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Trading Psychology

How To Set Trading Goals!Hey Traders, Setting trading goals is always a fun discussion and something I actually really enjoy talking about. It is possibly one of the most simple tasks with getting started in investing or day trading, yet it is a task that so many get wrong. It's like starting a Sprint race, only you're starting the race facing the other direction. So, today we're going to dive into how to set goals, what they should look like and how we can start getting you running on that race, or even if you started the race, to give you that little speed boost so you can get back on track be sprinting for that finish line, which is where you want to be. It is very common, especially with beginners in trading, that when asked what are their trading goals, they're going to leave you with some kind of percentage or dollar amount and what they're trying to achieve per week or per month. It's easy and it's their aspirations is why they are in the game. They want to make X amount of money and they've been able to divide it down to figure out what they need to make each day in order to reach that goal. Now, most people will sit back and judge that goal on whether or not they think it's achievable and then they'll say well done and give the trader a pat on the back. Only what that person is done by telling this trader that it is good feedback is re firmed that there facing the wrong way at the start of the race and telling him to still Sprint that direction. We trade an unpredictable market. That means no matter who you are or where you are, unless you have some kind of insider information, you have no idea which way a stock, currency or any type of asset is going to move. We base our decisions off of probability. We play on whether or not we have an edge over the market and as long as we win enough we will make profit in the long term and that is how trading works. What that means is we are never sure on how much money we will make or whether or not we will make money. Which means it is unreliable to set money based goals because we have no idea what the market is going to deliver for us. We can have expectations over the long term, but short term. As long as we are trading true to our strategy, it is honestly up to the market whether or not we take home profit or whether we cop losses. Now we understand this because it's trading, right? We got into this market knowing that. So why do we attempt to set money related goals when we know it's just unrealistic and really hard to achieve such consistency when you're looking at short term goals? Baffling right? Now, for some of you may just woke up to this fact, "oh yeah, that is very unrealistic." For others, you may have already known this. Either way, what we're going to do is dive into where you should be setting your goals and what should they look like. My favorite goal to set and to see other people set is consistency within myself. It's to track your own decisions, marking your own movements. When actually trading, if you can become consistent within yourself, you will see consistency in your results, because you'll be able to trade that strategy without having to worry about your own decisions or emotions affecting your decisions. So, what I always did is obviously have a trading plan, have this trading plan and have set guidelines in what you have to do. Post trading as well. When it comes to filling out worksheets, maybe Excel spreadsheets you're trading, log your data, fill it all out. Get yourself a spare calendar, put it on your wall and every day that you do everything to your plan, win or loss on the charts, everything you were supposed to according your strategy, your plan, and filling out all of your Excel spreadsheets, give yourself star. Then every single trading day you get a little star on that calendar and your goals should be set around that. If you find you're being consistent within yourself and consistent in your decision making, then you will be able to determine whether or not your strategy is good or bad, and you'll be able to achieve consistent results long term. Do not base your goals on dollar figures base your goals off of performance. It is the only thing you can actually control. Stop playing around with the idea of setting goals outside of the market or outside of your results. Yes, it is fun to set dollar amount goals. Yes, it is fun to Daydream, but you get stuck in that Daydream Cloud and there may be times where you have a perfectly good trading strategy. You're able to trade it perfectly as well, but you're not hitting your goals. And the reason that might be is because your strategy may not be able to hit those dollar value goals even on perfect days. It happens. So set goals on what you can control, not on what you want the market to deliver. How did you go about setting your goals? How do you do it now? Let me know in the comments. I hope you enjoyed this little post and I'll see you next time. -Jordon Mellor
SP:SPXEducation
by TradeThePool
4
🟩TRADING HACKS: You're doing ENOUGH 🟩 This video is about the importance of thinking in RR and %. The main point is when you think you haven't earned enough is $ amount - and so you want to trade more and more, which leads to poor trade quality - remind yourself that trading is highly scalable, and so it's ok to imagine you have a 20x more capital at the moment. So x20 your profit in the trade and ask yourself how I feel now, is this enough for the day? Remember, if you're consistent, you'll be able to scale the account relatively easy.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
38
Successful traders think like chess playersEvery day I get many questions from traders and more than half of them are: "What will X asset do today, will it rise or fall" or "Do you think X asset will reach Y price?" With very few exceptions, I say "I don't know". Surely my interlocutor will think that I don't want to tell him/her or that I'm an idiot. In fact, the correct answer is another: "I don't care" And now, dear reader, you will think not that I am an idiot, but a complete one. But bear with me a little more and let me explain using a real trading example on EurUsd Let's say we consider taking a trade on this pair so, we ask ourselves what do we know about it? 1. Fundamentally the USD is favored 2. The trend is down for more than a year. So, we want to trade in the direction of the trend and sell this pair Looking closely at the chart we see that EurUsd is contained in a downwards channel and recently found support in the 0.99 zone. Last week, the pair corrected and reached a high at 1.0150 and reversed exactly from the channel's resistance, leaving a nice and strong bearish engulfing on our daily chart. Going further with our judgment, where do we want to sell this pair? Now, considering my approach, I see a good place to sell in the 1.0030-1.0050 zone. So we set a sell limit order in that zone (Remember, professional traders use pending orders) We also consider at this moment the point where our bearish outlook is negated. We get 1.0150 for our stop loss. Now, using again my personal trade, let's say we set the selling order at 1.0030, with a stop loss at 1.0150 we have a potential loss of 120 pips. We know that every pip move on EurUsd represents 1usd for 0.01 volume, so 12usd potential loss on 0.01 trade for our trade. Now, let's consider volumes. What potential loss are we "comfortable" with? For the sake of example let's say 120 USD, so a 0.1 volume. Now let’s see where we can take profit. 0.97 zone is the falling channel's support, so there. Looking at such a trade we have 120 pips or 120 USD potential loss with 330 pips or 330 potential profit. This gives us a close to 1:3 risk-reward ratio, a very good one. And now, maintaining the analogy from the title is the market’s “move” turn And the market can do only 2 things at this point: fill our pending order or not. Considering that I don't hold pending orders after NY's close, if the market doesn't reach my level by then, I will remove the order, and tomorrow I will start over again by analyzing the market. The second is to trigger our limit order as is also the case for my trade, and we are in a running trade now. Now, with a trade running is again the market's move. So, what are the possible scenarios? 