Order Entry Error – Immediate Actions
The plan was simple – a quick scalp short into the next support level about 10 ticks away (or maybe further if the level showed signs of breaking). But trading does not always go according to plan!
Breaks Against Bias – Their Failure is My Success
We've previously discussed the idea of fading breaks which occur against the market bias. Often they're a trap! If we can anticipate that trap then we can position ourselves for a successful trade by entering at or before the point of their failure. See here if you missed the prior articles on this concept:…
WLSR – Not Win%
I've covered quite a few topics throughout 2014, but I believe the most important by far has been my attempt to have people looking for success over a series of trades, rather than on any individual trade. Not every trade idea works! But that's ok and that's normal. Keep the losses contained. And work…
Background Music for Focus
Over the years I've traded with various different forms of background music or noise, with the aim of finding that right combination that allows me to work with a positive and confident attitude and laser-like focus. Not surprisingly, I guess, what works best tends to vary from time to time with my prevailing mood. I've…
Market Structure and Price Action Study
"Fortune favors the prepared mind." … Louis Pasteur In a recent article I discussed the importance of regular study of market structure and price action. See here if you missed it – https://yourtradingcoach.com/trading-business/a-simple-step-to-becoming-a-better-trader/ After every trading session, find something you can learn from. Perhaps a market structure feature. Perhaps an interesting sequence of…
Expect Imperfection – Part Two
I always liked this passage from Street Smarts by Linda Raschke and Larry Connors: "No matter how long you trade, you'll never do it perfectly. Case in point. A friend of mine is a retired market wizard. This man has made over $100 million trading futures. He told me that his biggest weakness was…
Expect Imperfection
Imperfection is part of the game. Expect it. While you should always seek to minimise error and to improve your market reading skill and decision making abilities, you cannot ever completely eliminate imperfection. Instead, your job is to learn to profit over a series of trades, despite the presence of imperfect decisions and actions.
Do You Need A Better Belief System
“The words we attach to our experience become our experience.” … Anthony Robbins The following are extracts taken from email Q&A with traders (taken at random from my email archives). I love trading and keep on working hard, striving to become a better trader each day. I am constantly working on my weaknesses but they…
What Doesn’t Happen – Is Important Information
Trading for me is all about the metagame. My aim while looking at price action is NOT to find patterns in the traditional manner, but rather to look at that price information from the perspective of the other traders. What are they thinking? Where are they trading? What happens if they're wrong? It's orderflow…
Improving Focus – The Essential First Step
For the last year or so my trading computer has been on a desk just to the left of my work computer. This has been fine except during quiet periods of price movement, when I've often found myself tempted by the work computer. All I have to do is turn to the right and…