Seasonality refers to recurring patterns in asset classes, often due to a time of the year impact. For example, summer may push up the price of crude of oil as more people drive cars and go on holidays, or heating oil prices may be pushed up in the winter as more people require heat in […]
Sitting at dinner last night with several friends I was asked my thoughts on the stock market — a question I get asked numerous times each day. My response is usually the same “I am a trader, I don’t have thoughts on the what the future holds for the market.” I like saying it because […]
The following is an email I sent to an aspiring traders based on some questions he had asked me. So with that in mind here are some random pieces of advice from one trader to another. These points are based on how I day trade, and I typically day trade on very short time frames […]
Not physically choking, but rather how do you avoid messing things up when the stakes are high, as they can be with trading? Research at Caltech found that our brains are wired to experience a decrease in performance as incentives rise. This is contrary to what most of us would intuitively think — “Pay me more and […]
When I first started golfing about 20 years ago I had to make a lot of improvements if I wanted to become good. I read loads of books and then would go to the driving range. At first I became even worse as I tried to think about the hundreds of things I was supposed […]
You’re trying to juggling watching multiple charts and you find you are missing trades because there is too much going on. Or maybe you are watching several assets but only want to buy the strongest or sell the weakest. In either case, to make life easier, you can watch multiple assets on one chart using […]
You have probably heard it from someone–possibly even me in prior articles–and wanted to punch them in the face for not explaining what they meant. It seems like logical advice: “Keep your trading simple.” But what does it mean? Should I only use one indicator? Should I use no indictors? Should I only buy on […]
The MACD has a lot of uses, and one of them is divergence…one of the most misunderstood technical signals there is. It is very common to read articles or analysis discussing divergence as a reversal signal, but tucked somewhere in the text is usually a disclaimer something to the effect of “But divergence can last […]
In his book S.C.O.R.E. for Life, Jim Fannin outlines 5 keys for achieving what you want. The focus of the book isn’t on trading, but the principles still apply. S.C.O.R.E stands for self-discipline, concentration, optimism, relaxation and enjoyment. Here’s my own adaptation of how these principles can be applied to making yourself a better trader. […]
The key word here is “deliberately.” Many people just try to passively learn to trade, reading a few books and then jumping in to make some trades…hoping it works out. To deliberately improve means taking precise steps to foster self-awareness so issues can be spotted and addressed. 1. Get Help When Needed I try to […]