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Saturday, April 25, 2020
Friday, November 10, 2017
Top 5 Things Cryptocurrency Traders Can Learn From Poker Players
This article was written for the 21cryptos' magazine's first edition. If you liked this article, make sure to visit www.21cryptos.com or reach out to their Twitter account to find out more! As a promotion for their first edition, the magazine is going at only $10 $5! Without further ado, let's get straight into the article!
Introduction
Prior to trading, I played poker actively for about 6 years. When starting out and after two years of paying tuition fees, a turning point for me was when I read Dusty Schmidt’s Treat Your Poker Like A Business, that helped transition my mindset and game from one of taking uninformed gambles to taking systematic and calculated risks.
Introduction
Prior to trading, I played poker actively for about 6 years. When starting out and after two years of paying tuition fees, a turning point for me was when I read Dusty Schmidt’s Treat Your Poker Like A Business, that helped transition my mindset and game from one of taking uninformed gambles to taking systematic and calculated risks.
Once I started trading, I quickly realized that many of the lessons picked up from the tables were directly applicable, familiar concepts such as bankroll management, tilt, and positive expected value, come to mind.
In this article, we’ll go through 5 key concepts, explain how they are related to trading, and what we can learn from them to become better traders.
1. Managing Your Bankroll & Protecting Your Capital
The term bankroll management in poker refers to the same risk management concept in trading.
Just like how professional poker players compete at a stake where their bankroll covers at least 100 buy-ins, professional traders typically risk no more than 1% per trade. This is only a general guideline, as more aggressive players may play with just 20 buy-ins, or a trader risking up to 5% a trade.
Protect your capital! Trading takes a lot of skill, and if you think that everyone trading is making money, think again. It’s not that making money is difficult (especially in this cryptocurrency bull market), but rather, the difficulty lies in preserving capital and keeping the profits. A common saying goes, “take care of your losses, and your profits will take care of itself.”
Trading cryptocurrencies come with a high degree of exchange risk. Your capital is your inventory, and there's a huge risk not only in losing your money, but also your time invested if the site you're on shuts down tomorrow. Keep you money with reputable exchanges, spread it out over various locations, and never invest more than you can afford to lose!
2. Dealing with Variance & Playing a +EV Game
Variance is basically that which deviates from the norm, be it good or bad. And this is where the concept of expected value comes into the picture. Short term variance is part of the game, and it is important to understand that trading is a marathon, not a sprint. The difference between gamblers and professional poker players or traders, is that the latter focus on the outcome of playing the long game.
To avoid being a gambler, one must make trades that have a positive expected value. Do you know the expected value of the trades you make in the market? To really understand what are your odds of making a profit, and the expected size of that profit, requires establishing a set of rules and testing those rules over a large number of trades so you can determine the expected value of your strategy rules.
You may want to buy any coin that has strong fundamentals and a market capitalization of $10m or less, or one that has retested the 200 MA support. Sounds like a good idea, but is it? Only testing that rule over many trading examples and market conditions can really tell you if this simple approach to the market is an effective one.
Strategies do not have to be complicated. They do need to be well tested! If you approach the market without a set of trading rules and an understanding of the expected value of your trading approach, you are a gambler. Yes, you will get lucky and could make great profits. However, in the long run, the profits of the gambling trader are just short term loans.
3. Knowing Your Risk Tolerance
As Dusty Schmidt put it, “part of growing your business is coming to an understanding of how much risk you can tolerate.”
If you have a mindset that you must move up [in stakes] quickly, trade a large size, risk a large amount, and manage your bankroll liberally, you’re setting yourself up for a really big mistake in the long run. That is a gambler’s mentality with which few people can succeed long term.
I look at trading not as a gamble, but as a skill. I want to make a small business out of that skill, and like most businesses, I don’t want to risk having to close up shop. Staying open is the goal first and foremost; maximizing profit is second.
4. Determining Your Style & Knowing When You Have an Edge
Just like how there are different playing styles in poker, such as loose-aggressive, or tight-passive; there are various styles of trading and investing, such as day trading, scalping, position trading, growth investing, value investing, and many more. As an aspiring trader, it is important that you understand your own circumstances, risk preferences, goals, and develop a strategy that suits your style. Read the crypto trader’s essential starter kit here: https://alunacrypto.blogspot.sg/2017/06/essential-beginners-starter-kit-for-cryptocurrency-trading-bitcoin-altcoins-ethereum.html
To find an edge in poker is to understand who the fishes are at the table. From the Rounders movie, "listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker." Also, having an edge means to play hands with positive expectancy, knowing when you have a better hand than your opponent and maximizing your profit, while minimizing losses when behind.
In trading, this is akin to first understanding the general market conditions, then taking trades with positive expectancy, that is, trades that stand to win more than they lose over the long term, so that you make more in your winning trades than lose in your losers.
A common mistake new traders make is in being myopic about technical analysis, without factoring critical overarching concepts such as the general market conditions, market cycles, trader psychology, and risk management. Why sit at a table with 8 sharks? If general market conditions are not favourable, don’t take the trade. In poker, you typically play less than 15% of your hands in a full ring table. Similarly, in trading, sit out when you don’t have an edge.
5. Managing Your Emotions
Traders who have played poker should be familiar with something called “going on tilt.” In the poker world, this refers to a state of psychological or emotional frustration or confusion that causes the player to start making decisions that are less than ideal. Usually, this means adopting overly aggressive strategies that are unlikely to work, and which the player would never use in a more psychologically sound state of mind. Poker players usually go on tilt because they are frustrated with their own mistakes, with bad luck, or with other players. Does that sound familiar?
If we are not emotionally prepared for the possibility of losing, we are more likely to be thrown by losses. We set ourselves up for the tilt state by needing and expecting to win, rather than letting probabilities play themselves out and accept that there will be winning and losing periods.
Emotional control can also be improved by understanding probability and variance, and setting long term monetary goals instead of short term ones. Respect your risk management plan, and lose your ego. When you know you are on tilt or off your A game, the faster you get off the tables (or stop trading for the day), the more money you will save in the long run.
Conclusion
There is a multitude of lessons that traders can learn from professional poker players, since both involve similar characteristics of incentive, risk taking, strategy, probability, emotions, psychology, and mental discipline. Success is determined not so much as which strategy but the determination and discipline by the trader to carry out the plan. At the end of the day, be careful not to treat trading like gambling. Remember, trading is a business more than anything!
This article was written for the 21cryptos' magazine's first edition. If you liked this article, make sure to visit www.21cryptos.com or their Twitter account, to purchase their first article at an affordable price of only$10 $5, and enjoy over 50 pages of cryptocurrecy market insights, analysis, and articles. Also make sure to look out for future editions as I continue to be a guest writer for 21cryptos.
This article was written for the 21cryptos' magazine's first edition. If you liked this article, make sure to visit www.21cryptos.com or their Twitter account, to purchase their first article at an affordable price of only
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Trader Dad: What Makes a Successful Trader? Trading Advice From My Old Man
Since I can remember, I haven't lived with my dad. I barely meet him since he worked overseas for the most part, and never knew much about him. Funnily enough, I never knew he traded financial markets, until after I got into trading and brought it up with him.
Recently, I asked my dad to write a short introduction to trading, something that would be useful for people starting out and dipping their toes into trading financial markets or cryptocurrencies. Even though he doesn't trade Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies (yet), he's had decades of experience navigating the markets, and I hope this short and simple post can give you some insight into what an old-timer has to say about becoming profitable at trading.
So here goes...
Dear Trader,
I have been trading in the “futures market” similar to what we now refer to as the Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) market for the last 30 years.
I would like to share my experience and knowledge with people that are interested in financial trading (*this is a short introduction and not meant to be a recommendation of any trade that anyone might like to take).
