Archive for October, 2007

How to take a loss

Tuesday, 9 October, 2007

Brett N. Steenbarger, Ph.D.

There are quite a few books written on how to make money in the market. Some of them are even written by people who have made money as traders! What you don’t see often, however, are books or articles written on how to lose money. “Cut your losers and let your winners run” is commonsensical advice, but how do you determine when a position is a loser? Interestingly, most traders I have seen don’t formulate an answer to this question when they put on a position. They focus on the entry, but then don’t have a clear sense of exit—especially if that exit is going to put them into the red.

One of the real culprits, I have to believe, is in the difficulty traders have in separating the reality of a losing trade from the psychological sense of feeling like a loser. At some level, many traders equate losing with being a loser. This frustrates them, depresses them, makes them anxious—in short, it interferes with their future decision-making, because their P & L is a blank check written against their self-esteem. Once a trader is self-focused and not market focused, distortions in decision-making are inevitable.

A particularly valuable section of the classic book Reminiscences of a Stock Operator describes Livermore ‘s approach to buying stock. He would sell a quantity and see how the stock responded. Then he would do that again and again, testing the underlying demand for the issue. When his sales could not push the market down, then he would move aggressively to the buy side and make his money.

What I loved about this methodology is that Livermore‘s losses were part of a grander plan. He wasn’t just losing money; he was paying for information. If my maximum position size is ten contracts in the ES and I buy the highs of a range with a one-lot, expecting a breakout, I am testing the waters. While I am not potentially moving the market in the way that Livermore might have, I still have begun a test of my breakout hypothesis. I then watch carefully. How are the other averages behaving at the top ends of their range? How is the market absorbing the activity of sellers? Like any good scientist, I am gathering data to determine whether or not my hypothesis is supported.

Suppose the breakout does not materialize and the initial move above the range falls back into the range on some increased selling pressure. I take the loss on my one-lot, but then what happens from there?

The unsuccessful trader will respond with frustration: “Why do I always get caught buying the highs? I can’t believe “they” ran the market against me! This market is impossible to trade.” Because of that frustration—and the associated self-focus—the unsuccessful trader does not take any information away from that trade.

In the Livermore mode, however, the successful trader will see the losing one-lot as part of a greater plan. Had the market broken nicely to the upside, he would have scaled into the long trade and likely made money. If the one-lot was a loser, he paid for the information that this is, at the very least, a range-bound market, and he might try to find a spot to reverse and go short in order to capitalize on a return to the bottom end of that range.

Look at it this way: If you put on a high probability trade and the trade fails to make you money, you have just paid for an important piece of information: The market is not behaving as it normally, historically does. If a robust piece of economic news that normally sends the dollar screaming higher fails to budge the currency and thwarts your purchase, you have just acquired a useful bit of information: There is an underlying lack of demand for dollars. That information might hold far more profit potential than the money lost in the initial trade.

I recently received a copy of an article from Futures Magazine on the retired trader Everett Klipp, who was dubbed the “Babe Ruth of the CBOT”. Klipp distinguished himself not only by his fifty-year track record of trading success on the floor, but also by his mentorship of over 100 traders. Speaking of his system of short-term trading, Klipp observed, “You have to love to lose money and hate to make money to be successful…It’s against human nature what I teach and practice. You have to overcome your humanness.”

Klipp’s system was quick to take profits (hence the idea of hating to make money), but even quicker to take losses (loving to lose money). Instead of viewing losses as a threat, Klipp treated them as an essential part of trading. Taking a small loss reinforces a trader’s sense of discipline and control, he believed. Losses are not failures.

So here’s a question I propose to all those who enter a high-probability trade: “What will tell me that my trade is wrong, and how could I use that information to subsequently profit?” If you’re trading well, there are no losing trades: only trades that make money and trades that give you the information to make money later.


Brett N. Steenbarger, Ph.D. is Director of Trader Development for Kingstree Trading, LLC in Chicago and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. He is also an active trader and writes occasional feature articles on market psychology for a variety of publications. The author of The Psychology of Trading (Wiley; January, 2003), Dr. Steenbarger has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on short-term approaches to behavioral change. His new, co-edited book The Art and Science of Brief Therapy is a core curricular text in psychiatry training programs. Many of Dr. Steenbarger’s articles and trading strategies are archived on his website, www.brettsteenbarger.com

http://www.straightforex.com/howtotakealoss.html

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Incorporating Price Action into a Forex Trading System

Tuesday, 9 October, 2007

Trading the Forex market has become very popular in the last few years. But how difficult is it to achieve success in the Forex trading arena? Or let me rephrase this question, how many traders achieve consistent profitable results trading the Forex market? Unfortunately very few, only 5% of traders achieve this goal. One of the main reasons of this is because Forex traders focus in the wrong information to make their trading decisions and totally forget about the most important factor: Price behavior.

