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Trading Psychology

How To: Find Good Traders To Follow & Who Picked the BTC Crash !Just thought I would show you an interesting way to see who is making the right calls before a stock or (crypto)currency makes a significant bullish or bearish move. With so many people posting on TradingView it can sometimes be hard to know who to follow. This is a way to see very simply who is making more accurate calls and best of all it IS NOT influenced by their number of posts or followers or reputation points etc. It is a great way to discover new users brand new to the site - or more established ones who have been on here for years. You can have one post or 100 and still stand out. If you find the same person consistently making the "right" calls and you like their analysis and how they trade then you can very easily follow them. (PS not really a crash, more of some profit taking and a pullback to support. Be interesting to see what happens over the next few days though.)
COINBASE:BTCUSDEducation
by zAngus
221
Learn Why Most of the Traders Fail The evidence suggests that only a very small proportion of day traders makes money year over year. There are certain patterns which may separate profitable traders from those who ultimately lose money. And indeed, there is one particular mistake that in our experience gets repeated time and time again. What is the single most important mistake that led to traders losing money? Here is a hint – it has to do with how we as humans relate to winning and losing. Our own human psychology makes it difficult to navigate financial markets, which are filled with uncertainty and risk, and as a result the most common mistakes traders make have to do with poor risk management strategies. Traders are often correct on the direction of a market, but where the problem lies is in how much profit is made when they are right versus how much they lose when wrong. Bottom line, traders tend to make less on winning trades than they lose on losing trades. Humans aren’t machines, and working against our natural biases requires effort. Once you have a trading plan that uses a proper reward/risk ratio, the next challenge is to stick to the plan. Remember, it is natural for humans to want to hold on to losses and take profits early, but it makes for bad trading. We must overcome this natural tendency and remove our emotions from trading. That will help you to be a consistently profitable trader. ✅LIKE AND COMMENT MY IDEAS✅ Please, like this post and subscribe to our tradingview page!👍
OANDA:BTCUSDEducation
by EliteTradingSignals
6
All Four ICT Killzones plus times on one chartJust wanted to put all four ICT Kill Zones to see: All are 2 hours in length, except London open kill zone which is 3 hours in length. AUDCAD 15 minute chart today worked out great related, all four kill zones could have made profits for a traders if done right, which Time & Price. I do not trade AC during London Kill Zone related to both sides not being in session- Sydney would have just closed & NY has not opened yet. The chart is just visually showing you exact time - all times or kill zones are NY session times ( you would need to translate them to your time- or like me I just put my charts on NY times (lower right), why? because you hopefully know the time it is, where you live... lol Wish you best, Keep forex trading as simple as you can, so you can enjoy life and keep in balance of body, mind & soul.
Education
by Anbat
Learn The Only Proven Way to Become Rich 1. Money mindset is everything You need to have a positive money mindset when it comes to creating wealth. Everyone carries a money story and it’s your job to understand what yours is and if it’s holding you back. Reframing your story to a millionaire’s mindset is essential for success because rich people think differently. How to get rich can’t be a passing phase in your life; it takes work and commitment. 2. Millionaires still budget Hard to believe, but it’s true. Even millionaires follow a budget. The biggest secret on how to get rich and stay rich is spending less than you bring in. There will always be wants that exceed budget limits, even for millionaires, because there is not an unlimited supply of money. 3. Money management is key Good money management is so important to get rich and stay rich. Money management is a behavior and habit. You need to be mindful of where you are investing and spending your money. There is a specific strategy to growing your wealth and maintaining it and you must follow it like you do a workout regime. 4. Invest your money for growth Investing in assets that will appreciate over time and provide you with a return on your investment such as dividend or interest payments is smart. The goal is to build your asset portfolio and make it so strong that you can live off the passive income in your retirement. 5. Build your business around your personal financial goals As a business owner you have more control over the money you make versus being an employee with a set salary. If you want more money in your pockets, you can increase your revenue and your profit margins to ensure you are taking home more money. The more profits you have in your business the more you can pay yourself a dividend or bonus, depending on the legal structure of your business. 6. Create multiple income streams Smart business owners create more than one income streamas it protects them from fluctuations in the market. That means if one source of revenue dries up due to market conditions, other sources of income can protect you from a loss. 7. CONCLUSION: The bottom line is that knowing how to get rich is something that is learned. There are no guarantees that if you start a business that you will get rich because even the best business ideas fail due to poor execution. But if you educate yourself and get help in making your business a success, you will increase your chances of success. What do you want to learn in the next post?
