Remember the classic 80’s film Trading Places? Two rich old brothers swap the lifestyles of a beggar and a fancy commodities broker to settle a twisted $1 bet. They set out to prove once and for all whether nature or nurture dictates how successful a person can be....
I set off hacking my way through the trading ‘jungle’… I bought the books, followed the ‘gurus’, set about looking for the Holy Grail. You know, the ‘one system to rule them all!’ But it was only when I stepped back and took a good long...
Give this question a bit of thought… What it is you actually want to achieve by trading? I know making money is sure to feature somewhere in your answer. But even that is going to mean vastly different things to different people. So before you think I’ve...
A question arrives from reader Tony B… “If the market was above the eurusd figure [the price he wants to buy at] how could I have placed the limit buy orders please? Should I put an alert on to wait for the market to drop?” Now Tony is one of our...
Scaled exits are nothing new. It’s not some cutting edge technique I’ve just invented. But scaling isn’t often discussed when it comes to Forex trading. You’ll read about the old masters of trading scaling out of their trades – they were doing...
I had a similar conversation with two different people this week… It’s about trends. Or more specifically: a) How do you know which ‘segment’ of a big overall trend to measure and work with? And: b) How far back in time should you go when measuring trends and drawing...
A question arrives from a TN reader: “I’ve got this trade that’s well into profit. My usual strategy is to trail the stop loss so I can lock in some of the profits and then give the trade chance to turn into a long-term position. But what do you...
Everyone has the ability to make money from trading. These days the financial markets are a genuine ‘open access’ opportunity to one and all. Making money is simply a matter of repeating the same effective steps time after time. It’s all about...
I’ve been reading Market Wizards by Jack Schwager again recently and in the book one of the traders mentions getting to know just one individual market really, really well. So, is this still a good way to start? Should you focus on just one Forex market or learn...
A question arrives from TN reader Tony T: “I’m getting ready to trade again tomorrow [after the long Easter weekend] and feel a bit slow and ‘out of touch’ but I’ve heard some traders say they get better after taking a break. Is it normal...
A question arrives from TN reader Paul T: Rich, I trade my own strategy (I leant it from a book and added my own twist). It does work but I can’t seem to get it performing past breakeven. I’ll have a good run and then it always seems to hit a sticky patch...
I must admit, I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for volume. You might have heard me talk about it before. It tends to be followed more closely by futures and stock traders than Forex traders, and it has a certain sentimental appeal to it. Traders like Jesse...
I was flicking through an old trading journal of mine the other day. It’s a bit tattered around the edges but when I look at them now, I can see that those pages contain absolute pearls of wisdom. At the time, I was still desperately trying to figure things out....
I’ve been doing some work on trading Mindset this week. It’s for the ‘Campaign Management’ module of my new strategy (more on that to come in a minute). Now traders typically put all their energy and effort into ‘Method.’ You know...
Do you know one of the single biggest problems traders face? You might not agree at first glance because it actually sounds like a BENEFIT rather than a potential threat. But it’s been the ruin of many a trader over the years. And it’s a particular threat...
Imagine: you’ve spent weeks, months even, developing a trading strategy. Your back-testing is complete. And on paper this strategy has the potential to make an eye-popping 7% return on account per day. Yes, 7% return on account PER DAY! That’s not 7% per...
When you are over prepared you run the risk of ‘marrying’ your market opinion. All that hard work went into doing your analysis – it’s easy to become blinkered to any other possibility but the one you envisage. You may analyse the markets...
You never really know what the market will serve up next. Will it be a profit or will it be a losing trade? Consistent profits actually come from a random pattern of winning trades and losing trades. It’s only when you’ve got a proven system in place you’ll have...
A question comes in from a TN reader: ‘Aren’t you contradicting yourself when you’re dissing off the peg “forex systems” at the very same time you’re promoting the use of them?’ It’s a fair point, and one that probably...
Back in October I was playing around on a popular charting platform. The software itself is nothing unusual. Anyone can get their hands on it immediately on the internet. In fact, it’s probably the kind of thing you’re using right now to follow the...
Happy New Year! I hope you and your family had a happy festive period and didn’t overindulge too much. Anyway, the markets are back in action, and the brokers returned to full and normal hours this week, so it’s back to business… Now, the big thing...
Here’s a question I get asked on a regular basis: How can I fit trading in around my job and still make consistent profits without having to check charts during the day? The good news is there are loads of ways! The trick of course is finding the way that has...
Trading strategies are polarising objects… An approach that suits one person down to the ground might totally torment and irritate another because it doesn’t fit their own unique trading ‘personality’. But when you can chop bits from one...
The trend is your friend (well, until it bends at the end). Cheeky, I know! But I’m only poking a bit of light-hearted fun here. 9.76 times out of 10 following the trend is EXACTLY what you should do. But… isn’t it a thrill when you DO nail a...