is you want to see. Understand what it is you want to trade and wait patiently until that opportunity arises. Do not try and force trading. It will only result in one way and it will not result in you achieving the goals that you want to achieve.
Start small, then grow -
I witness day in day out, traders just trying to get onto big accounts because they believe if they had more money they would achieve better results. They build the most complex strategies and trade four different strategies across 12 different assets straight out of the gates. This is not an easy game. This is not an easy money grab. It can generate thousands and thousands of dollars if done right. But it has to be done right. The learning process is the exact same. Start small, be a niche trader focused on a few manageable goals. Results will come in time. If you trade according to your trading plan you've remained disciplined and you do everything I spoke about today, you will see improvements and progress. Set goals, realistic goals that have nothing to do with profit and loss, but have everything to do with being a consistent, self disciplined trader and you will see returns come in the long run. If you develop the foundations to being a profitable trader, the profits will be delivered once you get a greater understanding of what needs to be done.
I wish you all great success and cannot wait to hear about your consistency in trading!
ow to Apply Trailing Stop | PRICE ACTION TRADING 📚
Hey traders,
In this post, I will share with you my strategy to apply a trailing stop.
Please, note that I am applying a trailing stop only in trend-following trades and only when a trade is opened on a key level. I trade price action patterns, so the following technique will be appropriate primarily for price action traders. Moreover, my entries are strictly on a retest.
1️⃣
Spotting a price action pattern I am always waiting for its neckline breakout. (if we talk about different channels, then by a neckline we mean its trend line)
Once I see a candle close below/above the neckline, I set my sell/buy limit order on a retest.
Stop loss will strictly lie below the lows of the pattern if we buy and above the highs of the pattern if we sell.
2️⃣
Once we are in a trade, you should measure the pattern's range (distance from its high to its low based on wicks) and then project that range from the entry to the direction of the trade.
In the picture, the pattern range and its projection are the underlined blue areas.
Once the price reaches the projection of the pattern's range, you should move your stop loss to entry and make your position risk-free.
Move stop to breakeven in traders' slang.
3️⃣
Then you should let the market go.
📈If you are holding a long position you should let the market retrace and set a higher low and then a new higher high or AT LEAST an equal high. Once these conditions are met you can trail your stop and set it below the last higher low.
📉If you are holding a short position you should let the market retrace and set a lower high and then a new lower low or AT LEAST an equal low. Once these conditions are met you can trail your stop and set it above the last lower high.
Catching a trending market you should trail your stop based on new higher lows / lower highs that the price sets. Occasionally you will catch big winners.
How do you apply a trailing stop?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
What Are My Daily Trading Routine As A Consistent TraderHello everyone:
Today I want to share my personal daily routine in trading.
Many have asked me about how a typical day of mine would be,
and I have no problem sharing that with everyone in hope to provide some examples on how you can construct your own day as well.
It's important to know that each person is unique, has different priorities, business, jobs, family, and other things to attend to.
So it's best to understand that what I propose here is more of a guideline that you can utilize, and ultimately comes down to your own schedule and time.
I am a strong believer in not needing to be on the chart all day long, in order to create a healthy trading lifestyle.
Morning 6-9 AM
-check the chart, go through all my flagged watchlist
-prepare for my weekly and mid-week market update live stream OR private quick daily market updates
-answer any questions within my community, platforms, and areas
-go on with my day (family, other businesses)
-wont need to check the chart again until the roll over time
-will set alerts to monitor any trades, entries..etc
Afternoon 3-5 PM
-after the day is rolled over
-construct a new daily watchlist for the day ahead
-check or uncheck flag in my watchlist to see if there's anything developed or confirmed my forecast/analysis
-answer any questions within my community, platforms, and areas
-go on with my day (family, other businesses)
-wont need to check the chart again until my night time before London Session starts
-will set alerts to monitor any trades, entries..etc
Evening 10-11 PM
-check the chart, go through all my flagged watchlist
-will set alerts to monitor any trades, entries..etc
Always remember to have a healthy trading lifestyle and don't get burn out
Have priorities in life
Thank you all :)
What Does Consistency Mean In Trading ? Hello traders:
Today let's talk about “consistency” in trading.
Many traders understand they need to be consistent, but what exactly is consistent in trading ?
To me, it's not just making consistent “profit”, rather it's being consistent with your trading strategy, risk management, trading psychology, mindset and emotion.
Let's take a look at a few examples of consistency in trading:
Consistency in profits:
More often traders think about hitting a set amount of % return in consistency.
This is certainly one way to look at it, but I would say to challenge ourselves to do more.
Each and every month, the market will develop differently, hence our profits are not gonna always be the “same” each and every month.
Some month with more profits, some month with more losses. We need to have the ability to stay “consistent” no matter what the market condition is.
Consistency in strategy and Trading Plan:
Remember, there are many different trading strategies out there.