1. The market rises and hits our SL. Although an undesirable scenario, we knew from the start that it’s a possibility and like every trade, this also carries a risk. We considered it and assumed it from the start and didn't trade more than we could afford to lose in a trade. So, we take it like a stoic and move on to the next trade and market analysis 2. The lovely scenario in which EurUsd breaks 0.99 support and falls to our target. So, our reasoning was correct and we now have a trade that brought 330usd in our pocket, but more importantly we traded disciplined with a good R: R 3. The market falls below 0.99 but reverses. Now we can also consider some action - Move SL in BE and let the trade run - Close half to get some money off the table and move SL into BE - Close all trade In conclusion: As you can see, you don't need to be Gary Kasparov to be a good trader, the market's "moves” being in fact just a few. All you need to do is to be aware of these moves and have a plan for each of them. This way you will not end up wondering every minute "where will EurUsd go, it will rise, it will fall", you will not trade emotionally or recklessly. As Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who failed to plan, plan to fail", but it is not your case, because, as a good trader you always trade with a plan and know from the beginning all that the market can do. Best regards! Mihai Iacob
Education
by Mihai_Iacob
17
What Is Imbalance Of Price Action Orders?What Is an Imbalance of Orders? An forex imbalance of orders exists when there are too many (either buy or sell) orders of a listed pair that cannot be fully matched by the opposite order on an exchange. This applies to either buy, sell, or limit orders. An imbalance of orders is also referred to as an "order imbalance." Good news would increase the demand (buy orders) for a certain pair and would also make it attractive to hold onto. Likewise, unexpected negative news can bring a large sell-off (sell orders) and little demand for a pair that does not look promising. HIGH impact news can leave imbalances on charts- especially on 1hr or 4hr charts during a trading session. These are in my top five easy scalps or day trading trades to do during my trading. << Should be yours too!!! Things to be aware of with Forex imbalances area: 1) Order imbalances exist when there is an excess of buy or sell orders for a specific Forex pair. 2) Most order imbalances are short-lived but can exist for hours and even the entire day. 3) Using limit orders rather than market orders can help mitigate some of the problems with buying or selling during order imbalances. Some traders trade before or during high impact news hits certain pairs- SMART play is to wait for that one hour candle to close- and IF you see an either buy or sell imbalance in 1 hour candlestick (no price action either right or left of that candlestick and zero WICKS either)- wait for price action to reverse current trend to negate the imbalance (either buy or sell)- the opposite way. Those are easy trades- but always use risk management on all trades you do. High impact news can leave these areas of imbalance on any timeframes (yes, gaps in price actions are considered imbalances in price too). Look for big huge candlesticks or gaps left on charts (big banks are buying or selling). A reversal point happens when filling of big orders changes the price behavior. I look and trade these price reversals when price action closely consulates around major quarter point levels ).000 or .500 levels. Then shows me one of the three following candlestick set ups (only ones I trade and need in trading): Harami (2 candles), Engulfing (2 candles) and/or Pinbar (3 candle) setups. Look for: Large candlesticks, with no candlesticks left or right on candlestick and have zero WICKS/SHADOWS in that area either. (this is a clue/hint). RSI line (purple) when up thru BASE line (yellow) and above 50 on RSI- so only trade noted had liquidity, momentum & volume to rock price action up or visa versa.
Education
by Anbat
10
WHAT IS DRAWDOWN | 3 Types Of Drawdown Explained 📚 Hey traders, In my videos, I frequently use the term "drawdown". Many of you asked me to explain the meaning of that term and share some examples. The account drawdown is the highest observed loss from the highest value of the deposit to the lowest value of the deposit at a certain period of time. Imagine you started to trade with 10,000$ account. At the end of the year, your account size reached 15,000$. However, at some point through the year the deposit value dropped to 6,000$. It was the absolute minimum for the one-year period. At some point, your net loss was -4,000$ or 40% of your account balance. The account drawdown is 40%. ❗️Knowing the account drawdown is very important for the risk assessment of the trading strategy. Usually, 50% and bigger drawdown signifies an extremely high risk. There are 3 types of drawdown to know. Current drawdown - a temporary drawdown associated with the negative total value of opened trading position(s) at present. Once you start trading with 10,000$ deposit, you open several trading positions. Being opened, with the constant price movements, your potential gains fluctuates from positive to negative. For examples, with 3 active trades: EURUSD (-500$ at present); GBPUSD (+200$ at present); GOLD (-100$ at present) your current account drawdown is -400$ or 4% of your deposit. Fixed drawdown - the negative value of the closed trading position(s) at present for a certain period of time. While some of your trades remain active, some are already closed. Imagine the same deposit - 10,000$. On Monday you opened 6 trades, 2 still remain active and 4 are already closed. Your total loss from your closed trades is -500$. Your fixed Monday's drawdown is 5%. Maximum Drawdown - the maximum observed loss from the highest value of the deposit before a new maximum is reached. Starting to trade with 10,000$ you are already trading for 5 years. Your account were growing rapidly and at some moment it reached 25,000$. Then the recession started. You faced a dramatic loss of 12,500$ before you started to recover. That was the maximum observed loss for the period. Your maximum account drawdown was 50%. ❗️Different types of drawdown give a lot of insights about a trading strategy. Its proper assessment will help to spot a high risk strategy and to find a conservative one. Constantly monitor your account drawdown and always check the numbers. What is your highest account drawdown? ❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section. Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
Education
by VasilyTrader
15
How to calculate which lot size to useAs mentioned several times before, we risk 1% of our total trading capital per transaction. In simple terms, we risk 1 egg out of the 100 that we have in the basket in an attempt to get more eggs. However, even though the average price mark where we place our Stop Loss is 30-60 pips away from the entry price, SL levels set differ from one trade to another, and different currency pairs have various differences in pricing (major pairs have small differences for the most part, while minor and cross-pairs have big gaps in pricing). This article will demonstrate 3 random scenarios and illustrate which lot sizing is needed to be used based on the Stop Loss set and the percentage of the total capital risked while taking into account the size of the trading account. All numbers are imaginary in order to diversify the visualisation of the portrayed examples and give a better understanding of the case. Enjoy the idea and don't forget to drop your questions in the comment box below!
