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What is really up with the Funded Programs?Before we go any further, I want to state that 1) This post is NOT PROMOTING ANY prop firms/funded trader programs, 2) I do not hate or have anything against any prop firms/funded trader programs, I am just sharing my understanding from what I have read and experienced, and 3) Info here is not complete. If you choose to embark on any programs, please make sure you do your own due diligence. Traditional Prop Firm Typically refers to a group of traders that focus on buying and selling financial assets with the firm’s capital. The trader uses that firm's money to trade and in exchange receives a small wage and a large percentage of the profits. In practice, proprietary trading firms provide the capital, proprietary technology, training, coaching, and mentoring for you to become an elite trader. Funded Programs There has been an ever-increasing number of funded trader programs, marketing to retail traders about the huge profit-sharing potential (75-90%) when they become "a funded trader." And all that is required is paying for and passing an evaluation/testing period. You would pay anywhere from $84 to $184 for a $10,000 account and it could go as high as you want (almost) A trader in the evaluation/testing period would have - Profit target of 8-10% in phase 1 (typically 30 days) - Profit target of 5% in phase 2 (typically 60 days) - Daily drawdown of no more than 5% - Overall drawdown of no more than 10-12% From my experience coaching retail traders, newbie or average trader has an account size of no more than $10,000. This makes the idea of being funded to trade become really attractive, limiting the downside while almost maximizing the potential. However, there has also been a lot of negativity about these funded programs; - the evaluation and actual trading accounts are demo accounts - the company makes more money from traders failing than from profitable traders - some traders claim to have never received their payouts Are funded programs scams? Again, I have not evaluated ALL funded programs to say this, but probably not. (Do your own due diligence!) Companies running funded programs are likely just deploying a good business model, addressing a pain that most retail traders have (funding their account) and filling that gap. Should you jump into a funded program? There is a lot more information (more than discussed above) that needs to be considered before you jump in. A brief checklist: 1) Do you have a profitable trading strategy to deploy? ( if you don't have a profitable strategy, keep reading, learning & testing ) 2) Have you used it for at least a year? ( avoid using funded programs as a testing ground, it can get costly! do it on a demo or even a $1,000 account first ) 3) Does the strategy meet the max drawdown conditions? ( 5% a day, 10% total? For example, a martingale strategy is not likely to work ) 4) How likely are you to bend your trading rules? ( rules set by the programs are set in stone, a breach even by the slightest and you would have failed ) 5) Is it the right time to start? ( are markets in consolidation, on a holiday period, or super volatile with no clear trend ) Remember that the average annualized return of the S&P500 is 11.88% (1957 to 2021). Trying to make 8-10% in 30 days and then 5% in 60 days just to pass, tends to put the trader under a lot of stress. How do you perform under significant pressure? What are your views of the funded programs? Share it with me in the comments I have never thought much about the funded programs. But recently have been considering giving it a shot and live-streaming the trading process daily. Would you join me on the stream? Stay tuned, it might just happen.
SP:SPXEducation
by JinDao_Tai
2
How to pick the best Cryptos ??? 😎JS-TechTrading Masterclass How to pick the Best Cryptos?? The trend is your friend. This is a very old but true quote. Why is that? • The vast majority of big winning cryptos and other securities made the largest portion of their gain in a Stage 2 uptrend • Evidence that institutions are buying • Increase probability of success • Know what to expect under specific conditions – point of reference Your goal is not to buy at the lowest price – It’s to buy at the right price! Every crypto and other security go through the same maturation cycle - it starts at stage 1 and ends at stage 4 as shown in the chart. Stage One – Neglect Phase – Consolidation Stage Two – Advancing Phase – Accumulation Stage Three – Topping Phase – Distribution Stage Four – Declining Phase – Capitulation Our JS-TechTrading strategy focuses on identifying cryptos and other securities in stage 2 uptrends for our LONG-strategies, and stage 4 downtrends for our SHORT-strategies. By doing that, we create an edge over long-term investors and less proficient traders. By focusing on cryptos and other securities in a stage 2 uptrend (LONG-strategies), and focusing on cryptos and other securities in a stage 4 downtrend (SHORT-strategies) we avoid losing money or breaking even over a long period of time and we are fully invested when cryptos and other securities are in a confirmed up-/downtrend so that we can accumulate money within the shortest period of time. Example Bitcoin: But how can we use technical chart analysis can be used to identify cryptos and other securities in a stage 2 uptrend, and in a stage 4 downtrend? 🍾🍾 3x US investment champion Mark Minervini 🍾🍾 developed the so-called Trend-Template which can be used to screen for cryptos and other securities in confirmed up- and downtrends. TradingView provides all of the relevant tools to automate this screening process. ✌️✌️ The following section summarizes the technical characteristics which must be met so that a stage 2 uptrend for a stock can be confirmed: Trend-Template to confirm a STAGE 2 Uptrend 1. Stock price is above both the 150-day (30-week) and the 200-day (40-week) moving average price lines. 2. The 150-day moving average is above the 200-day moving average. 3. The 200-day moving average line is trending up for at least 1-month (preferably 4-5 months minimum). 4. The 50-day (10-week moving average) is above both the 150-day and the 200-day moving averages. 5. The current stock price is at least 25% above its 52-week low. (Many of the best selections will be 100%, 300% or even greater above their 52-week low before they emerge from a sound consolidation period and mount a large-scale advance). 