No one likes a losing trade… 2 losing trades in row really niggles… 3 losses, and you’ll feel that you’ve paid your price and deserve a few winners. Then… number 4 hits you. 4 losses in a row!? Now you’re really shaken. You’re probably feeling frustrated –...
I’ve had a lot of emails over the past week or so, a lot of questions, but the one that just keeps on cropping up goes along the lines of: “What the heck is fixed-odds trading?” If you haven’t ventured into fixed-odds trading before, here’s a brief run-down of its...
The markets haven’t been making our lives very easy in recent weeks, which is why I’ve been looking for a low risk trading solution that will appeal to anyone who wants to keep a really firm handle on their money. One of these solutions, in particular, looks very...
We’re at the end of our first week of January, so if you’re like most people, that means one thing: you’ve already broken at least one of your New Year’s resolutions. As Mark Twain put it: “New Year’s Day: now is the accepted time...
Welcome to May – the official beginning of the silly season for the financial markets. And the month kicked off in excellent form, with strange peaks and troughs appearing all over our charts on Sunday night – in large part caused by the announcement of...
I was slumped in front of the TV at nine o’clock on Monday evening (well, what else can you do on a Monday night in January?). In my defence, I wasn’t watching “Music, money and Hip-Hop Honeys” on BBC3, but instead opted for Horizon. It turns out that Nobel Prize...
Stop losses are wonderful things – they protect our funds, they let us get to sleep at night, and I wouldn’t trade without them. Yet … Stops are one of the most enduring frustrations of trading. One of the most frequent complaints I hear from traders is...
I had an interesting email this week from a Maven reader, which I think reflects a state of mind that a lot of us can recognise. He was frustrated and a little confused. I get emails like this fairly often. He’s not the only one who feels like he’s banging...
I can’t stress how important it is to keep a firm hand on the reins when trading – far too many people jump head-first into the markets, and blow their capital in the process. You have trading tools at your disposal – and they’re there to be used. Why your most...
‘Past performance is no guarantee…’ It’s a phrase we probably all recognize: ‘Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance’. It’s a requirement of the FSA that this is pointed out whenever a firm shows historical information on an investment...
I’m grateful to a reader for sending over some notes he’s made from a psychology of trading book. They’re extremely useful and I’m sure lots of people will benefit from them. So useful in fact that I’d like to have a look at trading...
I want to share with you a sagely trading secret. Many wise traders will tell you that the ultimate ‘state’ to trader to enter – the trading ‘nirvana’ that we should all be striving towards – is boredom. But how do we achieve this and the resultant success in trading,...
It would seem that risk (like love) is all around us – whether we’re crossing the road, catching a plane, or even making breakfast. And to most of us sane folk, risk is something that we want to avoid – especially financially. When I sat down at my desk this...
I often hear traders dismiss entire swathes of technical analysis because they’re sick of “false signals”. None of us like a false signal – and we like getting caught out by them even less – but deciding to ignore all signals is a bit like throwing the...
In financial trading, triangle formations are one of the more reliable signals on a chart, so it’s always nice to have one on the go. And the more practice you get, the better you’ll get at picking out these shapes on your everyday charts. Today, we’ll take a look at...
I try to keep up with requests from readers on subjects to cover in Maven, and one that’s come up a few times recently is “back to basics” support and resistance levels – you know, the good old-fashioned horizontal ones. And watching a certain...
While Japanese candlesticks have been around for hundreds of years – they have only been widely applied by Western traders in the past couple of decades. The man we can credit for introducing Japanese candlestick charts to the West is one Steve Nison. First, a...
“Event risk” is a factor in all trading. Forex and commodities markets are most vulnerable, but equities are far from immune. Factors such as Central Bank decisions and employment data can affect short and long-term trends, but at least we can have these marked on our...
It’s a long time since Market Maven has looked into volatility trading and the fear index, so I’ll start off with a few words about what it is, and why it’s so exciting at the moment. The real name of the “fear index” is the CBOE Market...
I know, I know, there’s no such thing as risk-free trading. Risk is inherent in trading – if you want entirely risk-free investments, you’ll have to accept the generous 2% returns being offered on the high street, that can’t even come close to...
Before I move on to trading commodities and a look at Australia I want to talk a little about the importance of being a resilient trader. . . That ability to brush yourself off after a knock, to not take it personally, and to get straight back into the game –...
I hope you’ve had a good break over the festive period, and are feeling ready to get back in the trading saddle next week. In this week’s newsletter, I’ll give you the second half of my New Year’s trading resolutions: perhaps you might find...
This week the Maven inbox has been inundated with queries and comments on a new index trading system: the Daily Index Trader system. There’s been a fair bit of buzz generated by those who’ve already started trading it. Those who started on 12th of August...
Scalping is a tricky technique to pin down: for every trader who says he or she is scalping, there are usually ten more traders who’ll cry “that’s not scalping!” And give a completely different definition. So what is ‘Scalping’ and how do you...
