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Have you ever given any thought to how you behave and react when in front of your Trading Platform screen?
Perhaps you are hesitant to commit to trades - to actually be able to pull the trigger at the right time. Or perhaps you are trigger happy and a bit impetuous, when it comes to taking trades, seeing opportunities everywhere and having multiple trades open at the same time. How big are your position sizes, how many positions per trade and what % of your trading account do you risk on each trade and what % do you risk in open trades, which are not yet at Break Even or better?
Most traders are either driven by Fear or Greed, which camp do you feel you fall into?
Following on from my previous Blog Post: ‘Typical Stages of Trader Development’, the next natural topic would be ‘How do you actually pass a Prop Firm Evaluation?’ Here are some trading tips which might be of some use.
Firstly you have to find a Prop Firm that matches your style of trading. Are you a Position Trader, a Swing Trader or an Intraday Trader?
Do you need to have the ability to keep your trades open over weekends and for several weeks or even months? Some firms will accommodate this and others won’t.
Typical Stages of Trader Development - For some time now I have been acutely aware of the unrealistic expectations of people who come into trading, thinking that they are going to be able to pick it up quickly and make a rapid fortune! The reality is vastly different. Here are my thoughts on what that reality is.
Whatever type of Trader you are, there are some periods or points in your life when it probably isn’t in your best interest to trade and I’m not referring to unpredictable economic events such as FOMC and NFP etc or non-favoured days of the week or month.
Profitable trading nearly always relies on thorough market analysis and timing and being in the right mind set, rested, fit and alert to all the possibilities and prepared to have the courage of your own conviction to take the trades that you see.
Over the years I have learnt that there are definitely times in your life when it isn’t in your own interest to be trading and that isn’t just the likely unprofitable outcome but also in terms of one’s relationships and mind set.
I was chewing the fat with a fellow trader a few days ago and the topic of trader longevity came up. The question posed was ‘What is it that keeps a trader in the game, particularly during turbulent times when market volatility and false signals can increase? Plus most retail traders lose most or all their trading capital. This stat can vary from approx 70 to 90%, depending upon the Broker reporting such information.
At first, when answering such a question, it might seem difficult to pinpoint one or two things or aspects of trading or trading behaviour which stand out, because there are, without question, so many variables to trading the financial markets:
On top of all the variables associated with actually trading in technical terms, there is also the human factor, how we act and react as individuals, although there maybe common behaviours and emotions, which as you either know or will find out, can be difficult to keep in check or control. Trading psychology is really important but you can’t start to address this area, unless you have a structured approach to your trading.
My personal stance on the above question is this:
Successful traders will surround themselves with and impose on themselves and their trading, STRUCTURE. Placing structure around your trading helps immensely with managing uncertainty and thus your mindset, when trading the Hard Right Edge. Such structure will be in the form of
A Personal Strategic Trading Plan
Accountability to someone else – particularly when developing
Trading Preps/Routines/Check Lists
Discrete Trade Plans for every trade (Plan the Trade & Trade the Plan!)
Rigorous and Regular Top Down Multi-Time Frame Technical Analysis
Keeping tabs on the expected Economic & Political News Flow
BUT above all, and in my view the most important factor is, rock solid Risk and Money Management, without this, you will fail as a trader.
What is it about Risk & Money Management that is so important?
The number one priority of any trader should be to protect their trading capital as much as possible, at all times, but they need to risk a small % in order to increase their equity and there in lies the main problem. How to protect your existing capital from over exposure to risk and still build a tidy sum?
Successful traders tend to adhere to strict Risk and Money Management rules, which include:
Capping the % Risk on any single trade, which is likely to be around 1% or less of their trading capital and this will likely include 2 or 3 positions . (Please note that when learning it is absolutely fine and ok to risk less than 1%, maybe even 0.25% on any one trade, this will allow you more time to develop as a trader.)
A maximum amount of Risk at any point in time, governed by the maximum number of trades they may have open which are not yet at Break Even or better, and likely to be 2 – 3% absolute max. Having only one trade open at any time is also good behaviour, particularly when learning. But how does this support longevity as a trader?
Well, the point is that if a trader has control over their risk exposure and their risk is always a very small percentage of their trading capital, even in turbulent times when a string of losing trades may be possible, they will still have capital to trade with, be it tomorrow, next week, next month. How? Well if they have a bad run and their trading capital reduces then so will their position sizes.