6. The current stock price is within at least 25% of its 52-week high (the closer to a new high the better). 7. Current price is trading above the 50-day moving average (exception “Low Cheat” setups Trend-Template to confirm a STAGE 4 Downtrend The same logic applies here: 1. Stock price is below both the 150-day (30-week) and the 200-day (40-week) moving average price lines. 2. The 150-day moving average is below the 200-day moving average. 3. The 200-day moving average line is trending down for at least 1-month (preferably 4-5 months minimum). 4. The 50-day (10-week moving average) is below both the 150-day and the 200-day moving averages. 5. The current stock price is at least 25% below its 52-week high. 6. The current stock price is within at least 25% of its 52-week low (the closer to a new low the better). 7. Current price is trading below the 50-day moving average. We at JS-TechTrading only consider cryptos and other securities for our watchlists which are meeting all characteristics of Minervini's trend-template. This screening process in itself provides us with a significant competitive edge versus most other traders are doing. In the next tutorials, I will explain how automated trading robots can be applied to cryptos and other securities on our watchlists.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by JS_TechTrading
How To Master Your SleepHello traders and investors, This week, I'll talk about physiology, but I'd like to relate how I went from being an overly worried, under-slept, overfed, under-muscular person to the MAN I am today. Let's start with how I conquered my sleep to get at least 7 hours of sleep per night, including hours of REM and DEEP sleep. Trading after a bad night's sleep is extremely difficult, if not dangerous. Because we can't think clearly when we have brain fog. And trading necessitates that we be hyperaware. I've had trouble sleeping virtually my whole life....  Even if I went to bed early, I usually experienced insomnia, woke up at 2/3 a.m., and couldn't fall back asleep.  It made my life unpleasant by causing chronic mental fog and an inability to be motivated. I'm happy to report that I've mastered my sleep issues and discovered routines and tools to help me stay and fall asleep. The majority of what follows was taught to me by Andrew Huberman, a well-known physiologist with about 2 million subscribers on YouTube (at the time of writing). Protocol: Right after waking up I go to my patio and soak up 10/15 minutes of sunlight. I'm fortunate to reside in a sunny location. On cloudy days, you'll have to increase your time outside first thing in the morning to 30 minutes. This approach is for awaking your circadian cycle and signalling to your body that the day has begun. It's critical to start as early as possible in the morning. I conduct a 10 minute HIIT workout on my terrace. You don't necessary need to do this; going for a walk outside is also a great morning routine. I've read several times that this early workout is highly useful for letting our brain know that it's time to start waking up the "machine." Protocol: During the day - I don't drink coffee after noon. Some folks do and sleep well. I'm one of those guys who is hypersensitive to caffeine and can't fall asleep anytime I consume coffee in the afternoon.
 - I don't consume junk food nor just eat whole foods.  I eat a well-balanced diet consisting of 60% carbs, 30% protein, and 10% fat because I work out for 1 hour every day.  
I also always eat below or at my calories maintenance - studies show metabolism are the healthiest when we don’t overeat - I don’t want no hormones, health issues - I want to live healthy, rich and for a very long time. 
This contributes to the development of my body, charisma, testosterone, and courage. 
 Courage is essential while dealing with difficult circumstances, especially when our trades are underwater. - I don't consume alcohol or smoke.  I don't feel smoking is harmful to sleep; I simply don't do it for health reasons.  However, alcohol is known to have a bad impact on our brain and sleep. Protocol: 2 hours before going to bed I go to bed around 9:30 p.m. every night. Going to bed at the same time every day trains our brains to allow us to fall asleep around that time. The caveat is that anytime I go out at night and go to bed beyond that time, I tend to have poorer sleep quality. -  Beginning with the most important: I am closing ALL of my intraday trades I don't want my intraday trades to turn into swing trades or, worse, long-term investments. I don't want to wake up stressed every night to check my trades PnL. I want to go to bed stress-free. -  Blue light glasses I still work late at night, so I wear blue light-blocking glasses. Our brain associates blue colors with "hey, it's still day time." That is why protecting our eyes from bright lights (even those in our homes) is essential for a healthy night's sleep. Looking at your TV or computer at night without them guarantees that you won't sleep well, that you'll wake up in the middle of the night and won't be able to fall back asleep. -  Self-massages I use a foam roller to roll my back and neck on, as well as a massage tool.  Eric Berg: shop.drberg.com I have no affiliation; that product improved my life by allowing me to remove nodes in my back and neck without visiting a chiropractor  -  Stretching   Shaolin Monks are famed for being highly flexible; they say flexibility is a sign of an extremely healthy physique, and I couldn't agree more.  Stretching my hamstrings and back on a daily basis greatly fixed my lower back/neck pain. Protocol: Back/Neck Pain 75% of the persons I spoke with were suffering from back/neck pain. Some people sleep on their stomach, which is bad for their neck, and they know they should sleep on their side, but they can't fall asleep that way. Some are extremely stressed and cringe. Cringing frequently causes neck pain. I needed a dental tray to prevent my cringing from causing nodes in my neck. Really a life-saving, or should I say sleep-saving, device. Protocol: What to Do If You Wake Up in the Middle of the Night - Self-massage using the foam roller and the Eric Berg’s massage tool. - Never check your phone or social media According to Andrew Huberman, checking your phone at night depletes your dopamine for the next 48 hours. 
Dopamine is the hormone giving us motivation

