Author: Leroy Rushing
Being a successful market trader can encompass your entire life. The market bell may sound before your morning coffee is ready, and it runs through your lunchtime. When the day is over, you may be too exhausted to even heat up that gourmet dinner. By taking 10 easy steps, however, you can ensure that your mind, body, and portfolio are enjoying a more productive trading day.
1. Turn Off the TV - The TV may provide some financial information, but can be very distracting. Turning down the volume or putting it in an out of sight location will help you focus on day trading. Your trading style can easily be affected by the things you’re hearing without you even knowing.
2. Keep in Touch - Skill-building activities will help you stay in the state of mind you need to be profitable. An online home study course is a great tool to get away from the stresses of trading and to learn more about trading. Leveraging your down time into something productive will yield better results.
3. NetWorking - The secrets of profitable traders can only be learned by networking. Indeed, in the financial market, the phrase, “it isn’t what you can do but who you know” still reigns true. Professional traders usually know someone who trades and talks to them to bounce off trading ideas and strategies.
4. Take a Lunch - Don’t keep yourself tied down to your trade station. Resuming normal activities, such as taking a lunch then a brief break, will make life more normal. Day trading is stressful, and you need the time off to unwind.
5. Look for Quality Trades - Consistent profits don’t come from taking every single trade. You need to force yourself to make only quality trades to cut down on commissions and the stress that comes with many open positions.
6. Develop a Trading Plan - Develop a trading plan for certain markets. It is always wise to have your trading plan down on paper so that you instantly see it and act accordingly. If you have extra time, fine tune your strategy with a trading plan planner for certain market conditions . The time investment more than pays off in your portfolio returns.
7. Day Trading Is Not Investing - You’re not buying for the long haul so plan your investments around the current time. Avoid stressful situations by selling before the market close. Holding positions overnight is a quick way to wreck your trading capital.
8. Trade With the Market - Only take positions that go with the overall market. If the decliners are outpacing the advancers, it probably wouldn’t be a good time to go long, regardless of how great the trade looks.
9. Avoid the News - A complete trading plan should touch on topics such as news events and other large market movers. However, avoiding the daily news will keep random variables from hurting your capital and make you a more productive trader.
10. Take Days Off - If you need to, take a day off from trading to relax. Stressful traders are not productive traders.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/10-easy-steps-to-a-more-productive-trading-day-389418.html
About the Author:
Leroy Rushing is an active, professional day trader ; trading coach; and author. He is the Founder and CEO of Trading EveryDay, a distinguished provider of educational trading products and services that are available worldwide. Trading EveryDay also has many articles with unique perspectives on day trading .
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Cherry Picking Stocks and Stock Scanning
Author: Leroy Rushing
Modern examples of cherry picking are all over the street. Investors follow large institutions and investors like Warren Buffett, who is known for quality trades. Cherry picking is simply following the trades of a profitable trader or institution that has a long history of trading success. For the cherry picker, trading structure is based around the proven techniques and strategies of other investors. Cherry picking provides easy profits in both bear and bull markets. Professional traders are quick to follow the advice of other professional traders.
Following the Big Names
When firms like Berkshire Hathaway take positions, investors follow suit and invest in the same company with minimal research of their own. Rather than using their own investment techniques and strategies, they rely on the track records of other investors. When word hits that Warren Buffett made a sizeable investment in a company, various firms are quick to follow and rapidly push up prices. Day traders and swing traders also make large amounts of money by following the advice of TV personalities like Jim Cramer by entering a position based on his take, as other investors will likely follow suit.
Save Time on Researching
Cherry picking can be used to make quality trades without using technical analysis or studying the business. Cherry picking saves time for the swing trader who would rather rely on the history of others than use their own algorithms to define worthy investments. A cherry picking strategy is usually profitable for swing traders in both the short and long terms; short-term volume pushes the stock prices up, while history’s best investors rarely make terrible long-term trades.
