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Trading Psychology

3 Ways Traders Can Prepare For SuccessComing into trading with only the desire to make money, often results in not making any. I didn't make a dime for 4 years till my lucky day came. Before it, like most traders, I gambled my way into the game with little to no knowledge. I started off with free information. (Youtube and Babypips were my buddies.) After gathering data from them for 2 weeks, I felt I'm ready, then funded my first trading account. Luckily, I doubled the account on my first day but blew it the next. It was awful but I repeated the process for 3 months till I gave up. However, I got back a month later. Because I was still hooked by the idea of making money wherever I am. Though at the same time feeling stressed, anxious, and depressed to see my hopes and dreams out of reach, I had faith. That I carried with me throughout the years, until one day, I found out what was holding me back: a short-term mindset. Which is what I'll show you how to escape from before it's too late. **Thus Begin By Thinking In Years Than Months** Ignoring this advice will be costly. It will cost you your time, money, and mental health. You don't want that. But you get that by being a short-term thinker. Which is a person who focuses on the now, with little regard for the future. Someone who focuses on short-term results at the expense of long-term interests. A trader who focuses on making money instead of focusing on the 3 stages of becoming a trader: 1. Learning to trade. 2. Becoming a trader. 3. Full-time (profitable) trader. It's almost impossible to reach stage 3. Yet it is possible when you begin the journey like a long-term thinker. Which is a trader who envisions, plans, and works toward the future. While ignoring the monetary side to focus on the skill (that will serve you till you meet bro, Jesus). Like what all medical students do. From the get-go, they know it will take them 6-7 years to become professional doctors. Being aware of this allows them to focus on the stages of becoming doctors. (But lucky for them, they make money along the way through student loans.) So, coming into trading with an idea that it will likely take you 5 years to become a consistently profitable trader, will assure that. Because it will keep you grounded, focused, consistent, and patient with the process. And that will allow you to enjoy it while growing fast. With that said, let me show you how you to prepare for trading success below: 1. Create a long-term vision. A clear vision with a plan will save you from falling into traps that will delay your progress. It will allow you to navigate through the dark cave till you reach the light. But that's only possible when you have a torch and a compass. Powerful questions and a plan of action. Questions help you to discover the path. A plan helps you walk the path. Thus to find out if trading is the right path, ask yourself: - Why do I want to become a trader? I know you are in it for the money (like I used to be), but that mindset will prevent you from getting it. So take your time answering this question. Don't rush because whatever answer you get will determine your success or failure! Once you're satisfied with your answer, start planning out your journey by... 2. Setting Objectives In simple terms, an objective is a measurable step you take to achieve a vision. For a trader who's in the first stage of "learning to trade" while working a 9-5 job, the vision could be to become a full time professional trader. And the objective could be to buy a trading course from a mentor you perceive as legit, then study and practice till you reach the 3rd level. To discover that objective, the reason behind it, and how to achieve it, you need to ask yourself: - What do you need to do? - Why do you need to do it? - How you’re going to do it? After figuring out all that, move on to the next step, which is... 3. Keeping your job Do not quit your job before becoming a profitable trader. It will save you from unnecessary mental and emotional pain that are caused by forcing profitable trades to pay bills. That’s a bad approach to trading. It always delivers opposite results that will definitely make you stressed, anxious, depressed, and unsuccessful. You need not worry about money along your journey, so you can focus on the process of becoming an elite trader. I’ve made that mistake and it cost me too damn much. So, keep your job to save up at least 2 years of monthly expenses that will get covered once you’ve decided to become a full time trader, and save for a 6 to 7-figure prop firm trading account to manage once you’ve resigned from your job. Follow the above steps and witness the fruits of being a long-term thinker who focuses on the processes instead of results.
Education
by Doji-2k1
3
The path to becoming a good trader When a beginner learns to trade, they progress through stages as they develop their mindset. The most commonly used learning model for trading is an adaptation of the 3 stages of competence model. 1. Unprofitable trader This is the first stage that a trader goes through and they do not know that they have a lack of knowledge. In this stage, beginner traders will take their first few steps by downloading a platform, opening an account and begin to place trades. However, they are influenced by emotion – usually lured by the thought of making a great deal of money in a short period of time. Either one of two things are likely to happen for traders in this stage: The trades turns against the trader immediately. They simply lack the experience to deal with the market environment. New traders take large risks without a basic knowledge of risk management and they wipe out all previous profits and more. 2. Boom and bust trader Boom and bust traders will realise that successful trading comes down to the psychology of the trader and their approach to the markets. A basic understanding that you will never be able to predict what will happen in the markets, starts to form. You begin to realise that making money is based on a series of trades that incorporate winners and losers, and that it takes discipline to stick to a system, cut losses short and let profits run. A trader in this stage will begin to enter and exit the markets whenever their system tells them to, without judgement and despite the emotion they are feeling. 3. Profitable trader A trader is said to have reached the stage of unconscious competence once they have traded with so much practice that they are able to trade in an almost automatic mindset. A disciplined approach requires very little effort and has become second nature. At what stage are you at the moment?
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by UnitedSignals
7
How To Know When To Quit (Part 2/2)Hello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. Sharing the second part of this article posted yesterday 5. Know your limits and set rules around it Set out the rules beforehand rather than waiting until you are in it. Because you will not make good decisions then. There are particular states where you’re going to feel suboptimal that have to do with your own physical state. You’re tired, you’re stressed, whatever, but then there are also cognitive states where you’re going to behave sub-optimally. And the particular cognitive state where you’re really going to behave sub-optimally is when you’re in the losses. And the reason that you’re going to be a terrible decision-maker is, except for the part it’s going to cause you to be emotional, is that you’re going to want to get your money back. And this is a really big problem for investors. You start down a path, it starts to lose and you don’t want to sell, because you can’t get your money back. That’s the moment that you go from a loss on paper to a sure loss. It’s when it becomes a realized loss. And that is a moment that we do not like. And so we will come up with all sorts of reasons to think we’re being rational in continuing on, when we’re being completely irrational because we’re just trying to protect ourselves from having that moment of having to take the sure loss. 6. Loss aversion Our loss aversion prevents us from selling investments at a loss. But this extend beyond trading too. Decisions should be made based on the future, not the past. I think people are familiar with loss aversion. We don’t like to start things that carry with them a chance of loss, even if we’re winning to the decision. When you already have a loss on the books, or even a cognitive loss on the books, it was trading at one level and now it’s trading lower, we don’t like to sell. In other words, this becomes loss aversion stops us from starting aka taking trades sometimes. Of course this is irrational, because what matters is, is the next dollar that you spend worthwhile, not did you already spend a dollar. We shouldn’t care. 7. Endowment effect We value things we own, much more than things we don’t own. Even though the opposite might be true. It could be stocks, bonds or our IDEAS. We wrap our identity in things and won’t quit despite the warning signs. And then we also have the issue, which I think is really important for investors, you have something called an endowment. We value things we own, much more than we value things that we don’t own. And it’s not just ownership over investments, we actually own the stock, or we own the bond, or whatever, we own the option, but it’s also our ideas. And every time we invest, we have ownership over our thesis. And here’s the interesting thing, is that when the thing that we’re doing is out of consensus, this is when it gets really bad. So when we think about these issues of sunk cost, and sure loss aversion, and the way our identity gets wrapped up in things, and the way we have ownership over things, and the way that affects our inability to stop, you have to put a big huge blinking warning sign when the thing we’re doing is out of consensus. 