How could you manage difficult trades without being motivated?
 Well….it’s harder…. Tool I use an OURA ring to track my REM and DEEP sleep. It's Bluetooth-enabled and linked to my phone. Every morning, the OURA app gave me a score; the greater the score, the better my sleep was. It also distinguishes between REM, DEEP, and STANDARD sleep. Supplements Supplements I consider myself to be in a deep level of calm. I follow the dosing guidelines on each product label. - Magnesium L-Theanone  - Zinc  - Argenin  - Tart Cherry  - I used to take Ashwaganda, but I discovered it reduced my overall happiness/excitement during the day, so I stopped taking it. How long should you do these protocols before seeing some effects 

 Talking from experience, it’s a matter of days. 

 Yeah really, it’s amazing how quick our body and brain adapts to weather great or terrible inputs. 

Feeding your body with mostly great inputs leads to a great mind, mood and is the first step at getting shot at being profitable with your trading. 

The second step is mastering your anxiety and stress. 
Article coming up on that topic on Monday :) Have a good weekend everyone Dave
Education
by Daveatt
9
10 Important Tips & Tricks To Improve Trading Skills In this article, we will discuss ten important tips and tricks that can enable you to improve your trading skills. A trading plan is a must Once you have tested the plan developed and it shows good results, that is the time to go full throttle investing in the stock market. Do not lose confidence Be a learner Be a learner and practice trading as a new entrant, even if it has been decades of trading for you. Look at trading as a classroom with much to offer and to be taken one thing at a time. Don't fall for rumours Treat it like a Business It is serious business here and requires precision, patience, commitment, in-depth analysis and cold-blooded research. A stop-loss is essential Have technology at your side Trader must be up-to-date on the happenings in the trading world and use technology to know about stock movements, new products, new trading schemes and pre-empt market movements. Defend your trading capital Take risks that you can afford It enables you to plan well and not overexpose yourself to the risks in share market trading. Be open to new strategies Never in trading should there be a time that you follow a trading plan that is outdated or rigid to change. What do you want to learn in the next post?
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by UnitedSignals
8
What Kind of Person You Need to Become to Be ProfitableHello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. Why have I been sharing so many articles so far? I’ve shared one educational post a day because being a trader is a job.
And a job is the sum of many skills to acquire.
 Each skill taken individually won’t make you a profitable trader.
 Talking about me and the guys from my trading community, only all those skills applied altogether give us a shot at making money. Trading is one of the most challenging and one of the most monetary rewarding activity. Work on yourself first 

 Your trading profitability is a direct reflection of who you are as an individual. 
It’s just is. If you’re not profitable, it’s because you made some mistakes.
 And if you made them, it’s because you didn’t work enough on yourself yet.

 Having great trading signals is indeed an essential tool among the stack of tools to have but… this is not enough. 
And I’m saying this as someone selling trading signals (and a trading course). 

In a past life, when I worked as a back office Quant, we were strongly encouraged to workout, meditate, eat healthy, sleep 7+ hours, having some social life, etc… Being a trader is first being a human with great habits leading him/her towards nothing else but excellence. How can someone expects to perform well at such a tough job while being fat and/or sleeping 4 hours a night and/or not controlling his mind/emotions,…

 YOU JUST CAN’T. Trading is hard enough already and the market knows damn well how to take the hard-earned money from people who didn’t work on themselves enough. Your skills stack As an entrepreneur owning online businesses, I had to learn about sales, marketing, negotiation, copywriting, accounting, taxes optimisation, coding, hiring, building a company culture, …

 Each skill taken separately isn’t enough to bootstrap a business. 

All of them used together gave me a shot at succeeding 
The same goes with trading. The reason any very profitable trader I know became profitable after some serious time is because the stack of skills to acquire is consequential. 
And I’m not talking about skills we can learn in a short timeframe. I had to learn how to: (non-exhaustive list) - Meditate - Refrain myself from trading when I’m tired or sick or frustrated - Put my ego side and time to time get back to trading with smaller position size - Take my profit for the day and get out of my place and go outside - Eat/sleep properly - Relax and breath and do some NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest) - Working out properly and building muscles -> I’m so sure there is a direct correlation for men between our Testosterone level and the courage to enter and manage difficult trades. - Not be greedy -> One needs to get slapped hard in the face a few times to understand that - Never anticipate -> many times I cut a trade before the stop-loss or I entered too early front-running some signal(s) - in retrospect, was really a stupid behaviour - Psychology and Game Theory - Code trading scripts and trading bots in multiple programming languages - Listen to the right mentors aka traders way ahead of me in term of net worth - … Those skills used altogether compound and made me a very disciplined person - those are my daily non-negotiable behaviours. If you’re not profitable yet, it isn’t necessarily because the signals you have are bad. And to figure out if they’re bad or not, you need some trading experience… which comes from….. taking a huge amount of trades for an extended period of time. Your lack of profitability, comes for most of you from some work you still need to do.

 And by the way, each trade you take works on you. Your trades work on you more than you work on them. 

 What I mean by that, the more trades you take, the more skilled you get as you keep learning about yourself. A virtuous feedback loop. Many traders who lost everything due to a big mistake knew how to make it all back and beyond because…. they already had the required skills. Conclusion 

 A red-pilled trader could decide to put his/her money into a 100% trading bot because… learning all those skills is time-consuming.

 My advice to that person is…. “Good luck with your endeavour, you’ll likely wreck yourself” If you don’t trust me… well… I worked as a back office Quant coding trading bots for about 5 years in NYC. I tested and built more bots than 99.99% of people. Retail trading bots sellers are selling a concept, a dream which by definition doesn’t reflect the reality. 
Regardless of the strategy, it’s unlikely a 100% automated bot performs well overtime as market conditions keep changing.