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by UnitedSignals
8
Learn The HIDDEN Costs of Trading In this educational article, we will discuss the hidden costs of trading. 1 - Brokers' Commissions Trading commission is the brokers' fee for opening a trading position. Usually, it is calculated based on the size of the trade. Even though most of the traders believe that trading commissions are too low to even count them, the fact is that trading on consistent basis and opening a couple of trading positions weekly, the composite value of commissions may cut a substantial part of our profits. 2 - Education Of course, most of the trading basics can be found on the Internet absolutely for free. However, the more experienced you become, the harder it is to find the materials. So you usually should pay for the advanced training. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the course/coaching that you purchase will improve your trading, quite often traders go through multiple courses/coaching programs before they become consistently profitable. 3 - Spreads Spread is the difference between the sellers' and buyers' prices. That difference must be compensated by a trader if one wished to open a trading position. In highly liquid markets, the spreads are usually low and most of the traders ignore them. However, being similar to commissions, spreads may cut the substantial part of the overall profits. 4 - Time When you begin your trading journey, it is not possible to predict how much it will take to become a consistently profitable trader. Moreover, there is no guarantee that you will become one. One fact is true, you should spend a couple of years before you find a way to trade profitably, and as we know, the time is money. More time you sacrifice on trading, less time you have on something else. 5 - Swaps Swap is the fee you pay for transferring a position overnight. Swap is based on a difference between the interests rates of the currencies that are in a pair that you trade. Occasionally, swaps can even be positive, and you can earn on holding such positions. However, most of the time the swaps are negative and the longer you hold your trades, the more costly your trading becomes. The brokers' commissions, spreads and swaps compose a substantial cost of our trading positions. Adding into the equation the expensive learning materials and time spent on practicing, trading becomes a very expensive game to play. However, knowing in advance these hidden costs, the one can better prepare himself for a trading journey. ❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section. Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
FOREXCOM:XAUUSDEducation
by VasilyTrader
10
London Kill Zone Close (ICT concept) 4 of 4London Kill Zone Close (ICT concept) 4 of 4 Hours are from 10am to 12pm New York Time/EST 1) London session is closing, so one more pump or dump mostly happens before liquidity and volume to end of session gets lower 2) Trade majors with USD pairs 3) Look for 10-20 pips on a short scalp during this time 4) Don't be greedy- get your little piece of pip pie and then turn off computer and get some fresh air. Balance is key to life- not staying indoors always. 5) Look at what that pair has been doing for last few days or week and see or visualize what this LKZC wants to do- get on short trade train. 6) Do your homework with all of these Kill Zones noted in this series, take notes, practice what you would do in live trading if you see certain setups. With you best in trading and life- Stay Safe Always
Education
by Anbat
2
New York Open Kill Zone (ICT concept) 3-4New York Open Kill Zone (ICT concept) 3 of 4 Times are from 7 am to 9 am New York Times/EST 1) You see a lot of both liquidity and volume with overlapping sessions of both London & New York 2) Better to use only majors or pairs with USD in them, like: EU, AU, UJ, GU, UC & NU 3) Nothing happens always in Forex, but one or more of the noted pairs above will have a setup to trade during this time, to give you 20-30 pips. 4) New York Open Kill Zone will do either two things during the session: Either be a continuation from London and go same way and/or be a reversal in direction and make a low for the day. 5) During this NYOKZ- a lot of economic news releases happen which will either pump or dump a USD pair, so be cautious around news times. 6) Noted on chart is EU 15 mn chart, which you could have set up a 12 to 20 pip sell trade or scalp during this time period. 7) Look at bigger picture then noted 15 mn chart, higher TFs give you marco perspective so you do not get tunnel vision when trading on 15mn or 5mn Tfs. You need to be able to read structure, price action, support and resistance areas, round numbers- Always remember time and price of day. Stay safe, wish you best in Forex & Life. Always on every trade control Risk and Reward by using only 1% to 2% of your account maximum per trade- related to a sound strategy and/or plan.
