Category: Educational
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What is technical analysis?
When I first started off learning TA, I thought it was ‘technical’. There is nothing technical about it. Technical tends to mean something very complex. It’s not that. TA is a strange two words. Actually, there is little in the way of analysis with pen and paper. Almost never is a calculator required. Basically you…
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What is money?
I’ve explored money before. Some say, “Everybody knows what money is.. so why ask stupid questions about it?” For simpletons, money is coin or cash in hand, or credit in the bank – end off. If that’s you, then kindly depart now. This is not a tutorial on money or how to make money. If…
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Bonds – what they are and their importance
There is much confusion out there about what bonds are. I’ve seen so-called experts get it wrong, and then mislead people. The recent importance of the ‘bond market’ has come about as there is talk about an ‘inverted yield curve’. Not much will be said about that. In this post I focus on the basics.…
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Conversation with a failed trader
Today I met a chap who is a failed trader. This was a rare opportunity. I had known him for about 3 months just from the odd conversation here and there. I knew that he had an interest in ‘stock markets’ and had some knowledge about CFDs. But it was strange how we ended up…
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Enquiry from a new trader
A new trader (who will remain anonymous) has contacted us to ask for some help. I’ll deal with each point, as it is of value to other new traders but largely for my own reflection. This is what we do, and we do this stuff for free and no obligation – ever! Note that I…
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The loser’s game
The news has been out from August 2018 that the European Securities and Management Agency (ESMA) has compelled all brokers (subject to its jurisdiction) to reveal their statistics on the percentages of losing trader accounts. See informative article headed, “ESMA Regulations Reveal: Where CFDs Traders Lose the Most“. The reported percentage of losing accounts ranged between…
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Bitcoin: Investor, trader, gambler or idiot?
In the last few months we’ve received inquiries from several about Bitcoin and various similar things, often referred to as cryptocurrencies. In essence many of these folk are the ones who missed out on making millions by not buying a few Bitcoin when it was dirt cheap. Now, they don’t want to make the same…
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Is Parabolic Mayhem ahead?
On Tradingview I’ve put up a Vlog about this which is embedded below. I say what I see. I’m focusing on the form of movements of the US30 compared with the correction on the parabolic Bitcoin. The evidence is there, which I think everybody can see. Just to be clear nothing in this post is…
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Extreme volatility
Whilst volatility is necessary in trading there are issues with extreme volatility that traders need to consider. The clickable chart below shows one example of extreme volatility with Copper (CUUUSD). The size of a reasonable stop-loss which is related strongly to account size, is a limiting factor. If your account is say £2000 how much…
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Disentangling currency pairs
Many a new trader will find listen to the news about which currency is doing well or badly. For example the news might say that the US Dollar strengthened, or something like that. Most of these news reports do not say how they know what they are reporting. Traders would normally be setting their brains…