If you are trading a $10,000 account and you risk 1% on each trade = $100
If you have a string of losses and you are then trading with say $9,000 and you risk 1% on each trade = $90
For $8,000 at 1% per trade = $80 risk
So you can see that when a trader, with strict risk and money management, goes through tough times, the amount they risk on each trade lessens as their capital reduces. BUT, the point is that they still have capital to trade with, instead of a Blown Up Account and lot’s of Should Have/Would Have/Could Have after thoughts and no money left to trade.
Conversely, the above rules will also benefit and incentivise a profitable trader. As they do well and their trading capital increases, so does their position size and the value of their 1% risk, which should, in turn, generate greater returns.
So if a trader has managed to increase their capital to $11,000 then 1% = $110 risk
Similarly for $15,000 at 1% risk per trade = $150
So smart traders veer and haul (good naval terminology!) their position sizes and stop losses to match their available trading capital at all times and it is this that keeps them in the game and thus supports their longevity as a trader.
When learning to trade, it can be hard to stick to such strict Risk and Money Management rules, but without such structure and control of your risk and potential expenditure, you are setting yourself up for a monetary fall or excessive losses. Plus if you have structure around your trading it helps enormously with mindset and those destructive human behaviours we all exhibit from time to time.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a tool or virtual trading assistant that could keep you on the straight and narrow when trading, combining both the human choice element with pre-determined structured robust risk and money management software? When I started out trading I would have loved something to keep my trading on track as I developed. Well now there is! A software trading assistant that can be tailored to your personal settings and thus your chosen Risk profile, which once set, can then take care of your selected trades, you just use your strategy and chosen market direction and it will do the rest, whilst keeping your trading capital safe from human interference and errors of judgement. If you want to sleep well at night and not fret about your open trades, want to set and forget trades in the financial markets (stocks; Forex; commodities; indices) whilst you do something else, such as your day job, then to find out more just click the link below:
As most of you that regularly read my Blog will know, I don’t spam people and don’t normally promote other peoples products, but I do highly recommended this, and believe it is good Value For Money when you consider what a Blown Up Account will cost you!
Top Trading Tip: Take back control of your trading by adopting and then abiding by, some strict Risk and Money Management Rules and stay in the game for life, after all, it is a Life Skill you are mastering.
One of the most effective ways of improving your trading performance is by noting what you actually do, then compare that with the associated outcome and then stop doing the things that don’t work or the things that are destructive to your equity curve.
To Err is Human…but repeating things that hinder your trading is probably madness and certainly a trading sin! So here are some common trading sins to watch out for in your trading and to try and stop doing…
Life is full of challenges, some are thrown at us and others we undertake willingly to test our metal/resolve/abilities etc. Climbing a mountain, running a marathon, completing a an assault course (done a few of those!), sitting an exam to achieve a qualification, doing a cryptic crossword, playing a game of chess or scrabble, you get the idea. If and when you achieve a challenge you have set yourself, without doubt one normally feels a sense of achievement and in the process you may well have learnt more about yourself and grown as a person. Learning to trade is challenging too, but there are some things we can do which include minor challenges to help us learn and progress as traders..
When learning to trade it is easy to get seduced into making impulsive unplanned trades with no Trade Plan or trying to force the markets into giving you some profit when the market isn’t ready to give it to you. Plus, of course, there is the issue of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and Revenge Trading or trading with so much open Risk that you are near to blowing up your trading account! On top of all that is the likelihood that you are not using a Stop Loss All the above can lead you to being in a losing position and starting to stress, worry, sweat, swear and ‘Hoping’ and ‘Praying’ that the market will turn around and get you back to a Break Even or better position.
Is there such a thing as ‘High Probability of Success’ trading? As a trader, if you are sufficiently capitalised, employ robust Risk & Money Management and can manage the uncertainty of trading the Hard Right Edge of the charts by having a structured approach, you don’t need to be right all the time. In fact you can make decent money by only being right 50% of the time. But as a trader you never stop learning and are always trying to improve your ‘process’ of trading, with the aim of achieving better results. One way of improving your trading process, is to add an additional check into your pre-trade preps….
The Traders Forum is a ‘Mastermind’ group formed with the aim of raising the bar from the usual so-called Trading Events, free Seminars and low-cost workshops. It is aimed at both active and aspiring traders with some trading knowledge. Plus it is also designed to be a sociable inter-active occasion for net working with like-minded people and for seeking knowledge from seasoned traders without the usual attempts at a hard up sell at the end.
The next London Traders Forum is on Saturday the 6th of October 2018, a one day seminar/mastermind/forum with Q&A interaction and discussion. Speakers and topics so far include:Continue reading →