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by Investroy
42
📖 STEP 5 to MASTER TRADING: Create a Checklist 📖 🟩 Checklist is the necessary and essential part of your trading plan 🟩 If you already have a trading plan - that’s really great. Now it’s time to take one step further and create a checklist. You will refer to it before each and every trade, and you’ll enter only if 100% of the checklist is present. You can have different kinds of trading plan, it can have 5 or 50 pages - and it will describe your overall approach. Unfortunately, when it comes to executing your edge in the market, it’s very easy to bend your rules “just a little bit”, and all of a sudden you find yourself taking trade that is only a distant reminder of your actual trading setup. Most traders will damage their account not because their strategy is bad but because they start to take random set up outside of their trading edge. Blowing the account usually doesn’t take more than several hours of emotional trading. So that’s why it’s essential to have a short and clear checklist, usually up to 10 sentences usually that describes, point by point, what your trade entry looks like. You can even check every point before entering a trade (I do it). Of course, with time you’ll perfectly remember that checklist, but it’s also important to honestly follow it without checking every time, and the rule-following skill itself is a separate topic. 🟩 You're trading randomly if you don't have a checklist 🟩 Think about it. How many traders are constantly looking for “something else”, one more strategy. Instead of grinding deep into some specific concept, pattern or trading system, they will run to the next one with the first normal losses. They are running on the surfice for years instead of going deep to the core of trading - which, in my opinion, is the perfection of one strategy. Sometimes they even find what they like and what starts to show some kind of results. But then some time passes, and after any kind of emotional stress (would it be euphoria after a winner or fear and anger after a loser), he can start to deviate from his rules. A beginner can be so emotional that he can enter random trades, one after another, in the course of a few hours, destroying a big part of his account. There are a lot of other issues behind such inefficient behavior, however, a checklist is one of the first steps to handling it. Because if you don’t truly know what you’re looking for at the market, you’ll take the first trade you’ll find. 🟩 "Right or wrong" mentality is a fundamental flaw 🟩 You’re only right when you’re following your rules, and you’re only wrong when you take random setups. Again: even if you have a loser but you followed your setup - you're right, and even if you have crazy profit but it was a random trade - you're wrong, because this approach is not stable long-term. Yes, traders do predict the price movements in a way, but only as a side effect of following their rules and executing their system. A trader will not be fixed on his predictions, and because he drew a box or a line, he will not expect the market to obey his colored drawings. A trader’s job is to take a setup based on his experience and testing, and he should let go of the expectations and his trade, managing on the way of course. This is a very deep question, in my opinion, and deserves a separate post later. That’s why next time when you’ll see someone asking: “Should I buy or sell sir?”, you can surely tell the person is in the very beginning of his journey. 🟩 How to create a checklist? 🟩 Take a moment and describe in the short form how does your entry look like. What are your rules for Structure, Zones of interest, what is your entry confirmation, and what is your risk and management? I like to actually checkmark every point before each of my trades, so I’m sure I’m following my plan. Here’s an example of what my checklist looks like: 🎁Bonus for everyone still reading :) If you’re struggling with any discipline issues, ask yourself a question: “If I would receive a fully funded 100k account, for free, would I start to follow my rules and would I be more disciplined than I am now, and would I start “trading the right way” at last?” Try to be honest with yourself. It may seem strange, but many novice traders think that something should happen before they will “really stick to their plan”. It could be “just one more good winner”, or “if only I had bigger capital”, or “when I finish this yet one more educational course’’ - and AFTER that I’ll do what I know I should be doing. So, if your answer to that question is yes, then this is a clear indication you’re still in a very beginner mindset. Try to realize that ANY external change will not change the way you are. You need to change yourself FIRST, the way you behave in the markets and your mindset, and then everything external will follow.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
19
Learn TOP 5 Tips For Trade Management 📖 Hey traders, In this post, I will share with you my tips for trade management. But first, let me elaborate on what is exactly a trade management. Trade management is the set of rules and techniques applied for managing of an already active position. Trade management is a very important element of any trading strategy that should never be neglected. 1. Never remove a stop loss Being in a huge loss, many traders refuse to admit that they are wrong. Instead, watching how the price moves closer and closer to a stop loss, they remove stop loss hoping on a coming reversal. The alternative situation may happen when the price is going sharply in the desired direction. Watching the increasing profits, traders remove a stop loss, being afraid to miss bigger profits. Both situations may lead to substantial, higher than initially planned losses. Driven by many factors, the market can easily burn all gains and move against the desired direction much longer than traders stay solvent. For these reasons, never remove a stop loss. It must be always set. 2. Never modify your stop loss if a position is in loss Watching how the price moves closer and closer to a stop loss is painful. Instead of removing stop loss, some traders move it and give the market more space for reversal. Even though such a technique is safer than the complete stop loss removal, it is still a very bad habit. Each stop loss adjustment increases the potential loss, not giving any guarantees that the market will reverse. It is highly recommendable to keep your stop loss fixed and let the price hit it and admit the loss. 3. Know in advance your profit protection strategy Where do you take your profit? Do you have a fixed tp level or do you apply trailing stop? You should always know the answers. Coiling around take profit level but not being able to reach it, the price makes many traders manually close the trade or move take profit closer to current price levels. Another common situation happens when the market so quickly reaches the desired TP level so the traders remove TP hoping to make bigger than initially planned profit. Such emotional interventions negatively affect a long-term trading performance. TP removal may even burn all profits. Do not let your greed intervene, and always follow your rules. 