After a series of trades (more than 30 trades), if you� are having winning rate greater that 80%,� maybe it is time to look into your exit/profit taking strategy.
coffee thought
Coffee Thoughts 02 November 2012
Capital preservation is important. Risk management is important. But the trader’s job is to risk and make money, not sitting in the office to preserve capital.
When it is time to trade, just trade. Capital is a tool for you to use to make more money, not for you to preserve.
If you want to win, you’ve got to know the rules; and also, you can’t win if you are not at the table.
Just trade.
Coffee Thoughts 31 Oct 2012
Looking out the window, you see it is raining. Put your hand out of the window, you know it is raining. And yet, you still feel the need to view the website or call Bureau of Meteorology to confirm if it is really raining. Some traders trade in this way. Is the the word “confirmation” really confirming something or it is just showing the lack of confidence of your own strategy, or even your own opinion?
Barista technique and Trading
A busy Monday, at the non-trading side, a tired Tuesday, and not so impressive Wednesday this sum up half of my week. I am not writing this post to tell you how were my days going, I don’t see a point of doing so. I have passed that stage.
Anyway, here is my infamous coffee thought of the day.
I start my day with a cup of coffee, every day. A cup of freshly ground, and brew Espresso or Long Black is essential. I am not a coffee expert, but I am a coffee lover. I have my grinder and Espresso machine at home. Here is a snippet from Home barista
Barista technique breaks down into three-time scales and skill levels:
The first is the minute or so spent grinding and making the shot. The key here is acquiring the skills to make shots consistently. One should be able to turn out four or five in a row with virtually the same timing, volume, color, crema, and taste. This skill is a physical thing, that is, it’s a matter of training and practice rather than learning.
The second is the time spent carefully tasting espresso or series of espressos, identifying the flavor balance and defects, and making adjustments to one’s pull or machines to correct them. The “dialing-in” process for a new blend usually requires a series of shots to get a satisfactory result and can proceed over several days to fine-tune it. To do this well, one needs to have experience in tasting and analyzing good espresso. One also needs to know how changes in extraction variables and machine settings affect the espresso’s taste.
The third is acquiring experience and informed preferences with a wide range of coffees, blends, espresso equipment, and alternative techniques. If you or someone you’re serving wants an espresso with a specific palette of flavors; you will know how to provide it. Home roasting and blending help in this. So does visit good cafes and roasteries, and talking with the knowledgeable people there.
I see a lot of similarities to trading. What do you think? Start making coffee…
Coffee thought of the day….Patience is part of trading?
I was in a trading chat room. Most of the participants were waiting for trading call from a signal provider. While I don’t trade on these calls, it is really interesting to see how new or struggling traders or so-called busy trader-wanna-be waiting for calls desperately. Well, it is absolutely OK with subscribing to trading signal service . I am not arguing that.
Here is a short conversation I have found it to be interesting.
[ABC] Any one has any idea about trade alert today?
[123] apparently not
[DEF] no one????
[456] are you asking us to speculate on what will happen?
[ABC] guess we’ll just need to think for ourselves…
[Master] Patience its part of trading
Ah…”Patience is part of trading! “..Well said. But, to disappoint you, waiting for trading calls is not trading… face the fact, you are not trading if you are still spending your time waiting for the signal service provider to feed you with something…uhmm..something..
I am out for my morning coffee now…
Coffee thought – Trading the chart?
Just some thoughts when I am having my morning coffee in the rainy Melbourne.
Trading the Chart?
How should a trader use a price chart? This is just another question without an answer. Some traders claim themselves as “chart trader”. Yeah, give him a chart, he can trade his ass up.
Thinking in this way. We trade our view or opinion about the market. Trading, particularly, currency trading in my case, we are speculating. Yup, it is all about speculation. It is speculation, because you, in fact, nobody, know for sure which way the market is moving. Regardless of the time frame, you are trading off, you are trading your own opinion.
So, I know I am speculating. I know the price won’t necessarily reverse when RSI is over 70/30 or the MACD is crossing over some magic lines. Then what?
Forming your opinion. Explaining to yourself why do you think Dollar sucked, and you should short it.
I am talking about your own opinion, not the one from the talking heads on CNBC/Bloomberg or DailyFX.
Face it, there is really no expert in the trading industry. There are just a bunch of people who know more jargon, reading more news, and writing more craps than you do. Disagree with me? That’s your problem.
Now use the price chart as a roadmap.
So, you have formed your opinion. Cool. But do you know where you are? You gotta know your current location before start driving to your next destination. Here is where the fancy technical analysis comes in. Start confusing yourself with the trendlines, CCI indicators, pivot points, or some chicken indicators.
That’s part of the process. And nothing is wrong with that. As long as you are convinced, and you know where you currently are, and where you are heading, they are all good.
Stop or being stopped at some points is just part of the game. We evaluate , and decide the next move. Well, at least, that’s how I trade.
Crap, I think I talked too much today. Enjoy your weekend.