To make it simple, I will sum up the most important elements in making a successful trader. Successful traders are those that make a good and correct decision and/or action in the following:
1. Money
2. Time
3. Target
1. Money
A trader need first to decide the amount that he is prepared to invest or the amount that he is willing to cut loss in each trade and his overall trading.
One must be disciplined with this decision making and necessary control action is very important.
Unnecessary losses usually occur when one overtrades, or holds on to a position that had a big loss for too long that eventually that he cannot afford.
2. Time
Time is a very important factor in many ways:
1. Trader needs to spend time to analyze and decide on a particular trade.
2. Trader needs to decide if short term or long term trading that he/she will like to be working on.
Not spending enough time to understand the market that you are trading can result in unnecessary trading losses.
There are much to learn in trading such as margin requirement, historical high and low level, economic fundamental of the product, average cycle period of high and low, stop order, technical analysis, trading hours, daily swap value of the product, etc.
3. Target
Target refers to both sides of your exit point on either profit taking or cut loss.
A successful trader is more likely to be a person who is very disciplined in his execution of trade.
Trader should always remember that “the market is always there”, which means that one should protect his margin for his future trade.
Having a clear target will eliminate the emotional trading in your trade.
Other Factors
Other than those points in trading that I had mentioned above. I will also like to bring up some other factors and risks concerning futures trading in the modern market as follows:
A. Price Manipulation
Trader should be aware that the globalization of the modern world and the advancement of technology in computers and the Internet had made it very easy for the banking cartel to manipulate the prices throughout all the trading platform from index to currency to commodity such as gold and silver and all other counters.
This situation had been persisting and intensified over the recent years.
The high share index, the low price in gold price and silver are the result of such manipulation.
B. Stop Hunting
Trader will notice that there is always some sort of taking out cut loss movement occur before price is going to make a big move in the opposite direction are clear evident of the price manipulation by the major player in the market. Read more about stop hunting on Investopedia.
C. Economic Data
We used to depend on the economic data issued by various government department to plan our trade.
Trader should be aware that these data are no more as accurate and reliable in the recent time.
D. Major Economic Situation
Trade should be aware of the major economic situation which is going to have a major impact of the world economic in years to come such as:
1. Excessive quantitative easing (QE) (money printing) by various government over the years
2. US national debt of 20 trillion dollars and its debt ceiling
3. The death of petro-dollar
4. The conflict between US with Russia, North Korea and other middle east countries
5. Financial difficulties in the major bank in EU and the possible breakup of EU
6. The purchase of physical gold by central bank
Conclusion
The present market situation is critical and it represent a good opportunity for those that have prepared for the volatile market movement ahead. Do your study, prepare yourself and this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many traders. Good luck and enjoy your trading.
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
Sam Lee
Recently, I asked my dad to write a short introduction to trading, something that would be useful for people starting out and dipping their toes into trading financial markets or cryptocurrencies. Even though he doesn't trade Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies (yet), he's had decades of experience navigating the markets, and I hope this short and simple post can give you some insight into what an old-timer has to say about becoming profitable at trading.
So here goes...
Dear Trader,
I have been trading in the “futures market” similar to what we now refer to as the Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) market for the last 30 years.
I would like to share my experience and knowledge with people that are interested in financial trading (*this is a short introduction and not meant to be a recommendation of any trade that anyone might like to take).
To make it simple, I will sum up the most important elements in making a successful trader. Successful traders are those that make a good and correct decision and/or action in the following:
1. Money
2. Time
3. Target
1. Money
A trader need first to decide the amount that he is prepared to invest or the amount that he is willing to cut loss in each trade and his overall trading.
One must be disciplined with this decision making and necessary control action is very important.
Unnecessary losses usually occur when one overtrades, or holds on to a position that had a big loss for too long that eventually that he cannot afford.
2. Time
Time is a very important factor in many ways:
1. Trader needs to spend time to analyze and decide on a particular trade.
2. Trader needs to decide if short term or long term trading that he/she will like to be working on.
Not spending enough time to understand the market that you are trading can result in unnecessary trading losses.
There are much to learn in trading such as margin requirement, historical high and low level, economic fundamental of the product, average cycle period of high and low, stop order, technical analysis, trading hours, daily swap value of the product, etc.
3. Target
Target refers to both sides of your exit point on either profit taking or cut loss.
A successful trader is more likely to be a person who is very disciplined in his execution of trade.
Trader should always remember that “the market is always there”, which means that one should protect his margin for his future trade.
Having a clear target will eliminate the emotional trading in your trade.
Other Factors
Other than those points in trading that I had mentioned above. I will also like to bring up some other factors and risks concerning futures trading in the modern market as follows:
A. Price Manipulation
Trader should be aware that the globalization of the modern world and the advancement of technology in computers and the Internet had made it very easy for the banking cartel to manipulate the prices throughout all the trading platform from index to currency to commodity such as gold and silver and all other counters.
This situation had been persisting and intensified over the recent years.
The high share index, the low price in gold price and silver are the result of such manipulation.
B. Stop Hunting
Trader will notice that there is always some sort of taking out cut loss movement occur before price is going to make a big move in the opposite direction are clear evident of the price manipulation by the major player in the market. Read more about stop hunting on Investopedia.
C. Economic Data
We used to depend on the economic data issued by various government department to plan our trade.
Trader should be aware that these data are no more as accurate and reliable in the recent time.
D. Major Economic Situation
Trade should be aware of the major economic situation which is going to have a major impact of the world economic in years to come such as:
1. Excessive quantitative easing (QE) (money printing) by various government over the years
2. US national debt of 20 trillion dollars and its debt ceiling
3. The death of petro-dollar
4. The conflict between US with Russia, North Korea and other middle east countries
5. Financial difficulties in the major bank in EU and the possible breakup of EU
6. The purchase of physical gold by central bank
Conclusion
The present market situation is critical and it represent a good opportunity for those that have prepared for the volatile market movement ahead. Do your study, prepare yourself and this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many traders. Good luck and enjoy your trading.
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
Sam Lee
Sunday, July 9, 2017
[VIDEO] Cryptocurrency Trading Primer: Not Your Typical Trading Course or Technical Analysis Introduction - Human Emotions, Market Psychology, & Risk Management
I recently had the pleasure of speaking about trading Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies at the first CryptoSG meet-up in Singapore, alongside 6 others speakers who covered various other topics about Bitcoin, Altcoins, and Blockchain technology.
In this presentation, I introduced an approach to trading that (I hope) is not what your typical "trading course" or "technical analysis class" would teach, and shared a method that I believe is one of, if not the only way to be able to make sense the market with a complete picture. I shared some tips and overarching concepts that I feel are more important than just charts and indicators, and hopefully this will be able to shorten your learning curve and help you find a footing in the market without having to go through the same mistakes I made.
It summarizes my last post, An Essential Beginner's Starter-Kit for your Journey into the Cryptocurrency Jungle that is Bitcoin & Altcoins Trading, while also covering some other key concepts spread throughout my blog.
Why does this methodology of "market structure" and "emotional market crash cycle" work so well? If you think about it, the only common denominator between all markets is nothing other than the people trading them. Therefore I believe it stands to reason that human emotions and trader psychology play an immensely critical role in being able to understand how markets work.
I'll just leave it at that so I don't spoil the rest of the video for you. Unfortunately, the first 5 minutes or so of the live talk got cut off due to technical issues, but I also recorded it into a webinar if you're interested to watch the complete presentation. Enjoy!
If you just want to look at the slides, you can view or download the PDF of my presentation here.
This presentation was merely an introduction and a very brief high-level overview of how to approach trading, where I highlighted a wide range of important things to look out for, but you probably still have a ton of more specific questions such as about how to get started, what to look out for on a chart, or how you can apply market structure and the emotional crash cycle into your trading strategy.
It's impossible to condense 3-5 years of experience and knowledge into a single book or a video which you can absorb and magically become a pro trader. There's no short cut to becoming a profitable trader, except through hard work and dedication, with time and experience.
