General Comments
Given the complicated setup in the market tomorrow... and potential catalyst of post-FOMC volatility, I wanted to take a few minutes to share some stock screens. Keep in mind that these are "second-level" scans, meaning that you will need to do work to go through them and find
Psychology
I’ve had many discussions with traders in the last week in which I see a common theme: many people are very frustrated with this market. Many people feel very much out of sync with the swings, and I heard from more than one person “it’s like I’m
Technical Patterns
The first time you hear someone tell you to ignore something happening in the market, it might be surprising. Ignore it? I thought we were supposed to be trying to figure everything out! Why would we consciously ignore something? If we're trying to be responsible, educated traders, why
Trader Development
A few nights ago I decided to sharpen my knives. As many of my readers know, I spent some time in a professional kitchen, and there was a time when I did this knife sharpening routine several times a week, and often every day. But now I cook casually at
Psychology
This is a followup to my recent blog post on strings of losses in trading systems. I ended that blog with a promise to consider how the probabilities affected our behavior, and I’ve been swamped with requests to write this post! This is a good topic, and one that
Market Math
I received a question from a reader, David: Hey help me out please. I was reading a good blog by a smart math guy and he said that your next trade is always 50% chance of win. No matter what your overall win ratio is the next trade is always
The Course
For some of my readers, you already know what I’m going to tell you today. But I’ve learned recently, in talking to many developing traders, that a lot of people aren’t fully aware of the trading course and what it offers. I want to take a few
Volatility
There are so many “teachable moments” in recent market action, it’s hard to decide where to start. I think one of the clearest lessons comes from the recent implosion of short volatility products such as XIV and SVXY—good lessons here on volatility and on risk in general. What
Failure Test
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Chart of the Day
Check out the free trading course at MarketLife for more information on these types of patterns. You can have my market analysis and insights for less than a dollar a day. Check out a MarketLife Plus subscription today, and know that you are covered by our 100% no-risk, "Free
Trader Development
Mistakes are a part of trading. They’re a bad part of trading, and we generally do everything we can to reduce those errors. In fact, for developing traders at certain stages, the difference between profits and losses can simply be eliminating errors. Over the years, I’ve made every
Guest Blog
This is a guest post from my friend (and a trader and author for whom I have tremendous respect) Kevin Davey. I first "found him" through his book. I read many trading books each year, most of which I end up skimming after the first few pages, and