 We’re now in uncharted territory with a very high inflation rate, extreme tensions between countries, an extreme defiance of people of their governments, the WEF, WHO, … (and how could we not blame them seeing what they did to us those past 2 years) Anyway, what I’m strongly recommending as someone who built non-retail trading bots for a living: learn to trade manually first and then learn how to pilot a bot. Quotes of the day - “Never chase opportunities. Let it come to you by creating value and building rare skillsets.” ― Johannes Larsson - “The ability to make wise choices is the most valuable skill a person can develop.” ― Abhishek Ratna “Skills don’t die; only people do.” ― Anas Hamshari “A good trader converts his skills to cash.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Thank you for reading Dave
NYSE:TWTREducation
by Daveatt
13
There is no bottom in the stock without a bottom in the bond My Dashboard on Tradingview www.tradingview.com where I am monitoring the entire bond market in the world with my magma indicator, country by country. When investing for the long term I first look the bond market before leaping in the stocks. There are few simple and important rules to follow in this market. 1. Higher Bond yields = Lower Bond Prices = Bottom in the bond market is more bottom 2. Short-mid term bond yields is closing to long-term yields (example 2-Years yield = 10-Years yield) = This means flattening = not good for long-term investment, stay alerting for your paper profits. 3. Short-mid term bond yields is greater than long-term yields (example 2-Years yield is greater than 10-Years yield) = This means inversion = not good, imminent fear of recession (remember: stock market does not perform well during recessions) 4. Short-mid-term bond yields is less than long-term yields (example 2-Years yield is less than 10-Years yield and going lower) = That's fine, economics sounds good for long-term investments What I see now: United States, Canada, Brazil are countries with the most prolongated inversion areas (highlighted with red circles in the figure above). 5. More prolongated inversion = not good, even more. Flattening areas (yellow circles) have to be carefully monitored. Few examples currently are showing good news (green circles) : Japan long-term and mid-term yield curves are fine and in the good direction. Same as in Australia.
FX:JPN225Education
by automiamo
1
What is margin trading & How does it work? Margin trading is when you pay only a certain percentage, or margin, of your investment cost, while borrowing the rest of the money you need from your broker. Margin trading allows you to profit from the price fluctuations of assets that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford. Note that trading on margin can improve gains, but increases the risk and size of any potential losses. But what is the margin in trading? There are two types of margins traders should be aware of. The money you need to open a position is your required margin. It’s defined by the amount of leverage you are using, which is represented in a leverage ratio. There are also limits on keeping a margin trade running, which is based on your overall maintenance margin – the amount that needs to be covered by equity (overall account value). Brokers require you to cover your margin by equity to mitigate risk. If you don’t have enough money to cover potential losses, you may be put on a margin call, where brokers would ask you to top up your account or close your loss-making trades. If your trading position continues to worsen you will face a margin closeout. Hey traders, let me know what subject do you want to dive in in the next post?
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by TopTradingSignals
6
BIGGEST TRADING MISTAKES YOU MUST KNOW While some trading mistakes are unavoidable, it is important that you don’t make a habit of them and learn from both successful and unsuccessful positions. With that in mind, these are the 10 most common trading mistakes. 1 - Not researching the markets properly Some traders will open or close a position on a gut feeling, or because they have heard a tip. It is important to back these feelings or tips up with evidence and market research before committing to opening or closing a position. 2 - Trading without a plan 3 - Over-reliance on indicators 4 - Failing to cut losses The temptation to let losing trades run in the hope that the market turns can be a grave error, and failing to cut losses can wipe out any profits a trader may have made elsewhere. 5 - Overexposing a position 6 - Overdiversifying a portfolio too quickly While diversifying a trading portfolio can act as a hedge in case one asset’s value declines, it can be unwise to open too many positions in a short amount of time. 7 - Not understanding leverage 8 - Not understanding the risk-reward ratio The risk-to-reward ratio is something every trader should take into consideration, as it helps them decide whether the end profit is worth the possible risk of losing capital. 9 - Overconfidence after a profit 10 - Letting emotions impair decision-making Emotional trading is not smart trading. Emotions, such as excitement after a good day or despair after a bad day, could cloud decision-making and lead traders to deviate from their plan. Every trader makes mistakes, and the examples covered in this article don’t need to be the end of your trading. However, they should be taken as opportunities to learn what works and what doesn’t work for you.
OANDA:BTCUSDEducation
by EliteTradingSignals
4
The path to becoming a good trader When a beginner learns to trade, they progress through stages as they develop their mindset. The most commonly used learning model for trading is an adaptation of the 3 stages of competence model. 1. Unprofitable trader This is the first stage that a trader goes through and they do not know that they have a lack of knowledge. In this stage, beginner traders will take their first few steps by downloading a platform, opening an account and begin to place trades. However, they are influenced by emotion – usually lured by the thought of making a great deal of money in a short period of time. Either one of two things are likely to happen for traders in this stage: The trades turns against the trader immediately. They simply lack the experience to deal with the market environment. New traders take large risks without a basic knowledge of risk management and they wipe out all previous profits and more. 2. Boom and bust trader Boom and bust traders will realise that successful trading comes down to the psychology of the trader and their approach to the markets. A basic understanding that you will never be able to predict what will happen in the markets, starts to form. You begin to realise that making money is based on a series of trades that incorporate winners and losers, and that it takes discipline to stick to a system, cut losses short and let profits run. A trader in this stage will begin to enter and exit the markets whenever their system tells them to, without judgement and despite the emotion they are feeling. 3. Profitable trader A trader is said to have reached the stage of unconscious competence once they have traded with so much practice that they are able to trade in an almost automatic mindset. A disciplined approach requires very little effort and has become second nature. At what stage are you at the moment?
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by UnitedSignals
7
JS-Masterclass: Sell Alerts / RulesJS-Masterclass #10: Sell Alerts / Sell Rules In recent tutorials, we have covered different techniques and ways to identify low-risk entry points. We have talked about the perfect buy points and several entry patterns. In this tutorial, we will discuss general rules for selling once we have entered a trade. Also, we will present a comprehensive list of warning signals which suggest to close a trade long before hitting the Stop-Loss. 1. Selling into strength By far the best option for a swing-trader is to sell into strength. You will feel like a hero once you have mastered this technique! Here are some guidelines for that: a) Sell if you have achieved a gain which is a multiple of your risk. The minimum gain before selling into strength should be 2x the risk. Consider selling half and moving stop on remaining position to breakeven. b) If your profit is more than your average gain and a multiple of your risk (generally 2-3x) consider trailing a stop or selling half and moving your stop up. You could also “backstop” your average gain or an amount you want to lock in. c) The stock is extended and opens up on a gap; consider selling at least half or trail a tight stop. 2. Selling into weakness a) The price hits pre-determined stop-loss – OUT… NO QUESTIONS! You will have to stick to this discipline before you will become a successful trader. b) The stock closes below 20-day moving average, below your purchase price soon after a breakout from volatility contraction pattern; reduce shares when you have 3-4 days of lower lows without supportive action on day 3-4. This increases the odds of a failure. c) Heavy selling with full retracement soon after low volume breakout. This is a bad signal – get out of the trade. d) Key reversal on heavy volume when stock is extended – sell at least half. 3. Sell Alerts Stocks will flash warning signals long before a big decline. Here are some to watch for: a) Accelerated rate of advance (parabolic “blow-off” price action) b) After extended move stock moves up 25-50% in 1-3 weeks (12 of 15 days up over 3 weeks) c) Largest up day since beginning of move (look for reversal or churning over the next 1-4 trading days). This could mean that the stock is in its final leg up and almost exhausted. d) Largest daily price spread since advance started e) Largest weekly price spread since beginning of advance f) Exhaustion gaps (after stock is extended – usually 2nd or 3rd gap ) g) New high on low volume which sometimes indicates the beginning of a phase 3 h) Heavy volume with little price progress (stalling action) i) Drop below the 50-day moving average line on the heaviest daily volume since beginning of move j) Largest one-day decline since beginning of move k) Largest weekly decline on huge volume l) Downwards action on large volume