Don't be afraid of getting your hands dirty; learn by executing trades and making mistakes, because nobody ever learnt how to ride a bicycle by reading a book. With the right attitude to succeed, you too can eventually become a full-time trader and achieve your lifestyle or financial goals. However, know that it is not an easy road; never give up, keep learning and improving, and you will be rewarded in the end.
To supplement what I covered in the presentation in my previous blog post, spend an hour to listen to this @chatwithtraders podcast with Michele Koenig who has over 14 years of trading experience and shares very relatable information about how to approach trading and start out as a beginner.
Lastly, I just want to again highlight the last but most important point about trading, and that is risk management. This is probably the most undervalued component of trading especially for new traders, and is coincidentally why most people continue to blow up their accounts.
If you play Texas Hold'em, or some other form of poker, you may have heard about 'bankroll management' and this concept applies to trading perfectly. Just like how professional poker players compete at a stake where their bankroll covers at least 30-100 buy-ins, professional traders typically risk no more than 1-2% per trade.
One of the most common sayings on Wall Street is to let your winners run and cut your losses short. Many new traders make the mistake of being patient at the wrong time, and holding onto a losing trade longer than they should. This is caused by 2 things, firstly not having a trading plan in the first place and hence allowing emotions to eventually get the better of you, and trading without a stop loss. Stop-losses can help you to quickly cut losses when a trade goes south, as well as to protect your profits as you continue to ride the trend. Read more about how to use stop-losses effectively with these tutorials by @Rayner_Teo, an esteemed financial markets trader who's also from Singapore.
With that, I hope I have opened up your mind with a unique view on how to approach the markets and changed your perception on what trading is all about, and also provided you with some practical information that can help you kick-start your trading journey.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave them in the comments section, or reach out to me on Twitter, Telegram, and join the AlunaCrypto community on Telegram to discuss Bitcoin and Altcoin markets, share price and technical analysis, and keep up to date with the cryptocurrency market.
Invited to speak about Crypto Trading this Friday evening in Singapore. Feel free to join if you're available!https://t.co/YWBJzH27ZX pic.twitter.com/2TZVkuBlYx— Alvin Lee #UASF (@onemanatatime) July 3, 2017
In this presentation, I introduced an approach to trading that (I hope) is not what your typical "trading course" or "technical analysis class" would teach, and shared a method that I believe is one of, if not the only way to be able to make sense the market with a complete picture. I shared some tips and overarching concepts that I feel are more important than just charts and indicators, and hopefully this will be able to shorten your learning curve and help you find a footing in the market without having to go through the same mistakes I made.
It summarizes my last post, An Essential Beginner's Starter-Kit for your Journey into the Cryptocurrency Jungle that is Bitcoin & Altcoins Trading, while also covering some other key concepts spread throughout my blog.
"Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria." pic.twitter.com/YpFXipG4bR— Aluna Cryptocurrency (@AlunaCrypto) April 25, 2017
Why does this methodology of "market structure" and "emotional market crash cycle" work so well? If you think about it, the only common denominator between all markets is nothing other than the people trading them. Therefore I believe it stands to reason that human emotions and trader psychology play an immensely critical role in being able to understand how markets work.
I'll just leave it at that so I don't spoil the rest of the video for you. Unfortunately, the first 5 minutes or so of the live talk got cut off due to technical issues, but I also recorded it into a webinar if you're interested to watch the complete presentation. Enjoy!
If you just want to look at the slides, you can view or download the PDF of my presentation here.
This presentation was merely an introduction and a very brief high-level overview of how to approach trading, where I highlighted a wide range of important things to look out for, but you probably still have a ton of more specific questions such as about how to get started, what to look out for on a chart, or how you can apply market structure and the emotional crash cycle into your trading strategy.
It's impossible to condense 3-5 years of experience and knowledge into a single book or a video which you can absorb and magically become a pro trader. There's no short cut to becoming a profitable trader, except through hard work and dedication, with time and experience.
Don't be afraid of getting your hands dirty; learn by executing trades and making mistakes, because nobody ever learnt how to ride a bicycle by reading a book. With the right attitude to succeed, you too can eventually become a full-time trader and achieve your lifestyle or financial goals. However, know that it is not an easy road; never give up, keep learning and improving, and you will be rewarded in the end.
In life as in trading, many things don't go according to plan. If you fall, get back up.— Aluna Cryptocurrency (@AlunaCrypto) July 9, 2017
Regain your balance, never give up. pic.twitter.com/ZisvJC8Igr
To supplement what I covered in the presentation in my previous blog post, spend an hour to listen to this @chatwithtraders podcast with Michele Koenig who has over 14 years of trading experience and shares very relatable information about how to approach trading and start out as a beginner.
Perfect for Beginners! @offshorehunters shares essentials to approach trading, in & outs, what & how to get started.https://t.co/8F9SwjUZDy— Alvin Lee #UASF (@onemanatatime) July 9, 2017
Lastly, I just want to again highlight the last but most important point about trading, and that is risk management. This is probably the most undervalued component of trading especially for new traders, and is coincidentally why most people continue to blow up their accounts.
If you play Texas Hold'em, or some other form of poker, you may have heard about 'bankroll management' and this concept applies to trading perfectly. Just like how professional poker players compete at a stake where their bankroll covers at least 30-100 buy-ins, professional traders typically risk no more than 1-2% per trade.
You can have the best strategy and psychology. But without proper risk management, you'll blow your account up.— Rayner Teo (@Rayner_Teo) July 4, 2017
Not if, but when.
One of the most common sayings on Wall Street is to let your winners run and cut your losses short. Many new traders make the mistake of being patient at the wrong time, and holding onto a losing trade longer than they should. This is caused by 2 things, firstly not having a trading plan in the first place and hence allowing emotions to eventually get the better of you, and trading without a stop loss. Stop-losses can help you to quickly cut losses when a trade goes south, as well as to protect your profits as you continue to ride the trend. Read more about how to use stop-losses effectively with these tutorials by @Rayner_Teo, an esteemed financial markets trader who's also from Singapore.
How to set a trailing stop loss to protect your profits and ride big trendshttps://t.co/6dg9pc0kU7— Rayner Teo (@Rayner_Teo) July 5, 2017
How to place a proper trading stop loss (so you don't get stopped out prematurely)https://t.co/4AFbrLdiln— Rayner Teo (@Rayner_Teo) July 9, 2017
With that, I hope I have opened up your mind with a unique view on how to approach the markets and changed your perception on what trading is all about, and also provided you with some practical information that can help you kick-start your trading journey.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave them in the comments section, or reach out to me on Twitter, Telegram, and join the AlunaCrypto community on Telegram to discuss Bitcoin and Altcoin markets, share price and technical analysis, and keep up to date with the cryptocurrency market.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
An Essential Beginner's Starter-Kit for your Journey into the Cryptocurrency Jungle that is Bitcoin & Altcoins Trading: Overview, Markets, Analysis, Emotions, Psychology, Risk & Strategy
Made a windfall during the recent cryptocurrency bull trend?
Thinking of taking out your student loan to invest long term in Bitcoin, Ethereum, or some other alternative cryptocurrency and blockchain technology?
Considering to quit your day job to be a full time cryptocurrency trader?
Before you take an impulsive step that will drastically change your life for better or worse, take a step back and consider what this actually means, and if you have adequately planned for what you're getting yourself into. Are you sure that you are ready to play the hardest game in the world?
Introduction
Whether you're new to this whole trading game, or if you have some experience trading traditional markets but feel like crypto "is a totally different animal", this post is for you!
If you're just like most new traders, you might not even understand what a "pip" is, or have no clue where to get started in reading and interpreting charts & candlesticks, and everything may look very foreign, daunting and overwhelming at first sight, but fret not!
