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    Archive for: November 2006

    13
    Nov
    2006

    Self Honesty

    Filed under: Trading Psychology

    My stubborness and refusal to be honest and admit to a trading loss when it was small . cost me some big and expensive lessons. Perhaps I am not alone. If you are reading this and feel you were like me before , own up and share your thoughts !

    stock marketAs human we always tend not to admit to our own mistakes immediately. This is defensive behaviour by nature. As trader , this self deception is also self destruction to our own profession. The simple fact of the matter is that cutting losses and letting profits run is a fundamental truth about the stock markets. This seems to be an unwritten rule. However , how many of us are really cutting losses when we realise we were wrong ? There is always excuses and special case or exception we think we can give as a reason to hang on to a losing trade. Admitting we are wrong or admiting to a failure is hard to swallow. We must end this self deception and …




    13
    Nov
    2006

    Enemies

    Filed under: Nice Quotes

    ” The chief enemies of the trader are always born from within ” … Jesse Livermore
    stock tradingMy comments : Jesse was perfectly right. As a beginner trader wanting to learn as much as possible from professionals or trading gurus , I personally signed up for couple of trading seminars. Seminars are not only costly , many came with promises of high chances of success that never materialised. Most of these gurus are traders themselves and making a living out of trading. They taught the seminar students what they did in their actual real life trading. Unless they preach what they are not doing themselves , what happened then to the trading performances of most students ? Percentage of success stories in every seminar is surprisingly low !

    Conclusion I draw is that given even the best trading strategies in the world , it takes the other part of ourselves or ” self ” to implement the strategies. The equation is not complete because there are many variables in the ” self ” . ( …




    13
    Nov
    2006

    Looking ahead

    Filed under: Nice Quotes

    ” A trader gets to play the game as the professional billard player does - that is , he looks far ahead instead of considering the particular shot before him. It gets to be an instinct to play for position. ” … Jesse Livermore
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    online tradingMy comments : I love playing pool and would agree that positioning the next ball is as important , if not more important , as getting the immediate ball into the pocket. In trading , this same strategy applies. Sometimes short term gain could be very tempting and it lures us into making a silly trade decision , for example getting into a trade too early ; trading is all about timing and strategies … HenryTeo




    12
    Nov
    2006

    Create and Abide your own trading rules

    Filed under: Trading Rules

    online tradingAbiding to general public rules needs discipline and social responsibility as an individual. As a citizen we have the duty to follow rules created by the authority. Many countries impose fines or other form of punishment if anyone breaks any of the rules. ( provided if you are caught … ) Naturally , the feeling of getting away from breaking a rule might be a good feeling of some form , but in trading this is not going to work. I obviously have broken many trading rules during my course of trading. Though at times I managed to get away free for some of the mistakes made , some other mistakes are really costly. From there on I am self motivated to abide by all my trading rules. In trading there is no room for mistakes , especially silly ones. Some written rules might appear simple and silly that makes one think that it is not necessary to be written down , but I learnt that these are some of the most …




    12
    Nov
    2006

    Trading in the Zone

    Filed under: Trading Psychology

    When I first attended a trading seminar during the beginner stage I got to know a trader and we became friend. We met up once in a while to discuss trading. Over time the frequency of meetings and phone calls lessened and we lost touch after that. I received a call from him about two years later and he asked if I was keen to have some trading books and told me that he had given up trading and wanted to disposed all the trading materials and books. When I met him up to collect the books he told me that trading is just not for him.

    Among those big pile of books that Tony gave me , “Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas” is one of my favourites. It is a book about trading psychology. I read through it once and every now and then I still use it as a reference. I believe many traders have also read this book before.

    online tradingWhen I first picked up this book , I flipped …




    12
    Nov
    2006

    China’s forex reserves surged to US $ 1 trillion !

    Filed under: China

    China ’s foreign currency reserves surged to US $ 1 trillion , the most ever held by a single country. It is growing at US $ 30m an hour. Wow ! am I reading this news correctly or the media printed this figure by mistake ? My eyesight is still alright hopefully. Yes , it is US $ 30 millions per hour … can you imagine that ?