4. Never add to a losing position Watching how the price refuses to go in the intended direction and cutting a partial loss, many traders add to a losing trade in hopes that the market will reverse and all the losses will be recovered. Again, such a fallacy usually leads to substantial losses. Remember, you can add to a position only AFTER the market moved in the desired direction, not BEFORE. 5. Close the trades manually only following rules Quite often, newbie traders manually close their trades because of some random factors: they saw someone's opposite view, or they simply changed their mind. Remember, that if you opened a trade following your trading plan, you should always have strict rules for a position manual close. Do not let random factors affect your trading. Following these 5 simple tips, your trading will improve dramatically. Remember, that it is not enough to spot and accurate entry. Once you are in a trade, you should wisely manage that, following your plan. ❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section. Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by VasilyTrader
5
Eur/Cad Monthly Timeframe (Sad or Happy Smiley Face Indicator). From the past seven years (7 years) of monthly Euro/Canadian Dollar pair, the following happen: 5 years- monthly ended up Green (Blue Candle) Happy smiley face (buyers won) and 2 years- monthly ended up Red (Red Candle) Sad smiley face (sellers won) That is around a 70% buyers winning the month of August vs 30% sellers losing the month of August= for the last 7 years. If you are playing the odds and or trading Forex with probabilities in mind, you would put more buying trades on for the rest of August because of the cycler nature of Forex. Always look at how low the RSI scale right now, which measures movement of pair (its down very low now). I would continue buying when this pair is at the right price, during right session and at the right time of day, in my opinion the Eur/Cad pair will end up at 1.32000 by end of this month. That is around 150 pips to bullish side, from PA now. Always, use right risk management for your account size, 2% is mine.
Education
by Anbat
GUIDE TO TRADING EUR/JPY (highest traded non USD pair in forex)Why is EUR/JPY important to traders? One of the popular pairings across the worldwide foreign exchange market is EUR/JPY. It represents around 4% of all daily transactions. Investors and traders alike look to the euro/Japanese yen currency pair because high levels of volatility can provide plenty of trading opportunities. There are major factors that can influence their rates, and how and why people choose to trade EUR/JPY using CFDs (contracts for difference) on forex. Fundamental Aspects of EUR/JPY pair: Major factors throughout both Europe and Japan affect the euro yen exchange rate. As with most regions, factors that can have knock-on effects are usually fairly broad and similar in nature. Japan, however, has some interesting key points that differ from the norm, which we'll explain in more detail. Like most modern currencies, the major factors which influence the movement of euro prices are mainly economic, political, and financial. Many of the ways in which the euro is affected will already be familiar to people who have a basic knowledge of how traders try to determine which way prices of currencies like the euro will move. Monthly reports which are released by the European Central Bank (ECB) form the backbone of many traders' decisions regarding the euro. Investors and traders are quick to scour these details as soon as they are released in an effort to find out more about what direction the euro could be heading. Economically, news releases surrounding employment can play a huge part in the oscillation of euro rates. These figures are freely available and provide a valuable insight into the health of Europe's economy and direction in which euro prices could go. The economy of Japan has a few more factors in play that can affect the rate of their currency. General health of the economy will play a massive part, with the high rate of import and export trading in Japan helping to boost or weigh on prices, depending on the state of the industry. One of the influencing factors that you're less likely to find in other countries is, surprisingly, the rate of natural disasters which occur in the region. Due to the small size of the country, events like natural disasters can affect the currency’s value immensely. The government of Japan often utilizes economic initiatives in an effort to bolster the economy. As a result, many traders and investors pay extremely close attention to interest rates and government interventions from financial institutions such as the Bank of Japan (BOJ). Another regular factor that traders watch out for is the details within data reports such as the Tankan Report, the Tokyo Area CPI and the aforementioned interest rate decisions of the BOJ. These help to determine various financial paths that yen may follow. How & When To Trade EUR/JPY: Best is when currency is most volatile. The EUR/JPY is generally busy between 07:30 and 15:30 (GMT). Convert To Your Time. Tokyo and London overlap two -three hours is great when there our two major sessions trading at one time. Yen is currency of Japan, and third most widely traded currency in world after US Dollar and the Euro. It is possible to make a significant profit within just a short time when trading EUR/JPY.