Cryptocurrency trading is no different from trading traditional markets, and in fact provides a more level playing field with relatively less "smart money" in the game today, and if I may say, "easier" to learn too. Whether or not you have any prior trading experience, this blog post aims to provide you with a starter-pack of essential knowledge and resources to help you learn trading, and to present a framework with which you can approach trading cryptocurrencies and the global markets at large.
Trading and the world of Bitcoin and Altcoins may seem like trying to navigate through a dense jungle at first, but once you learn how to read your compass, have the right lenses on with which to view the markets through, and with the right attitude and propensity to keep trying & improving, you will quickly be able to develop an eye for the market and chart patterns, and begin to make sense of it all.
Indeed it is fact that most professional traders start their career by losing for the first 3, 5 or even 7 years. On the flip side, I assure you that this is no rocket science. With the right strategy, proper risk management and discipline, anyone can make trading profitable, even you! So let's get down to it...
What is a Market?
No matter how you look at it, you became a trader the first day you bought your first Bitcoin, Ethereum, or altcoin, from someone else. Whether you're trading as a hobby, want to make this your full-time career, or simply just dipping your toes into the world of blockchains and cryptographic currencies, I believe it is prudent for you to at least arm yourself with basic trading techniques and price analysis frameworks, since trading is an integral aspect of owning cryptocurrencies that you cannot avoid whether you like it or not.
Before we get into the tutorial proper, let's start off by looking at the markets and trading from a more abstract perspective.
What's the one thing in common between all traded markets, be it stocks, bonds, commodities, or even cryptocurrencies? You may have guessed it, it's none other than the human beings trading it, and it is the emotions of these people that drive prices in the market. By this logic, we can argue that price is the collective representation of human emotions, and hence emotions and psychology are a critical puzzle piece and first step to understanding the rules of the game.
Making Your Own Trader
We all have different styles, from the clothes we wear, to the time we sleep and wake, to the type of diets we have. Similarly with trading, we all have different risk appetite and propensity, schedules, preferences, portfolio size, and it essential for someone getting into trading to first figure out what type of trader you are, to form your own unique understanding of the market, your own perception of how to analyze the market, and your own framework on how to approach the market.
With that said, though there are many different parameters you can tweak to develop your own style, there are several over-arching factors that you need to take care of regardless of your strategy or style, and the path that you have taken.
Understanding Yourself - What Type of Trader Are You?
To begin, let's start with the simple yet effective 5W1H (except the 'when', which isn't all that relevant here) questioning technique, and dig in to understand ourselves better.
First and foremost, WHY do you trade and WHAT do you want to achieve?
Do you want to achieve financial freedom? Make some side income? Have an interest in the technology and wish to invest in it for the long term? Or do you wish to travel the world without being bound to a desk-job?
Whatever the reason, make it clear to yourself and seek the advice and support of your family and friends.
WHO are you? WHEN can you trade?
Do you work a 9-5 job or are you a freelancer? Do you wake up at sunrise and go to bed at sundown, or are you a night owl? What is your schedule like? Do you have a family and kids, or are you single? Are you studying, or working?
I'm sure you already know all this about yourself, but have you also considered these factors in developing your trading style?
WHAT type of trader are you?
Only after figuring out the why, what, who, and when of your trading, can you be able to tailor your strategy to suit your circumstances.
Are you a day trader, swing trader, or position trader? If you're working a full-time job and can't babysit your positions throughout the day, don't attempt to be a day trader trading 15m candles but focus on higher timeframes such as 6h, 12h or 1d candle charts instead!
And the million dollar question, HOW can you devise a profitable trading strategy, suited to who you are, to achieve your goals and live your dreams? Unfortunately, there's no straight answer here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying or out to cheat your money. The answer lies in you, to understand yourself, your needs and your goals, in order to create your own unique strategy. But that's not all...
The art of trading is a simple yet seemingly complex task of putting together all the available bits and pieces of information to form a complete picture, in a world of incomplete information. On top of that, it involves 100s if not 1000s of hours of testing setups and strategies, finding your own way to make sense of it all, gaming probabilities, creating a plan and diligently following it, and most importantly, controlling your emotions and learning to apply proper risk management.
Nobody said it was easy, but if you are ready to play the hardest game in the world, I'll try my best to hone you in the basics of the art of trading and to get you started on this adventure.
For a primer on what to look out for as a beginner trader, spend some time to listen to this podcast where Jerry Robinson shares his journey, experience, and growth as a trader, and covers a wide range of diverse topics perfect for beginners, from the importance of having and following a trading plan/system, to the difference between the types of trading styles, to technical and fundamental analysis, emotions, the use of stop losses, and more.
How Do You Trade?
Analyzing markets can involve the use of one of or a combination of numerous methods, such as fundamental analysis, technical analysis, quantitative analysis, based on retail order flow, based on news, or by following other people's tips or "insider information".
Should be obvious but I'll just emphasize anyway, you should NOT be entering a trade based on a gut feeling, or on a coin toss, or worse still based on a "hot tip" from your uncle, colleague, or something you heard on the TV.
Everyone has their own unique style, and the hard truth is that while some of them work, most don't.
Moving forward, we'll break down trading into somewhat modular components and look at what determines a good trade, how you can start winning and be a profitable trader, look at some of the things you can do to avoid the trap of trading based off hot tips, and provide you with the necessary skills and knowledge to approach trading and conduct yourself in the market.
What Determines a "Good Trade"?
1. Trend is your friend
Generally, you should only take trades in the direction of the trend. i.e. only long / buy in a bull market and never try to short it until the trend has shown to reversed.
2. Price
What is price? Price is the representation of a value that market participants are willing to pay for a stock or commodity. (Read: Cost vs Price vs Worth vs Value)
Price should always be taken relative to something else. You are probably familiar with the BTC/USD pair, which represents the value of BTC in terms of USD, as well as the pairs with other fiat currencies. However, do not limit your perception, since price is relative, we can value BTC in terms of other commodities, such as gold (TradingView: BTC/Gold), or even big macs (Bitcoin Purchasing Power Index).
Lastly, 'cheap' and 'expensive' are relative terms. A coin should not be seen as cheap just because it costs 1 satoshi, compared to Bitcoin for example that costs over $2000. Price should be analyzed in relation to it's market cap (supply * price), as well as the perceived value of the company, commodity, or cryptocurrency.
3. Timing
Market timing is an often overlooked yet hugely critical component of a good trade. As some traders would say, "when it comes to trading, timing is everything."
There's no 'good' price without a 'good' timing. You can buy at a 'high' price but at a 'perfect' timing and it'll be a good trade, but if your timing is 'bad', your 'good' price could quickly go against you and end up being a 'bad' or losing trade.
Here's a couple of articles for you to further digest the concept and importance of market timing in trading:
4. Don't chase the market!
To chase or not to chase, that is the question. Well, not really. It is a no brainer to know that chasing price is a sure way to increase your risk, decrease your profit potential and, in time, probably blow your account.
Here are 20 points to always keep in mind about the markets, trends, and prices, to remind yourself not to chase prices: Trading Success - How To Avoid Chasing Stocks.
How To Win At Trading?
If you made some good profits during this recent bull run, now is the perfect time you learn to keep it, and fast.
What most new traders might find perplexing at first is that you don't have to win >50% of your trades to be profitable. There is an important concept called "risk-reward ratio" in trading, that can make you a profitable trader even if only 25% of your trades are winners, by taking only trades with rewards that outweigh the risks by >3x. i.e. you can make 3 losing trades at a loss of $1 each, only make 1 winning trade with a profit of $3, and still end up breaking even.
So back to the question, how can we win? Perhaps to answer this question, we might get some clues by studying how people lose. People lose in two ways, by being impatient and getting into trades at the wrong time, or by being patient at the wrong time and holding on to a losing trade longer than they should. Don't be that guy.