9. The kill criteria Think in advance the signals you might see in the future that means that it is time to quit. To continue holding this investment, what do you need to see in the next few quarters or years? Sticking to things too long denies us future opportunities. Think in advance about what are the signals that I might see in the future that would tell me that it’s time to walk away and you will get better at it. What do I need to see within the next quarter or the next two quarters from the way that this investment might perform? Essentially think, “How long can I tolerate this, or how much time do I need in order for me to actually get the information that I would need in order to be able to make a decision?” Figure out what that time period is and then figure, at the end of that time period “What would I have to see? What are the benchmarks that this thing would have to hit in order for me to feel like I ought to continue? And if it doesn’t hit these things, then I should walk away. Quotes of the day - "Losses loom larger than corresponding gains" ― Amos Tversky - "If we could be freed from our aversion to loss, our whole outlook on risk would change"― Alan Hirsch I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Thank you for reading Dave
Education
by Daveatt
4
Be that traderA structure is necessary to actively improve all the skills required to master trading. Start by rating yourself on a scale of 1 to 100 for all these skills to come up with "stats" as you would have in a videogame. Next step is to take the same approach as you would to level up in a said video game. Focus on the grind and to complete a couple of "levels" per day. You will see that with this concept in mind you will attain higher stats that you would want for your "perfect build". Cheers to many pips.
FOREXCOM:XAUUSDEducation
by FXKG
3
How To Know When To Quit (Part 1/2)Hello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. Splitting this article in 2 parts because it’s dense and I don’t want to lose people who might think “too much text I won’t read” Let’s talk about: – Cognitive biases – Decision-making 1. Be at ease with a bad outcome Focus on the decision-making process instead. Think in probability and play to the best of your hand. Don’t dwell on a bad outcome if the process and decision-making were sound. You have no control over outcomes when luck is involved. Embrace uncertainty. Understand that you have to get down to what do I have control over, and what don’t I have control over. 
And I have to accept the tremendous influence of luck, I have to accept the fact that I’m having to make these very high-stakes decisions without being able to accurately predict where the candles are going. 2. Advice from Eric Seidel: Do not dwell on unlucky events Eric Seidel is a 9-time world series of poker bracelet winner who made $40 million. By all means, discuss what could have been done better. If you played to the best of your "cards", that’s all that matters. He goes, “I don’t want to hear about it if there’s not a question. I don’t care that you got unlucky. I get unlucky too. And I have to deal with losing with two jacks against two nines all the time also. I certainly don’t want to take on your emotional trash about it myself. And what’s the point of talking about it? You made a great call and lost, who cares? Would you have changed anything about what you did? Do you think you got the read wrong? It sounds to me like you did everything right. So why are we even talking about this? I mean this is the thing, if it really was just bad luck, who cares? This is about embracing that uncertainty, right?” 3. All decisions are probabilistic And we make these probabilistic decisions all the time. Consciously or subconsciously. Whether its choosing your partner or the route you are taking to work. You’re making a forecast. The moment we make it explicit, we start to create feedback loops we can learn from. Even if you don’t think you’re doing it explicitly, literally every single decision you make is probabilistic, because it’s a forecast. 
It’s a forecast made under conditions where you don’t have all the facts. 
You generally know very little in comparison to all there is to be known. 
We have to reject the idea that if you’re not doing it explicitly, that you aren’t thinking probabilistically because every decision is a probabilistic decision just by its nature because the world is probabilistic, that is how we decide. Now the act of trying to make these things explicit will make you better at it, because what it will start to do is allow you to create good feedback loops. 4. Don’t trade if you don’t have an edge And we are very good at fooling ourselves into believing that we have an edge. Set up structures, write down your thesis. What new information will break your thesis? When should you quit? I think we’re very good at fooling ourselves into believing that we have a rational reason, that we have an edge. And I think that that’s particularly so when we’re in a situation where the thesis would affirm other things that we already believe about the world. I think it’s particularly so when we’re already in the investment/trade. So one of the things that we need to do is set up structures around us that will allow us, first of all, to be better at those, are we really being rational and starting… but more importantly, because the starting decision is always uncertain, is to say, as we discover new information after we’ve started, are we stopping, right? Are we figuring out when we should stop? Because it turns out that we’re very, very dense when it comes to actually paying attention to the signals after we’ve started something that we ought to stop it. And that’s where we get particularly irrational. Quotes of the day “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” ― Lance Armstrong “The elements of good trading are: (1) cutting losses, (2) cutting losses, and (3) cutting losses. If you can follow these three rules, you may have a chance“ ― Ed Seykota "Confidence is not “I will profit on this trade.” Confidence is “I will be fine if I don’t profit from this trade." ― Yvan Byeajee I'll post the second part tomorrow I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Thank you for reading Dave
Education
by Daveatt
32
Trading Psychology: 4 Dangerous Emotions Traders Must AvoidWhen I was a naive, newbie trader, I didn’t pay much attention to my trading psychology. I was more focused on the technical chart patterns and trade setups. However, I soon found out the hard way that… Ignoring the psychology of trading was destroying my trading results. That’s when I began making a serious effort to master my personal trading psychology. I started reading trading psychology books, and even worked with a personal trading coach. I was definitely on the right path to mastering trading psychology, but wished I would have started learning sooner. That’s why NOW is the perfect time to start getting your trading psychology edge. But why is it important to understand stock market psychology? Understanding stock market psychology paves the way for your long-term trading success. That’s why this exclusive new mini-lesson of top trading psychology tips is just for you. How do you develop trading psychology? Some trading sites advise new stock and crypto traders to gain experience by paper trading with a simulated account. This can be helpful to learn the basics of trading, but it’s a much different ball game when real money is on the line. Your true emotions in trading will only be revealed when risking your own money with actual trades. Therefore, the best way to develop your trading psychology is simply by working your way through hundreds of live trades with real capital. Keep a basic journal and note when you feel the dangerous emotions below start creeping in. This is the only way to truly identify your personal strengths and weaknesses in trading psychology. 4 Most Dangerous Emotions to Avoid: Fear, Greed, Hope, and Regret Investing decisions in any market in the world are driven by 4 powerful emotions of Fear, Greed, Hope, and Regret. Left uncontrolled, these emotions can have a seriously negative impact on your trading account—but only if you let them. Your personal ability to master these key emotions directly determines your long-term trading success. So here’s a quick rundown of how fear, greed, hope, and regret can harm your trading results. Most importantly, I have also included actionable ways to avoid these emotions in your trading. FEAR – The most powerful human emotion that affects your trading Fear is a distressing emotion caused by a feeling of impending danger. This results in a survival response, regardless of whether the threat is real or imagined. Traders consistently report fear as the emotion they struggle with the most. Fear has even caused people to jump off buildings during market panics. FEAR is the reason markets typically fall much faster than they rise. It took the Dow Jones Industrial Average 24 years (1983 until 2007) to rally from 1,000 to 14,200…BUT it only took 2 years (2007-2009) to lose HALF of that multi-decade gain. Why? Uncontrolled fear rapidly leads to panic—which leads to poor decision making in the markets. When traders become driven by panic, they often sell their positions at any price. That’s why stocks frequently cliff dive when group fear starts kicking in. Fear can also rear its ugly head after you experience a string of losing trades. After suffering