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by JS_TechTrading
Perfect Buy Points: The Power PlayJS-Masterclass #9: Perfect Buy Points – The Power Play In the recent tutorials we have some patterns leading to a Perfect Buy Point (Volatility Contraction Patterns, IPO’s – The Primary base). In this tutorial we will cover the so called Power-Play. Characteristics of a Power-Play: 1. An explosive price move on huge volume; the stock shoots up 100% or more in less than 8 weeks. 2. The rapid price run-up could be induced by a major news development such as an FDA drug approval, litigation resolution, a new product or service announcement or even an earnings report, or on no news at all. 3. The stock price then moves sideways in a relatively tight range not correcting more than 20% over a period of 3- 6 weeks (some emerge after only 10 or 12 days). Here are some examples:
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by JS_TechTrading
Be that traderA structure is necessary to actively improve all the skills required to master trading. Start by rating yourself on a scale of 1 to 100 for all these skills to come up with "stats" as you would have in a videogame. Next step is to take the same approach as you would to level up in a said video game. Focus on the grind and to complete a couple of "levels" per day. You will see that with this concept in mind you will attain higher stats that you would want for your "perfect build". Cheers to many pips.
FOREXCOM:XAUUSDEducation
by FXKG
3
How to Blow Your Account | Step-By-Step Guide 💰 to 🪙 Hey traders, In this article, we will discuss the set of actions, habits and beliefs that will blow your account. 1. Trades are based on emotional decisions Behind each trading position must be a reason. The entry reason of a professional trader is based on a very strict and objective conditions, while an unprofitable trader follows emotions and intuition. 2. Stop loss placement is for losers A lot of traders consistently neglect placing a stop loss. Remember, just one single trade without that may blow your entire account. 3. Set unrealistic goals There is a common misconception concerning trading: that the equity size is not proportional to potential gains. Such a reasoning leads to various false conclusions. One who is trading with 100$ account and expecting to buy lambo, will inevitably blow the account. 4. No time for trade journaling Why to even bother yourself with trade journaling?! It is just waste of time. Remember, that trading journal is one of that best tools for learning. Constantly assessing your past decisions, you identify the flaws of your strategy and fix that, increasing your future gains. 5. Trading plan is for fools I know a lot of traders who trade without a plan. Remember, that the trading plan is your roadmap. Without that, it is impossible to become a consistently profitable trader. 6. Blindly following other's view While you are learning how to trade, your task is to learn the reasoning behind the trades of the pro's in the industry. Following them without reflections, you are not learning and, moreover, you are becoming dependent. Losing, you put the responsibility on their shoulders instead of yours. Such an approach will lead you to failure. Learn to become responsible in your trading decisions and execute your own analysis before you follow any other trader. 7. Who needs economic data As we discussed many times, fundamentals are the driver of the market. Neglecting the trends and global situation, not studying the news, you will unavoidably be fooled by the market. 8. Indicators are the magic pill I know a lot of traders, who spend thousands of dollars looking for a magic indicator - the instrument that will make tons of money. The fact is that indicators are just a tool in your toolbox. Its goal is to provide some minor additional clues to your analysis. Overestimating the importance of indicators, you will most likely blow your account. 9. Not investing in education Many traders are spending their money not on education but on fancy tools, signal services, robots and indicators. However, the fact is that only knowledge gives freedom, only skills can make you independent. 10. Back testing is pointless Trying different strategies, many traders intentionally skip the back testing part. Remember, that back testing is the most proven way to verify the efficiency of a strategy, allowing you to save time and money simultaneously. 11. Paper trading does not make any sense Same thing with paper trading. For some reason, the majority of the traders skip demo trading, quickly opening a real account. However, the fact is that demo trading is the best, risk-free tool for learning how the market works. Unfortunately, these 11 fallacies and misconceptions are very common. Analyze your trading and make sure that you are not making these classic mistakes. What would you add in that list? ❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section. Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
Education
by VasilyTrader
55
My trading setupWas recently speaking with a newbie trader and he was showing me his setup. Highlighting his specialized keyboard and mouse, together with a 49 inch widescreen monitor, and some fancy CPU. All up it cost him more than $5,000. This led me to think, is a hi-tech premium setup necessary for successful (Profitable) trading? Should you prioritize funds towards a trading setup or into your trading account? My trading analysis process: 1) identifying broad-based trends based on fundamental analysis 2) aligning the fundamental bias with the technical setup 3) calculation of risk management This is why I have my trading setup like this, which I've found to be the most effective for me: - Vertical screen on the side to read long-form news and articles. - Horizon screen at eye level for my trading platform. - Laptop screen used to write up my analysis How do you have your trading setup? Share a picture in the comments
FX:XAUUSDEducation
by JinDao_Tai
11
Special Entry Patterns - IPO'sJS-TechTrading Masterclass : Special Entry Patterns - IPO's In a previous tutorial, I have explained the general characteristics of a perfect buy point. In this tutorial, we will look at IPO's (Initial Public Offerings) and discuss how to identify primary bases. IPO's coming out of primary bases can make huge price moves - let's discuss how to find the next monster mover, similar to what stocks like Amazon could achieve after their Initial Public Offering phase. Perfect Entry Points – IPO’s – The Primary Base When it comes to investing in IPO stocks, new issues don't play by the usual rules. Companies making initial public offerings draw a lot of investor attention. That often results in unusual and brand-new chart patterns. Volatility can rise as investors size up demand for the new stock. Yet there are opportunities in these cases, if you can spot the correct characteristics amid the price-and-volume action. The framework of a good IPO base is simple. The decline from peak to low usually doesn't top 20%, but the most volatile markets have produced declines of up to 50%. The length is often less than five weeks and can be as short as seven days. These two factors alone make IPO bases wayward cousins compared with proper bases, such as the cup with handle and flat base, which need at least five to seven weeks of work. In an IPO base, the pattern typically starts within 25 days of the stock's first day of trading. Know the important similarities with regular bases. For example, the buy point is drawn by taking the prior high and adding 10 cents. The price gain on the breakout should be strong. There are ways to evaluate these blind spots, however. Important factors include seeing a shallow correction within the base during normal market conditions, a large increase in price and a close near session highs on the breakout day, and heavy volume on the breakout day and week. Also, the stock should generally form the base above its IPO price. Example - ServiceNow (NOW) The business software company, went public in June 2012, at 18 a share and has built its primary base during the period from the initial offering to April 2013 when the stock developed its first perfect buy point.
Education
by JS_TechTrading
How To Get What You Want Out of Your TradingHello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. The today’s lessons coming from my experience is me sharing how I got what I wanted out of life Whether, it’s a 6 packs, money, success etc… I) Is writing down your goals even useful? A keystone habit that served me very well in retrospect, when there is something that I want that I do not have, so I have a desire which means I’ve made a contract with myself to be unhappy until I get what I want. So there is this thing external that I wanted - think of 6 packs, money, success, ... Writing down goals means nothing and I know it’s contrary to common belief or practice - which states people writing down their goals are more likely to succeed.

