Podcast
This episode of MarketLife looks at some of the things that stand between beginning traders and success. What can you do to make your chances better? What are the challenges you are likely to face? What mistakes do most people make? Why do so many fail and, more importantly, what
Pullback
Markets move in alternating waves of with-trend strength (or weakness) interspersed with moves against the trend. We call these moves pullbacks or consolidations, and they create some of the most powerful and most useful trading patterns we have. (I've written about them here and here.) Many of the
Individual Traders
If you are an individual self-directed trader, expect setbacks and failures, especially in the first two years. Expect that your triumphs may be promptly followed by dramatic failures, that you will make mistakes in areas you thought you had mastered, and that any positive P&L may be quickly
Podcast
This episode of MarketLife answers a reader question: As trading is considered a zero sum game(if we forget the broker), and obviously we enter a trade to gain, it stands to reason that someone has to lose. Can trading be justified in terms of the above mentioned paragraph? Kind
Market Math
So the stock market sold off hard yesterday. If you were living under a big enough rock you might have missed it, but now the doom and gloomers, the technicians pointing at broken "levels" and trendlines, and the permabears will probably be saturating the media for a few
Individual Traders
I spent an hour a week ago talking with a very experienced stock trader. This guy has made a lot of money, but he's made it while fighting a strongly bearish bias--he's been almost exactly wrong, for a long time. He's been wrong, and
Podcast
This episode of MarketLife switches gears a bit, and looks at creativity. How can we cultivate creativity? How can we find creative possibilities that others might miss? How do we nurture that creative spark and integrate the lessons into modern life? I have some ideas and answers to these questions:
Trading tools
An in-depth look at the intraday market stats page on this blog, with some ideas for using these stats to enter and manage trades. This is not just a tool for intraday traders, though active traders will find valuable tools here. Longer-term traders can identify good entry spots, analysts can
Trading tools
Where do we start? It's easy to get overwhelmed with the number of assets and markets in the global marketplace. Are you looking at everything you need to? Do you know which markets demand your attention? Do you know where to dig deeper? Do you know when something
Podcast
This episode of MarketLife looks at trading, investing, and gambling, and how people try to put the odds in their favor. Everything we do in financial markets is a bet. Hopefully an educated bet, hopefully a smart bet, but it’s all only a bet on the odds. * We are
Pullback
[This post was originally published on SeeItMarket.com, here. I have added some comments at the end of the post to update following yesterday's action. Despite the fact the market rallied instead of selling off, there are several points to consider in this post.] For context: I’ve
General Comments
Many traders have noticed the recent, impressive run in European stocks, and specifically the strength in Germany. Take a look at the following chart: However, as we all know, the US Dollar has been a historic bull run, and a big part of USD strength has been a decline in