Education
by Anbat
4
Trading needs to be treated like a business 🧑‍💼This is spoken about a lot but what does it mean?⁠ In starting a business you would need funding and a business plan, right?⁠ ⁠ You would have realistic goals mapped out and be focused on your cashflow.⁠ ⁠ You wouldn't blow your 'cash' in recruiting too fast, or buying too much stock or spending too much on marketing.⁠ ⁠ Yet, in trading most don't have a plan. Or focus on protecting their cash.⁠ ⁠ They also don't think long term in line with their plan.⁠ ⁠ They over estimate their expectations short term and in doing so mess up what they could achieve long term. ⁠ You just wouldn't do this in business right? No one would open or run a business you knew nothing about. Most come in to trading thinking this will be easy! It's not and we all come in knowing nothing. So again would you start any other business with no training or idea? Most can keep the trading cash flow topped up as we all start out on this journey having another job to fund trading. There is no such thing as a sure-fire way to make money online. However, if you seriously want to make money out of forex trading it needs treating like a business. In a lot of ways, being a trader is like being an entrepreneur. It takes more than just knowledge and a killer idea. It also takes hard work, discipline and mental preparation. The reason it’s a good idea to treat forex trading like a business is because as a trader, your account is your own business. Trading isn't about the quick money it's about being consistent. That consistency comes from having a plan and sticking to it much like you would a business plan. Treat losses as a cost of business and factor them into the plan. The business plan for you the trader will be the strategy and risk management you opt to run. Set realistic targets and goals this will ensure suitability, Much how good businesses set up there own goals and aims for coming year with out being to risky. If you lack on the knowledge front in certain areas invest in education and training, No successful business neglects training and learning. Invest in resources that will help your business grow. Yes TradingView is free but having a higher package and more data help me just as an example. There is no other business in the world like trading where the over heads and start up cost are low, So if paid resources can kick you on to next level factor them in as a cost of business. Keep treating trading as a hobby and it becomes an expensive one. Start treating trading as a business with the ethos and cultures applied the same as those of successful businesses and that profit starts to come naturally. Thanks for taking the time to read my idea. Hope you all have a good weekend Darren 👍 ⁠
Education
by pow_removetheguesswork
57
Some helpful trading tips ✅✅Trading Advise from Richard Dennis who turned a $400 trading account into $200 million. 1. Whatever method you use to enter trades, the most critical thing is that if there is a major trend, your approach should assure that you get in that trend. 2. A good trend following system will keep you in the market until there is evidence that the trend has changed. 3. When you have a position, you put it on for a reason, and you’ve got to keep it until the reason no longer exists. 4. You should expect the unexpected in this business; expect the extreme. Don’t think in terms of boundaries that limit what the market might do. 5.  Trading decisions should be made as unemotionally as possible. 6. Trade small because that’s when you are as bad as you are ever going to be. Learn from your mistakes.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by cryptobrainbox
Stop Loss Alone is not Risk Management - What is Your SystemTo be successful, you must develop consistency in your trading. You can achieve this by creating a system to trade. One that provides an edge to fit your lifestyle and personality. Discipline is required to stick to your system so that you can measure results (wins and losses) over a large number of trades. A simple journal helps you to measure your trades. This provides edge and success unfolds over time, requiring a strong mindset to create, adhere and measure. Goals are achievable through steps that are part of the process. Things to consider when developing your system are: Market Phase, Price Structure, Areas of Value, Areas of Entries as well as Exits, Multi Time Frame Analysis, Trend Lines, Support and Resistance, Dynamic Support and Resistance etc. Pro Tip: Trade clean and don't clutter your charts. Trade around a couple of levels with a single indicator. Be PATIENT to let trades come to you once you have made a trading plan. And when the market enters your zone, be READY to take action and trigger your entry based on rules. If you're a new trader or a struggling trader, feel free to reach out and ask me a question. If you liked this idea or if you have your own opinion about it, write in the comments. The information and publications are not meant to be, and do not constitute, financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice or recommendations.
Education
by imr4nkh8n
ETH/USD Main trend. Accumulation/Distribution. Pivot pointsThe chart shows the main trend (most of it) of this cryptocurrency. The timeframe is 1 week. Most people "trade" and do not understand the profit values of the price from the real set zones (not hamsters). Also shown are the recruitment zones (horizontal channel) and partial reset zones (until the triangle decoupling) of previously gained positions of large market participants. The last video explained this in detail and showed it on the example of this coin. Even taking into account that this triangle (1.5 years) is a position reset. That doesn't mean that this formation must necessarily break down. But, this is something to keep in mind, especially the +3600%. Volatility narrowing, that is, the end of triangle formation is a “doubt zone”—the “market fuel” (small and medium market participants) for the impulse is clamped down. That is, the decoupling of the triangle and the direction of further trend development. The price is clamped into a triangle. A formation of this magnitude will only unravel due to future world shocks, especially financial ones. Who knows, maybe this time there will be no correlation at all, as the time of "coming out of the shadows" approaches. Always trade within your working range (for example 1 day), always understand where the price is in the main trend. Based on this understanding, limit the risks, and make a decision about reducing (partial liquidation) or, on the contrary, about adding to the position. Locally on the 1-day timeframe a wedge is formed on the decline. I've shown all the decoupling options for this trading situation in detail in this trading idea, as well as in the video. ETH/USDT Local trend. Channel. Wedge. Pivot zones. Under idea fixed my previous trading as well as training/trading ideas where I accompanied the price in updates for quite a long period. Note the exact values and more. You can use the material in them as educational, based on reality. Remember, the basis of trading is not guessing (that's what everyone wants to do), but your trading strategy and risk management based on your knowledge and experience. Those who want to guess tend to lose money. Do not be such characters in the market, that is, its fuel. I wish all smart people a big profit, and wish all stupid people to wake up from the dream of stupidity.