 Sure having a direction is more likely to achieve them than not having a direction right I don’t disagree with that.

 Here is an interesting statement that may hit you: winners and losers have the same goals Successful traders and unsuccessful traders have the same goal namely increasing how much money they’re making. Then, having goals cannot be the main driver of success

We have to dive deeper to understand what are the behaviours making our goals being achieved. II) Mimic the behaviours of very successful traders We all already know the activities that are going to generate the result we want.
 - Maybe, it’s not trading what you want to trade but trading what’s moving Yes, I’m thinking of crypto traders scalping ranges while recent events brought an insane intraday volatility with futures, commodities and even FX pairs 
 - Maybe, it’s trading with a demo account, tiny baby trades for months, and scaling up progressively the position size. Self-mastery is a skill that MUST be acquired - going outside of your lane too quick INEVITABLY results in a catastrophe - Maybe, it’s not trading from our phone but from our computer only.... We tend to miss some obvious data on the charts, screeners when trading from a small screen 
 - Maybe, it’s also not trading when we’re tired or sick or frustrated Trading is hard - trading without a body/mind in a decent shape is...... not smart.... I bet every reader knows how to lose fat right? Burning more calories than we eat... 
Even fat people know that
.... They know what kind of activities they should do to lose fat but they don’t do it. 
The same goes with unsuccessful traders. The vast majority of traders know what to do to become successful but don’t want to do it because it’s too time-consuming and boring right? A new trader, looking to get rich quickly will be poor quickly III) A simple hack I’m often asking myself the question, what would a person who does this type of thing do in this instance? Your identity is a weighted voting system where you can votes based on your activities and what type of person you want to become. What Paul Tudor Jones or Jesse Livermore or Ed Seykota did to be successful? A simple google search gave me a list of common behaviours/habits shared from the most successful traders. Instead of writing a 50 points checklist of all the activities I need to do to achieve my goals, I wrote down a list of behaviours commonly shared between extremely successful traders and investors. If you’re a millionaire, ask yourself, what would a billionaire do? If you’re not a millionaire yet, ask yourself what would a millionaire do? Another great question to ask ourselves: what would someone 10 times smarter than me would do in that situation? 
It’s a different way of saying, what would someone 10 times richer than me would do 
Word it in whatever way resonates with you. 

I wrote those questions on a post-it and sticked it on my wall above my computer - it’s a constant reminder for me to reflect and think before I take a trade.

 And that type of person, when you’re asking yourself the question “what would that person do in that situation?” is who you will eventually become as you continue to cast votes that reinforce the stories that we tell ourselves about who we are. 
 Those are the things that create long-lasting changes 

. This hack isn’t about telling ourselves affirmations such as: - I’m a successful trader - I’m rich - I’m a high value man/woman Just saying them doesn’t make them true

. What makes them becoming true is creating some level of evidence through behaviours/actions for an extended period of time. 

It all starts with activity, with doing.

 And for a new trader, doing is….taking as many trades as possible while testing as many strategies as possible, one by one, until one sticks with his/her risk appetite, capital, lifestyle etc… + accumulating a tons of small activities or habits leading to success. I’ll write next Monday an education post listing the behaviours I “copy/pasted” for years until they became a part of “ME” and how they fast-tracked my way to multiply my net worth. I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Thank you for reading
 Dave
Education
by Daveatt
2
How To (NOT) Fail As A Trader? (Part 2)Hello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. Today, I want to share the second part of the frameworks I’ve used across the past 10 years. 
I’ve learned them from the legend himself Charlie Munger, cofounder of Berkshire Hathaway, what NOT TO DO to stay far away from being unsuccessful and poor. You'll find the first part shared yesterday below I) Overspend your income Once I got to a certain level of net worth, I still didn’t spend a lot.
 Actually, I never overspent my trading income, I just keep stockpiling as much as possible
I don’t buy fancy things, I don’t get a table when I go to the nightclub
. I barely spend 3% of what I earn every month - makes me feel so free because it’s more money that I’d ever need.

 And …. That’s how wealth is accumulated. 

I don’t even live frugally… I go to the restaurant every day….. I buy stuff that I need and I like…. 
 But … if you want to fail, definitively overspend your income. II) Learn only from your own mistakes To fail, don’t learn from the mistakes of others, don’t learn from the success of other people. There are tons of free ressources to learn the basics of psychology, trading, self-mastery

. There are also a few very reliable and trustworthy traders selling courses and sharing how they became successful.
 Sharing their trading method, their insights, etc... 

Knowing how to identify them, and listening to them is key. 

To stay poor, don’t learn from other successful traders. III) Quit Early If you want to fail and be miserable, you definitively want to quit soon, quit early. 