Education
by Anbat
1
London Kill Zone (ICT concept) 2 of 4London Kill Zone (ICT concept) 2 of 4 (2am to 5am NY time) This happens at start of London session, 1st three hours of session 1) Look at all EUR and GBP pairs, from daily down to trading charts 15mn (noted on attached chart) and/or 5mn charts for entry 3) Look for set ups related to fib ret 50%-61.8%, trend continuations, trend reversals 4) Look for imbalances in price action, support and resistance, round numbers (ones with alot of zeros, like 139.00 or quarter numbers< you can You Tube. 5) Look for price action before this possible trading area in London kill zone, what happened previous? last couple days or this week? 6) Do you have a buy or sell daily bias? If you do, which you should have- then only take trades in that direction today. It is easier. 7) London kill zone has a lot of liquidity and volume- so with right pair and set up you should expect 25-50 pips + in profit 8) Always on all trades control your RISKS, but adjusting lot sizes on each pair you trade to 1% to 2% of your total account balance. Be smart. Trade wisely, control all you can by only trading during best times during each session- you do not need to spend all day on computer trading Forex. If you think Forex will give you time freedom to do what you want to do in life- then be serious & focused to make trading a lifelong journey. Wish you best, stay safe
Education
by Anbat
1
Asian Kill Zone (ICT concept) 1 of 4 PartsAsian Kill Zone (ICT concept) 1 or 4 Parts: Look At First Two Hours Of Tokyo or Asian Session 1) Look At Noted Jpy pairs on chart, on 15 mn timeframe 2) First two hours of Tokyo or Asian session with one or more Jpy, should give you a set up for 15-20 pips or more, attached UJ chart gives you 50 pips in 2 hrs. 3) Yes, look at previous session. Is there a buy or sell trend on 15 mn timeframe. Is there a fib. retracement set up (50%-61.8%)? 4) Yes, you could have held noted UJ trade today (Friday) for 200 pips, but never trade with emotions or fear. 5) You need to understand completely what the Asian or Tokyo session wants to do and what happen a few days before current price action, so you can formulate a plan or strategy for trading the Asian/Tokyo session for the 1st, 2 hours or more- if you do trade it. 6) Asian Session has the lowest liquidity and volume each day and is before London and NY sessions (You need to understand, what big banks are doing during this session (accumulation? or...) 7) Remember that price action moves in waves- like the ocean- so trading the right pair, at the right price, during the right session & at the right time is paramount- when you are trading Forex, as a retail trader. Yes, ICT is on YouTube- been trading 30 plus years. If you keep an open mind and review his free material you will be 100% better Forex trader. Wish you best, stay safe Your homework, if you trade Tokyo session is to study all Japanese pair and what they do related to price action within the 1st two hours of session and how you would have gotten into trade (in hindsight). Where you would have place Entry, Stops & Target). Are you conservative trader or aggressive trader? How long do you let trade run if you are in profit?
Education
by Anbat
5
🗡Your first line of defense against committing an error🛡If producing consistent results is your primary objective as a trader, then creating a belief (a conscious, energized concept that resists change and demands expression) that "I am a consistently successful trader" will act as a primaiy source of energy that will manage your perceptions, interpretations, expectations, and actions in ways that satisfy the belief and, consequently, the objective. The first step in the process of creating consistency is to start noticing what you're thinking, saying, and doing. Why? Because everything we think, say, or do as a trader contributes to and, therefore, reinforces some belief in our mental system. Because the process of becoming consistent is psychological in nature, it shouldn't come as a surprise that you'll have to start paying attention to your various psychological processes. The idea is eventually to learn to become an objective observer of your own thoughts, words, and deeds. Your first line of defense against committing a trading error is to catch yourself thinking about it. Of course, the last line of defense is to catch yourself in the act. If you don't commit yourself to becoming an observer to these processes, your realizations will always come after the experience, usually when you are in a state of deep regret and frustration. Observing yourself objectively implies doing it without judging about yourself. This might not be so easy for some of you to do considering the harsh, judgmental treatment you may have received from other people throughout your life. As a result, one quickly learns to associate any mistake with emotional pain. No one likes to be in a state of emotional pain, so we typically avoid acknowledging what we have learned to define as a mistake for as long as possible. Is it possible that, for the great athletes, their past positive experiences with respect to mistakes caused them to acquire a belief that mistakes simply point the way to where they need to focus their efforts to grow and improve themselves? With a belief like that, there's no source of negatively charged energy and consequently no source for self-denigrating thoughts. However, the rest of us, who did grow up experiencing a plethora of negative reactions to our actions, would naturally acquire beliefs about mistakes: "Mistakes must be avoided at all costs," "There must be something wrong with me if I make a mistake," "I must be a screw-up," or "I must be a bad person if I make a mistake." Remember that every thought, word, and deed reinforces some belief we have about ourselves. If, by repeated negative self-criticism, we acquire a belief that we're "screw-ups," that belief will find a way to express itself in our thoughts, causing us to become distracted and to screw up; on our words, causing us to say things about ourselves or about others (if we notice the same characteristics in them) that reflect our belief; and on our actions, causing us to behave in ways that are overtly self-sabotaging. If you're going to become a consistent winner, mistakes can't exist in the kind of negatively charged context in which they are held by most people. You have to be able to monitor yourself to some degree, and that will be difficult to do if you have the potential to experience emotional pain if and when you find yourself in the process of making an error. If this potential exists, you have two choices: 1. You can work on acquiring a new set of positively charged beliefs about what it means to make a mistake, along with de-activating any negatively charged beliefs that would argue otherwise or cause you to think less of yourself for making a mistake. 