Cherry picking can also be used much like momentum trading, or buying stocks that have already done very well. A quick look at a mutual fund prospectus will show the best performing stocks out of an already good list of investments. The cherry picker thinks that the stock is likely to do even better because the stock is doing the best out of stocks that were already heavily researched. Cherry picking is like picking a lawyer from Harvard, knowing they’re the best in the business without checking out the credentials of the particular individual.
Shop at the Bottom
In much the same way, cherry pickers also find stocks that have bottomed. Mutual funds only take quality trades that have been well researched and studied. If a stock has tanked since the fund made an investment, sentiment would be that the company is even more of a buy at its deflated price than it was when the fund invested. Swing traders and day traders find it easy to profit when the prices are already deflated and ready for a big run.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/cherry-picking-stocks-and-stock-scanning-394144.html
About the Author:
Leroy Rushing is an active, professional day trader ; trading coach; and author. He is the Founder and CEO of Trading EveryDay, a distinguished provider of educational trading products and services that are available worldwide. Trading EveryDay also has many articles with unique perspectives on day trading.
Modern examples of cherry picking are all over the street. Investors follow large institutions and investors like Warren Buffett, who is known for quality trades. Cherry picking is simply following the trades of a profitable trader or institution that has a long history of trading success. For the cherry picker, trading structure is based around the proven techniques and strategies of other investors. Cherry picking provides easy profits in both bear and bull markets. Professional traders are quick to follow the advice of other professional traders.
Following the Big Names
When firms like Berkshire Hathaway take positions, investors follow suit and invest in the same company with minimal research of their own. Rather than using their own investment techniques and strategies, they rely on the track records of other investors. When word hits that Warren Buffett made a sizeable investment in a company, various firms are quick to follow and rapidly push up prices. Day traders and swing traders also make large amounts of money by following the advice of TV personalities like Jim Cramer by entering a position based on his take, as other investors will likely follow suit.
Save Time on Researching
Cherry picking can be used to make quality trades without using technical analysis or studying the business. Cherry picking saves time for the swing trader who would rather rely on the history of others than use their own algorithms to define worthy investments. A cherry picking strategy is usually profitable for swing traders in both the short and long terms; short-term volume pushes the stock prices up, while history’s best investors rarely make terrible long-term trades.
Cherry picking can also be used much like momentum trading, or buying stocks that have already done very well. A quick look at a mutual fund prospectus will show the best performing stocks out of an already good list of investments. The cherry picker thinks that the stock is likely to do even better because the stock is doing the best out of stocks that were already heavily researched. Cherry picking is like picking a lawyer from Harvard, knowing they’re the best in the business without checking out the credentials of the particular individual.
Shop at the Bottom
In much the same way, cherry pickers also find stocks that have bottomed. Mutual funds only take quality trades that have been well researched and studied. If a stock has tanked since the fund made an investment, sentiment would be that the company is even more of a buy at its deflated price than it was when the fund invested. Swing traders and day traders find it easy to profit when the prices are already deflated and ready for a big run.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/cherry-picking-stocks-and-stock-scanning-394144.html
About the Author:
Leroy Rushing is an active, professional day trader ; trading coach; and author. He is the Founder and CEO of Trading EveryDay, a distinguished provider of educational trading products and services that are available worldwide. Trading EveryDay also has many articles with unique perspectives on day trading.
Finding Chart Patterns That Can Lead to Big Profits
Author: Leroy Rushing
Professional traders have their own set of patterns and indices they use to predict the markets. Profitable traders are aware enough to generate a profit in nearly every market. Sideways trends, uptrends, and even downtrends can all be profitable with the proper tools and investment strategy. Creative techniques will help you preserve trading capital while generating huge profits. To master day trading, you must first understand the basic chart patterns.