Cut Your Losses Short and Let Your Winners Run
One of the most enduring sayings on Wall Street is "cut your losses short and let your winners run." Sage advice, but many investors still appear to do the opposite, selling stocks after a small gain only to watch them head higher, or holding a stock with a small loss, only to see it worsen.
(Source: The Art Of Cutting Your Losses)
It may be a little counter-intuitive at first, but the path to winning lies simply in managing your losses. As the saying goes, "take care of your losses and your profits will take care of itself".
Articles on this topic:
Using Stop Losses
For most professional traders, stop-losses are an integral part of any trading system, especially as you start to automate strategies. Be it the scalper looking to buy a high momentum breakout, or a position trader getting in at the accumulation phase, professional traders plan their exits (both take-profit, and stop-loss levels) before even entering a position.
The benefits of having a stop loss include:
However, in crypto, and especially in the less mature markets, you may find it close to impossible in low liquidity markets to use stop-losses without running the risk of losing your entire accumulated position due to one careless wick. It is still advisable to use stop-losses especially when swing or day trading more liquid markets (e.g. 1000 btc daily volume or more), or at least have a plan and perhaps alerts set up to tell you when you should get out of your trade if you don't physically have a stop-loss order in place. Knowing exactly where to place your stop loss will take time & practice to hone, and there's no better way to learn than to actually get trading.
Regardless, the concept of booking profits by moving stop-losses up, like a trailing stop-loss, should always be exercised to protect your profits during big trends and at the same time keep your draw-downs low.
Some readings on this topic:
Analysis Methods
If trading is new to you, something basic like reading the chart might be a little confusing at first. However like I said, this is no rocket science. Learn more about the basics of reading a chart, meaning of trading terms, and other technical analysis tools and patterns to help in your analysis, with resources such as my other blog posts, investopedia.com or babypips.com.
Trading analysis methods usually fall into two distinct categories; Technical Analysis (TA) or Fundamental Analysis (FA). You can find out more about the differences between fundamental and technical analysis by reading this Investopedia article here and this writeup on diffen.com.
Fundamental Analysis refers to the study of the merits of the company behind a stock, typically by looking at a company's earnings, earnings per share, revenue, profit, growth, return on equity, and etc. Or in the case of cryptocurrencies, FA would include factors such as the project's technology and product, the strength of the development team, support from the community, and etc.
Technical Analysis, on the other hand, involves the study of price action, looking for structure, cycles, patterns and setups based on price data and probabilities. TA is more of an art than a science. It is a science in that there are probabilities and quantitative data to analyze, but with people involved, it becomes a social science. As pointed out above, markets are traded by people, and people are irrational. Though chart patterns have probabilities of success and failure, it is ultimately decided by the market's participants and governed by their emotions, and hence TA is unable to 'predict' the precise price or timing of a move due to the multitude of factors that affect each other in a web, and where the action of one man can change everything.
Most traders use a combination of both, in some manner not very different from this: Use FA to sort out the stocks that you'll actually put money into, while using TA predominantly to find entry point, to filter the stocks picked by FA, figure out which one is the right one to enter, right now. You may have a universe of great stocks, but knowing WHEN to buy them, is the key if you're a trader.
Although FA gives you an idea of which stock is a good buy, it gives zero clue on the timing of entry for the trade. It is prudent to note that not only does FA not consider stop losses, it tends to go completely against stop loss strategies by encouraging one to add to a losing position, when price decreases while the fundamentals (e.g. P/E ratio) of the company remains the same. Whereas for TA, the concept of stop-losses and cutting losses short is imbued into most all strategies, and as mentioned is a key to preventing you from blowing your accounts.
Trading Strategy, Plan and Ruleset
According to Wikipedia, a trading strategy is a fixed plan that is designed to achieve a profitable return by going long or short in markets.
Would you drive a car on the road without understanding the road rules? I'm guessing you probably wouldn't, unless you wanted to dramatically increase the chances of a crash. So why is it that we still see so many new traders, rushing into the markets with no trading rules in place? Laziness, ignorance? Who knows, but one thing is certain... if you trade without any rule based trading strategies in place, then you are positioning yourself for disaster.
It may be difficult to even know where to start at first, and it will take some time looking at charts, trying out various indicators, before you can get some idea of what may or may not work. From there, find some potentially profitable setups, and add parameters to your ruleset for entering and exiting a position.
Besides the technical ruleset for the execution of trades itself, you should also seek to incorporate portfolio management considerations into your strategy. This could include things like your goals, a plan to manage risk, trade size, maintaining a trade journal, or even an exercise or diet regime to keep your mind sharp.
By fixing your trading plan before taking any positions, and strictly following your plan and the rules you set in place, you should be able to better handle your emotions, as you trade based on quantifiable targets instead of relying on guesswork and being lost without any predetermined targets or exit plan.
There's a reason why 3 out of 5 of these relate to managing your losses and risk, and we'll explain that in greater detail later. Here's some readings about forming a trading plan and how to go about creating rules for your trading strategy:
Thinking of taking out your student loan to invest long term in Bitcoin, Ethereum, or some other alternative cryptocurrency and blockchain technology?
Considering to quit your day job to be a full time cryptocurrency trader?
Before you take an impulsive step that will drastically change your life for better or worse, take a step back and consider what this actually means, and if you have adequately planned for what you're getting yourself into. Are you sure that you are ready to play the hardest game in the world?
Before you actually take out that loan, or submit your resignation letter, know that most professional traders spend first 3-7 years losing. pic.twitter.com/PSmvH1LAuh— Alvin Lee 🚀🚀🚀 (@onemanatatime) June 17, 2017
(credits to @Trader_Dante for this piece)
Introduction
Whether you're new to this whole trading game, or if you have some experience trading traditional markets but feel like crypto "is a totally different animal", this post is for you!
If you're just like most new traders, you might not even understand what a "pip" is, or have no clue where to get started in reading and interpreting charts & candlesticks, and everything may look very foreign, daunting and overwhelming at first sight, but fret not!
Cryptocurrency trading is no different from trading traditional markets, and in fact provides a more level playing field with relatively less "smart money" in the game today, and if I may say, "easier" to learn too. Whether or not you have any prior trading experience, this blog post aims to provide you with a starter-pack of essential knowledge and resources to help you learn trading, and to present a framework with which you can approach trading cryptocurrencies and the global markets at large.
Trading and the world of Bitcoin and Altcoins may seem like trying to navigate through a dense jungle at first, but once you learn how to read your compass, have the right lenses on with which to view the markets through, and with the right attitude and propensity to keep trying & improving, you will quickly be able to develop an eye for the market and chart patterns, and begin to make sense of it all.
Indeed it is fact that most professional traders start their career by losing for the first 3, 5 or even 7 years. On the flip side, I assure you that this is no rocket science. With the right strategy, proper risk management and discipline, anyone can make trading profitable, even you! So let's get down to it...
Perfect for Beginners! @offshorehunters shares essentials to approach trading, in & outs, what & how to get started.https://t.co/8F9SwjUZDy— Alvin Lee 🚀🚀🚀 (@onemanatatime) July 9, 2017
What is a Market?
No matter how you look at it, you became a trader the first day you bought your first Bitcoin, Ethereum, or altcoin, from someone else. Whether you're trading as a hobby, want to make this your full-time career, or simply just dipping your toes into the world of blockchains and cryptographic currencies, I believe it is prudent for you to at least arm yourself with basic trading techniques and price analysis frameworks, since trading is an integral aspect of owning cryptocurrencies that you cannot avoid whether you like it or not.
Before we get into the tutorial proper, let's start off by looking at the markets and trading from a more abstract perspective.
What's the one thing in common between all traded markets, be it stocks, bonds, commodities, or even cryptocurrencies? You may have guessed it, it's none other than the human beings trading it, and it is the emotions of these people that drive prices in the market. By this logic, we can argue that price is the collective representation of human emotions, and hence emotions and psychology are a critical puzzle piece and first step to understanding the rules of the game.
