Trading Strategies, Psychology
Position Sizing for ASX Share CFDs ( Free calculator download )
Position sizing is simply the number of contracts that you choose to enter for any specific trade. It is this, combined with the movement in price (either positively or negatively) from entry to exit in your trade, that determines your final dollar result for any specific trade. As this result impacts on your trading capital, position sizing,...
Cognitive Trading Biases #1 – Loss Aversion
As a serious trader, one of the key areas you must work on is to develop an awareness of the way the market affects your mind, and subsequently the decisions you make whilst in a trading situation. What are trading biases? People have inbuilt set of belief and value systems that develop over the years through learning and instruction from others a...
Another New Indicator? – 4 Questions to Judge If It Is the Right Time for You
Invariably, the motivation to look at adding another technical indicator is a belief that your trading results, and the system that creates these, could be improved. As traders, we are bombarded with information relating to the use of technical indicators to guide decision making in our entry and exit decisions. Such information can be “persuasi...
Are You Just ‘Interested’ OR REALLY Committed to Becoming the Trader You Can Be?
Look, we get it… the thought of making money from the financial markets is appealing to the newcomer (and even experienced trader). Appealing enough to invest some time (often a great deal) and some money (often a great deal). At this stage, it is “interesting” (even exciting), but NOT committed. You may even have been told it is easy i...
Are You an Honest Trader? 5 Powerful Questions to Ask Yourself Now
“The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.” - Aristotle We came across the above quote from the famous Greek philosopher and couldn’t help thinking how relevant this is to trading, so thought it was worth a discussion to stimulate some self-reflection of your behaviour and thinking like a trader. ...
Accumulating into a Profitable FX Position: Opportunities and Risk Management
Position accumulation is to increase exposure to a currency pair, by adding a second (or more) position in the same trading direction. Although on the surface the opportunity to increase potential return is attractive, there are also risks that MUST be at the forefront of your thinking. Are you ready to accumulate? Before considering position accu...
Your Trading Journal Blueprint – Free Download
Those of you who have attended any of our LIVE Inner Circle education sessions, or participated in our courses, will know that a regular theme covered is the importance and benefits of measuring your trading. One of the key tools we often discuss is the use of a trading journal. For those of you less familiar with this as a concept, a ...
Is your trading plan specific enough to allow meaningful and decisive ACTION?
A written trading plan, usually comprising of several guiding action statements, serves the following two invaluable purposes: Facilitates consistency in trading action e.g. in the entry and exit of trades, allowing the trader AND Measures the strategy used specified within each statement to make an evidence-based judgement on how well thes...
Are You Appropriately ‘Aroused’ for Peak Trading Performance?
There is NO such thing as emotionless trading AND in many respects, it may be considered that it is a good thing too. After all, correctly targeted emotions will allow you to: Have an exciting, compelling trading purpose that drives you to do the hard yards with your learning (we know some people fail to complete a course or put learning into ac...
Yield Curves: What Are They And How Can We Use Them?
Undoubtedly anybody who dabbles or takes an interest in the financial markets will have come across the term yield curves. Perhaps stumbled on during research or overhearing Bloomberg TV hammer home various aspects of yield curve movements. Either way, yield curves are embedded in the fabric of financial analysis and are considered a fundamental ...
The Art Of War & Trading: Part 4
军势篇 Chapter: The Flow Of Directing Troops (Trades) Original Text: 孙子曰：凡治众如治寡，分数是也； Translation: The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men; it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers. Often beginner traders with relatively small accounts tend to treat t...
Understanding Inflationary Pressures
Broadly speaking, inflation is a general increase in prices which result in a fall in the purchasing value of money. In this article, we are going to look at measures of inflation and other indicators that can help traders to detect early signs of inflation. Traders try to follow the inflationary pressures to anticipate the next interest rate m...
The Art Of War & Trading: Part 3
军形篇 - The Chapter of Tactical Dispositions Original Text: 善战者，先为不可胜，以待敌之可胜。 Translation: Good commanders first evaluate the possibility of being defeated and then wait for an opportunity to defeat the enemy. Don’t you think this sounds very similar to using a trading stop-loss? The concept of setting up a...
Art of War and Trading: Part 2
兵者，诡道也。 All warfare is based on deception. Investment is, in essence, a game of intelligence and psychology, and the importance of calculation is behind the first two elements. At first, many beginner traders misunderstand what it means to be a profitable trader. Most assume that as long as they are good at mathematics or a similar ...
Six Attributes of a Good Trading Plan
As a trader, you’ve probably found that having the right trading plan plays a significant role in your trading success. A basic trading plan should tell you what, when and how much to trade. It should also have specific instructions on when to close out your trades. As traders, we all need a well thought out trading plan to navigate our w...