2. If you find this first choice undesirable, you can compensate for the potential to make errors by the way you set up your trading regime. I define self-discipline as a mental technique to redirect (as best we can) our focus of attention to the object of our goal or desire, when that goal or desire conflicts with some other component (belief) of our mental environment. The first thing you should notice about this definition is that self-discipline is a technique to create a new mental framework. It is not a personality trait; people aren't born with self-discipline. In fact, when you consider how I define it, being born with discipline isn't even possible. Each time I experienced a conflicting thought and was able to successfully refocus on my objective, with enough conviction to get me into my running shoes and out the door, I added energy to the belief that "I am a runner." And, just as important, I inadvertently drew energy away from all of the beliefs that would argue otherwise Beliefs can be changed, and if it's possible to change one belief, then it's possible to change any belief, if you understand that you really aren't changing them, but are only transferring energy from one concept to another. (The form of the belief targeted for change remains intact.) Therefore, two completely contradictory beliefs can exist in your mental system, side by side. But if you've drawn the energy out of one belief and completely energized the other, no contradiction exists from a functional perspective; only the belief that the energy will have the capacity to act as a force on your state of mind, on your perception and interpretation of information, and your behavior.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
10
Trimming the FatDimming the din. Nixing the noise. Flipping off the fluff. There is no shortage of indicators to try, patterns to learn, data to track, but there is a capacity limit of our brain. Whether a side income, for long term investing, or trading as a business, in addition to making goals, we also need to make sure that our habits are supporting those goals in a healthy way. What instead happens, is we get derailed, sidetracked, and lured into thinking we’re doing things, but instead we’re just engaging in “busy work”. Busy work would be defined as things that make us think we are progressing, but stand in our way taking up precious mental and physical energy. In order to make sure we are doing the right tasks to reach our goals, we must prioritize our time and our tasks to make sure that the things we are doing help us, rather than the ones that only make us think they’re helping. One of the best ways to do this is to ask ourselves a series of questions which will sort through the fluff of everything we bombard ourselves with. As with all exercises, I’m going to ask you to be truly honest with yourself about what is working vs what is not. The exercise goes like this. Spend a day in observation mode. When you come to each task, (You could do this outside the markets too, but let’s stick to trading) ask yourself what purpose does this task serve. Is it helping me to come closer to my goal (make sure you have one!) or is it realistically busy work. Social media is a great example of this, many traders will scroll social media for stocks, trade setup, news etc. But do you gain anything from it day to day? Is it helpful, could you spend less time? I found when my twitter settings got changed to “recommended” rather than “following” it made my trading worse. Why? I got recommended SO many traders’ ideas my brain was getting overwhelmed with the number of theories on the markets. When I choose to follow someone, I have a winnowing process, I must see a track record that makes sense, and I must get lost reading their page for 10 minutes. If I do that, it means I find them interesting, and useful enough to make it worth glancing. When I get recommended follows, there is no cut out the fluff process. It’s frankly too much. Sometimes you will come to a task you really enjoy, and discover it’s more useful as a hobby of information rather than useful to your trading. This is okay. The goal is not to take out joy, it’s simply to recognize what is helping us, and in what way, and what is hurting us. But the goal is also not to fool ourselves into thinking that the things we are doing, even if we love them, are also helping us reach our goals. Perhaps you love watching the volatility of CPI/News driven reaction in the markets, but you try to trade it and always end up losing when you get lost in the short term chart. This might be an example of something that you simply need to watch in observation mode, without playing it just yet. Sometimes you’ll come to tasks that you think you must do, don’t enjoy, but think they must be helping - only to find they are not. Data tracking is one of the trickiest ones for this. Data tracking is possibly the most double-edged sword out there. The reason is simple. Many times people track data, without knowing how to use it. If you are spending 2 hours reviewing your trades, don’t enjoy doing it, and don’t know how to compile the data to make sure you are making your trading better, it is busy work. Trade reviews are an excellent way to make yourself a better trader, but they must come with the same intention as everything else. If you are tracking your trades, and then never look at the data, never using the data to cut out trade setups that don’t work for you, never learning from the mistakes, or never learning to manage the emotions that come up - this is busy work. After your day in observation mode, you can start to sort out the things you need to reach your goals, the things you love and make you happy, and the things that are just not serving you. Implement some of the changes, track them, and then rinse and repeat in a week, a month or three months time. - Chart Gal Dinzy
OANDA:NAS100USDEducation
by TheChartGuys