— Stephen Burns (@SJosephBurns) June 18, 2017
New trader steps:
#1 Don't blow up your account
#2 Small draw downs
#3 Break even
#4 Profitability
#5 Compound returns
Making Your Own Trader
We all have different styles, from the clothes we wear, to the time we sleep and wake, to the type of diets we have. Similarly with trading, we all have different risk appetite and propensity, schedules, preferences, portfolio size, and it essential for someone getting into trading to first figure out what type of trader you are, to form your own unique understanding of the market, your own perception of how to analyze the market, and your own framework on how to approach the market.
With that said, though there are many different parameters you can tweak to develop your own style, there are several over-arching factors that you need to take care of regardless of your strategy or style, and the path that you have taken.
The rest of this post will cover these key concepts, to give you a baseline for devising your own approach to trading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, that you can bring along with you everywhere and trade any kind of market all the same.
Understanding Yourself - What Type of Trader Are You?
To begin, let's start with the simple yet effective 5W1H (except the 'when', which isn't all that relevant here) questioning technique, and dig in to understand ourselves better.
First and foremost, WHY do you trade and WHAT do you want to achieve?
Do you want to achieve financial freedom? Make some side income? Have an interest in the technology and wish to invest in it for the long term? Or do you wish to travel the world without being bound to a desk-job?
Whatever the reason, make it clear to yourself and seek the advice and support of your family and friends.
WHO are you? WHEN can you trade?
Do you work a 9-5 job or are you a freelancer? Do you wake up at sunrise and go to bed at sundown, or are you a night owl? What is your schedule like? Do you have a family and kids, or are you single? Are you studying, or working?
I'm sure you already know all this about yourself, but have you also considered these factors in developing your trading style?
WHAT type of trader are you?
Only after figuring out the why, what, who, and when of your trading, can you be able to tailor your strategy to suit your circumstances.
Are you a day trader, swing trader, or position trader? If you're working a full-time job and can't babysit your positions throughout the day, don't attempt to be a day trader trading 15m candles but focus on higher timeframes such as 6h, 12h or 1d candle charts instead!
And the million dollar question, HOW can you devise a profitable trading strategy, suited to who you are, to achieve your goals and live your dreams? Unfortunately, there's no straight answer here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying or out to cheat your money. The answer lies in you, to understand yourself, your needs and your goals, in order to create your own unique strategy. But that's not all...
The art of trading is a simple yet seemingly complex task of putting together all the available bits and pieces of information to form a complete picture, in a world of incomplete information. On top of that, it involves 100s if not 1000s of hours of testing setups and strategies, finding your own way to make sense of it all, gaming probabilities, creating a plan and diligently following it, and most importantly, controlling your emotions and learning to apply proper risk management.
Nobody said it was easy, but if you are ready to play the hardest game in the world, I'll try my best to hone you in the basics of the art of trading and to get you started on this adventure.
For a primer on what to look out for as a beginner trader, spend some time to listen to this podcast where Jerry Robinson shares his journey, experience, and growth as a trader, and covers a wide range of diverse topics perfect for beginners, from the importance of having and following a trading plan/system, to the difference between the types of trading styles, to technical and fundamental analysis, emotions, the use of stop losses, and more.
— Alvin Lee 🚀🚀🚀 (@onemanatatime) June 16, 2017
Perfect starter kit & trading intro.
Day, swing, or position trader?
TA vs FA, Emotions, Strategy, & more!https://t.co/6PUAsPXa0S @FTMdaily
How Do You Trade?
Analyzing markets can involve the use of one of or a combination of numerous methods, such as fundamental analysis, technical analysis, quantitative analysis, based on retail order flow, based on news, or by following other people's tips or "insider information".
Should be obvious but I'll just emphasize anyway, you should NOT be entering a trade based on a gut feeling, or on a coin toss, or worse still based on a "hot tip" from your uncle, colleague, or something you heard on the TV.
Everyone has their own unique style, and the hard truth is that while some of them work, most don't.
Moving forward, we'll break down trading into somewhat modular components and look at what determines a good trade, how you can start winning and be a profitable trader, look at some of the things you can do to avoid the trap of trading based off hot tips, and provide you with the necessary skills and knowledge to approach trading and conduct yourself in the market.
What Determines a "Good Trade"?
1. Trend is your friend
Generally, you should only take trades in the direction of the trend. i.e. only long / buy in a bull market and never try to short it until the trend has shown to reversed.
2. Price
What is price? Price is the representation of a value that market participants are willing to pay for a stock or commodity. (Read: Cost vs Price vs Worth vs Value)
Price should always be taken relative to something else. You are probably familiar with the BTC/USD pair, which represents the value of BTC in terms of USD, as well as the pairs with other fiat currencies. However, do not limit your perception, since price is relative, we can value BTC in terms of other commodities, such as gold (TradingView: BTC/Gold), or even big macs (Bitcoin Purchasing Power Index).
Lastly, 'cheap' and 'expensive' are relative terms. A coin should not be seen as cheap just because it costs 1 satoshi, compared to Bitcoin for example that costs over $2000. Price should be analyzed in relation to it's market cap (supply * price), as well as the perceived value of the company, commodity, or cryptocurrency.
3. Timing
Market timing is an often overlooked yet hugely critical component of a good trade. As some traders would say, "when it comes to trading, timing is everything."
There's no 'good' price without a 'good' timing. You can buy at a 'high' price but at a 'perfect' timing and it'll be a good trade, but if your timing is 'bad', your 'good' price could quickly go against you and end up being a 'bad' or losing trade.
Here's a couple of articles for you to further digest the concept and importance of market timing in trading:
- Investopedia: Trading is Timing
- Why Stock Market Timing Really Works In Any World Market
- The Importance of Market Timing
4. Don't chase the market!
To chase or not to chase, that is the question. Well, not really. It is a no brainer to know that chasing price is a sure way to increase your risk, decrease your profit potential and, in time, probably blow your account.
Here are 20 points to always keep in mind about the markets, trends, and prices, to remind yourself not to chase prices: Trading Success - How To Avoid Chasing Stocks.
How To Win At Trading?
If you made some good profits during this recent bull run, now is the perfect time you learn to keep it, and fast.
Not about how much you make.— ant (@ThisIsNuse) June 22, 2017
It's about how much you keep.
What most new traders might find perplexing at first is that you don't have to win >50% of your trades to be profitable. There is an important concept called "risk-reward ratio" in trading, that can make you a profitable trader even if only 25% of your trades are winners, by taking only trades with rewards that outweigh the risks by >3x. i.e. you can make 3 losing trades at a loss of $1 each, only make 1 winning trade with a profit of $3, and still end up breaking even.
So back to the question, how can we win? Perhaps to answer this question, we might get some clues by studying how people lose. People lose in two ways, by being impatient and getting into trades at the wrong time, or by being patient at the wrong time and holding on to a losing trade longer than they should. Don't be that guy.
The elements of good trading are:— Aluna Cryptocurrency (@AlunaCrypto) May 20, 2017
(1) cutting losses,
(2) cutting losses, and
(3) cutting losses. pic.twitter.com/mxnsqOFF4i
Cut Your Losses Short and Let Your Winners Run
One of the most enduring sayings on Wall Street is "cut your losses short and let your winners run." Sage advice, but many investors still appear to do the opposite, selling stocks after a small gain only to watch them head higher, or holding a stock with a small loss, only to see it worsen.
(Source: The Art Of Cutting Your Losses)
It may be a little counter-intuitive at first, but the path to winning lies simply in managing your losses. As the saying goes, "take care of your losses and your profits will take care of itself".
Articles on this topic:
- Trading Strategy 101 – Cut Losses Short, Let Profits Run On
- Quora: How do I implement "Cut your losses and let your profits run"?
