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Showing posts from September, 2020

Maximizing Your Profits with Scoring

SETTING YOUR MAXIMUM INTRADAY TRADING LOSS First things first: set a max intraday trading loss. There will be days when you just do not have it. Why do you think coaches pull their players when they are not playing well? They are more harmful on the field than off. When you are underperforming, you are hurting your team and your trading business. You need a system to yank yourself over to the bench. A stop loss is your answer. TRADING BASED UPON THE TIME OF DAY A good trader makes note of what time of day it is, when he trades most profitably, and adjusts his trading to fit such times. Your numbers at the end of the month will not reflect your true trading potential. Make the most trades with the most size during the trading periods that statistically are most profitable for you. Money saved during your weaker trading periods is money earned. Consistency The fact is that most trades you make will start working for you right away. But the new traders also hold stocks that are trading ag...

Reading the Tape

 Dr. Steenbarger, aka the godfather of modern trading psychology, wrote: “My experience is that an understanding of (and ability to read) order flow is one important factor that separates the older, successful generation of day traders from the newbies who only know simple chart patterns and indicator readings.” continue working on the skill of reading the tape and to sell the stock on the offer when the tape showed weakness. “Reading the tape must be learned through personal experience and long observation.” keep in mind that nothing can top experience. Don’t give up. It is not always this easy to Read the Tape. But there are plays where it really is simple. And reading the tape will offer pattern recognition plays that you can exploit. Overcoming a Confirmation Bias We all fight confirmation bias. But it will harm our performance if we do not overcome it. Let the tape talk to you. And use online vehicles like StockTwits and your peers sitting next to you to gain second ...

The Importance of Being in the Right Stocks

 As mankind has proven time and time again, human emotion will trump even the best of automated intentions. And to understand that past data may not help you in a current market. you have a choice. You can spend your energy complaining or you can compete. what a trader must never do, is make excuses. SHORTENING THE LEARNING CURVE The volatility of the markets transformed one trading day into the equivalent of five trading sessions of market patterns. Since you are trading a stock that is moving more intraday, you are seeing more market patterns. And as a result, you are gaining added experience over someone who might just be trading a basket of stocks.  Using the “five trading days” equivalent from above, think of it as the difference between taking 250 free throws in your driveway before going in to dinner, instead of the normal 50, but in the same amount of time. Trading the Stocks In Play will speed up your learning curve. FINDING STOCKS IN PLAY  Stocks In Play general...

CONSISTENCY

 There are three basic reasons for such a high level of success: 1. They develop a skill set over time that allows them to get in and out of stocks efficiently 2. They develop pattern recognition skills that enable them to accurately assess their risk versus reward 3. They are in the RIGHT stocks The RIGHT stocks are those that we have identified as Stocks In Play. These stocks will have greater order flow than normal. This does several things that gives you an advantage: (1) increased order flow increases liquidity, which allows you to risk less on each entry and exit from a position: (2) the greater order flow creates additional volatility, which leads to many favorable risk/reward scenarios during the day; and (3) the large number of orders will overwhelm the dopey algorithmic trading programs, which results in a stock moving more cleanly. Earnings Stocks Traders should choose no more than two or three of these stocks each day to focus on. You can make a lot more money trading o...

Getting Technical

TRADERS ASK: “HOW DO I FIND THE RIGHT STOCKS?” WHAT IS A STOCK IN PLAY? What is a Stock In Play? This could be, in no particular order:   A stock with fresh news   A stock that is up or down more than 3 percent before the Open   A stock that does more than one million shares of volume  A stock that will move more than 3 points intraday   A stock that will have real order flow and develop important intraday levels, which we can trade off of We trade Stocks In Play because they:   Allow us to be most efficient with our capital.   Offer MORE excellent risk/reward opportunities intraday.   Ensure additional opportunities to load up.   Allow us to execute our ideas and trading rules with more consistency.  Help us combat algorithmic programs.   Allow us to utilize our superior trading skills.   Help the developing trader develop faster. You do not need the markets to be active, just as long as one stock is a Stock In Play. WHAT I...
 Trading has gr8 uncertainty associated w/it. It’s also a place that gives little to no security . Also, trading is confrontational ... u have to stare at ur mistakes . It is natural to doubt your exit strategy. What is most important is to be asking the right questions. What is most important is to be thinking about the right stuff. And you are. You need experience exiting stocks that trade in your favor. After months of practice, you will improve. Just keep thinking about your exit strategy.  If you cannot stay in the game, then you cannot take advantage of the good runs. (Before you trade live, we review your work. We can tell how well you have listened by doing this.) If your demo trading shows large losses, then this is a signal that you are not listening. If your work shows that you are doubling down, then you are not listening. If you are trading too many stocks, then again, you are not listening. If you are trading the wrong stocks, then you are not preparing...