The "So-Called" Psychology of a Market Cycle!Greetings Dear Investors and Traders, today CryptoQueens, an educational post regarding the so-called Psychology of a Market Cycle. When making investment decisions, investors have a wide variety of tools at their disposal. While these tools can form the basis of a sound investment thesis, their effectiveness is limited by one’s emotions. Allowing emotions to dictate decisions is a common mistake made by many investors, yet they may not even realize it. People experience different emotions during these market cycles ranging from fear to greed. Below we will analyze, as well as you will find attached in the chart image the different emotions experienced by investors during market cycles which overwhelms the majority of the traders: Disbelief: This phase happens after the bottom has been hit. There is a sense of disbelief among investors about the rally. They believe just like it happened in the past few months, the markets will fall again. Their fear of making another mistake causes them to miss the optimal window to re-enter the market. Optimism: During this phase, the realization dawns on most of the investors that the rally is real. Investing during this phase if stocks are chosen well can give good returns. Enthusiasm: This is the time when the majority of investors are convinced about the market rally, therefore market demand rise. They believe that now is the time to be fully invested. Some naysayers still don’t believe in the market rally and advise caution. Euphoria: This is the phase where there is irrational exuberance in the markets. Investors share a collective dopamine as they think that they are genius because they made a fortune. It is advisable to stay cautious during this phase. Overconfidence/Greed: Investors continue to increase their positions despite high volatility. If you buy during this phase, you are sure to lose money, whatever you buy. Anxiety: Fear sets in, as losses begin to mount. Investors believe that the dip is taking more time than expected. This is the the moment when people are notified with margin calls due to the recent market fall. Anxiety kicks in. Denial: The herd ignores the market signs as market demand weakens. They believe that since their investments are in great companies, they will bounce back. Panic: Herd mentality takes over and market participants rushes to sell leading to widespread selling even at losses. This is a good time to buy extremely selectively for the long term as it may be very difficult to know even for well-informed investors whether we are in the denial phase, panic phase or capitulation phase. Capitulation: Market Participants accepts their losses and completely exit the market. They are selling close to the bottom of the cycle. Agony/Anger: Steep losses take a psychological factor in many investors and they start to blame the government, or anything correlated, perceiving it as market manipulation. Depression: This is the period when investors believe that their retirement savings are gone and their financial security is affected. They even start blaming themselves for investing. However, markets inevitably starts to recover. Conclusion: As an investor, you need to recognize these signals and never lose sight of the bigger picture. It is like Warren Buffett once mentioned. Be scared when others are greedy and greedy when others are afraid. Therefore, keep an eye on the fundamentals and behavioral factors that influence the market and always remain ahead of the game. Make sure you include this in your trading plan before to take action on it. If you liked it, make sure to support with a like, follow and a comment! Best Regards, CryptoQueens.
Education
by Crypto_Queens_Official
38
Are you prepared to lose? (and what to do if you are not)A new trader, let's call her Sarah, has just started trading in the crypto market. She has been reading articles and watching videos about trading, but hasn't taken the time to develop a solid trading plan, or to gain a good understanding of the markets and underlying assets she is trading. Sarah sees bitcoin's value is going up, she doesn't do any further research or analysis, she doesn't set a stop loss or take profit level, she just buys bitcoin, with the expectation that she will make a quick profit. Unfortunately, the value of bitcoin doesn't perform as well as Sarah had hoped, and instead of going up, it starts to go down. Sarah gets anxious and starts checking the bitcoin's value frequently, and since she didn't set a stop loss, she watches as her position continues to lose value. Eventually, the bitcoin loses so much value that Sarah is forced to sell it at a large loss. Feeling disheartened, Sarah starts to second-guess herself and her abilities as a trader. She didn't have a plan or a strategy, didn't manage her risk properly, and didn't have a clear understanding of the markets and the underlying asset. She didn't prepare for the possibility of losses and didn't have a plan for exiting losing positions. 😭😖😞Unfortunately, the story above is very common in trading, so how can we prepare for losing trades? ☝🏽 Preparing for the possibility of losses is an important part of risk management and can help traders to minimize the impact of losses on their trading capital. Some ways to prepare for the possibility of losses include: 1️⃣ Setting realistic trading goals: Traders should set realistic goals that take into account the inherent risks of trading and the potential for losses. By setting realistic goals, traders will be better prepared to handle losses when they do occur. 2️⃣ Establishing a risk management plan: This includes determining the appropriate size of each trade, placing stop-loss orders, and evaluating the potential reward relative to the potential risk. This can help to limit potential losses and protect trading capital. 3️⃣ Maintaining a proper risk-reward ratio: This means that the potential reward of a trade should be greater than the potential loss. This helps ensure that the potential reward justifies the potential risk. 4️⃣ Diversifying the portfolio: By spreading capital across a variety of different markets and instruments, traders can reduce overall portfolio risk and minimize the impact of losses in any one market or instrument. 5️⃣ Building a trading cushion: This means keeping a reserve of capital that can be used to absorb losses and maintain the trader's ability to continue trading. This cushion should be large enough to withstand a series of losses, but not so large that it affects the trader's ability to trade effectively. 6️⃣ Emotionally preparing for losses: It's important to remember that losses are a normal part of trading and to not let them affect you emotionally. By preparing emotionally for the possibility of losses, traders will be better able to handle them when they occur. 7️⃣ Have a plan for exiting losing positions: Having a plan for exiting losing positions will help to minimize the impact of losses on the portfolio. This could include setting a stop loss or taking profits at predetermined targets. ⚠️ Remember, it's important to accept that losses are a normal part of trading and that they are not a reflection of the trader's ability. By preparing for the possibility of losses and implementing a solid risk management plan, traders can minimize the impact of losses and increase the chances of long-term success. I hope this has been informative to you, and if it was, please leave a like or a comment below. 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 Thanks for your visit!
