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.
The typical starting points are:
Learning ‘How To Trade’ can be analogous to building a house, it isn’t until it is complete, that Consistent Profitability can be realistically achieved. The foundations cover such things as:
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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..
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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.
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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
For several years now I’ve helped Paul Wallace run the London Traders Forum – a once-a-year all-day event for Traders to come together, learn and socialise with each other.
This year’s London Traders Forum will be on Saturday 6th October 2018 in Central London. Please put the date in your diary and keep your eyes peeled for details and early-bird opportunities.
In the meantime the next event will be the Q3 Online Traders Forum on Saturday 7th July.
This is a new initiative from traders, for traders. The idea is for it to be a short, intensive 3 hour online seminar that covers various aspects of the 4M’s of Trading: Markets, Method, Money and Myself. The idea is for you to be able to learn some new trading ideas, whilst in the comfort of your own home, and without sacrificing your entire weekend.
The plan is for there to be one Online London Traders Forum the first Saturday of Q1, Q2 & Q3 with the London Traders Forum at the start of Q4, the main all day event.
For the Q3 Event running from 09:00 AM to 12:30 PM BST, we’ll have the following speakers:
Paul Wallace from FXTraderPaul.com and founder of The London Traders Network will deliver the market analysis section focusing on FX, Indices, Commodities (and perhaps some Crypto) and look at where to focus for possible Q3 Trading Opportunities.
Martin Walker of ForexTradingLondon.com will take a deeper look at Price Action, what are it’s constituent parts, and how to identify and read it on your charts. He will show you how to use this knowledge in your trading. Understanding and being able to read Price Action is key to identifying Trends, Breakouts and False Breakouts, Market Turns and much more.
From Dublin, Ian McFadden from the Symmetry Trading FB page will talk about his way of intra-day trading Oil using the CL Futures contract. Ian has traded using Fibs for over 10 years and he will explain how he uses them to analyse Oil and find intra-day trade set-ups.
There is a charge for £20 to attend. Why? Because we’re not selling anything. Its proper educational content rather than a slick pitch in the hope to up-sell you something. Furthermore the sessions will be recorded, and as an attendee you’ll have access to them afterwards.
It promises to be an enjoyable session that will help you grasp the opportunities that Q3 2018 will present. For further information, timings and tickets etc just go here:
Trade well!
One of the key elements to being a successful discretionary swing trader is ‘Preparation’. I’ve written about this to some extent before and covered the 5 or 6Ps. The best trades I have had, have all been pre-planned. Thorough preparation before taking any trade, particularly swing trades, tends to pay off handsomely. This entails the following: Continue reading
As the Brexit Referendum looms, it seems an apt moment to write something about Risk and Risk Management.
The UK Brexit Referendum is clearly a High Risk news event and probably far to close to call at the moment, whatever your view. Other High Risk news events include General Elections, the monthly Non-Farm Payroll (normally the first Friday of every month) and also other events such as the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee and BOE Minutes and Interest Rate Decisons by Central Banks various.
As a trader you need to be aware of such High Risk events and conduct your trading accordingly. The last thing you need to do is expose your trading account to too much risk in the run up to such often highly volatile events. Better to scale back or not trade than to essentially toss a coin and become in effect a gambler.
There are many ways you can control your risk when trading: Continue reading
(With apologies to William Shakespeare in this 500th anniversary year!)
To Trade or NOT to Trade?
To Trade or NOT to Trade, that is the question;
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The drawdown and losses of unplanned impetuous trades,
Or to wait with patience for higher probability setups,
And then to plan and trade them with discipline and calm,
Whilst managing your Risk and being focussed on the process,
And as a consequence, reap fine rewards for one’s labours!
Whilst doing some Housekeeping in my email account, I came across and was reminded of an email I had sent as a reply to a prospective student, who unfortunately could not afford our Personal Mentorship Programme (PMP) lessons. In my reply I wanted to be helpful, so I tried to summarise the Key areas that he should work on until he was in such a position to be able to take advantage of our PMP. Here is the main body of the email, with a few additional tweeks, containing what I suggested:
‘No problem, the key things you need to concentrate on are: Continue reading