YOU MUST BELIEVE

 There is something that cannot be taught to new traders. You must believe that you will become great. At the start, you will most likely be net negative your first three months. You can look at this data and easily get discouraged. You can let this typical beginning data affect your fourth and fifth and sixth month, which will manifest more data that can convince you out of the market. If you do not believe, you will use this data as proof that you cannot become a successful trader. You can be a consistently profitable trader using a system that starts not yielding profits. You will have to tweak this system just a little to make money once the market changes. If you do not believe instead of tweaking the system and then measuring your results, you become consumed with your bad results. You lose confidence. You start to question whether tweaking your system will work. And then this lack of confidence affects your every trade. Since you do not believe, now you have data to sup...

Live to Play Another Day

If you can just find a way to hang in there, then the good times will come. If you can find a way to stay in the game, then you can become an experienced trader. But you have to survive. And some just can’t. DON’T FOCUS ON MAKING PREDICTIONS Mark Douglas in The Disciplined Trader wrote, “If you believe it likely to have a definite bullish or bearish effect marketwise, do not back your judgment until the action of the market itself confirms your opinion.” If I get caught long, spot an overly aggressive seller, the stock hits my exit prices, then I sell. I do not hold because I think that this overly aggressive seller is a putz. If I did, I would have blown up my trading account on multiple occasions by now. Once a stock hits my exit price, then I exit. I live to play another day. New traders sometimes make the error of believing that trading is about making predictions and that they can move the market with their 1,000 shares, or worse yet, their young opinions.  How Predictions Har...

THEY DON’T LOVE TRADING Part 2

 Some new traders expect to make money immediately, and when they don’t, they let this affect their work. When they do not see the results that they expected, they start to focus on the wrong things. Some increase their tier size, hoping that this will help them make more money. Some do not prepare as hard because they are discouraged. “What is the point of preparing hard if I cannot make money?” they ask themselves. They start to take chances that an experienced trader would not take. This leads to big rips and only compounds the problem. Now they are in a bigger hole. When you first begin, you must focus on the process. You must allow 8–12 months to become consistently profitable. If you are not willing or are unable to do this, then you should find another occupation. THEY’D RATHER BE RIGHT THAN MAKE MONEY There are some traders who just cannot admit that they are wrong. They develop a bias about a stock. When the stock does not trade as they expected, they are paralyzed. They i...

CHEROKEE WISDOM: TWO WOLVES

  An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.” “One is EVIL. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.” “The other is GOOD. He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.” “The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old chief simply replied, “The one you feed.”

THEY DON’T LOVE TRADING

 Prop traders have learned that their performance when the bell rings is determined by the work that they do before the market opens.  Those new traders who do not work hard do not do so because they do not love trading. There is so much to do before and after the Close. You will not do all of this work unless you love trading. You just won’t. The problem is that if you do not do all that the market requires, you will almost certainly fail. THEY CAN’T HIT STOCKS THAT TRADE AGAINST THEM  One of the fundamentals taught by active trading prop firms is to hit stocks that trade against you. Those who never master this fundamental will fail. Before every trade, you must develop a trading plan for where you will exit if your stock trades against you. Feed your mind with the ability to immediately hit stocks that trade against your price. THEY HAVE UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS It takes time to become a consistently profitable trader. There are many things that a prop firm d...

Why Traders Fail

 Reasons for failure include: not listening to the market, failing to hit stocks that trade against you, a need to be right, the unrealistic learning curve, thinking as an investor instead of a trader, and simply not loving trading. Trading is only for those with an ability to sustain their energy of working day in and day out at their craft—the discipline of trading. Trading is only for elite performers committed to a long journey of ups and downs, where you learn just how good you can be as a trader. THEY DON’T LISTEN TO THE MARKET Too many new traders think they know how to start. “Be the Best Listener.” If you are fortunate enough to join a solid trading firm, first things first: listen. And here’s another reminder: when you begin your trading career, despite all the books you’ve read, charts you’ve examined, balance sheets you’ve picked apart, or profits you’ve experienced in your PA, you do not know what you are doing. Listen and learn. Evan Lazarus, chief information of...

LEARN TO EXECUTE ORDERS QUICKLY

 Practice your execution skills daily. Create speed drills for yourself. Being fast and light is an advantage that the intraday trader must learn to exploit. As such, learning to be fast with your orders is a skill that you will have to master. FINE-TUNE YOUR FOCUS A bad start is just an opportunity to make a comeback. CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS Active intraday traders deal with rejection more than longer time frame traders. We trade more, so we are wrong more. If a losing trade sets you off, then this can affect your trades going forward. And this is dangerous. We call this trading on “tilt.” You are in an temporary emotional state where you are not thinking as clearly as you can. You are angry, or frustrated, or disappointed. And then you make decisions that you normally would not. And rips result. In short, you manifest trading data that does not reflect your ability.  A few days later Notorious Underperformer, a bright Ivy League graduate capable of much better trading res...