Because, no matter of who you are, you’re going to fail many times.

 Remember that my win-rate is between 50/60% :) Half of my trades are necessary failures for me to deserve the winners. 

If you quit trading too early, that’s a guarantee you’d be miserable for a long-time. Don’t put yourself in a situation where you blown up your trading capital and can’t trade anymore...forcing you to quit… Stay in the game, with tiny baby trades and take many of them for a VERY EXTENDED period of time…

 That’s the ONLY WAY to learn overtime IV) Negative Visualisation Take something very negative, and imagine it happening a thousand times in a row. 
How would you feel at the 1000th time it happens? 
Exactly…you’d feel nothing If you feel that way after the 1000th time… then you might as well feel that way after the 1st time… 
This mindset framework has been so POWERFUL for me.

 That’s exactly why you MUST trade a lot and have a lot of losers in your “skeleton closet” Being insensitive to losses is a skill that can be acquired only after hundreds/thousands of failed trades

. And trust me, I have hundreds of those losers every month… 

They’re not affecting me anymore… they’re a necessary “evil” V) Expect only the best outcome If you want to fail at trading, definitively follow traders only posting the winning outcomes/trades. Definitively never think of setting a stop-loss, or an hard-exit

. Definitively don’t think about your RISK VI) Expect the worst Bouncing back from the previous point, sharing how I approach trading. If you’re a beginner in your trading journey, expect every day that you’re going to lose some of your money. And that is going to be your base reality If I happen to make gains, be profitable then…. That’s just a bonus…. That’s serendipitous … it’s just a happy coincidence. 

But I expect that at every trading session I’m going to lose. 

This mindset framework has been extremely beneficial for me. 
If I come trading with that mindset, then I’m not surprised nor affected when I’m losing some capital and I feel that way because it’s in alignments with the expectations I have in my mind. Thank you for reading
 I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Dave
Education
by Daveatt
2
JS-Masterclass #7: Trade AnalysisJS-Masterclass #7: Confirmations & Violations In previous tutorials, we have covered the stock selection process and the identification of low risk, high probability entry point following constructive consolidation patterns. Now that we are in the trade, the question comes up what to look for. What makes the price action healthy so that you rather stay in the trade and what are the alarm signals to look for? The Founder of the Berger Funds and Stock Market Legend Bill Berger said: “I buy tennis balls and sell eggs.” What does that mean? ‘Tennis-Balls’ are characterized as follows: after a breakout under high volume out of a constructive consolidation pattern, most stock will pull back after a couple of days. This pullback for ‘Tennis-Balls’ normally happens under low volume and is followed by a strong price increase under heavy volume. Just like a tennis ball immediately pooping back after a drop to the ground. ‘Eggs’ are characterized as follows: The above mentioned pullback after a breakout happens under high volume and the stock is not able to recover from this pullback. Just like an egg which drops down to the ground. What you do want to see after you have entered a trade: • The trade is immediately profitable • Good volume characteristics (high volume on up-days and low volume on down days) • High volume rallies – low volume pullbacks • Follow through buying (2-3 days or more) – institutional vs. retail • More up days than down days • More good closes than bad closes • Look for ‘Tennis Ball Action’ after a ‘Natural Reaction’. A ‘Natural Reaction’ can be considered as a pullback under low volume following a breakout. What you do not want to see after you have entered a trade: • Squat directly after breakout • Low volume out of a base - high volume back in • 3 or 4 lower lows w/o supportive action • More down days than up days • More bad closes than good closes • A close below the 20d MA on high volume • A close below the 50d MA on high volume • Full retracement of a good size gain • Wide and volatile price action • Outside day: high is higher than high of the previous day but closes below the low if the previous day. This happens on higher volume versus the previous day
Education
by JS_TechTrading
How To (NOT) Fail As A Trader? (Part 1)Hello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. Today, I want to share some thinking frameworks I’ve used across the past 10 years. 
I’ve learned them from the legend himself Charlie Munger, cofounder of Berkshire Hathaway, what NOT TO DO to stay far away from being unsuccessful and poor. I) Don’t ingest chemicals 
Don’t ingest chemicals to alert your state
If I wanted to be really poor or unsuccessful in life, what would I do?
Well, I’d definitively get addicted to chemicals.
 Sounds so logical and obvious right?
 Though, many of us use them on regular basis to alter their mood because they can’t cope with how hard trading can be sometimes. I can’t think of anyone who ever told me “oh man, now my life is so much better since I’m on drugs and I drink” It’s not a judgment in any way; that’s what Charlie Munger says about successful people - they don’t ingest chemicals. II) Envy 
Every single year, I outperform my previous year YoY% PnL return and have grown my net worth. Though, I always find many guys over performing me in trading every single year. 
And for me, that hit me because I’m so innately competitive… that I suffer from comparison all the time. I even got to the weirdest point thinking “I feel the more money I make, the poorer I feel” Yes you read that right… and I know many of extremely successful traders feel that way.

And it’s totally true because what ends up happening is our measuring stick changes. III) Measuring Stick I remember when I was very young, my measuring stick was a MacDonald’s meal.
It was just, how many McDonald’s meals this amount of money equates to. When I got to a 6 figures net worth, that was probably the wealthiest I have ever felt because I had proportional to what my measuring stick was at that time…100K euros was so many McDonald’s meals, so many of those units.

Now, my measuring stick or unit is bigger is monetary value (and significance).
 That stick changes.... 

Someone is always doing better. I think it’s so much more about not thinking about them because the way they roll the dice and play the game has no effects on us - it’s only an imaginary way to make ourselves suffer. 
If you want to suffer, be envious of people. IV) Resent people 

 Another way to feel miserable is to resent people.
 - Do you resent some guys for your trading failures? - Do you blame the FED? Do you blame Blackrock? - Do you blame the whales for YOU to not performing with trading the way you should? Charlie Munger wrote that every time he feels the need to resent people, he’d write their name on a piece of paper and put that paper in a drawer, and periodically open it up and realise how life had dealt with those people without him having to do anything. 