Education
by SpartaBTC
6
✍️WEEKLY QUOTE: Can we change our beliefs about the market?✍️..Each time I experienced a conflicting thought and was able to successfully refocus on my objective, with enough conviction to get me into my running shoes and out the door, I added energy to the belief that "I am a runner." And, just as important, I inadvertently drew energy away from all of the beliefs that would argue otherwise. ..Beliefs can be changed, and if it's possible to change one belief, then it's possible to change any belief if you understand that you really aren't changing them, but are only transferring energy from one concept to another. Therefore, two completely contradictory beliefs can exist in your mental system, side by side. But if you've drawn the energy out of one belief and completely energized the other, no contradiction exists from a functional perspective; only the belief that the energy will have the capacity to act as a force on your state of mind, on your perception and interpretation of information, and your behavior. ..Remember that consistency is not the same as the ability to put on a winning trade, or even a string of winning trades for that matter, because putting on a winning trade requires absolutely no skill. All you have to do is guess correctly, which is no different than guessing the outcome of a coin toss, whereas consistency is a state of mind that, once achieved, won't allow you to "be" any other way. You won't have to try to be consistent because it will be a natural function of your identity In fact, if you have to try, it's an indication that you haven't completely integrated the principles of consistent success as dominant, unconflicted beliefs. For example, predefining your risk is a step in the process of "being consistent." If it takes any special effort to predefine your risk, if you have to consciously remind yourself to do it if you experience any conflicting thoughts (in essence, trying to talk you out of doing it), or if you find yourself in a trade where you haven't predefined your risk, then this principle is not dominant, functioning part of your identity. It isn't "who you are." If it were, it wouldn't even occur to you not to predefine your risk. If and when all of the sources of conflict have been deactivated, there's no longer a potential for you to "be" any other way. What was once a struggle will become virtually effortless. At that point, it may seem to other people that you are so disciplined (because you can do something they find difficult, if not impossible), but the reality is that you aren't being disciplined at all; you are simply functioning from a different set of beliefs that compel you to behave in a way that is consistent with your desires, goals, or objectives From Trading in the Zone by M. Douglas
COINBASE:ETHUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
4
3 Rules To Follow When Trading While Working Full-Time👋 Hello, and welcome my name is Dean Muller from WealthTIP where our tip for wealth is to trade invest and prosper, today’s post is focused on the 3 rules that I believe you need to follow if you want to actively and successfully trade the markets while still working a full-time job, business, or side hustle. So, if you enjoy this type of content then go ahead to leave a thumbs up and that way we know that we’re on the right track to meeting your content needs. Now that we covered that, let’s jump over to the first rule you need to implement as a trader, working full-time. 1. 📝 Create a Watchlist I remember when I started trading I only traded one pair, and that was the GBPUSD, as I began honing in on my skills as a technical trader, I started looking at a few more pairs, and the more pairs I looked at the more opportunities I saw, the problem was however, that I wasn’t able to keep up with the movements of each pair and this coursed me to lose focus on the pairs I had positions on and ultimately mismanage a lot of the trades. I then reached out to a good friend of mine and he suggested I create a watchlist now at the time I had absolutely no clue what a watchlist was, and if you don’t know what it is, it’s simply a list of pairs that according to your strategy has potential trade setups coming together with a probabilistic profitable outcome. Now if you would like me to do a video showing you how to put a watchlist together, then simply write a comment in the comment section below and if we get 100 likes on this video then I will be happy to put one together, but for now This is a cardinal rule for anyone trading, while still working full-time. 2. ⏰ Set Trade Alerts When you are working, vary rarely are you able to access the charts freely, this means that you could miss out on the very opportunities you identified when you put your watchlist together. The best way to combat this is to use platforms like tradingview that allows you to set trade alerts that will notify you when the market is on an area you deem significant. Setting these alerts ensures that you aren’t distracted by the charts while you working and you won’t have to check your phone every 5 min, instead, you only jump on the charts once you are notified, making it easier to focus on your job, while still having a hand in the markets. 3.🎯 Use Pending Orders Pending orders are a powerful tool that trading platforms provide all traders with, and no one benefits more from pending orders than someone working a full-time job. Personally after putting my watchlist together I have a good idea with regards to where I intend to enter the markets, and because I do my watchlist over the weekend when the markets are closed, I set all my pending orders as soon as the markets opens Sunday midnight. What this allows me, is the freedom to focus on other things while still having a hand in the markets. Now if you would like to know more about how you can use pending orders to make your trading easier give this video a thumbs up and I will be sure to put that into our project list. And always remember, if you frustrated, annoyed, angry or anxious when trading, then you doing it wrong, and should check out our Foundation Series, where we explain the process to successful technical analysis in a plain, and simple way. Furthermore, I really do hope that you were able to extract some value from today’s post, and if you did be sure to hit like and share so that we can continue creating content that not only serves you, but equips you to successfully and joyfully navigate your way through the financial markets. So until next time, you should keep well and bye for now.
Education
by DeanMuller
What to do on the weekends?When I first started trading back in 2014 I used to hate weekends and love Mondays. In that I found great sense of pride that unlike other people I liked Mondays instead of hating them. Every time markets closed on Sunday I would constantly wish for weekends to pass asap and start trading the next week. It was needed for that period in time. Fast forward 8 years later, and I actually learned to find a remarkable balance by enjoying the Friday evening with my family and friends, having a rather relaxing day on Saturday, and some needed off-market hours on Sunday. Here are some tips on how to reframe that view to get better balance on life outside trading, and trading outside life. (Some of these may not be 100% applicable to you, but sharing experiences is always helpful to pick a thing or two for each other). 1. After end of trading session on Friday (whatever your hours are) close your computer and walk away no matter the current weekly or daily PnL. If in a trade - manage it by moving stops appropriately and let it go. Take the evening off to do what we like. Dinner out, watching movies, going to bed earlier, whatever floats your boat. The key here is to disconnect from the market completely. Let the mind come to the non-trading mode. When we are trading we are operating with uncertainty, disconnecting from the market thus by definition means disconnecting from uncertainty. Being out of uncertainty for a day or two creates a relaxed mind that will be ready to pounce in the coming weeks. It might be hard for people starting out, but the long-term benefits of actually unplugging on Friday evening is way underrated. 