Crash Month is Near: Late September and early October have hietorically had large market crashes. Remember 1987. I am trading short most of this month to guard against large quick drops.

Earnings Season Trading

How to trade Options and Futures During Earnings Season

Earnings season is up on us again at the end of the quarter.  First of all you will need to know what, when and how much the expected stock of your dreams is expected to move.  You find this quite handily by going to Yahoo finance to find the date earning come out for your stock.  You can highlight the stock to send you alerts if you like.

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What Is Your Trading Personality?

It’s important to adopt a trading strategy that fits your personality. But first you need to define yourself as a futures trader. There are three basic trading personalities: the dominant trader, the detached trader and the dependent trader.

The Dominant Trader: My way or the highway. The dominant trader thirsts to be in control. Intensely competitive, the dominant trader must win at all costs. He approaches everything in life as a contest to be won. Like a hunter, he is constantly scanning the market looking for weaknesses to exploit. Because he will do anything to win, the dominant trader assumes this trait in his competitors, causing him to be untrusting. He views emotions with disdain as weaknesses. Anything that cannot be controlled must be ignored. The effort makes him even tougher and less flexible. Unfortunately by ignoring his emotions, the dominant trader loses the ability to control their effects, which can affect his trading. Dominant traders feel they are above the rules. They do not take orders or accept advice and may break the rules to have their way. Dominant traders are interested only in their own pontifications. They talk fast and loud and interrupt often. Their speech is punctuated with sharp, jabbing gestures. The goal of the dominant trader is to control every aspect of his world. Unfortunately, the market cannot be controlled so the dominant trader is perpetually frustrated. [Read more…]

Patience and Discipline

I have encouraged all of my trading students to spend at least as much money on personal development and mental management as they do on software and trading systems.  I do really believe that trading is 90% mental, 80% money management and 10% signals.

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