many losses, fear of “yet another loss” can make it mentally challenging to enter new swing trade setups. When paralyzed by fear, you miss out on profitable trading opportunities. If it’s a quality trade setup, then don’t let fear prevent you from buying (be careful not to confuse this with revenge trading). Remember that each trade you enter is completely independent of the previous trade. Therefore, losing money on a prior trade does not necessarily mean you will lose on the next trade. Fear is not always bad, as it can help keep losses small. For example, fear of a bigger loss can get you out of a bad trade you should no longer be in. If you immediately sell your stock or crypto when it hits your preset stop price, then the fear of a bigger loss protects you from major losses. When there is fear, steer clear! If the market is in a state of panic, don’t fight the downtrend. If you’re in doubt, get out! Don’t try to rationalize or come up with excuses to stay in losing positions beyond their stop prices. HINT: Ignore the news and internet forums to prevent lame rationalizations for staying in losing trades. When there is too much fear in the markets, our flagship swing trade alerts service simply shifts to cash until a new buy signal is received. This prevents fighting strong downtrends in unfavorable conditions. GREED – Too much greed decreases your trading profits Greed is an excessive desire for money and wealth, but is a natural human emotion. A healthy amount of greed can help drive your trading profits, but too much greed will have the opposite effect. How to know when it’s too much greed Greed is when you have already made a large profit on a trade, BUT are still obsessed with how much more you could have made if you stayed in the trade longer. The mistake with this reasoning is that all gains are not real until the position is closed. Until then, a winning trade is only a profit on paper. Greed can also cause traders to make bad trades by ignoring solid risk management rules, which signals a lack of discipline in your trading or investing. To keep greed at bay on a winning trade, sell partial share size to lock in profits, then trail a stop higher on the rest. Proactive trade management like this is why our exclusive Wagner Daily stock picks have been consistently profitable over the past 20 years. HOPE – A fake friend who will take your money (but only if you let it) Hope, a feeling of anticipation and desire for a certain event to happen, may be the most dangerous emotion for traders. If you are an active trader or investor, the feeling of “hope” in your day to day trading activities must be avoided at all costs. Why is hope so dangerous for traders? Hope may prevent you from immediately selling a losing trade that hits its stop price—which is the top rule with most trading strategies. When you blow a stop, you will usually wind up with a much bigger loss than you planned to risk. You may get lucky with a second chance to exit (especially in a forgiving bull market). However, this is definitely not a situation you want to be in. A weak stock typically continues much lower before bouncing, which is why you must always honor your stops. Otherwise, that’s when hope can really sneak up on you! Hope will convince you to just “hang in there a little longer” because: “Big news is coming soon” “This stock will surely rally after their next earnings report” (Insert your favorite bullshit excuse here) Meanwhile, while you’re busy hoping, the price plummets and has a catastrophic effect on your entire trading account. Rest assured, the market will eventually punish you by taking your money when you slip into “hope mode.” But the good news is that YOU alone can easily prevent this scenario from happening. Simply always set protective stops to pre-define your maximum risk per trade. Be rigidly disciplined to follow your trading plan, and hope will never become an issue in your trading. Plan your trades, and trade your plan. REGRET – Remember the next opportunity is always just around the corner Regret is defined as a feeling of sadness or disappointment over something that has happened—especially when it involves a loss or a missed opportunity. It is only natural for a stock trader to regret entering a losing trade or missing out on a winning trade. But to master your trading psychology, do not hyper-focus on losing trades or missed opportunities. If you lose money on a trade, then simply evaluate what went wrong, learn from it, and move on. Don’t waste time regretting your original decision to enter the trade. What’s done is done. Conversely, you may feel regret when you miss an opportunity. This is human nature. However, you must train your mind to simply move on to the next trading opportunity—which is always just around the corner. When you allow this type of regret to control you, it becomes too easy to “chase trades” with risky entry prices. If you chase, your risk/reward ratio of the setup no longer meets the parameters of healthy trade management. Let’s say you plan to buy $DUDE stock at a $60 buy trigger price, with a swing trade target around $70. If you buy it, you plan your initial stop at $55. This gives you a 1:2 risk/reward ratio (risking $5 to gain $10). $DUDE stock rallies, but you miss your original $60 buy and instead chase the price to an entry at $65. If you don’t significantly raise your initial stop, you now have a negative risk-reward (risking $10 to gain $5). In this case, your regret of missing the $60 entry caused you to chase it to $65 (next time, just wait for a pullback). Avoid feelings of regret to ensure the math of trading is always in your favor. We always target a bare minimum risk/reward ratio of 1:2 for swing trades in our stock and crypto swing trade alerts services. Successful traders keep their minds disciplined to avoid remorseful thinking. original source
NASDAQ:QQQEducation
by rp-mtg
The 7 Levels of Financial Freedom Hey traders, In this article, we will discuss the ladder of financial independence. Level 1 - Solvency You cover your debts and living expenses with your income. Being solvent is considered to be shaky states. Once you stop earning for any sake of a reason, you immediately become in debt. Level 2 - Stability Besides being able to cover your living expenses and debts, you also have an emergency savings. The emergency savings usually cover 1-2 months of your basic expenses, making your state more sustainable. Level 3 - Debt Freedom You are free of debts and that lets you start investing and save even more. It is the transitional level in our ladder from unstable to a secure state. Level 4 - Security Your investments cover your basics expenses. While you keep earning, the money that you invested start bringing more money fortifying your state. Level 5 - Flexibility While your investments are still not sufficient to cover all your costs of living, it fully compensates 1-year costs of your basic expenses. Level 6 - Independence Your investments cover all your living costs, letting you live wherever you want and spend on luxuries. Level 7 - Abundance Money is no more a concern to you. You have more than you and your children will even need. The understanding of the level where you are is crucially important for building your investment strategy. Keep working and learning to constantly climb the stairs and grow your wealth. ❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section. Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
Education
by VasilyTrader
6
My trading setupWas recently speaking with a newbie trader and he was showing me his setup. Highlighting his specialized keyboard and mouse, together with a 49 inch widescreen monitor, and some fancy CPU. All up it cost him more than $5,000. This led me to think, is a hi-tech premium setup necessary for successful (Profitable) trading? Should you prioritize funds towards a trading setup or into your trading account? My trading analysis process: 1) identifying broad-based trends based on fundamental analysis 2) aligning the fundamental bias with the technical setup 3) calculation of risk management This is why I have my trading setup like this, which I've found to be the most effective for me: - Vertical screen on the side to read long-form news and articles. - Horizon screen at eye level for my trading platform. - Laptop screen used to write up my analysis How do you have your trading setup? Share a picture in the comments
FX:XAUUSDEducation
by JinDao_Tai
11
10 Trading Rules I Used To Stop Losing MoneyHello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. I) Hard work versus efficient work Work ethic doesn’t matter.
 You can work as hard as possible and not get rich. So getting rich is not about pure hard work.
 Getting rich is about knowing what to do, when to do it, and with whom to do it. It is about understanding. Once you figure this out, the next is about executing the path —> which will probably require the hard work. But as we see, the work comes implicitly in the execution of the path/destination. 
So, don’t do the hard work for its own sake, that would be a waste of time. II) The Understanding 
You can develop this skill by becoming a perpetual learner. 
And when feeling confused during the learning sessions ==> that’s OK. Your brain is like a muscle, and it means that is being “trained”. 
Foundation of “axioms” (based on full truth) are critical for learning and interpreting new information. So, when developing the “axioms” make sure you are consuming high quality information. III) How do we make sure that our foundation is high quality Step 1 : Stick to hard science, mathematics, the “basics”. Why? There is no disagreement between people in these areas, so they are solid foundations.

