Something Interesting in Financial Video August 2013 - page 5
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A lesson on the Conference Board's Index of leading economic indicators for active traders and investors in the stock, futures, and forex markets.
A lesson on the advantages and disadvantages of day trading the stock, futures, and forex markets for active traders and investors.
In our last lesson we gave an introduction to the three main styles of trading and looked specifically at the advantages and disadvantages of the most popular style of trading, day trading. In today's lesson we are going to look at the advantages and disadvantages of the second most popular style of trading, swing trading. Swing trading is generally defined as a style of trading where positions are held for larger gains over multiple days and up to several weeks. Traders who promote this style of trading normally feel that it combines the best of both day trading and position trading. What this means is that these traders feel swing trading gives you a similar ability to amplify gains as day trading does, with the slow pace and lower transaction costs of position trading. A second advantage that many traders would site about swing trading, is that good swing traders plan their entries and exits in advance and since positions are held for longer than one day this method of trading does not have the same intensity that day trading does. While some traders prefer the intensity of day trading, traders who want a less stressful trading career often opt for swing trading as a result. I think most traders would agree that the biggest disadvantage to swing trading is the increased risk per trade. Because swing traders hold positions for longer periods of time, their average risk per trade is generally higher than day traders in order to give the position enough breathing room to work. As swing traders hold positions overnight they are also exposed to the overnight risk which we learned about in our lesson on day trading. Secondly, although swing trading does not require as much work as day trading, it still generally requires more work and resources than position trading, as good swing traders normally follow the markets very closely even when not entering or exiting a trade. That's our lesson for today, in our next lesson we are going to look at the third style of trading, position trading so we hope to see you in that lesson.
74. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Position Trading
In our last lesson we looked at the advantages and disadvantages of the second most popular style of trading, swing trading. In today's lesson we are going to look at the third and final category of trading, position trading. Position Trading, which is also referred to as trend trading, generally involves holding a position for three to six months to capture a fundamental change in the value of the financial instrument that is being traded. As this is the case position traders will generally be more prone to integrating at least some fundamental analysis into their trading, than will day and swing traders. Probably the biggest advantage to position trading is it generally involves the least amount of time of the three trading styles. After they have spent the significant time necessary to learn about trading in general, many good position traders will spend just several hours a week analyzing the market and making their trades. As they are holding positions for long periods of time good position traders have their stop loss and profit targets in place before making the trade, requiring that the trader only monitor the position to make sure nothing significant has changed since his original trading decision. The second major advantage that I think many traders would site about position trading is that because you are in positions for long periods of time with wide stop loss orders, your positions have room to breath and are much less likely to get stopped out because of random market noise than with the other two styles. As we learned in our lesson on Swing Trading, holding positions over longer time frames generally requires wider stop loss orders. While as we have just stated this is an advantage from a market noise standpoint it is also a disadvantage from a larger average risk per trade standpoint. The second main disadvantage that I think most traders would site is that position traders miss out on many of the shorter term opportunities that day traders and swing traders can use to amplify their profits. This is not only true from a length of trade standpoint but also from a capital standpoint. Because position traders hold positions for long periods of time their trading capital is also tied up in those trades for longer periods of time, restricting them from taking advantage of as many opportunities.
We are going to go into a bit more detail on how to choose the style of trading which is best for each trader in our lesson on the trader's business plan, but you should now have a good understanding of what each style entails. The last thing that I would like to point out here is that often times different styles work better in different types of market conditions. With this in mind many traders will learn a bit about each of these styles so they can place longer or shorter term trades depending on the market conditions at the time. That's our lesson for today, in our next lesson we are going to begin to take a look at the different markets that are available to traders so we hope to see you in that lesson.
In this video, we focus on how to confirm and Identify the Trend on your charts with moving averages. We also discuss how to use the confirmation of trend on multiple time frames for your intraday setups.
75. How to Keep a Trading Journal
In our last lesson we finished up our discussion the different styles of trading with a look at the longer term style of position trading. In today's lesson we are going to start a new discussion on one of the trader's most powerful tools, the trading journal.
As I think most people who are successful at anything will tell you, a major factor that separates the successful from the unsuccessful is those who are successful look at each experience as a chance to learn and grow where those who are not move from one experience to another without learning much at all. With this in mind one of the major things that separates the profitable trader from the unprofitable trader is an openness to learning from each trade, and a willingness to put in the effort it takes to document and periodically review each trade that is made.
Traders who document their trades do so in trading journals. This can be as simple as writing down certain details of your trades in a notebook or in a word document, however those who know a bit about excel normally find this a much more powerful option Below are 10 things that in my opinion it is important to document about each trade :
In our last lesson we began our discussion on how successful traders leverage trading journals in order to learn from their past mistakes and successes. In today's lesson we are going to wrap up our discussion on trading journals with a look at what to look for when reviewing your trades. Simply writing the days activity down in your trading journal is the first step. The next and equally important step is to review your journal on a regular basis to see what is working and what is not. This way you can leverage your journal to help you improve in areas where you are weak and make sure you continue to leverage your strengths where you are strong.
In our last lesson we finished up our discussion on trading journals with a look at the important things to look for when reviewing past trades. In today's lesson we are going to discuss how to handle trading like a business with a discussion of how to compile a trading business plan. One of the leading causes for the failure of many businesses is their lack of planning. I think most successful people would agree that if you want to be successful in life and business you need to have a plan for how to obtain that success, set goals to meet along the way, and then work on executing your plan and meeting your goals. Trading is no different from any other business in this sense and it is my opinion that those who fail to plan out their trading like a business are doomed to failure as well. With this in mind it is important to have a written business plan for your trading just as you would for any other business. Below are some of the things which should be included in that plan, most if not all of which you should now have a good understanding of if you have watched all of our lessons up to this point.
What are your reasons for wanting to become a trader?
What do you hope to gain from trading? Be specific here. If the possibility of making a lot of money has drawn you towards trading then list out how much money you want to make from trading and what you plan to do with that money if you make it.
What are the things that are going to separate you from the large majority of traders who fail?
What are your biggest weaknesses?
How do you plan to address your weaknesses and leverage your strengths?
How much time can you devote towards actively following the market?
Do you plan to day trade, swing trade, position trade or a combination of the three? Does your choice here reflect the time you have to devote to the markets?
What market or markets do you plan to trade and why?
At what times throughout the day are you going to spend actually trading, researching trades, and then learning about the market?
What are your criteria for entering a trade?
What are your criteria for exiting a trade?
What is your money management strategy?
How will you know if one of the pieces of your strategy stops working?
After identifying that one of the pieces of your strategy has stopped working what will you do to address it?
What trading software and equipment you will use to trade and how much is it?
What Broker/Brokers will you use?
Do you plan to add money to your account and if so where is that money going to come from?
If you are profitable do you plan to reinvest profits or withdraw some or all of them?
If you plan to trade full time how you will support yourself if you aren't profitable right away.
How much money do you plan to start to trade with? Does the math work out when considering taxes, all costs, living expenses and your initial trading balance?
As you can see, just as with any business, there are many things to consider before jumping into trading. From my experience however those who actually take the time to think about and write down the answers to each of the above questions have a much higher chance of success than those who do not. That's our lesson for today
The first lesson in new free video forex trading course which introduces the main aspects that differentiate the forex market from the equities and the futures markets