    The growth has been driven by a record trade surplus that critics in the United States blame on an artificially undervalued yuan. The government’s policy of not allowing the yuan to strengthen to reflect demand for the currency keeps the nation’s export prices low , further fuelling the trade surplus. Holding a large foreign currency reserve is of strategic importance for China to cope with international challenges. China maintains the forex reserve mainly for the purpose of guarding against international financial risks , ensuring the balance of international payments and safeguard security of the national economy.

    Some consider that a fast rise could also over-stimulate the economy. Will this trade surplus and excessive reserves …




    12
    Nov
    2006

    The Art of War on Investing

    Filed under: The Art of War

    Came across this book ( Sun Tzu on Investing , Author - Curtis J. Montgomery ) when I was browsing some trading books in a local bookshop. The book title caught my attention as I like reading similar books and topics about “The Art of War” . Most of these books were wriiten in Chinese , tough nowadays there are many translated copies. The author’s name ( Westerner ) gave me second thoughts. And I was thinking very hard how could Sun Tze’s strategies for War in ancient time be applied to Trading and Investment … and written by a Westerner ?

    I stood there browsing and reading few chapters. Eventually I bought the book , main reason is that certain explanation inside this book really described and matched my bad trading behaviour and psychology that I needed to correct. Second reason is that there are many wise words or nice quotes in this book that I could use to improve my trading psychology. I found that topics about trading psychology is hard to read and remember in text form …




    12
    Nov
    2006

    Financial Markets

    Filed under: Broad Market / News

    Financial markets have been around ever since mankind settled down to growing crops and trading them with others. Financial markets takes many different forms and operate in diverse ways. Estimating the overall size of the financial market is difficult. How huge is it really ? I do not know.

    What I understand is that it now deals in trillions of dollars and as a result even slight movements in them could have a significant effect on global economies , as well as individual businesses around the world. Hence being able to comprehend how the financial markets work has become increasingly vital to those in business and those who are involved in those markets as traders or investors. Even tough I only trade specific market I still need to have a view of the broad market. As a beginner trader I took many trade decisions which went opposite direction against the broad market. I paid to learn those lessons.

    I use information and knowledge of financial markets in a variety of ways. If I have spare cash ( which never happen so far …




    11
    Nov
    2006

    China Growth

    Filed under: China

    There are lots of business opportunities and trading potential in China , the awakened giant. Hence I specially created a separate folder ” China ” in this blog. I hope to see the same convenience , capability and flexibility to trade China market online in the near future. Maybe , maybe not in my generation … anyway there are already great range of products and many trading vehicles or varieties to trade in the US Market.

    China growth

    China’s growth and transformation into a dynamic economy and its integration into globalistion have been the most dramatic economic developments of recent years. We witness a great deal of recent debate about China’s exchange rate regime. China maintains a de facto fixed exchange rate regime , with the yuan linked to the US dollar within a tight trading band. Is the yuan undervalued ? This is an ongoing debate and discussion.

    I travelled to ShengZhen China couple of times for business trip recently. My feeling and observation tells me that it is a booooom town. China is progressing …




    10
    Nov
    2006

    My first exposure to Forex

    Filed under: Forex

    currencyI did not realise that the forex market is so huge until I started to take interest in learning forex trading. Every day more than $1.5 trillion in currency trades are executed. That really dwarfs the combined daily volume of all the major exchanges in the world. This makes foreign currency exchange ( forex ) the top investment opportunity in the world. Advancement in internet technology , more relaxed regulations and globalisation have made currency trading accessible to every investors. And you know what … ? I need as little as US $500 to start trading forex , compared to the minimum sum of at least US$2000 for other types of trading like stocks , options and commodities futures and so on. But that does not mean good news , as the US $500 could be gone sooner too. It is not about the minimum starting capital in any kind of trading. Needless to say , this minimum sum attraction really sucked in a lot of beginners’ money. …




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