 With trading, simple always outperform complicated.

 I’ve seen price action traders outperforming traders with multiple dozens of indicators on their chart. 

In hindsight now the answer to why that is is obvious to me…. That’s because we tend to overcomplicate things and tend to believe that a more complex trading strategy leads to better results. This couldn’t be further from the truth - this is untrue. Sharing here a non-exhaustive “axioms” list I learned the hard way (not listed in a specific order) 1. Cut social medias completely when trading. 
I literally block my own access to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tim Tok… giving my access away to someone I trust and telling that person to change my password/email so that I can’t access them anymore. 2. I don’t necessarily need more winners than losers but I need my winners to be at least 2X in pips value my losers 3. More trades doesn’t mean more profit 4. Less trades doesn’t mean more profit either
The profit isn’t correlated to the number of trades I’m taking per day but to me being reactive whenever a great opportunity presents itself 5. This one is very personal and based on who I am as a trader
Leverage is OK in the 2X/3X range at most and only for rare opportunities with a huge risk to reward ratio. 6. I must NOT trade what I want to BUT trade what’s moving 7. It is OK to feel GREED/FOMO/FEAR, I can always adjust my position size to hedge my doubts. 8. It is NOT OK to make some good trades and keep trading for that trading session out of GREED/FOMO 9. It is NOT OK to not take a trade because the previous trades were losers
That one required me years of self-mastery to accept it 10. I MUST ALWAYS expect the unexpected => leading me to banking profit automatically when the candles hit a Supports/Resistances zone AND withdrawing to my bank account on a weekly basis 
Step 2 : Read the classics and listen to trading podcasts where the top traders explain their strategies, mindset, psychology when approaching trades. 
I really like the Youtube channel SMB traders and the podcast “Chat with traders” PS: I have no affiliations with any of them. 

From those 2 sources of information only, you’ll have a good spectrum of what could work and certainly what will never work with trading.
 Once you acquire the solid foundations: 1. You won’t fear any book, and will have the confidence to learn anything you want. 
 And the more you learn, the more options you’ll have on how to make money from your trading.
 Because you can understand whether a trading strategy could even be profitable without backtesting it.

 2. You can then pick the thing where to achieve mastery.
You will achieve “mastery” only on the few things you’re obsessed about. 