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by Nico.Muselle
34
Engulfing Candle & Market Reversal | Advanced Lesson Hey traders, In this article we will discuss how we can spot a market reversal relying on a classic candlestick pattern formation. The Bullish Engulfing pattern is a two candlestick reversal pattern that signals a strong up move may occur. It happens when a bearish candle is immediately followed by a larger bullish candle. This second candle “engulfs” the bearish candle. This means buyers are flexing their muscles and that there could be a strong up move after a recent downtrend or a period of consolidation. On the other hand, the Bearish Engulfing pattern is the opposite of the bullish pattern. This type of candlestick pattern occurs when the bullish candle is immediately followed by a bearish candle that completely “engulfs” it. This means that sellers overpowered the buyers and that a strong move down could happen. If the engulfing candle engulfs 2 preceding candles, it indicates even stronger momentum. Learn to spot that pattern because it is extremely efficient. What do you want to learn in the next post?
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by UnitedSignals
6
Trading Journals to Bring Your Trading Skills to the Next LevelHello, traders. In this post, I am sharing tips for trading journals to bring your trading skills to the next level. This post would help you if; ✅You are not sure what to write in a trading journal ✅You are not motivated to create your trading journal ✅You do not last in recording your trades ■ Importance of trading journals Trading journal is important in order to; 1. Analyze your trades Trading journals help traders identify problems and points to improve in your trades, by reviewing how you analyze the market and make decisions before taking positions. Have you ever asked yourself after trades? ”Why did I take this trade??” Even if you think you were calm and analyzed the market very carefully but you acted differently. This really happens. With trading journals, you can review if your trades are rule-based, you have made wrong decisions and/or made any mistakes during trades. 2. Evaluate your strategies Especially when traders are in the process of developing their own strategies, this evaluation is vital to make decisions on whether you need to improve something in your strategies or it is even worth using the strategies. ■ 3 Things to Remember When Creating a Trading Journal 1.PDCA Cycle 2.Design what kind of data you want to collect from your trading 3.Screenshots are musts 1.PDCA cycle is a well-known improvement method so I do not need to detail here, however, we, traders should always keep in mind that we have to keep improving ourselves and/or our strategies by conducting PDCA cycles for a single trade and for a group of trades during a certain period of time. 2.Another purpose of recording your trades is to collect data. Trading is a statistic business where data is very important for you to make decisions as there is no 100% in financial markets. 3.Humans’ memory is much weaker than we think. No matter how strongly we try to memorize what the markets look like, we forget. Because our memory is vulnerable. This is why taking screenshots is important so that you can analyze your trades with the same conditions as when you took positions. ■ Sample criteria for creating a trading journal Here’s is sample criteria(questions to yourself) when you make a journal. ✅ Why did you take this trade? Is this trade as per your strategy or just one of FOMO entries? Clarifying the reason to take this trade gives you a chance to review your thought process before the trading. ✅ What is your plan in this trade? In my opinion, traders always should have what they aim in a trade that they are about to take. Without this, traders are easily affected by emotions which ends up with cutting profit too early or even leads to out-of-rule trading. ✅ Result Win/Lost/Even ✅ Plan TP/SL Record planned TP/SL before you take trades in pips or currency(USD etc.) depending on the instruments you trade. ✅ Actual TP/SL Record actual TP/SL in pips or currency(USD etc.) depending on the instruments you trade. You can perform variance analysis comparing between plan and actual. ✅ Risk & Reward(RR) RR is the breakeven point in trading business. Whether your strategy can be profitable or not is all about balance between win rate and RR. It is vital to track and monitor RR. ✅ What is good about this trade? Here is what I recommend to implement in your trading journals. Trading including learning process is a completely solitary process. When you are at school or at work, teachers and supervisors guide you in the right direction and praise us for good grades and good jobs. This experience of being praised will give you confidence in your studies and/or work, but this process normally does not happen in trading. Therefore, when you are just starting out trading or when things do not go well, some traders might get lost asking themselves what they are doing is right or wrong. That is why it is important to pat yourself on the back when you behave correctly in trading. It is said that when people are praised, Dopamine is released in our brains which bring us to the feeling of well-being. Dopamine is also called “Happy hormone”, so the brain tries to work harder to reproduce that feeling of pleasure. In other words, you feel more positive and motivated, which leads to confidence along with the small successes of behaving correctly in trading. This can only be a good thing, as it gives you confidence in your trading strategies. Why don’t you give you a clap when you have done correctly? ✅ What improvement do you need from this trade?