Where new and seasoned traders gather

  • The natural bias of price direction

    This is about looking at candles or price and the mind noticing that price is going in a particular direction. So a trader comes to think naturally that ‘it’s going south’ or ‘it’s going north’. Taking a position on this sort of observation often turns out to be wrong. All that matters is where the…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • The nature of expectation in financial trading

    The nature of expectation in financial trading

    On several occasions I’ve referred to ‘expectation‘ as against ‘prediction‘. I can expect a delivery of a package at my home this morning (for example) but that does not mean I know it is going to arrive for certain ‘this morning’ or that I predict that it will. ‘Expectation’ means a reasoned position/opinion based in…

  • Stalking the microstructure of chaos

    Stalking the microstructure of chaos

    On occasions a trader may need to turn up the microscope and look deeply into the chaos. For what? A micro-fracture, a microtrend or a small bubble movement that is like the flap of a butterfly’s wings – from which evolves a hurricane. This is the nature of chaos. The chart below shows a small…

  • Microtrends and risk aversion

    Microtrends and risk aversion

    Many a trader will have looked at the same chart (say AUDUSD) at different times (let’s say 4 hours apart), and had doubts or an urge to change their minds on what to do. This situation occurred recently with BTCUSD. On one day it appeared that there was as strong microtrend on a 2H time…

  • So did you get it right?

    So did you get it right?

    Did you get it right? This is an important question for new and seasoned traders to think about – but there is a problem with it. So you made your best risk assessment, decided your entry point and stop-loss and you entered the trade. What happens next? Many a new trader would spend some time…

  • Better than a million minds

    Better than a million minds

    Are you better than a million minds? The chart below shows the recent extreme volatility on Wall Street. Millions of minds are into this ‘game’ of stocks/shares. They all want one important thing: profit on their positions. We don’t know these people (obviously); how can we. Yes – their interests may be represented by brokers…

  • New traders conned

    New traders conned

    This morning I receive yet another email from somebody selling a system for beating the markets, subject to terms and conditions. It’s some software that runs on their server, that gives off signals when to enter long or short. Cost? USD $x9x down from $xx9x – and one is offered some ‘ultra’ indicator as free.…

  • Why there are no rules

    Why there are no rules

    Many new traders are brainwashed by various experts out there into believing that there are certain rules in trading. For example some say, “Never margin to more than 10% of your account size.” Others go, “Ignore the RSI totally.” Traders can sometimes become confused about what they refer to as ‘rules’. Rules may be self…

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