For me, I’m a “master” at trading indices futures and CFDs. 
I’ve been doing it for more than 10 years. 
I can trade them even without indicators as I know how the DAX, DOW, SPX often react after a gap or a macro event or after a specific price action. Quotes of the day Leaving you now with a few quotes from some of the brightest minds “Study game theory, psychology, mathematics and computers” - Naval Ravikant “Opportunities come to the prepared mine” - Abraham Lincoln “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” - Benjamin Franklin “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune” - Jim Rohn I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Thank you for reading Dave
Education
by Daveatt
12
ELON MUSK QUOTES FOR POWERFUL THINKING ELON MUSK QUOTES FOR POWERFUL THINKING Elon Musk is today's Nikola Tesla. Here are 11 Elon Musk quotes to make you start working on your dreams, no matter how impossible they might seem. “I do think there is a lot of potential if you have a compelling product and people are willing to pay a premium for that. I think that is what Apple has shown. You can buy a much cheaper cell phone or laptop, but Apple’s product is so much better than the alternative, and people are willing to pay that premium.” “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” “What makes innovative thinking happen?… I think it’s really a mindset. You have to decide.” “I’ve actually not read any books on time management.” “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.” “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.” “I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.” “I say something, and then it usually happens. Maybe not on schedule, but it usually happens.” “If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.” “As much as possible, avoid hiring MBAs. MBA programs don’t teach people how to create companies.” “It’s very important to like the people you work with, otherwise life your job is gonna be quite miserable.” Remember that your mindset is 80% of your future success, dear traders.
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by TopTradingSignals
9
WHAT ARE GAPS? TRIGGERS AND TIPS TO SPOT & TRADE THEM Gaps are important parts of the financial market, especially in stocks and currencies. They happen when an asset opens at a significantly lower or higher price than where it closed at. Gap is a situation where a currency or any other asset opens sharply lower or higher than where it closed the previous day. Such a gap happens when there is a major event or news when the markets are closed. It usually represents an area where there is no trading taking place. There are three main scenarios that happen after a gap in the market forms. First, an asset price can continue moving in the direction of the gap. For example, when a bullish gap forms, an asset’s price can continue with that trend. Second, a gap can be filled within a few days or months. Finally, a gap can be followed by a long period of consolidation as traders focus on the next major moves. In all these, it is always good to focus on the asset’s volume. The most common strategy of gap trading is when you decide to enter a trade in the opposite direction of the gap. In this case, you will be betting that the asset will reverse after forming a gap. Ideally, one way of doing this is to check the trends of volume after the gap happens. Still, the risk of doing this is that the asset will either consolidate or resume the gap trend.
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by UnitedSignals
4
How To Get What You Want Out of Your TradingHello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. The today’s lessons coming from my experience is me sharing how I got what I wanted out of life Whether, it’s a 6 packs, money, success etc… I) Is writing down your goals even useful? A keystone habit that served me very well in retrospect, when there is something that I want that I do not have, so I have a desire which means I’ve made a contract with myself to be unhappy until I get what I want. So there is this thing external that I wanted - think of 6 packs, money, success, ... Writing down goals means nothing and I know it’s contrary to common belief or practice - which states people writing down their goals are more likely to succeed.

 Sure having a direction is more likely to achieve them than not having a direction right I don’t disagree with that.

 Here is an interesting statement that may hit you: winners and losers have the same goals Successful traders and unsuccessful traders have the same goal namely increasing how much money they’re making. Then, having goals cannot be the main driver of success

We have to dive deeper to understand what are the behaviours making our goals being achieved. II) Mimic the behaviours of very successful traders We all already know the activities that are going to generate the result we want.
 - Maybe, it’s not trading what you want to trade but trading what’s moving Yes, I’m thinking of crypto traders scalping ranges while recent events brought an insane intraday volatility with futures, commodities and even FX pairs 
 - Maybe, it’s trading with a demo account, tiny baby trades for months, and scaling up progressively the position size. Self-mastery is a skill that MUST be acquired - going outside of your lane too quick INEVITABLY results in a catastrophe - Maybe, it’s not trading from our phone but from our computer only.... We tend to miss some obvious data on the charts, screeners when trading from a small screen 
 - Maybe, it’s also not trading when we’re tired or sick or frustrated Trading is hard - trading without a body/mind in a decent shape is...... not smart.... I bet every reader knows how to lose fat right? Burning more calories than we eat... 
Even fat people know that
.... They know what kind of activities they should do to lose fat but they don’t do it. 
The same goes with unsuccessful traders. The vast majority of traders know what to do to become successful but don’t want to do it because it’s too time-consuming and boring right? A new trader, looking to get rich quickly will be poor quickly III) A simple hack I’m often asking myself the question, what would a person who does this type of thing do in this instance? Your identity is a weighted voting system where you can votes based on your activities and what type of person you want to become. What Paul Tudor Jones or Jesse Livermore or Ed Seykota did to be successful? A simple google search gave me a list of common behaviours/habits shared from the most successful traders. Instead of writing a 50 points checklist of all the activities I need to do to achieve my goals, I wrote down a list of behaviours commonly shared between extremely successful traders and investors. If you’re a millionaire, ask yourself, what would a billionaire do? If you’re not a millionaire yet, ask yourself what would a millionaire do? Another great question to ask ourselves: what would someone 10 times smarter than me would do in that situation? 
It’s a different way of saying, what would someone 10 times richer than me would do 
Word it in whatever way resonates with you. 

I wrote those questions on a post-it and sticked it on my wall above my computer - it’s a constant reminder for me to reflect and think before I take a trade.

 And that type of person, when you’re asking yourself the question “what would that person do in that situation?” is who you will eventually become as you continue to cast votes that reinforce the stories that we tell ourselves about who we are. 
 Those are the things that create long-lasting changes 

. This hack isn’t about telling ourselves affirmations such as: - I’m a successful trader - I’m rich - I’m a high value man/woman Just saying them doesn’t make them true

. What makes them becoming true is creating some level of evidence through behaviours/actions for an extended period of time. 

It all starts with activity, with doing.