Most Forex trading systems are made off technical indicators (a moving average (MA) crossover, overbought/oversold conditions in an oscillator, etc.) But what are technical indicators? They are just a series of data points plotted in a chart; these points are derived from a mathematical formula applied to the price of any given currency pair. In other words, it is a chart of price plotted in a different way that helps us see other aspects of price.

There is an important implication on this definition of technical indicators. The fact that the readings obtained from them are based on price action. Take for instance a long MA crossover signal, the price has gone up enough to make the short period MA crossover the long period MA generating a long signal. Most traders see it as “the MA crossover made the price go up,” but it happened the other way around, the MA crossover signal occurred because the price went up. Where I’m trying to get here is that at the end, price behavior dictates how an indicator will act, and this should be taken into consideration on any trading decision made.

Trading decisions based on technical indicators without taking price action into consideration will give us less accurate results. For example, again a long signal generated by a MA crossover as the market approaches an important resistance level. If the price suddenly starts to bounce back off that important level there is no point on taking this signal, price action is telling us the market doesn’t want to go up. Most of the time, under this circumstances, the market will continue to fall down, disregarding the MA crossover.

Don’t get us wrong here, technical indicators are a very important aspect of trading. They help us see certain conditions that are otherwise difficult to see by watching pure price action. But when it comes to pull the trigger, price action incorporation into our Forex trading system will definitely put the odds in our favor, it will generate higher probability trades.

So, how to create a perfect Forex trading system?

First of all, you need to make sure your trading system fits your trading personality; otherwise you will find it hard to follow it. Every trader has different needs and goals, thus there is no system that perfectly fits all traders. You need to make your own research on various trading styles and technical indicators until you find a concept that perfectly works for you. Make sure you know the nature of whatever technical indicator used.

Secondly, incorporate price action into your system. So you only take long signals if the price behavior tells you the market wants to go up, and short signals if the market gives you indication that it will go down.

Third, and most importantly, you need to have the discipline to follow your Forex trading system rigorously. Try it first on a demo account, then move on to a small account and finally when feeling comfortably and being consistent profitable apply your system in a regular account.

http://www.straightforex.com/perfect.html

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Brief Description: Basics of Online Share Trading

Tuesday, 9 October, 2007

Author: john

Online Trading?
A stock broker is a qualified and regulated professional who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers on behalf of investors.
The increasingly popular activity of buying and selling securities over the internet, or to a lesser extent, through a broker’s proprietary software.

Stock Exchange
A stock exchange, share market or bourse is a corporation or mutual organization which provides facilities for stock brokers and traders, to trade company stocks and other securities, Shares, equity are traded in stock exchange. India has two big stock exchanges ,Bombay Stock Exchange – BSE and National Stock Exchange – NSE and few small exchanges like Jaipur Stock Exchange etc.

Stock Trading
Stock trading is done at a stock exchanges, which are places where buyers and sellers meet and decide on a price. raditionally stock trading is done through stock brokers, personally or through telephones. Stock trading is affected by supply and demand. Online stock trading is considered one of the best ways for almost anyone to get in on the market. One of the best resources out there on the internet today for the investor looking to educate him or her self about online stock trading is http://dowtrend.com and http://tradelikethepros.com. Online stock trading is all about selecting the best stock opportunities and following your buy and sell signals.Investor can trade shares through a website without any manual intervention from Stock Broker.

Stock Broker
A stock broker is a qualified and regulated professional who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers on behalf of investors.
Only stock brokers can directly buy and sell shares in Stock Market. An investor must contact a stock broker to trade stocks. Broker charge commissions (brokerages) for their service. Brokerage is usually a percent of total amount of trade and varies from broker to broker.

Online trading has many pros. There are several wonderful reasons to invest online and consider online trading.

Benefits of Online Trading:

1. One can trade live on stock exchange irrespective of location.

2. Money saving opportunities
The amount of money you save depends primarily on the online brokerage firm that you choose. No two firms are the same. There may be different regulations, similar to bank regulations. There are minimum deposits required that must be maintained.

3. Instant online access
Orders directly send to stock exchanges rather then stock broker. This makes order execution very fast.

4. Enter online trades at anytime
You can enter online trades at anytime and from anywhere. This is very convenient if you live in a different time zone than the country you are trading in. Not to mention, it is especially fit for investors with busy schedules.

5. You are in control of your investments. No sales pitches and no hassle. You decide where to invest your money.

6. It provides almost each and every information which is required to a trader on a single screen including stock market charts, live data, alerts, stock market news etc.

