Survival training for traders

Survival training for traders

Sometimes you’re simply out of step with the market. It could be your strategy just isn’t suited to current conditions (even though you are executing with iron-willed discipline). Or it could be caused by something more personal: you might be a bit...
How to beat money ‘mind-bends’

How to beat money ‘mind-bends’

There is much to be said for trading with real money. Even ‘small money.’ It’s a completely different world to demo trading because of the mental aspects of assuming risk. But expose yourself in a SMALL way to begin with. Especially since it’s so easy to...
What makes winning traders flee?

What makes winning traders flee?

There’s talk of a looming ‘Great Depression.’ So who can blame people for turning to trading in order to maintain their financial goals? One thing concerns me though. Two things actually… 1) New traders coming to the markets with their...
The secret to trading waves

The secret to trading waves

I had similar conversations with two different people recently… 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...

The art of charts

The artist scrutinises his almost-complete masterpiece… Holding hand to chin and with narrowed eyes he steps away from the easel. He gives his canvas a good check-over from a few paces back. He steps to the left and dips his head for an alternative view that...
How to find your #1 personal trading strength

How to find your #1 personal trading strength

It can be a real pain to carefully record the details of every single trade you take. But keeping accurate records, and referring back to them frequently, is hands-down the fastest way I know to improve your performance. If you capture a record of all your trading...

3 ways to the perfect exit on your trade

“If I’d only exited at hard target I’d have made twice as much on this trade!” [Two hours later…] “If I’d only trailed a stop on this trade I’d have trebled my profit. The exit at hard target has cost me dearly on this...
5 steps to relieve trading pressure

5 steps to relieve trading pressure

Imagine… you’ve learned to swing a golf club. You can strike the ball pretty good. 7 times out of 10 it even goes in the approximate direction you wanted. ‘Great stuff,’ you tell yourself. ‘Time to pack my bags and join the professionals...
How to escape the Trader’s ‘cycle-trap’

How to escape the Trader’s ‘cycle-trap’

Our lives are ruled by cycles. The annual cycle of the Earth circling around the Sun… The cycle of the Moon… The monthly cycle of your salary landing in your bank – hooray! And then watching it go whizzing out again as the cycle of direct debits and...
Why I’ll never trust trading bots

Why I’ll never trust trading bots

A question arrives 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...
The ‘Hound of Hounslow’ is back

The ‘Hound of Hounslow’ is back

Remember Nav Sarao… The otherwise unassuming 36 year old trader operating from his parent’s house in the London suburbs who was scooped up and arrested back in 2015? They blamed him for single-handedly causing the 2010 ‘flash crash’ in the US...
Empty-mind trading

Empty-mind trading

It’s easy to ‘marry’ an opinion. The trouble is it blinkers you to any other possibility but the one you foresee happening. With trading, you might analyse the markets yourself or you might invest in the outlook of a market commentator. And at a...
Trading by mail?

Trading by mail?

Did you know Liverpool had one of the first futures exchanges in the world? You probably knew that import and export was a big part of the city’s success in the nineteenth century. And yes, sadly, the slave trade played a big part too. But I had no idea of the history...
How to build a ‘hot-rod’ trading system

How to build a ‘hot-rod’ trading system

Trading is a very personal endeavour. What suits one person perfectly might torment and irritate another because it doesn’t fit their trading ‘personality’. But when you can chop bits from one system and slot them straight into another there’s...
7 steps to winning the internal game of trading

7 steps to winning the internal game of trading

I was flicking through an old trading journal of mine the other day. It’s a bit tattered around the edges but those pages contain absolute pearls of wisdom. Now don’t worry, I’m not blowing my own trumpet here. These notes were from when I was still...
The 7 drivers of effective trading

The 7 drivers of effective trading

Our natural response to risk and uncertainty is excellent at keeping you away from harm in many real-world situations. It is what has kept the human race alive for millennia. But it’s not so good when it comes to working with risk as a tool to make money, like...
How to get faster results from your trades

How to get faster results from your trades

An email arrives from a particularly peeved trader. Two sentences he wrote say it all… (1)’ It’s almost magical the way I can see several promising trades but choose only to trade the two that stop me out, while the others usually go on to...
How to kill a trading account in 5 easy steps

How to kill a trading account in 5 easy steps

Autumn 2006. It was a Friday. Rumours were flying… there were big stop orders sitting 32 ticks below the current T-Bond price and the big players were going to go after them. All I had to do was jump in and get involved too. It made sense on the chart and I...
‘Spreadsheet Millions’ method proven to fail

‘Spreadsheet Millions’ method proven to fail

Have you ever done the infamous ‘Spreadsheet Millionaire’ exercise? It’s where you layout a foolproof master plan that proves just how quickly you’re going to trade your way to a million. All by averaging ‘just’ a 2% daily return. Because how hard can it be?...
How to follow market action in ‘High Definition’

How to follow market action in ‘High Definition’

You might run candlesticks as your day-to-day default chart, but when you’re doing your bigger-picture analysis you might look at line charts and bar charts too. They can all help bring additional bits and pieces to your attention: patterns or price features you...
Why I like my charts naked

Why I like my charts naked

You might know I’m not a massive fan of technical indicators… (I’m talking about things like Stochastic Indicators, MACD, RSI and all those other exotic sounding tools.) If you’ve been following my stuff for a while you’ve probably...