It’s one of those long-term mindedness that like most people live in karmic balance. Simply, people who do bad things, eventually that catches up to them and life is becoming worse for them. 
And someone doing bad things is already dealing with the suffering of being who they are. 

Why am I saying this?

 All your corrupt politicians, bankers, hedge funds, market makers, brokers… at some point, the karma (or the SEC :p) will make their life miserable or at least very problematic. Again, repeating myself, don’t resent other people for your losses because this will make you feel really miserable. 

 V) Be unreliable To feel miserable, say you’re going to do something and don’t do it. Say you’re going to be somewhere and be late.
 Be flaky, make tons of mistakes and don’t learn from them. 
That’s why I’m a big believer of having a trading buddy because it forces me to be reliable towards myself and him.
 For me, that’s my father. 
We both show up on time, trading from the same room, we both trades and discuss in real-time of setups we identified. If you’re reliable, it’s very difficult to be unsuccessful. 
Even if the previous days, you lost money, keep showing up. 
If you don’t feel like trading because your emotions are not in check… trade with your demo account or with smaller position sizes until you’ll bring your self-confidence back up. My win-rate is maybe around 50/60% - which means half of the trades I take…. fail…

 Though it was a tough pill to swallow, I worked on making at least 3 times more on average with my winners compared to my losers. 
Meaning for every 1 dollar per trade with a negative PnL, I earn 3 dollars per trade with a positive PnL.

 I’ll post the Part II of this article tomorrow . Thank you for reading
 I'll keep bringing a few articles like this every week because it helps me clarifying my thoughts AND giving back to the community makes me feel good about myself somehow :) Dave
Education
by Daveatt
3
The reason you are not successful...Hello traders, All the below are based on my preferences, I don't give any financial recommendations and I have nothing to sell you with this article. I'm sharing content because I see a lot of traders being/becoming broke and I don't want you to be one of them. Yesterday, I posted an article about how to NOT overtrade when you're emotions are running high: Now, I'd like to flip the other side of that coin showing how "overtrading" can be beneficial for beginners to achieve their desired outcome. 🧵 I - Alex Hormozi I discovered this OUTCOME equation thanks to Alex Hormozi on Youtube. He helped me defining clearly with words how to get to the outcome I want. Props to him for being such a wonderful business/sales/marketing/thinker. II - The OUTCOME equation The equation is defined as: VOLUME x SKILL x TIME = OUTCOME VOLUME = number of repetitions SKILL = quality of each repetition TIME = total duration of practicing those repetitions Based in foundational principales The more we do.... the better we get The better we get.... the more we do The longer we do it....the better we get The better we get....the longer we do it The longer we do it...the more what we did compounds on itself (profit, reducing losses, etc) In this way, each of the three feed the others, but it all starts with doing . It's a virtuous wonderful cycle: imgur.com It works for any skill you want to acquire but let's focus on trading for now. After years of trading, any of my trade has a higher quality than my trades from my early days. Why? Because I spent an enormous amount of time trading intraday first with a demo account, and then with a live account trading with micro-lots/micro-pips. Once I got profitable CONSISTENTLY for a few weeks, I allowed myself to increase my lot size slightly. I repeated this cycle made of mini weekly cycles for more than 5 years until I'll reach a capital allowing me to trade the indices futures. III - Why 97% of traders fail at trading The majority of traders lose due to a lack of experience which can only come with taking a lot of trades during an extended period of time. There is no other way.... Forget about getting rich quickly, forget about your 100% automated bots - if such wonders existed, no one in their right mind would sell them and they'd invest everything they and their family own in those magical cashflow generating machines instead... New traders think only a few weeks of practicing is required to learn about themselves and about the markets. Your favorite influencers won't tell you this: trading is very hard, most lose all their money, lose their family, lose their home, lose themselves in the process. The only hedge you have is your WORK.... you can't cheat the GAME.... you have to take a lot of trades for an extended period of time..... And then, at some point, you'll be able to capture more opportunity per trade, to lose less whenever your Stop Loss is hit, to not get frustrated when the price is leaving without you All those skills cannot be acquired in weeks .... One cannot develop character traits required to be a good trader in a short timeframe - talking about patience, discipline and motivated. Motivated too because it's hard to keep one's dopamine level high after some consecutive days of losing Don't cheat the game, it's impossible If you're not profitable yet, forget about leverage please please please please. How many times do you have to get margin called to understand that leverage wasn't invented for you to make money but to depart from it faster. IV - True Effort When learning a new skill at the beginning, everyone sucks. I certainly sucked at it and you will too. THAT IS FINE, THIS IS OKAY, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG How could you not expect to suck at a skill you don't know yet. What I'm saying is unpleasant because everyone wants to get rich quick (me included) My only guarantee to YOU guys is that if you can afford to follow this process with a decent trading strategy and stay consistent, your gains are going to be tiny at the beginning and then PARABOLIC after some time. As the desired OUTCOME is to become richer and/or live off your trading again, this is the ONLY way It's IMPOSSIBLE to suck at trading after taking thousands and thousands of trades. As it's impossible to suck at anything after months and months of constant practice and effort. And you can learn with a DEMO account (risk-free) or with betting pennies per every trade using CFDs or other similar product. If you want to learn how to play piano, if you follow some tutorials on Youtube every day and practice 2-3 hours a day for years, I guarantee you that you'll have an excellent playing level. Stop being lazy, stop cheating the game, stop searching for the way to get rich quick. Accept the magic pill doesn't exist BUT another way that no one is doing will allow you be DIRECTIONALLY RIGHT and eventually reaching your desired OUTCOME. Conclusion I wanted to post this content because this outcome equation is dear to my heart and changed my life for the better I'm literally kicking ass because I outworked everyone I know And now that I'm more skilled than them, I can put off my foot from the accelerator working less than them, making more $$ than them Thank you for reading by dear followers PS To all those in the comments about to tell me they have a magical bot printing $$ for them and their community, I invite you to show me your track records and bank account statements and any proof I could believe you didn't use photoshop on to sugarcoat what the reality is...
Education
by Daveatt
44