The Double Top and Bottom
The best and easiest chart pattern to recognize is the double top or double bottom. It is marked by two consecutive peaks or dips in price to about the same level. This chart pattern works because the first movement tests new boundaries, and then investors take profit and push the price down. Then investors re-enter and push the market again to test its new area, while the market again corrects – although this time, there is usually plenty of buying or selling interest that is removed by the large price movements, and the price either tops or bottoms. When the price moves to a position twice, it encounters plenty of orders that were left at the last peak. On a double top, seller sentiment is extremely high, and investors are looking to short the stock hard. Very rarely do people buy when they see a double top, further compounding the move.
Flagging Trendlines
Pennant flags are also a very identifiable charting pattern. A pennant flag is a sideways trend that forms where two trendlines meet. When two trendlines touch, buying and selling pressure battle each other out and usually end in a huge downtrend or uptrend immediately following the breakout. Professional traders have developed very popular strategies such as “straddling” a position, or placing a short order below the pennant and a long order above the pennant. When the breakout does happen, in either direction, a trader will automatically enter a position and profit from the breakout.
Head And Shoulders are Important
Head and shoulder patterns are also very popular with professional traders . A head and shoulder formation is created when the stock makes a three topped chart, with one high peak in the middle surrounded by two lower peaks on each side. These usually mark a downtrend at the top of a chart and an uptrend when found upside down at the bottom of a chart. The head and shoulders shows large buying strength that eventually tapers off as investors take a profit.
Reading charts are important in finding profitable opportunities in the market. Developing your ability to recognize patterns is key to growing a portfolio.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/finding-chart-patterns-that-can-lead-to-big-profits-394152.html
About the Author:
Leroy Rushing is an active, professional day trader ; trading coach; and author. He is the Founder and CEO of Trading EveryDay, a distinguished provider of educational trading products and services that are available worldwide. Trading EveryDay also has many articles with unique perspectives on day trading.
Professional traders have their own set of patterns and indices they use to predict the markets. Profitable traders are aware enough to generate a profit in nearly every market. Sideways trends, uptrends, and even downtrends can all be profitable with the proper tools and investment strategy. Creative techniques will help you preserve trading capital while generating huge profits. To master day trading, you must first understand the basic chart patterns.
The Double Top and Bottom
The best and easiest chart pattern to recognize is the double top or double bottom. It is marked by two consecutive peaks or dips in price to about the same level. This chart pattern works because the first movement tests new boundaries, and then investors take profit and push the price down. Then investors re-enter and push the market again to test its new area, while the market again corrects – although this time, there is usually plenty of buying or selling interest that is removed by the large price movements, and the price either tops or bottoms. When the price moves to a position twice, it encounters plenty of orders that were left at the last peak. On a double top, seller sentiment is extremely high, and investors are looking to short the stock hard. Very rarely do people buy when they see a double top, further compounding the move.
Flagging Trendlines
Pennant flags are also a very identifiable charting pattern. A pennant flag is a sideways trend that forms where two trendlines meet. When two trendlines touch, buying and selling pressure battle each other out and usually end in a huge downtrend or uptrend immediately following the breakout. Professional traders have developed very popular strategies such as “straddling” a position, or placing a short order below the pennant and a long order above the pennant. When the breakout does happen, in either direction, a trader will automatically enter a position and profit from the breakout.
Head And Shoulders are Important
Head and shoulder patterns are also very popular with professional traders . A head and shoulder formation is created when the stock makes a three topped chart, with one high peak in the middle surrounded by two lower peaks on each side. These usually mark a downtrend at the top of a chart and an uptrend when found upside down at the bottom of a chart. The head and shoulders shows large buying strength that eventually tapers off as investors take a profit.
Reading charts are important in finding profitable opportunities in the market. Developing your ability to recognize patterns is key to growing a portfolio.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/finding-chart-patterns-that-can-lead-to-big-profits-394152.html
About the Author:
Leroy Rushing is an active, professional day trader ; trading coach; and author. He is the Founder and CEO of Trading EveryDay, a distinguished provider of educational trading products and services that are available worldwide. Trading EveryDay also has many articles with unique perspectives on day trading.