2. On Saturday, if possible and you have no other obligations, treat yourself an extra hour of sleep. Getting enough sleep is a risk-management strategy as lack of it creates a lopsided perception of risk in our minds. Thus, by definition, getting more sleep removes this lopsidedness. On weekdays it's not often possible to sleep in, so getting just an extra bit of rest of Saturdays gives little bit of edge for the next week. Rest of the day is obviously unique to everyone of us, but the key in my opinion here is to keep being unplugged from the market. Not checking how the weekly candle closed, or how Friday NY closed - it doesn't matter on Saturday. Markets are closed they are not going anywhere. By rushing in we create hesitancy, and by creating hesitancy we practice opposite of patience. Instead, by remaining unplugged we practice detachment, a much needed quality to trade effectively. 3. On Sundays take a few hours (or whatever time you need) to do all the trading related work: Journaling review, self-review, price action closes, prepare for the coming week by placing drawings and so forth. It's very relaxing to do charting and trading related work when markets are closed. There is no rush. It's poise and calm. Working once a week in that environment and actually preparing for Monday creates huge edge. 4. On Monday, and that is optional but I kinda like to do it sometimes, although at current time I am stretching myself by not doing that, but I will come back to doing that in 2-3 months, so, risk only half of what you usually risk. I like to call that a warm up day. After a period of more than 2 days of not being in the environment of uncertainty it's not necessary to just jump in with full risk. Starting Monday with only half risk helps us to ease in into the week. In case of profits - we still make them, in case of losses - they are limited, thus after some rest we reduce its effect on us and we ensure that after warmup we can be ready to strike on Tuesday. 5. Tuesday-Friday - proceed as normal, rinse and repeat. For me, Mondays are least profitable day anyway. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions, or share your routines and how you treat weekends? On to the next one. Lightwork_
Education
by Lightwork_
Why do most ppl fail as retail tradrers?I see two main reasons which complement each other for the high rate of failure. First and foremost, the media and the industry promote this idea that it’s easy to become a profitable trader and anybody can go it. This is, of course, not true. Theoretically, anybody can do it if willing to put the effort and approach it as a business. Practically almost nobody approaches trading with the same rigorousness as any other professional endeavor. Let’s put aside the first reason, about which there is not much we can do. A big chunk of the industry relies on peoples being naive and we’re not going to change that. On top of the first reason, we have a second reason related to people themselves. Most of those who try trading financial markets simply don’t manage their emotions and risk well enough to survive the learning curve. Managing your own emotions turns out to be a complex endeavor and constantly changing market conditions lengthen the learning curve. One of the things that makes this business so attractive is also the main thing that makes it so difficult to master. The direct and sometimes violent feedback you receive from the market, after each trading decision, has an astonishing impact on a human’s ability to keep his psychological well being in check and control his own reactions. It has the potential to disrupt executive functions and trigger instinctual “fight or flight” responses. This leads to emotional trading or trading on tilt which quickly generates more losses than any other mistake you could make in this business. Most other jobs have a protective buffer zone between usual day to day work decisions and the ultimate feedback — end of the month paycheck. This profession doesn’t. Every little call you make has an immediate impact on your capital. Every little mistake can take a portion of your capital away and every good decision can bring it all back and more. This kind of psychological exposure is heavily distressful and being aware of its mechanisms makes a huge difference. So … psychology differentiates the pro. Don’t get me wrong … professional discretionary traders are not emotionless but are much more aware and in control of their reactions. The successful pro deeply understands that trading is mainly about people's perceptions and the rest are just details. You may ask yourself how can such a level be reached? A starting point is to stay away from any market, financial instrument, time frame, trading technique, or any combination of those that doesn’t fit who you are deep inside. The least the exposure to triggers that can awake the demons within, the best. Always seek strategies that you understand and match your inner self. For example … if you are impatient trade shorter time frames, if you are very risk-averse don’t use huge margin, if you are risk-averse but you don’t have enough capital use margin with a tight risk management (maybe options), if you have a statistical mind try quantitative approaches etc. There are infinite possibilities to adapt to yourself and is a must to do it if you want to have a chance. It always amuses me to see the vast majority of educational resources geared towards what market does when most of the success in this business is knowing how you adapt to the market, whatever it may do. And, of course, the market is, more or less, the other traders. Best of luck! Mihai Iacob
COINBASE:BTCUSDEducation
by Mihai_Iacob
19
📖 STEP 4 to MASTER TRADING: Focus on One Pattern 📖 "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee We, traders, have a natural passion for learning and that’s really great and helps us build that foundation for trading. However, a moment comes when enough is enough and it’s time to focus on something more specific. But very often, we can make the unconscious mistake of trying to learn as much as possible, without even questioning if we really need it at the moment. 🟩 TOO MUCH INFORMATION For anyone eager to learn, the information is there. In fact, too much information, and naturally, it can be hard to stop learning. Sometimes we just feel we need to learn about one more pattern, one more strategy, one more approach. And it may seem that more knowledge will bring quality. And that’s true when you just start trading, however, later in your career, it makes sense to think and ask yourself: “Do I really need one more strategy which I know on an average level, or should I maybe focus on one strategy, or one pattern of any given strategy - and really master it, and refine it to the very deep level of understanding?” 🟩 IT’S UNCOMFORTABLE TO LET GO This part can be discussed for a long time, but based on what was said before, it’s literally uncomfortable for traders to let go of this habit of trying to trade multiple patterns, and learn more patterns in between. I’m not sure why this is so, there must be some psychological reasoning for this, but in simple words, every new trading pattern can be treated by us as a new opportunity to make profits in the market. And so when we stop learning more patterns - it can feel like we’re missing something. And it may seem that the more we trade, the more patterns we can use - the more profit we can bank because we can enter into the market based on different patterns. And while that may be true to some genius traders, for most of us it doesn’t work that well. More importantly - we don’t need to do it. It’s enough to master 1-2 patterns of a given system we believe in and tested, and so have confidence in it. I propose you consider “cutting off” 90% of your trading knowledge and focus only on executing 1-2 patterns max. Think about it. If you’re like me, you should feel really uncomfortable or even scared to do this. It may even seem stupid. Because it means you should let go of all the time you dedicated to learning, and maybe even trading with some systems before. But it’s an illusion because that time and effort - they are not lost, you can’t lose them, they are part of you now, part of your experience, something that led you to finally choose something you will work with really closely. But if you will attach to everything you learned before – this will confuse you and spray your focus all over the place, making it much harder to become a specialized, professional trader. 