 And for a new trader, doing is….taking as many trades as possible while testing as many strategies as possible, one by one, until one sticks with his/her risk appetite, capital, lifestyle etc… + accumulating a tons of small activities or habits leading to success. I’ll write next Monday an education post listing the behaviours I “copy/pasted” for years until they became a part of “ME” and how they fast-tracked my way to multiply my net worth. I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Thank you for reading
 Dave
Education
by Daveatt
2
How To (NOT) Fail As A Trader? (Part 2)Hello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. Today, I want to share the second part of the frameworks I’ve used across the past 10 years. 
I’ve learned them from the legend himself Charlie Munger, cofounder of Berkshire Hathaway, what NOT TO DO to stay far away from being unsuccessful and poor. You'll find the first part shared yesterday below I) Overspend your income Once I got to a certain level of net worth, I still didn’t spend a lot.
 Actually, I never overspent my trading income, I just keep stockpiling as much as possible
I don’t buy fancy things, I don’t get a table when I go to the nightclub
. I barely spend 3% of what I earn every month - makes me feel so free because it’s more money that I’d ever need.

 And …. That’s how wealth is accumulated. 

I don’t even live frugally… I go to the restaurant every day….. I buy stuff that I need and I like…. 
 But … if you want to fail, definitively overspend your income. II) Learn only from your own mistakes To fail, don’t learn from the mistakes of others, don’t learn from the success of other people. There are tons of free ressources to learn the basics of psychology, trading, self-mastery

. There are also a few very reliable and trustworthy traders selling courses and sharing how they became successful.
 Sharing their trading method, their insights, etc... 

Knowing how to identify them, and listening to them is key. 

To stay poor, don’t learn from other successful traders. III) Quit Early If you want to fail and be miserable, you definitively want to quit soon, quit early. 

Because, no matter of who you are, you’re going to fail many times.

 Remember that my win-rate is between 50/60% :) Half of my trades are necessary failures for me to deserve the winners. 

If you quit trading too early, that’s a guarantee you’d be miserable for a long-time. Don’t put yourself in a situation where you blown up your trading capital and can’t trade anymore...forcing you to quit… Stay in the game, with tiny baby trades and take many of them for a VERY EXTENDED period of time…

 That’s the ONLY WAY to learn overtime IV) Negative Visualisation Take something very negative, and imagine it happening a thousand times in a row. 
How would you feel at the 1000th time it happens? 
Exactly…you’d feel nothing If you feel that way after the 1000th time… then you might as well feel that way after the 1st time… 
This mindset framework has been so POWERFUL for me.

 That’s exactly why you MUST trade a lot and have a lot of losers in your “skeleton closet” Being insensitive to losses is a skill that can be acquired only after hundreds/thousands of failed trades

. And trust me, I have hundreds of those losers every month… 

They’re not affecting me anymore… they’re a necessary “evil” V) Expect only the best outcome If you want to fail at trading, definitively follow traders only posting the winning outcomes/trades. Definitively never think of setting a stop-loss, or an hard-exit

. Definitively don’t think about your RISK VI) Expect the worst Bouncing back from the previous point, sharing how I approach trading. If you’re a beginner in your trading journey, expect every day that you’re going to lose some of your money. And that is going to be your base reality If I happen to make gains, be profitable then…. That’s just a bonus…. That’s serendipitous … it’s just a happy coincidence. 

But I expect that at every trading session I’m going to lose. 

This mindset framework has been extremely beneficial for me. 
If I come trading with that mindset, then I’m not surprised nor affected when I’m losing some capital and I feel that way because it’s in alignments with the expectations I have in my mind. Thank you for reading
 I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Dave
Education
by Daveatt
2
How To (NOT) Fail As A Trader? (Part 1)Hello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. Today, I want to share some thinking frameworks I’ve used across the past 10 years. 
I’ve learned them from the legend himself Charlie Munger, cofounder of Berkshire Hathaway, what NOT TO DO to stay far away from being unsuccessful and poor. I) Don’t ingest chemicals 
Don’t ingest chemicals to alert your state
If I wanted to be really poor or unsuccessful in life, what would I do?
Well, I’d definitively get addicted to chemicals.
 Sounds so logical and obvious right?
 Though, many of us use them on regular basis to alter their mood because they can’t cope with how hard trading can be sometimes. I can’t think of anyone who ever told me “oh man, now my life is so much better since I’m on drugs and I drink” It’s not a judgment in any way; that’s what Charlie Munger says about successful people - they don’t ingest chemicals. II) Envy 
Every single year, I outperform my previous year YoY% PnL return and have grown my net worth. Though, I always find many guys over performing me in trading every single year. 
And for me, that hit me because I’m so innately competitive… that I suffer from comparison all the time. I even got to the weirdest point thinking “I feel the more money I make, the poorer I feel” Yes you read that right… and I know many of extremely successful traders feel that way.

And it’s totally true because what ends up happening is our measuring stick changes. III) Measuring Stick I remember when I was very young, my measuring stick was a MacDonald’s meal.
It was just, how many McDonald’s meals this amount of money equates to. When I got to a 6 figures net worth, that was probably the wealthiest I have ever felt because I had proportional to what my measuring stick was at that time…100K euros was so many McDonald’s meals, so many of those units.

Now, my measuring stick or unit is bigger is monetary value (and significance).
 That stick changes.... 

Someone is always doing better. I think it’s so much more about not thinking about them because the way they roll the dice and play the game has no effects on us - it’s only an imaginary way to make ourselves suffer. 
If you want to suffer, be envious of people. IV) Resent people 

 Another way to feel miserable is to resent people.
 - Do you resent some guys for your trading failures? - Do you blame the FED? Do you blame Blackrock? - Do you blame the whales for YOU to not performing with trading the way you should? Charlie Munger wrote that every time he feels the need to resent people, he’d write their name on a piece of paper and put that paper in a drawer, and periodically open it up and realise how life had dealt with those people without him having to do anything. 

It’s one of those long-term mindedness that like most people live in karmic balance. Simply, people who do bad things, eventually that catches up to them and life is becoming worse for them. 
And someone doing bad things is already dealing with the suffering of being who they are. 

Why am I saying this?

 All your corrupt politicians, bankers, hedge funds, market makers, brokers… at some point, the karma (or the SEC :p) will make their life miserable or at least very problematic. Again, repeating myself, don’t resent other people for your losses because this will make you feel really miserable. 