Win With No Stop Currency Trading
Author: Robert
No-Stop, hedged, Forex Grid system trading (“the No Stop system”) is one of the most newest techniques in forex trading. I am going to describe the No Stop system as best I can in the limited space available. There is a series of 7 other articles describing the elements below in greater detail.
There are many hedged systems around and the No Stop system below is one that is being traded profitably.
The No Stop system is an investment technique which creates favourable dollar cost averaging on all transactions entered into. For this reason the technique is too much of a paradigm shift for most conventional traders who like charts, support and resistance and indicators.
It is strictly speaking, it is not a trading technique. It has however become very popular as a trading technique because of the short term gains that can be made.
The No Stop system trades without stops. No stop loss orders are used at all except for when a group of transactions have a positive result and we want to liquidate the entire group of transactions at a net gain. Because the No Stop system cashes in its transactions regularly it becomes a trend following No Stop system too. There is no need for charts when using this No Stop system as we use predetermined price levels to cash in transactions positively (The No Stop system loves price spikes).
Transactions can or should be slow at a rate of about 3 to 4 a week. As price levels are determined well in advance orders can be placed well in advance so the No Stop system takes very little supervision. The technique is highly systematic and can easy be converted into an automatic trading system or expert advisor very easily.
The No Stop system is always in a sell and a buy at the same time and therefore can cash in on any move the market makes. Being in a sell and a buy at the same time also created a hedge. Predetermined cash in levels create a grid of price levels there positive transactions will be cashed in continuously until the group of transactions are profitable.
In simple terms you will enter the market at a particular level with an active bay and a sell. You would have predetermined levels at which you would cash in positive transactions. For instance one could decide to cash in on every 100pip (grid gap) move made in the market. When the price moves 100 pips you would cash in your positive transaction and then enter into another buy and sell transaction at that point. This process will continue until the total for the group of transaction is positive and then you would liquidate. You would then start again – as simple as that. No need for charts. Patience is the biggest virtue required.
Money is made when the price revisits some of the cash in levels over and over and over again (which it does).
In the above example should the price return to the starting level (after moving 100 pips) the group of 4 transactions in total will be positive and you would then cash in the unwanted transactions, bank your profits and start again.
The big danger of this No Stop system is strong trends with no or very few retracements. You will lose money in trends. There are however specific techniques to manage and contain these losses.
The biggest one is to start with a big grid gap. What is a trend on a 5 minute chart could be a small spike on a daily or weekly chart. Grid gaps of between 150 pips and 300 pips have been found to work well.
One could also vary the grid sizes relative to the trend to reduce the number of unhedged transaction. For example have grid gaps of 100, 200, 300 etc.
The other way is to vary the number of lots used when entering into the buy and sell transactions at a particular cash in point to ensure balanced hedging.
Trends tend to scare people away from this technique but if one views this as an investment technique and not a trading technique the trends could have a reduced impact on the annual return on investment. The market only trends 20% of the time any way. Talking about return on investment some current trading groups are showing returns of between 200% p.a. and 1000% p.a. on current investment levels. There are many trading records are available to back this up. The longer you trade this No Stop system the lower your risk and the better your return. That said, you can lose more than just your boots (your whole trading account) if you treat this No Stop system with disrespect.
Success factors for this No Stop system are: - Selecting appropriate grid sizes, currency pairs, lot sizes, cash in times and an investment mentality. All very easy, if you have done it for a few years.
This No Stop system is not for everybody however, and is not the best Forex system since sliced bread, but is does very nicely for some traders, thank you very much. It is important to know about this system as using its principles could help your conventional trading. For freely available information on this No Stop system search the net for “no stop forex trading”
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/win-with-no-stop-currency-trading-399602.html
About the Author:
Mary McArthur is a Trader associated with www.expert-4x.com She works with http://www.forextradersupportservices.com providing educational input. She is considered an expert of the hedged grid system.