Article Publish by: www.investmentbankingcentral.com

Article Tags: Ipo, Money And Banking, Infinite Banking, Free Insurance Quote, Insurance Ratings, What Is Investment Banking Technique, Affordable Individual Health Insurance, Corporate Finance Articles Resources, Brokerage Firms Insurance Brokerage, Banking Investments

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/brief-description-basics-of-online-share-trading-228618.html

About the Author:

John Parker working on this site www.investmentbankingcentral.com. My job is to provide latest information, news regarding what is investment banking technique, affordable individual health insurance, corporate finance articles resources, brokerage firms insurance brokerage, banking investments, money and banking, infinite banking, free insurance quote, insurance ratings, ipo india, Investment Banking Salaries, investment firms, top investment banking firms, Venture Capital India, venture capital firms, Venture Capital Companies, Corporate banking, Venture Capital Funds, venture capital india by
publishing the articles.

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Forex Scalping – Day Trading the Smaller Moves for Big Gains

Tuesday, 9 October, 2007

Author: Kelly Price

The forex scalper who day traders does not look to make big profits per trade he seeks a lot of small profits over time that mount up and yield huge FX Profits overtime. Let’s look at forex scalping in more detail.

More novice traders try forex scalping than any other method and there is a huge industry on the net, which sells courses and forex day trading systems, to help them achieve their dreams.

Unfortunately, that’s all they are dreams – because Forex scalping simply has never worked and cannot work.

It simply guarantees you will get wiped out.

Why?

Its obvious and common sense. Millions of traders each day, trade trillions of dollars and to say that you can work out what this huge mass of traders will do in just a few hours, is laughable.

ALL Short term price moves are random.

Volatility can and does take prices anywhere in daily time frames and support and resistance levels are not valid – you can’t get the odds on your side and you will lose.

So Why Do So Many People Do it?

Well it’s a good story and the majority of forex scalping systems are sold with one aim in mind:

To make money the vendor is much to sensible to trade it himself – he makes his money appealing to greed and selling it to a naive buyer, who then losses.

The vendor pockets the profit and the buyer gets a hard lesson in the market he wont forget.

But I Have seen track records that make money!

Sure, you have – but check the disclaimer and you will see the words – “hypothetical” and “simulated”.

Now this means that the track record was done in hindsight and simulated – KNOWING the closing prices!

How hard is that? A child, or anyone who can read and write can do that!

The problem with forex scalping comes when you have to trade it not knowing the closing prices, then the reality hits – a swift wipe-out of equity.

If you really want to prove this for yourself ask a vendor this simple question:

Can I please see YOUR track record of real time profits over 2 years or more?

Go ahead and try it and see what they say.

You won’t get one, or if you do, let me know – I have been asking this question for 25 years and never got one.

Forex day trading is a good story like little Harry Potter, the one the thing they have in common is their both made up.

So if you want to win and make money at forex trading, forget forex day trading and forex scalping and get the odds on your side.

This means, trading valid data and getting the odds on your side.

Try forex swing trading or long term trend following – both can work and you will be trading with the odds.

If you want to win at forex trading, then you need to do your homework and at least try methods that trade the odds, with forex scalping you could flip a coin and have as much chance of success.

Finally, maybe I am being a bit hard on scalpers and day traders if you find the elusive track record that makes money longer term, send it to me wonder what the odds are of that not happening?

Article Tags: Forex Trading, Currency Trading, Forex Day Trading, Forex Scalping, Forex Scalping For Beginners

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/forex-scalping-day-trading-the-smaller-moves-for-big-gains-229607.html

About the Author:

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Managing Money Online

Tuesday, 9 October, 2007

Author: andy tao

You’re bank will more than likely have internet banking, this is a great tool which will allow you to sort and manage all of your finances out from a computer connected to the internet. Make sure you sign up as soon as possible to have the ease of paying all your bills from the comfort of your own home, you will never need to wait in those nasty bank cues waiting to see an advisor again as we all know how annoying they can be.

Having access to your bank online will give you many great benefits such as being able to check your bank balance without leaving your house, not only that but you can search previous statements and print them off so that you have a hard copy. It gives you full control of funds leaving your bank as you can set up or manage any direct debits you have set up on your account. It will display how much they are for and when the last and next date they are due to come out.

All you need to get started is a bank account with a company that support internet banking, go to their website and sign up for it if you haven’t got a username and password. Once you have filled in your details you will be given a username and a password, you often have to set a secret question to ensure maximum safety. Not many people trust online banking but the banking website has up to date firewalls and other security measures to keep your details private and out of the hands of other people.

If you forget your login, you often can find it out by filling in your sort code, account number, date of birth and certain digits from your security number which you set up with the bank when you originally set the account up. This will then give you access to your online banking interface. Make sure that you never leave any sensitive details lying around giving people the chance to access your account as they could withdraw your money or make payments from the interface and you would not be able to claim any of it back unless you can prove it wasn’t you that spent the money.

As long as you careful with your details you will be fine, you can always apply for online statements only which will reduce the chance of someone getting hold of your details.

Article Tags: Finance, Money, Banking, Firewall, Bank Account, Online Banking, Hostgator, Direct Debit, Security Number

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/managing-money-online-228367.html

About the Author:

Andy Tao
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