Move the Markets

This page is in transition from a collection of blog posts to a collection of articles and technical notes. They are usually derived from ideas first presented in “raw” form in the blog. In general, though, the articles that make it to this page are what I consider “cooked” info, and are intended to represent my full stance on their topic.

Here are the links to blog posts that I’m slowly replacing…

Evolution of a Trader

The Kickoff Article, in which I describe what I view as the three stages of evolution for a trader.
A SIRIously Flawed Plan. Here, I describe the first trading scheme I came up with on my own, and how much was wrong with it.
How to Recover from a Loss. Describes bad ideas I’ve had in the past in the name of recovering from a loss, and my subsequent revelation about what “recovery” really is.
Staying Calm. Describes several of my failed attempts to counteract my in-trade stress, and my eventual victory at attacking the root-causes of the problem head-on.
The Misconceptions Series is kind of an inverted take on the Evolution Series, in that I don’t have personal stories about these topics. But, I see examples of these misconceptions everywhere, and would like to help others see them for what they are:
- Magic Moving Averages, about how people assume a MA will be “support” with no evidence backing them up.
- I Can Ride Big Market Moves, about how people think they haven’t already missed a big move in the markets once they can clearly see it.
- I Can Quickly Tell What Works, about how people jump to conclusions about what is “working” or not.
- Quickies, where I list a few common misconceptions that don’t deserve a full article of their own.
- Bullish Block Trades, where I point out that conventional wisdom about block trades propping up a stock is actually nonsense in the intraday time frame.

A Day in the Life

A Trader’s Life For Me!, where I discuss the things I like and don’t like about trading for a living.
My Daily Trading Preparations, a video about what I used to do every day to get ready to trade stocks.
Anatomy of a Stock Trade: Trading a Stock from Start to Finish, which covers all the stages of activity that go into a single stock trade, regardless of trading system or style. Many beginning traders do not have the complete picture; this should help them.
A video of my trading setup, which was the first video I did for the site, so the production values are off. But, it tells you the trading environment I have around me during the day.
How I Stalk a Breakout, which tries to show how I set up my screen, etc. Not the best video I’ve ever done… but at least gives you an idea of how it works.
Can You Make It As a Trader?, where I explain that, in reality, you already knew before you asked.
Trade Your Way to Happiness, on how trading can be seen as practice for dealing with your overall life.
Phileo’s Hard Look at Trading For a Living, Part I, and Part II.
Types of Trades I Take, which describes the setups I’ve defined for myself. I track performance on each separately.
Richard Todd: StockTickr Intervew, which covers a lot of how I got into trading, etc.

On Indicators

My Indicator Lesson School Seminars with EOTPro. Hear me and other experienced traders talk about our indicators and our methodologies.
Better Know An Indicator, Kickoff Article, in which I describe my aims for a series of posts detailing indicators.
Better Know the TICK, described as Everything you ever wanted to know about the TICK, and more!
Distribution of Random Market TICK’s, elaborating on why it does no good to pay attention to small TICK values.
One Way to Use the TRIN, an example of the predictive power of a big TRIN move.
Better Know Stochastics, which you’ll see is not exactly my favorite indicator!
Back to Basics… let’s just talk about price and volume for a minute, and how the different kinds of charts available to you can highlight what you want to see.
How to Put the Detail Back into your Slow Charts. This is kind of a side article in the series, as it isn’t about any one indicator. It’s a discussion about ways you can tailor your screens to better isolate what you are looking for. You can miss a lot of trading opportunities watching 30 minute charts!
MA and EMA Crossover Prediction, where I describe one method to predict when a crossover may be imminent.
Quotetracker Paintbars Tutorial, all you need to know to get started with this powerful Quotetracker feature.
Box Play PDF… everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the box play.
StreetSmack’s Extended Move Fade PDF that Prospectus wrote covering wallstreak user StreetSmack’s trading style.
My Volume Bar Settings, which goes over how I pick an appropriate setting for my volume bars.
Noisy Price Action, a video describing what I mean by “noise”.
Triangle Player, on triangle chart patterns.

Trading Performance

The Keys to Success Series:
- Trade Naturally, 3 related principles about finding your place in the trading ecosystem
- Keep Swinging!, which talks about why you shouldn’t stop trading just because of some losses.
Trade in Harmony With Your Personality. This article describes why my workflow fits my personality, and gives some ideas about how you can determine how well your methodology fits you.
How to Tell if a Stock Trade is Good, in which I describe why the only way to judge a single trade is in relation to your plan.
How to Tell if You are a Good Trader, in which I describe a constructive way to view your own performance.
How to Be Consistently Profitable in the Markets, in which I describe how it’s the profit factor, and not the expectancy, of your system that gauges your consistent profitablility.

On Risk and Expectancy

We are All At Risk!. I explain the assumptions built into the expectancy idea which are out of sync with reality. Expectancy is a good tool, but you need to understand its limitations.
Diversification Works?. Does diversification reduce risk for a day trader? This article points out reasons it may not.
Expectancy and the Lottery. Here, I point out that even lottery tickets often have a positive expectancy. There are considerations beyond pure expectancy when judging a trading system.
Relative Danger of Trading Account Sizes. This article describes how losses affect trading accounts of various sizes, and how you can adjust the risk profile of one account to match a different sized account.
What Risk:Reward is Right for You?. This article derives the rule of thumb 1:3 Risk:Reward ratio that’s often bandied about as advice, and shows how you can determine what risk:reward is tailored for your trading style.
Reduce and Remove, where Zoomie describes how trades must be proven right to stay in play.

TRIZ and Trading

The Kickoff Article, which describes what TRIZ is, and how it could improve any aspect of your trading.
Principles 1 – 5, where the first five TRIZ Principles are outlined.
Principles 6 – 10, the second set.
Principles 11 – 15, the third set.

Misc

You Actually Do Move the Markets, where I describe ways that your trades actually can change the course of a stock’s price movement.
Crazy New Business Model, which says “come on, you know when you shouldn’t be trading… so why do you trade anyway?”
Paper Trading is for Experts, where I describe ways and times that I use demo/paper trading, and why beginners should probably stay away from paper trading, initially.
My StockInfo Wordpress Plugin post, where I describe where you can get it, and how it works.
MtM’s pictorial history, showing screenshots of every site design I’ve used.

Articles