- Loss Aversion – Cut Losses Short & Let Winners Run
Using Stop Losses
For most professional traders, stop-losses are an integral part of any trading system, especially as you start to automate strategies. Be it the scalper looking to buy a high momentum breakout, or a position trader getting in at the accumulation phase, professional traders plan their exits (both take-profit, and stop-loss levels) before even entering a position.
The benefits of having a stop loss include:
- Preventing you from blowing up your trading account
- Limiting your losses
- Living to “fight” another day
However, in crypto, and especially in the less mature markets, you may find it close to impossible in low liquidity markets to use stop-losses without running the risk of losing your entire accumulated position due to one careless wick. It is still advisable to use stop-losses especially when swing or day trading more liquid markets (e.g. 1000 btc daily volume or more), or at least have a plan and perhaps alerts set up to tell you when you should get out of your trade if you don't physically have a stop-loss order in place. Knowing exactly where to place your stop loss will take time & practice to hone, and there's no better way to learn than to actually get trading.
Regardless, the concept of booking profits by moving stop-losses up, like a trailing stop-loss, should always be exercised to protect your profits during big trends and at the same time keep your draw-downs low.
Some readings on this topic:
- Lock In Profits With Trailing Stop-Losses
- How to Set a Trailing Stop Loss Order to Protect Your Profits and Ride Big Trends
- How to Place Stop Losses and Take Profits Using a Maximal Strategy
Analysis Methods
If trading is new to you, something basic like reading the chart might be a little confusing at first. However like I said, this is no rocket science. Learn more about the basics of reading a chart, meaning of trading terms, and other technical analysis tools and patterns to help in your analysis, with resources such as my other blog posts, investopedia.com or babypips.com.
Trading analysis methods usually fall into two distinct categories; Technical Analysis (TA) or Fundamental Analysis (FA). You can find out more about the differences between fundamental and technical analysis by reading this Investopedia article here and this writeup on diffen.com.
Fundamental Analysis refers to the study of the merits of the company behind a stock, typically by looking at a company's earnings, earnings per share, revenue, profit, growth, return on equity, and etc. Or in the case of cryptocurrencies, FA would include factors such as the project's technology and product, the strength of the development team, support from the community, and etc.
Technical Analysis, on the other hand, involves the study of price action, looking for structure, cycles, patterns and setups based on price data and probabilities. TA is more of an art than a science. It is a science in that there are probabilities and quantitative data to analyze, but with people involved, it becomes a social science. As pointed out above, markets are traded by people, and people are irrational. Though chart patterns have probabilities of success and failure, it is ultimately decided by the market's participants and governed by their emotions, and hence TA is unable to 'predict' the precise price or timing of a move due to the multitude of factors that affect each other in a web, and where the action of one man can change everything.
"To be a good trader, u need to trade w ur eyes open, recognize real trends & turn, & not waste time/energy on regrets & wishful thinking." pic.twitter.com/kf9FSX4vaL— Aluna Cryptocurrency (@AlunaCrypto) April 27, 2017
Most traders use a combination of both, in some manner not very different from this: Use FA to sort out the stocks that you'll actually put money into, while using TA predominantly to find entry point, to filter the stocks picked by FA, figure out which one is the right one to enter, right now. You may have a universe of great stocks, but knowing WHEN to buy them, is the key if you're a trader.
Although FA gives you an idea of which stock is a good buy, it gives zero clue on the timing of entry for the trade. It is prudent to note that not only does FA not consider stop losses, it tends to go completely against stop loss strategies by encouraging one to add to a losing position, when price decreases while the fundamentals (e.g. P/E ratio) of the company remains the same. Whereas for TA, the concept of stop-losses and cutting losses short is imbued into most all strategies, and as mentioned is a key to preventing you from blowing your accounts.
Fantastic (audio) book for beginners about how to approach trading and technical analysis.— Alvin Lee 🚀🚀🚀 (@onemanatatime) May 30, 2017
MUST (LISTEN) READ!https://t.co/Lnn33vzUTv
Trading Strategy, Plan and Ruleset
According to Wikipedia, a trading strategy is a fixed plan that is designed to achieve a profitable return by going long or short in markets.
Would you drive a car on the road without understanding the road rules? I'm guessing you probably wouldn't, unless you wanted to dramatically increase the chances of a crash. So why is it that we still see so many new traders, rushing into the markets with no trading rules in place? Laziness, ignorance? Who knows, but one thing is certain... if you trade without any rule based trading strategies in place, then you are positioning yourself for disaster.
It may be difficult to even know where to start at first, and it will take some time looking at charts, trying out various indicators, before you can get some idea of what may or may not work. From there, find some potentially profitable setups, and add parameters to your ruleset for entering and exiting a position.
Besides the technical ruleset for the execution of trades itself, you should also seek to incorporate portfolio management considerations into your strategy. This could include things like your goals, a plan to manage risk, trade size, maintaining a trade journal, or even an exercise or diet regime to keep your mind sharp.
By fixing your trading plan before taking any positions, and strictly following your plan and the rules you set in place, you should be able to better handle your emotions, as you trade based on quantifiable targets instead of relying on guesswork and being lost without any predetermined targets or exit plan.
Stop focusing on the perfect entry.— Rayner Teo (@Rayner_Teo) June 27, 2017
Instead, FOCUS ON:
Risk management
Trade management
Position sizing
Emotional control
Exits
There's a reason why 3 out of 5 of these relate to managing your losses and risk, and we'll explain that in greater detail later. Here's some readings about forming a trading plan and how to go about creating rules for your trading strategy:
- Trading System Rules Core Trend Following Rules
- 5 Things You Need To Know About Rule Based Trading Strategies
- 10 Steps To Building A Winning Trading Plan
Another fantastic podcast with @basso_tom about trader psychology, trend following, rulesets processes & automation:https://t.co/KxCY2HkUch— Alvin Lee 🚀🚀🚀 (@onemanatatime) June 16, 2017
Emotions & Trader Psychology
You may have heard the saying, that when your neighbour (or mother) starts buying, you know it's almost time to sell. This is true because trading is a zero-sum game, meaning that for every seller there is a buyer, for every winner there is a loser. In addition, information is more valuable the less people have it. The idea is that if "dumb money", or the mom-and-pop investor, is buying and yell that it is going to be the next best thing and will make him rich, it should be time for you to sell.
Again, such emotional tells work in a market, based on our assumption that human emotions and trader psychology are drivers of prices, and critical components or puzzle pieces in understanding how this game works. Other than your neighbour or mom buying, other tell-tale signs include even things like tattoos.
When people start getting overconfident or complacent, to the point where they get so deeply and emotionally attached to the stock/coin, you should take a step back and realize that euphoria is kicking in and the top may be near or already in. Examples would be people talking about buying lambos, mansions, yachts, or calling the investment a "store of value", "long term investment" after a 10x rise in price, or saying things like "i just need to hold for 1 year and i'll be rich".
Contrarian investing is epitomized by Baron Rothchild's quote, "the time to buy is when there's blood in the streets." The name of the game here, keeping the emotional crash cycle in mind, would be to buy the fear, and sell the greed. Burn this chart into your mind, because it is the single most important concept you need to know about markets and trends, in order to get the big picture and make sense of it all.
Watch the video below by @cryptopicasso who explains succinctly why and how this cycle is relevant to all of trading. If you like the video, you can subscribe to his webinar tutorial package for 0.5 BTC. Make sure to mention that you were referred by @onemanatatime, to enjoy $100 off your subscription fee.
To delve deep into trader psychology, listen to this interview with Mark Douglas, author of "Trading in the Zone", where he discusses trading psychology and risk management, as well as another podcast, How to master trading psychology with Brett Steenbarger by @chatwithtraders.
Risk & Trade Size Management
Risk Management is undoubtedly the #1 most underrated trading philosophy, and also the most disregarded by new traders, who incidentally continue to blow up their accounts until they fix this.