(Action for next trades) To complete the last step of your trading PDCA cycle, consider what improvement/measures you have to implement against your mistakes and/or problems. These action items will help you avoid making same mistakes in the future. ✅ Emotion It is often said that recording your emotion during a trade is effective because emotion makes us make wrong decisions, break rules and chase the market like a horse chasing a carrot. Did I get scared when executing trade? Why? Was I afraid all the time? Why? Reviewing your emotion would give you a hint on why you felt like that. ✅ Conviction Conviction is how confident you are in a trade you took.(High/medium/low) This is one of the ways to measure whether your confidence is statistically linked to your performance or just your imagination. For example, you took 10 consecutive trades with high conviction rate and 7 out of 10 was successful trades. In this case, your view/analysis on the market is quite accurate and this makes you convinced that you should take a trade only when you feel highly convinced. ■ Trading Journal Tools What tools do you use to record your trades? Excel? Apps? Or even by hand writing? Let me know in the comment section below. I am using a web service.(not sure if I can name the service here due to the house rules...) It allows me to record all necessary info along with screenshots as well as creating monthly reports which definitely increase productivity and efficiency of trading journal.
Education
by FX365_Thailand
2
January EffectHello guys! Have you ever heard of the "January effect"? It's a pattern that has been observed in financial markets where the prices of small cap stocks tend to go up in the month of January. Some people think this happens because of tax-loss selling (when investors sell stocks that aren't doing well in order to reduce their tax burden) or because more people are interested in buying small cap stocks at the start of a new year. It's important to remember that the January effect isn't a sure thing and shouldn't be the only reason you make investment decisions. What do you think about this effect?
BLACKBULL:US30Education
by m_maia14
10
What is the U.S. Dollar Index? The U.S. Dollar Index is a measure of the value of the U.S. dollar against six other foreign currencies. Just as a stock index measures the value of a basket of securities relative to one another, the U.S. Dollar Index expresses the value of the dollar in relation to a “basket” of currencies. As the dollar gains strength, the index goes up and vice versa. The strength of the dollar can be considered a temperature read of U.S. economic performance, especially regarding exports. The greater the number of exports, the higher the demand for U.S. dollars to purchase American goods. The index is a geometric weighted average of six foreign currencies. Since the economy of each country (or group of countries) is of different size, each weighting is different. The countries included and their weights are as follows: Euro (EUR): 57.6 percent Japanese Yen (JPY): 13.6 percent British Pound (GBP): 11.9 percent Canadian Dollar (CAD): 9.1 percent Swedish Krona (SEK): 4.2 percent Swiss Franc (CHF): 3.6 percent The index is calculated using the following formula: USDX = 50.14348112 × EURUSD^-0.576 × USDJPY^0.136 × GBPUSD^-0.119 × USDCAD^0.091 × USDSEK^0.042 × USDCHF^0.036 When the U.S. dollar is used as the base currency, as in the example above, the value is positive. When the U.S. dollar is the quoted currency, the value will be negative. We constantly monitor the performance of DXY because very often it gives us great trading opportunities. What do you want to learn in the next post?
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by UnitedSignals
10
MACD 1D: X, XD, XDD, and P=M(XD)Andrew M. Kempi 7 January 2023 MACD 1D Methodology: X, XD (X•), XDD (X••), and P=M(XD) Determine Volume psychology and volume mass. P=Mass(Velocity), p=volume(XD), including pascal averaging. The Volume, and price value, is dependent on Velocity (XD). Velocity is dependent on Acceleration. Confirm undeviated direction and trend. Establish location: above or below directional price average. Trend symmetrically around price average. Confirm XDD (X••) acceleration. Identify the Vector utilizing XD (X•).