🟩 FOCUS ON YOUR BEST PATTERN ONLY When the time comes, and you’ve tried several strategies, it now makes sense to stop exploring additional systems and just focus on one system and learn everything about it. For example, if you’re trading head and shoulders, then stop trading double tops and bottoms, break and retest, and diamond patterns. Why? Because head and shoulders are not just 5 lines on the chart, it has numerous variations in how it plays out in the market, in different markets, sessions, and contexts. And you have to know it, see it, test it, and refine it. Become a master of head and shoulders, or any other specific pattern and trading approach, and be profitable with it. And if profitability is there - you can move on to another pattern, but at that stage, you will not need it probably. 🟩 HINDSIGHT TEST, BACKTEST, FORWARDTEST, REFINE It’s a great practice to have a “hindsight journal” and your backtesting journal, that will only be about that pattern you chose to trade. And there could be several reasons for choosing some particular pattern. But usually, it comes from your mentor or anyone else that you saw who reached sustainable profitability with it, and you believed in this pattern. But that would not be enough. You can’t tell your brain - believe in this. You need to actually show and prove it to your brain and to yourself. So you need to backtest this pattern, and only this pattern for at least 150 trades. This will help you to develop real confidence in the system. 🟩 YES, IT CAN BE HARD TO FIND “YOUR” SYSTEM I spent almost 3 years before I really found something I was willing to stick to long-term. Not sure if there’s actually good advice on how to find the system for yourself. It depends on your personality, your lifestyle, etc. Based on my experience, I would say just continue to learn and listen to yourself. Most likely you’ll find some trader or a mentor and you’ll like his trading style. Try to replicate it, and stick to his system. With time, and during journaling and live testing, it will all develop into your own system. Yes, it may look similar to your mentor’s but it will be your system. And once again, a trading system can have different kinds of entry confirmations, but it makes big sense to choose 1 or 2 confirmations and master them. 🎁 For those who are still reading :), thank you, and here’s BONUS trading hack for you. Next time during your trading day, when you'll feel something is wrong, maybe you're frustrated or just feel like your discipline starts to slip away, or maybe even you catch yourself thinking about entering without entry pattern or risk more than usual - realize that's your "monkey brain" stepping in. It's very hard to control, but easy to trick. Here's what you should do. Say to yourself: "Ok, I'll do whatever I like, place any kind of trade with the risk of half of the account if I want, BUT after 20 min. pass." Then you just start a timer (you can google "timer 20 min.") and do whatever you like after that 20 minutes. Usually what happens is you calm down and don't do stupid things. It very simple but effective technique. 🚀Thanks for your BOOSTS and support🚀 💬Send your comments and questions below, I'll be glad to talk to you💬 Dima
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
19
Trading Psychology | How to Perceive Your Trades 👁 Hey traders, In this post, we will discuss a common fallacy among struggling traders: overestimation of a one single trade. 💡The fact is that quite often, watching the performance of an active trading position, traders quite painfully react to the price being closer and closer to a stop loss or, alternatively, coiling close to a take profit but not being managed to reach that. Fear of loss make traders make emotional decisions: extending stop loss or preliminary position closing. The situation becomes even worse, when after the set of the above-mentioned manipulation, the price nevertheless reaches the stop loss. Just one single losing trade is usually perceived too personally and make the traders even doubt the efficiency of their trading system. They start changing rules in their strategy, then stop following the trading plan, leading to even more losses. ❗️However, what matters in trading is your long-term composite performance. A single position is just one brick in a wall. As Peter Lynch nicely mentioned: “In this business, if you’re good, you’re right six times out of ten. You’re never going to be right nine times out of ten.” There are so many factors that are driving the markets that it is impossible to take into consideration them all. And because of that fact, we lose. The attached chart perfectly illustrates the insignificance of a one trading in a long-term composite performance. Please, realize that losing trades are inevitable, and overestimation of their impact on your trading performance is detrimental. Instead, calibrate your strategy so that it would produce long-term, consistent positive results. That is your goal as a trader. ❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section. Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
Education
by VasilyTrader
15
✍️WEEKLY QUOTE: How to be rigid and flexible at the same time?✍️ In what way does a trader have to learn how to be rigid and flexible at the same time? The answer is: We have to be rigid in our rules and flexible in our expectations 🟢We need to be rigid in our rules so that we gain a sense of self-trust that can, and will always, protect us in an environment that has few, if any, boundaries. We need to be flexible in our expectations so we can perceive, with the greatest degree of clarity and objectivity, what the market is communicating to us from its perspective. At this point, it probably goes without saying that the typical trader does just the opposite: He is flexible in his rules and rigid in his expectations. Interestingly enough, the more rigid the expectation, the more he has to either bend, violate, or break his rules in order to accommodate his unwillingness to give up what he wants in favor of what the market is offering. 🟢To eliminate the emotional risk of trading, you have to neutralize your expectations about what the market will or will not do at any given moment or in any given situation. You can do this by being willing to think from the market's perspective. Remember, the market is always communicating in probabilities. At the collective level, your edge may look perfect in every respect; but at the individual level, every trader who has the potential to act as a force on price movement can negate the positive outcome of that edge. To think in probabilities, you have to create a mental framework or mindset that is consistent with the underlying principles of a probabilistic environment. 💡 A probabilistic mindset consists of five fundamental truths.💡 1. Anything can happen. 2. You don't need to know what is going to happen next in order to make money. 3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge. 4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another. 5. Every moment in the market is unique. From Trading in the Zone, by M. Douglas ❤️Please, support this post with like and comments!❤️
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
4