The ability to stay “consistent” with your current trading strategy, and not jump from strategy to strategy.
Even if your strategy right now isn't getting any entries available in the current market condition, while others are entering trade, you need to stay consistent with your strategy and let the probability play out.
Understand no strategy can catch every move in the market. Some will catch this particular run, while others will catch other developments.
Consistency in risk management:
When you are at a series of drawdowns and losses, the ability to stay “consistent” with your risk management.
Not risking more than 1%, not entering more than 2-3 trades at a time. No revenge trade, and/or over leverage trade.
Respect your SL and honour the SL. More often traders fall into this stage while they take a number of losses and throw their risk management out the window.
Consistency in mindset and emotion:
When your strategy isn't playing out on a short term, the ability to stay “consistent” and not to start randomly taking trades based on FOMO, Greed and emotion.
Sometimes traders get impatient and feel like waiting for setups to happen is a hassle and they don't want to wait.
This is when they start to rush their trading journey and backfires on them.
Consistency in your goal:
Set goals for your result and progress. The ability to stay “consistent” with yourself and don't let external factors like social media, fake guru, scammers affect you and your goal.
If you plan to have 5% per month profit, then don't let other people affect you in a negative way.
Everyone trades differently, and with different strategy, method and approach. No need to compare and compete with others, rather, with yourself each and every year.
Below I will forward some good educational videos on the above topics that we have discussed:
Trading Psychology: Revenge Trading
Trading Psychology: Fear Of Missing Out
Trading Psychology: Over Leveraged Trading
Risk Management: Combine everything you learn to prevent blowing a trading account
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!
10 Trading Commandments of a Successful Trader 📜
Hey traders,
In this post, we will discuss 10 divine rules that every trader must obey:
1️⃣ - Accept that risk and losses are a necessary part of trading.
Even though most of the traders are looking for a holy grail, for a system that produces 100% win rate, in fact, losses are inevitable, they are part of the game.
No matter how good you are as a trader, occasionally, the market will outsmart you.
2️⃣ - Have a proven trading system.
Trade only with a trading strategy that you backtested, that proved its accuracy and efficiency.
3️⃣ - Concentrate on the risk, not the reward.
Cut losses, and control your risk. Remember about risk management and never neglect that.
4️⃣ - Never trade without stop loss.
Some traders say that they can easily control losses without stop loss. Don't listen to them. Always set a stop loss once you are in a trade.
5️⃣ - Have an attainable target.
Setting a stop loss remember to know where to close your trade in profit. Follow strict rules and do not let your greed take you under control.
6️⃣ - Take your emotions under control.
No matter whether you are losing, winning, or do not see any trading setups to trade, your emotions will always try to distract you.
Be cold-hearted.
7️⃣ - Always stick to your trading plan.
Never break your rules, follow your system, and do not deviate.
Your trading plan is your only map.
8️⃣ - Limit your losses, never limit your profits.
While your gains can be scalable, your risks and losses must be fixed.
9️⃣ - Treat your trading as a business.
Trading should be treated with the same discipline as a business.
Every business has a solid business plan which entails how the day-to-day running of the business is done, and this also guides the decision-making process.
🔟 - Always journal your trades.
Always keep a trading journal. Record your winners and losers, entry reasons, mistakes, failures etc. Revise and learn from your mistakes.
Of course, that list can be extended and more commandments and rules can be added. However, these 10 in my view are the most important. Print this list and let it guide you in your trading journey.
What would you add to that list?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
The basics of back-testing (HOW TO)Hey Traders,
Today I wanted to follow on from the fantastic amount of comments that we are receiving from the previous video, "stop strategy jumping." It seems that so many of you took a whole heap of value from that video and for that I am very thankful and to everyone who reached out and told their story or let me know that it really touched them.
As highly requested, I wanted to run through a basic way to start getting the grips with strategy back-testing. How can we go about back-testing our strategies to ensure that they are profitable for us in the long run? Take a look, have a listen and tune in. Set up an excel sheet the way I do and get back testing. There's only one way to do this, and it is to do the hard work.
Let me know what you guys find. I can go more in depth in the future, but for now. It seems like most people wanted to get to grips with the absolute basics, which is what I'm going to show you today.
If you have any questions at all, please the comment section is the place to be. As always, have a fantastic trading week and a fantastic weekend traders. I'll see you very soon.
How to use relative strength/weakness in Forex — GBPUSD exampleIchimoku makes identifying trends very easy, but it can be difficult to know when to enter a trend. This factor is often overlooked by newer traders, and it makes a significant difference to risk-adjusted returns.
One of my favourite ways to identify when to enter a trend is to use the concept of relative strength or weakness. Put simply, relative strength or weakness is when you compare a security to an "index" and try to understand whether:
The index is moving up, and your chosen security is moving up even faster = Relative Strength
The index is moving down or ranging, and your chosen security is holding ground or moving slightly higher = Relative Strength
The index is moving down, and your chosen security is moving down even faster = Relative Weakness
The index is moving up or ranging, and your chosen security is holding ground or moving slightly lower = Relative Weakness
This concept is incredibly important to understand. It can turn a B+ setup into an A+ setup.