No-Stop, hedged, Forex Grid system trading (“the No Stop system”) is one of the most newest techniques in forex trading. I am going to describe the No Stop system as best I can in the limited space available. There is a series of 7 other articles describing the elements below in greater detail.
There are many hedged systems around and the No Stop system below is one that is being traded profitably.
The No Stop system is an investment technique which creates favourable dollar cost averaging on all transactions entered into. For this reason the technique is too much of a paradigm shift for most conventional traders who like charts, support and resistance and indicators.
It is strictly speaking, it is not a trading technique. It has however become very popular as a trading technique because of the short term gains that can be made.
The No Stop system trades without stops. No stop loss orders are used at all except for when a group of transactions have a positive result and we want to liquidate the entire group of transactions at a net gain. Because the No Stop system cashes in its transactions regularly it becomes a trend following No Stop system too. There is no need for charts when using this No Stop system as we use predetermined price levels to cash in transactions positively (The No Stop system loves price spikes).
Transactions can or should be slow at a rate of about 3 to 4 a week. As price levels are determined well in advance orders can be placed well in advance so the No Stop system takes very little supervision. The technique is highly systematic and can easy be converted into an automatic trading system or expert advisor very easily.
The No Stop system is always in a sell and a buy at the same time and therefore can cash in on any move the market makes. Being in a sell and a buy at the same time also created a hedge. Predetermined cash in levels create a grid of price levels there positive transactions will be cashed in continuously until the group of transactions are profitable.
In simple terms you will enter the market at a particular level with an active bay and a sell. You would have predetermined levels at which you would cash in positive transactions. For instance one could decide to cash in on every 100pip (grid gap) move made in the market. When the price moves 100 pips you would cash in your positive transaction and then enter into another buy and sell transaction at that point. This process will continue until the total for the group of transaction is positive and then you would liquidate. You would then start again – as simple as that. No need for charts. Patience is the biggest virtue required.
Money is made when the price revisits some of the cash in levels over and over and over again (which it does).
In the above example should the price return to the starting level (after moving 100 pips) the group of 4 transactions in total will be positive and you would then cash in the unwanted transactions, bank your profits and start again.
The big danger of this No Stop system is strong trends with no or very few retracements. You will lose money in trends. There are however specific techniques to manage and contain these losses.
The biggest one is to start with a big grid gap. What is a trend on a 5 minute chart could be a small spike on a daily or weekly chart. Grid gaps of between 150 pips and 300 pips have been found to work well.
One could also vary the grid sizes relative to the trend to reduce the number of unhedged transaction. For example have grid gaps of 100, 200, 300 etc.
The other way is to vary the number of lots used when entering into the buy and sell transactions at a particular cash in point to ensure balanced hedging.
Trends tend to scare people away from this technique but if one views this as an investment technique and not a trading technique the trends could have a reduced impact on the annual return on investment. The market only trends 20% of the time any way. Talking about return on investment some current trading groups are showing returns of between 200% p.a. and 1000% p.a. on current investment levels. There are many trading records are available to back this up. The longer you trade this No Stop system the lower your risk and the better your return. That said, you can lose more than just your boots (your whole trading account) if you treat this No Stop system with disrespect.
Success factors for this No Stop system are: - Selecting appropriate grid sizes, currency pairs, lot sizes, cash in times and an investment mentality. All very easy, if you have done it for a few years.
This No Stop system is not for everybody however, and is not the best Forex system since sliced bread, but is does very nicely for some traders, thank you very much. It is important to know about this system as using its principles could help your conventional trading. For freely available information on this No Stop system search the net for “no stop forex trading”
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/win-with-no-stop-currency-trading-399602.html
About the Author:
Mary McArthur is a Trader associated with www.expert-4x.com She works with http://www.forextradersupportservices.com providing educational input. She is considered an expert of the hedged grid system.
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