You can have the best strategy with insanely high gains, but if you are risking 20% or 50% on every trade, or if you cannot keep your draw-downs low, it is a risk management disaster and is not a good trading strategy! As a guide, in traditional markets, profitable ETFs and hedge funds look for draw-downs of no more than 7-10% per month, averaging about 10-20% or more profits per year.
Rule number one of trading is you want to let your winners run, and cut your losses short. And back to our earlier point that if you manage your losses, your profits will take care of themselves. Sure, crypto is a different animal altogether, and your profits could be in the 100s or 1000s of %, but if you don't cut your losses to aggressively protect your bottom line and drawdowns, it'll only be a matter of time before you blow your account.
In terms of trade size management - never go all in on one trade! Set rules so that you risk only 2% (or 5%, or 10%, or more depending on your risk appetite) of your portfolio in a single trade. And lastly, don't overtrade!
Your Attitude
Your attitude is everything, not just in trading, but also in life. So let me just leave you with a couple of last points and my personal thoughts about the attitude of a good trader:
1. Don't think you're better than anyone else, or that you know it all. Be humble!
2. Be open to new ideas that may not necessarily agree with yours. Be objective with all kinds of information, remove bias and emotions when analyzing a chart.
3. Must have a passion to learn and to improve yourself.
I hope this post has given you the essential knowledge to find your way around in this cryptocurrency trading jungle, and has provided you with some practical insight into starting your own trading journey, and how to go about approaching trading and analyzing markets. Will go in depth into technical analysis in one of my next posts, but for now, let me just leave you with this...
You may have heard the saying, that when your neighbour (or mother) starts buying, you know it's almost time to sell. This is true because trading is a zero-sum game, meaning that for every seller there is a buyer, for every winner there is a loser. In addition, information is more valuable the less people have it. The idea is that if "dumb money", or the mom-and-pop investor, is buying and yell that it is going to be the next best thing and will make him rich, it should be time for you to sell.
Again, such emotional tells work in a market, based on our assumption that human emotions and trader psychology are drivers of prices, and critical components or puzzle pieces in understanding how this game works. Other than your neighbour or mom buying, other tell-tale signs include even things like tattoos.
Remember this one? Posted 2 days after the Bitcoin ATH of $1,163 in 2013. Imo tattoos like this are a pretty good indicator of exuberance. pic.twitter.com/wsnJLP1IjK— Tuur Demeester (@TuurDemeester) June 26, 2017
Ethereum is not a bubble. Etherium is not a bubble. Eterium is not a bubble. Etheriem is not a bubble. Ehtireum is not a bubble. pic.twitter.com/GgpaIty0mw— Alvin Lee 🚀🚀🚀 (@onemanatatime) June 25, 2017
When people start getting overconfident or complacent, to the point where they get so deeply and emotionally attached to the stock/coin, you should take a step back and realize that euphoria is kicking in and the top may be near or already in. Examples would be people talking about buying lambos, mansions, yachts, or calling the investment a "store of value", "long term investment" after a 10x rise in price, or saying things like "i just need to hold for 1 year and i'll be rich".
Nothing says sell more than this. $XRP pic.twitter.com/7A77yfIr5Y— Alvin Lee 🚀🚀🚀 (@onemanatatime) May 21, 2017
 |
| "I think ripple is becoming a store of value" |
Contrarian investing is epitomized by Baron Rothchild's quote, "the time to buy is when there's blood in the streets." The name of the game here, keeping the emotional crash cycle in mind, would be to buy the fear, and sell the greed. Burn this chart into your mind, because it is the single most important concept you need to know about markets and trends, in order to get the big picture and make sense of it all.
"Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria." pic.twitter.com/YpFXipG4bR— Aluna Cryptocurrency (@AlunaCrypto) April 25, 2017
Watch the video below by @cryptopicasso who explains succinctly why and how this cycle is relevant to all of trading. If you like the video, you can subscribe to his webinar tutorial package for 0.5 BTC. Make sure to mention that you were referred by @onemanatatime, to enjoy $100 off your subscription fee.
So who wants a glimpse of how to trade these coins ?— $Picasso (@cryptopicasso) May 20, 2017
Enjoy!!#bitcoin #altcoin #cryptocurrency #ripple #ethereum https://t.co/KGfRvZm1hw
Thx guys Enjoy !— $Picasso (@cryptopicasso) May 20, 2017
took me 8 yrs to put these puzzle pieces together
To understand how to win you need to understand loss and mrkt structure
Understanding this is the ONLY way i have ever made money in the markets without pure luck— $Picasso (@cryptopicasso) May 20, 2017
To delve deep into trader psychology, listen to this interview with Mark Douglas, author of "Trading in the Zone", where he discusses trading psychology and risk management, as well as another podcast, How to master trading psychology with Brett Steenbarger by @chatwithtraders.
Risk & Trade Size Management
Risk Management is undoubtedly the #1 most underrated trading philosophy, and also the most disregarded by new traders, who incidentally continue to blow up their accounts until they fix this.
You can have the best strategy with insanely high gains, but if you are risking 20% or 50% on every trade, or if you cannot keep your draw-downs low, it is a risk management disaster and is not a good trading strategy! As a guide, in traditional markets, profitable ETFs and hedge funds look for draw-downs of no more than 7-10% per month, averaging about 10-20% or more profits per year.
Rule number one of trading is you want to let your winners run, and cut your losses short. And back to our earlier point that if you manage your losses, your profits will take care of themselves. Sure, crypto is a different animal altogether, and your profits could be in the 100s or 1000s of %, but if you don't cut your losses to aggressively protect your bottom line and drawdowns, it'll only be a matter of time before you blow your account.
In terms of trade size management - never go all in on one trade! Set rules so that you risk only 2% (or 5%, or 10%, or more depending on your risk appetite) of your portfolio in a single trade. And lastly, don't overtrade!
"Major mistake made by novice traders is their bet size is too large -- often they risk 5%, 10% or more of capital on an individual trade."— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) June 27, 2017
If you manage your risk, your profits will take care of itself.— Rayner Teo (@Rayner_Teo) June 16, 2017
If you don't, your parents will take care of you.
Some platforms offer up to 100x or even 500x leverage. With margin trading, small moves in price in the wrong direction can wipe you account (Read: Margin Call) if you're overleveraged or trading too big a position than you can afford.
Friendly piece of advice, don't use more than 10x leverage, or even 3x for that matter, especially if you are not familiar with Margin Trading!
Friendly piece of advice, don't use more than 10x leverage, or even 3x for that matter, especially if you are not familiar with Margin Trading!
Your Attitude
Your attitude is everything, not just in trading, but also in life. So let me just leave you with a couple of last points and my personal thoughts about the attitude of a good trader:
1. Don't think you're better than anyone else, or that you know it all. Be humble!
Making money in bull trend is easiest part of trading. Humble yourself, learn from the legend himself @PeterLBrandt.https://t.co/0Ac90SaBVV— Alvin Lee 🚀🚀🚀 (@onemanatatime) June 8, 2017
2. Be open to new ideas that may not necessarily agree with yours. Be objective with all kinds of information, remove bias and emotions when analyzing a chart.
— Aluna Cryptocurrency (@AlunaCrypto) May 25, 2017
3. Must have a passion to learn and to improve yourself.
4. Never give up!Excellent podcasts for listening on your commute to and from work, about everything trading.@chatwithtradershttps://t.co/MSLfhIw7fB— Alvin Lee 🚀🚀🚀 (@onemanatatime) June 8, 2017
I hope this post has given you the essential knowledge to find your way around in this cryptocurrency trading jungle, and has provided you with some practical insight into starting your own trading journey, and how to go about approaching trading and analyzing markets. Will go in depth into technical analysis in one of my next posts, but for now, let me just leave you with this...
The name of the game is survival -- STAY ALIVE!
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