Trading Wisdom Lessons
Why do you trade stocks?
When I first got into trading, it was all about making lots of money, with the intent of quitting my job and earning a living from markets. This was pretty naive, since I was under-capitalized, had no trading experience, and zero edge or strategy to speak of. I jumped into the fire and learned how…
Swing Trading for 20 Percent Returns is a Waste of Time
Recently I received a comment on our popular How to Get Started Swing Trading Stocks video that hit on a lot of important topics other traders could benefit from reading. The comment read “[swing trading for] 20% is [a] waist [sic] of time. Many stocks give you 100% or more a year passive income. Swing…
Lessons Learned Trading a Bear Market Part I: Coronavirus 2020
This is part one of a multi-part series documenting some of the events that have unfolded during the 2020 coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the lessons and takeaways I’ve learned trading along the way. We start off with a little context of how we got to this point so that this article might prove useful years…
How to Maximize Your Screen Time Adjusted Returns
Chances are you’ve heard of the concept of risk-adjusted returns. If you haven’t, it basically means that a strategy’s returns should be measured relative to the risk taken to achieve them. There’s a handful of ways to grade the efficiency of trading systems in this category such as Sharpe, Sortino, MAR, Ulcer index, and the…
Chart Pattern Trading Advice from a 20+ Year Professional
Chart pattern trading falls under the category of technical analysis and represents one of the most popular approaches to making buy and sell decisions using charts. We as humans love forming patterns in all areas of our lives and analyzing price charts is no different. I don’t personally consider myself a chart pattern trader, but…
Commissions and Taxes Are Destroying Your Trading Profits
Eighteen thousand three hundred and sixty-four dollars. That was the total cost of commissions I paid to Scottrade when I just started trading. My trading account was around twenty-five thousand.
Do You Have What it Takes to be a Trader?
Do you have what it takes to be a trader? Better yet, are you sure you want to be a trader? Actively trading public markets, and consistently profiting, is extremely difficult. The stock market is dominated by sophisticated players, with access to information, computational power, and speed far greater than any of us small retail…
Trading Mistakes and Bad Habits to Avoid
I was recently asked about some of the trading mistakes new traders run into when getting started trading. It was easy to come up with a lengthy list, mainly because I’ve personally made all of these mistakes myself, and in most cases, more than once. I thought it would be fun to put together a…
How to Emerge From a Trading Drawdown
Trading can really suck sometimes. Especially during those times where everything you touch turns out to be wrong. Those dark periods are part of the business, and unfortunately, it’s just a matter of time before you find yourself in the next trading drawdown. Recently, I found myself in a very challenging environment. Choppy price action and quick shakeouts…