Author: James
Larry Connors is a well-known trader and author. He has written several booked on quantitative trading and short-term trading, including Buy the Fear, Sell the Greed and Street Smarts – High Probability Short Term Trading Strategies (co-written with Linda Raschke). After Graduating from Syracuse University in 1981, Larry Connors started work at Merrill Lynch. He founded M. Gordon Publishing Group in 1995 and established TradingMarkets.com in 1998. As a trader, he uses a combination of fundamental and technical analysis, including moving averages and momentum indicators. In his books, he emphasises the importance of risk management and money management for successful…
I have to admit, I am somewhat of a minimalist trader. After one too many angst-ridden dissections after a period of poor trading performance, I deleted all my indicators in a fit of fury and they never returned. My charts are now free of all superfluous information and I trade on price action alone. But this post is not a celebration of naked (no indicator) trading, although I could rave all day about the clarity this simplified approach has given me. I’m not saying you need to delete all your indicators as I have done. There are as many styles…
In trading, the decision to use a stop loss or not is a very personal one. Some traders use one on every trade, while others believe strongly in not using one. What do you need to consider when deciding whether or not to use a stop loss? Do you plan to sit with the trade? Are you the sort of trader who sits with a trade for its whole life? i.e. Do you watch price continuously? If so, you might be happy to have a mental stop and cut the trade if price moves through a certain point, or if…
How we spend the first hour of our mornings sets us up for the day and can make a big difference to how we approach our trading and ultimately our P/L. Why is our morning routine so important to our trading success? We all want to be calm, alert traders, confident in our abilities (and confident in our trading method, but that’s for another post) and clear on what we are going to do when the markets present us with an opportunity. Our morning routine either supports us in that goal or undermines our wish for calm clarity. Even…
As traders, this is the question we all ask ourselves. Even if we have been trading our plan profitably for some time, our equity curve will at some point start flat-lining or going south, and we question whether we should stick to our plan or not. We might start second-guessing ourselves, lose a little confidence, and ask ourselves: Is my trading plan any good or do I need to change what I’m doing? Let’s assume that the plan has good logic, sound risk management, and has been sufficiently back-tested and/or forward-tested to have given you confidence when you started trading…
It’s not all about placing trades. In fact, the mechanics of when to enter and exit the markets is only a tiny piece of the trading jigsaw. Here are 7 things you can work at outside of trading to improve your trading results: #1: Choose a decent broker Do you find yourself blaming your broker for your poor results? It’s really not worth going down that rabbit hole, it’ll never lead to profitability, only bitterness and despair. Just choose a decent, reputable and regulated broker and get on with trading your plan. #2: Keep it simple The more complicated your…
Don’t wait until you are making a lot of money trading before you start living your dream life. Putting your life on hold until you make it as a trader is a trap you really want to avoid. Why, as a trader, you shouldn’t put your life on hold. Here are 3 reasons: 1. Putting your life on hold means you have invested your future happiness in your trading ability. So, every loss, every draw down, every bad decision, will hurt a lot more, because it will feel like you are not going to get to that place of future…
Boomerang was written by Michael Lewis, an American author and financial journalist. The original full title of the book was Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World, and it was written in 2011. What is Boomerang about? Boomerang is a non-fiction book which examines the effects of the global financial crisis of 2008 on several countries, including Iceland, Greece, and Ireland. Michael Lewis travelled to these countries and interviewed bankers, politicians, and other key players to get a clear insight into the causes and longer-term repercussions of the crisis. The book argues that the crisis was caused by a combination…
Flash Boys was written by Michael Lewis, an American author and financial journalist. The original full title of the book was Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, and it was written in 2014. What is Flash Boys about? Flash Boys is a non-fiction book by Michael Lewis, published in 2014. The book investigates the phenomenon of high frequency trading (HFT) in the US financial markets, and explores the various impacts HFT has on the integrity of these markets. The book follows several individuals, including former Royal Bank of Canada trader, Brad Katsuyama. The book argues that HFT allows traders…
Michael Lewis is an American author and financial journalist, famous for books such as Moneyball and The Big Short. Who is he and what books has he written about trading? What is Michael Lewis’ background? Born in New Orleans on 15 October 1960, Michael Lewis went to Princeton University to study art history, and later gained a Master’s at the London School of Economics (LSE). From there he moved to the investment bank Salomon Brothers, where is worked as a bond salesman. It is here that he gained first-hand knowledge of the financial industry, the subject of some of his…