 V) Be unreliable To feel miserable, say you’re going to do something and don’t do it. Say you’re going to be somewhere and be late.
 Be flaky, make tons of mistakes and don’t learn from them. 
That’s why I’m a big believer of having a trading buddy because it forces me to be reliable towards myself and him.
 For me, that’s my father. 
We both show up on time, trading from the same room, we both trades and discuss in real-time of setups we identified. If you’re reliable, it’s very difficult to be unsuccessful. 
Even if the previous days, you lost money, keep showing up. 
If you don’t feel like trading because your emotions are not in check… trade with your demo account or with smaller position sizes until you’ll bring your self-confidence back up. My win-rate is maybe around 50/60% - which means half of the trades I take…. fail…

 Though it was a tough pill to swallow, I worked on making at least 3 times more on average with my winners compared to my losers. 
Meaning for every 1 dollar per trade with a negative PnL, I earn 3 dollars per trade with a positive PnL.

 I’ll post the Part II of this article tomorrow . Thank you for reading
 I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Dave
Education
by Daveatt
3
Learn Paralysis By Analysis | Trading Psychology Hey traders, In this article, we will discuss a very important term in trading psychology - paralysis by analysis. Paralysis by analysis occurs when the trader is overwhelmed by a complexity of the data that he is working with. Most of the time, it happens when one is relying on wide spectra of non correlated metrics. That can be various trading indicators, different news outlets and analytical articles and multiple technical tools. Relying on such a mixed basket, one will inevitably be stuck with the contradictory data. For example, the technical indicators may show very bearish clues while the fundamental data is very bullish. Or it can be even worse, when the traders have dozens of indicators on his chart and half of them dictates to open a long position, while another half dictates to sell. As a result, the one becomes paralyzed, not being able to make a decision. Moreover, each attempt to comprehend the data leads to deeper and deeper overthinking, driving into a vicious circle. The paralysis breeds the inaction that necessarily means the missed trading opportunities and profits. How to deal with that? The best option is to limit the number of data sources used for a decision-making. The rule here is simple - the fewer indicators you use, the easier it is to make a decision. There is a common fallacy among traders, that complexity breeds the profit. With so many years of trading, I realized, however, that the opposite is true... Keep the things simple, and you will be impressed how accurate your predictions will become. ❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section. Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by VasilyTrader
16
How to deal with uncertaintyHello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. Who taught me to become a great trader? Was it a majority of trying and failing? or was it masterminds? was it consultants? mentors? books? I) I was not afraid to fail I became successful because I wasn't afraid to fail. We learn quickly when we can fail then instead of dwelling I just got back up and tried again. And it took me weeks to figure out some issues with my trading simply from analysing my past trades AND it's way faster than reading trading books, buying trading courses taking me months to figure them out. II) I was totally fine in the unknown Disclaimer: you'll never be able to predict the future, what the FED is going to do, which country is going to invade which country, which bank will default, etc Most traders, the reason they can't succeed, is because they're looking for a mentor, a book, i.e. certainty and reassurance If you can survive and be ok with uncertainty then you realise you don't need all those things because you have common sense and thinking power. And you can actually think on your feet, you can iterate, you can innovate => fancy words to say you can adapt your trading strategies based on how volatile and directional the market is Great traders don't need certainty that a scenario will happen for sure. Regardless if it happens or not, they'll handle it either way. No blueprint is needed. They're prepared to trade regardless of how they feel the market should do and that's how I deal with uncertainty too. I accepted taking those risks with a demo account first and then trading micro-lots for about a year because I trusted I could make it as a trader. III) Self-education Now that I have a bit of money, I spend a lot in courses, mentorships, workshops, books, one-to-one coaching with 9+ figures people way above me in the "food chain" But let me be perfectly clear, I didn't spend a dime when I learned how to trade I learned by..... doing, failing, again and again and again.... at a 0 or low risk because I was smart enough to trade with the smallest position sizes possible. Conclusion The learn on the go mentality doesn't mean you learn and then go. It means you learn while you go. It's not because you have incomplete information that you have incomplete action. You're going to learn more from the completed action than you would from the lesson you're trying to learn through research (book, course, ...) With enough volume of trades, you'll be directionally correct eventually and then you can iterate from there. Rather than looking to capture the whole trades profit from top to bottom/bottom to top, not looking for the perfect trades but looking to capture opportunity at every trade, you'll speed up your decision loop a lot. Thank you for reading I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Dave
CME_MINI:ES1!Education
by Daveatt
3
If you lost deposit...COINBASE:BTCUSD Who is at fault? Let's start by acknowledging that we shall identify who is to blame for the irreversible. Who exactly is at fault for the money you lost? A market that is unprofitable? A market maker seeking increased compensation? A deceiver who desires to put everyone out of business? A signalman looking to overcharge for his signaled closed channel? Children who find it difficult to focus? Always a troublesome partner? No, you alone are at fault. You initiated the deal with your own two hands, which resulted in the destruction of everything. Nobody else compelled you to risk everything. Realizing this should cause you to cease blaming others for the results of your own behavior. It gets worse when you realize that your actions caused the money to be lost; it consumes you internally and prevents you from thinking clearly. You shouldn't worry, though, because life continues on. regain your composure. Errors are acceptable Each of us has the right to make errors because we are all human. Making mistakes is a necessary part of learning because otherwise, how would we know what is worthwhile and what is not? Just understand that mistakes are a necessary part of our journey and give yourself permission to make them. We learn from our failures and gain priceless experience that helps us reach higher heights. There are numerous examples of people who went completely bankrupt making a comeback among the Forbes list participants, using the priceless expertise they received as a result of their past errors to increase their earnings, accelerate their business growth, and improve as entrepreneurs. We all know all this famous success stories so the same is true with traders. How did Jesse Livermore come to be the subject of the memoir "Memoirs of a Stock Operator"? He completely lost all of his money and occasionally had to start again from nothing. He persisted and saw the setbacks as vital lessons that he could use to his advantage to eventually succeed. Work on your flaws Work diligently to correct your errors, consider your past, and determine what caused you to fail. What were you going through right when it all started? What feelings did you experience? What were you contemplating? What did they desire? You work Will you be able to make regular long-term gains with your current trading approach and mindset? Study technical analysis, system trading, money management techniques, trader psychology, and all that comes after if the answer is no. You can only succeed with system trading, restraint, and patience. Find someone whose primary source of money is trading, who is knowledgeable about the aforementioned, and trade with him if you don't have the willingness or time to do