SP:SPXEducation
by privatepizza111
Is it your strategy or you???What is your strategy? If asked, could you explain it to one of your friends or family members? More importantly, does it make sense? Is it clear? Teaching or Sharing your thoughts & methods leads to a deeper understanding of the content. If nothing else, speak aloud and hear your reasoning out of your own mouth before taking a trade. My current strategy is to take a defined structure from Swing High to Swing Low or Swing Low to Swing High and use it as the basis for my analysis. Naturally, the structure will indicate a trend, and I would need to decide if that trend is in alignment with or contrary to the broader market. Either is fine, but this distinction is essential when assessing targets and risk. I have to constantly remind myself that I don't know what the market will do. Since I don't know what the market will do, it follows that I should be open to changing my mind and also safeguarding against my ignorance. With this being said and firmly in mind, there are three levels that I like to pay attention to. They are: Breakouts of previously established key levels. The .618 Retracement & 1.618 Extension (current and previous structures) Between the .786 & .886 Simple enough. I'm sure that your strategy for entry can be explained in layman's terms as well. The issue typically doesn't lie in the analysis it lies in the trader's ability to follow said analysis and follow it consistently. Does this sound relatable? You spend hours or maybe even days conducting your analysis, waiting for the market to make its move and give you some indication of what might happen in the near future. As time passes, things seem to become more clear, and you see your opportunity coming. Sure there are a few unexpected movements that happen along the way but that's just how markets move. Price approaches your entry but not yet. Hell, it may not actually reach the level at which you established as a good entry. So you enter early and let the candles fall where they may. If you have fixed stops, now your levels are thrown off. If you don't, then any concept of risk that you had in your mind has been altered and you now bear the task of making mental adjustments to compensate for a completely different trade. Because that's exactly what it is, a completely different trade, with new numbers, figures, distances, R&R ratios, and new implications of risk. The market moves in your favor, possibly even nearing your predetermined target. If it's a fixed number of pips, then that number has changed. If it was a fixed target then your projected profits have changed. This may not seem like a big deal but for beginning traders who are establishing their system, this means everything. Every decision you make against yourself has future implications on your equity curve, but also on your confidence and understanding of what you are doing in the market. In order to be consistent and profitable in the market we must learn to trade in a consistent manner with a strategy that will prove to be profitable over time. The market continues to move but it has taken a sudden turn against you, whatever profits you had are quickly erased and price action now edges toward your stop loss. You've been stopped out only to learn that if you had been patient at entry and kept your original strategy in place, you wouldn't have been stopped out, and price action would have ultimately gone in your favor reaching your target. The point of all this is to illustrate that we unconsciously make changes to our strategies as we are deploying them. These changes have a compounding effect on the outcome of our trades. Even if you are made a winner by these changes you've made, you will have reinforced a bad habit that will undoubtedly lead to many losses in the future. There is power in understanding the unique set of tendencies and preferences that make you the type of trader you are. If you continue to ignore this, you will rightfully take your place amongst the other 90% of failing traders. When you start to pay attention to your own uniqueness and figure out what concepts, ideas, strategies, tools, and methods resonate with you, then you will be on your way to developing a system that you can trade consistently. Losing is a part of the game. You may as well lose in a manner that produces feedback that can be learned from. Are you losing because your strategy needs adjusting or are you losing because your psychology needs adjusting? It should be stated that any given trade, from start to finish, can be, and typically is, more nuanced than what I've just described. Its simplicity should not overshadow its intent. The chart attached to this post shows that there are multiple opportunities for entry for mine and, quite possibly, your strategy. All a trader needs to do is be patient and allow the market to tell you what it is doing. Along with entries are maintenance and exits. Targets are just as important as entries if not more so. Your unique perspective as a trader will heavily impact the decisions you make in all three phases of trading. Levels of Development LLC is providing this material for this site and any other related sources (including newsletters, blog post, videos, social media and other communications) for educational purposes only. We are not providing legal, accounting, or financial advisory services, and this is not a solicitation or recommendation to buy or sell any stocks, options, or other financial instruments or investments. Examples that address specific assets, stocks, options or other financial instrument transactions are for illustrative purposes only and may not represent specific trades or transactions that we have conducted. In fact, we may use examples that are different or the opposite of transactions we have conducted or positions we hold. All investing and trading in the securities market involves risk. Any decisions to place trades in the financial markets, including trading in stock or options or other financial instruments, is a personal decision that should only be made after thorough research, including a personal risk and financial assessment, and the engagement of professional assistance to the extend you believe necessary.
BLACKBULL:US30Education
by LevelsArchitect