The question is then, how do you find relative strength? The really easy, beginner-friendly, way is to plot the "Rate of Change" (ROC). This is an included indicator in TradingView and simply tells you how quickly something is moving up or down. What you can do with ROC is to plot it against the symbol you're trading, and then plot it again against an index. An example of an index could be $DXY for the USD. This index would work for pairs like USDJPY, USDEUR, USDGBP, etc. Any pair where USD is the base.
I found a perfect example of relative weakness on GBPUSD. I plotted the ROC for GBPUSD (green) and the ROC for all GBP pairs (red). Ichimoku already told me that GBPUSD was bearish and I was looking for an opportunity to go short. Notice, that when GBPUSD becomes weaker than all GBP pairs, there is almost no bullish pressure.
If you short when there is relative weakness, your trade would have almost zero drawdown, and you would be in profit almost instantly. Yes, you could short anywhere on this chart and make money if you didn't have a stoploss, but this is not how to trade like a professional. If you tried to short this morning when there was no relative weakness, you would have to suffer through +37 pips of drawdown before it started moving down again. Could you take that? Could your risk manager take that if you were trading someone else's money?
I encourage all traders to explore Relative Strength/Weakness. It is one of the most powerful concepts in trading, and as long as you have your "index" right, you can use this anywhere. Stocks, Forex, Crypto, Commoddities, etc.
MAIN ELEMENTS OF YOUR TRADING PLAN | Trading Basics 📝
Hey traders,
One month ago I wrote an article about the importance of a trading plan. Now it is time to discuss what should be inside your trading plan.
Before we start let me note that a trading plan is a very personal thing and depending on your personality you may have some other elements. In this article, we discuss key elements that must be in every trading plan.
🔰Trading Strategy.
I want you to realize that a trading strategy is not a trading plan. A trading strategy is simply one of its main elements.
A trading strategy defines a set of rules and market conditions that one is looking for to open a trade and then manage that.
🔰Trading Time.
Relying on your trading strategy you should know exactly when you trade. The time range must be precise and fixed. If you think that today you can trade the opening of the London session, tomorrow the Asian one, and then the US opening, I have very bad news for you.
Your trading hours must be fixed and objective.
🔰Trading Instruments.
As with your trading time, you should have a fixed trading list. A set of financial instruments that you monitor on a daily basis.
🔰Trading Journal.
You should learn to journal your trades. Just a single performance is not enough. You should note the exact market conditions that made you open the trade and many other factors that you consider to be important.
Then learn from your mistakes and improve your trading strategy based on your journal.
🔰Risk Management.
Having the best trading strategy in the world one can fail simply because of neglecting the rules of risk management.
Define your risk per trade, maximum drawdown, and biggest losing streak you can take.
Optimize your trading to keep your losses under control.
Of course, that list can be extended. We can add, for example, trading psychology into that.
As I said, a trading plan is a very personal thing and while you mature in trading it will become more and more sophisticated.
The elements that we discussed in this article are crucial for your success in trading. In my view, their absence will lead you to a failure.
What do you want to learn in the next article?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
LET'S GET REAL: Stop Strategy Jumping!Hey Traders,
This one is going to be a little bit different, a little bit deeper and a little bit harder to listen to rather than usual technical analysis. I recommend you sit down and listen to this. Have a think whether it relates to you or whether you found yourself in this position, or even if you've gone through this position and share your experience on how you go through it. A lot of traders struggle with their strategy, jumping from aspects of trading and that's why so many educators out there make a lot of money off of them. It is time to stop.
In this video I outlay a challenge that I put to all the traders who may find themselves in this position to sit down and to thoroughly test their current or previous strategies and understand them on a deeper level. No more jumping around, no more looking outwards. Let's start looking inwards. Let's see the data that we have handed to us and what we can do to improve that data.
If you enjoyed this video, please leave a comment. Leave a like, if we do get enough likes and comments, I will make a Part 2 on how to go about this with a more depth avenue while using different resources.
As always, have a fantastic training week.
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!!!
Take Profit Screener Indicator updateWith this new version, the Fibonacci borders are calculated and placed automatically on your charts.
No need to place the top border manually any more.
You still have the possibility to move it manually if you consider that the indicator has not identified the right ATH (Pivot point)
Enjoy !
GBPUSD Using the Element of TimeThe element of time is a technical analysis tool that I've previously elaborated on -> Check links to related ideas.
The illustration is pretty self-explanatory.
First attempt failed, however price presented a better opportunity a couple hours later which ultimately yielded all our profits for the week.
I will provide my thought process, execution and exits for this trade in a subsequent recording :)
Stay tuned !
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.✌️