all of this and trading is your secondary source of revenue. However, when looking for someone like this, exercise extreme caution and thoroughly research his prior experiences. Are you plagued by the thought of wondering why, after earning a sizable sum for themselves, they didn't remove money from the market? Did you have any objectives or was money your main concern? Unless, of course, you are a fan of waste paper, money cannot be an end in itself; it can only be a means for achieving goals. It is not unexpected that you did not withdraw money if your aim was an illogical abstraction, such as a "abstract house," "abstract automobile," "abstract journey," and so forth. Change of direction You must express the objective clearly in order to succeed: The statement "I want to buy a good apartment" will not be effective, but the statement "I will purchase an apartment with panoramic windows in Paris, will be effective. If you don't know why you need money, trading will become for you a toy that rapidly becomes boring and destroys your life. But keep in mind that the objectives should be realistic and truly vital for you. This strategy will enable you to consistently take winnings from your trading account, set aside money for your objectives, and enhance the quality of your life. Enjoy yourself Don't go overboard a while frequently withdrawing money from a trading account. Make sure to spend at least a little money on your family and friends. You will thus be able to envision the outcome, feel inspired, and replenish your mental resources, which you can then use to make money. Put your affairs in order. You should bring yourself into balance after addressing the errors. Take care of your personal affairs, devote time to loved ones, your health, your children, pursue self-education, and relax in order to do this. Money and fresh ideas will undoubtedly come to you, and you'll discover a way out of the predicament. Life continues; it has not ended. You have a roof over your head, pleasant living conditions, food, water, good health, close friends, and many other things that you take for granted. Trust me, your life is someone's dream. Remember that many people do not have access to all of this, so be grateful for what you do have and enjoy life; everything else is just a minor annoyance. For your own benefit Due to the harsh circumstances, you will begin to see opportunities that you previously missed because of your comfortable lifestyle. However, your perspective will change totally as a result of these extreme circumstances. You now have experience, something most people do not. Your own success formula must include experience. He is the one who will keep you from making snap decisions and assist you in working through a challenging circumstance. "People become weak in good times. Poor people create poor times. People become resilient under tough times. Good times are made by strong individuals." The more challenging and challenging it is for you, the more probable it is that you will succeed if you manage. "A person wins internal victories during a tough time, and external victories during a prosperous time." Success, wealth, and acclaim will come to those who are diligently working on developing their character without giving in to hopelessness and despair. If you look around, you'll observe that most individuals behave in the exact opposite way during difficult times: Such people start to look for someone to blame for their difficulties when they become depressed, start drinking, and moan to everyone around them. This is due of their moral weakness, and they blame the government, presidents, officials, bankers, family, and friends. The victim's position entirely negates a person's advancement and ends his accomplishment. A person who is upset by fate criticizes more successful and strong people rather than making changes in his life and improving himself. ✅Hope you enjoyed the content I created, You can support with your likes and comments this idea so more people can watch! * Look at my ideas about interesting altcoins in the related section down below ↓ * For more ideas please hit "Like" and "Follow"!
COINBASE:BTCUSDEducation
by Crypto4light
Mastering and Understanding Candlesticks Patterns An overview of Candlesticks A candle represents the changes in price over an interval of time, such as 1 day or 1 minute. The main body of the candle illustrates the opening price at the start of the time interval and the price when the market closed at the end of the interval. The length of the shadows shows how much the price has moved up and down with respect to a candlestick within a specific duration. The candlestick body describes the difference between the opening and closing prices for the corresponding time period. THe market is a battleftield between buyers and sellers. If one side is stronger than the other, the financial markets will see the following trends emerging: If there are more buyers than sellers, or more buying interest than selling interest, the buyers do not have anyone they can buy from. The prices then increase until the price becomes so high that the sellers once again find it attractive to get involved. At the same time, the price is eventually too high for the buyers to keep buying. However, if there are more sellers than buyers, prices will fall until a balance is restored and more buyers enter the market. The greater the imbalance between these two market players, the faster the movement of the market in one direction. However, if there is only a slight overhang, prices tend to change more slowly. When the buying and selling interests are in equilibrium, there is no reason for the price to change. Both parties are satisfied with the current price and there is a market balance. Analysis aims at comparing the strength ratio of the two sides to evaluate which market players are stronger and in which direction the price is, therefore, more likely to move.
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by TopTradingSignals
12
Fundamental Analysis in Forex Trading Economic indicators and announcements are an essential part of fundamental analysis. Even if you’re not planning on finding trades using fundamentals, it’s a good idea to pay attention to how the overall economy is performing. Here’s a cheat sheet covering six key indicators and announcements to watch out for. 1. Non-farm payrolls (NFP) The non-farm payrolls report estimates the net number of jobs gained in the US in the previous month – excluding those in farms, private households and non-profit organisations. 2. Consumer price index (CPI) The chief measure of inflation is the consumer price index, which measures the changing prices of a group of consumer goods and services. 3. Central bank meetings As we’ve seen, most traders follow economic figures so they can anticipate what a central bank might do next. So, it only makes sense that we pay attention to what happens when they actually meet and make decisions. 4. Consumer and business sentiment reports Multiple organisations are constantly surveying consumers and business leaders to create sentiment reports. While the number of reports they produce is staggering, they all play their part in shaping the markets’ expectation for the future. 5. Purchasing manager index (PMI) Purchasing manager indices measure the prevailing direction of economic trends in a given industry, according to the view of its purchasing managers. They are used as an indicator of the overall health of a sector. Pay close attention to these fundamentals. They play a crutial role in trading.
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by UnitedSignals
12
Trading Psychology (Part 1)A philosophy I engage in when trading the markets - I am not self-employed as a trader. - The market is my boss and my trades are my employees. - I merely manage those employees. Traders often have to think fast and make quick decisions, darting in and out of positions on short notice. To accomplish this, you need a certain presence of mind. You need the discipline to stick with your own trading plans and know when to book profits and losses. Emotions simply can't get in the way. It’s NOT that winning traders formulate better trading strategies It’s NOT that winning traders are smarter It’s NOT that winning traders do better market analysis One personal characteristic that almost all winning traders share is that of self-confidence . Winning traders possess a firm, basic belief in their ability to BE winning traders.
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by JinDao_Tai