Thursday, May 6, 2010

10 important trading rules

I think it is better to go back to basic of futures market before u enter in to this game, and that is follow the rules. As I try to search on goggle, I found someone writing 10 golden rules in trading futures. So thanks to Fred Tam for sharing out this and I will go through 1 by 1 and is it I breaking some rules.

RULE 1 : USE MONEY THAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE

I using the savings that I saved up all the years I working, so I thk the money I investing in futures was afford to lose, so I’m fulfilling 1st rules.

RULE 2 : DON’T OVERTRADE

“Inexperienced traders can easily become overconfident after a number of winning trades. This can lead to overtrading – which is dangerous. One can be right 7 times out of 10 but the three times that you are wrong can wipe you out if you had overgeared yourself because of overconfidence. Success comes from prudence in money management. Never overtrade.” So far I didn’t really go on too much overtrade yet. But sometimes I did try to trade more though my capital not much allow. It just simply based on my feeling that tell me that is a trend, then I go for it. Never overtrade….I will remember it that my intention of overtrade are always come from winning streak that I having.

RULE 3 : CUT YOUR LOSSES SHORT, LET YOUR PROFITS RUN

I did let my profits run, but I really don’t know to cut my losses short. So I was encountered the severe losses of 17 points for 1 signal due to slippage. The reason I don’t want to cut my losses short is because I afraid might lose the trend once I cut my losses. Maybe there is some secret behind how to cut losses short, I think is time for me to work on it.

RULE 4 : IF YOU GET INTO A LOSING STREAK, TAKE A BREATHER

“When things don’t work out right, when your best forecasts fail you – get away from the market and take a trading break. A period away from the market can be refreshing and will recharge you.” I like this 1!!! I think I disobey this rule the most. I was always thinking if there is losing streak if I following a signal, the possibility of next signal was a trend is become higher and this induced me keep non-stop trading even get into a losing streak. I admit I was too stubborn in riding a trend until forget stay out during a losing streak till my system work again. I will remember this rule for sure……

RULE 5 : BUILD A PYRAMID WHEN ADDING TO A PROFITABLE TRADE

I know how to work on this 1, but maybe my capital too small and I don’t have chances to practice it. But I will always bear in mind that it only can practice in a market that potential to have bigger trend or else it will very difficult in adding more and more position.

RULE 6 : NEVER ADD TO A LOSING POSITION

“Adding to a losing position by averaging is very dangerous. Remember you are investing with "margin" and did not pick up scrips. The contract is not yours; you merely paid a percentage of the total value. Averaging a losing position is equivalent to not admitting your mistakes, that you were wrong in the first place. Successful traders cut their losses short.”This 1 I also never try to practice it for even once. Cause I know that once u really get used to it, u will always try to average down whenever u losing in a trade. Once u get used to this bad habit, it definitely will ruin all your capital in 1 day later.

RULE 7 : DON’T RISK YOUR ENTIRE CAPITAL ON ONE TRADE

“Divide your trading capital into 10 equal parts and never lose more than 10 percent on one trade. If you lost the first trade, you still have nine more opportunities to be right. Putting all your capital on one trade is suicidal.” I was using 5k trading 1 lot all the way, so I allocate 2.5k buffer for each lot that I allow to lose. Imagine if each false signal cost me 500, so I can afford 5 times of false signal in a roll only. As a result, I did overtrade for this round. In this case, I expose my capital to too much of risk already because I want to trade more to grow my capital faster, so drive me become overtrade.

RULE 8 : NEVER MEET MARGIN CALLS

Definitely never! Cause I don’t want to trade till so stress until can’t sleep well. Margin calls are made because people do not want to admit being wrong and take a loss; they hope the market will eventually go in their direction. To avoid this mistake, I will never meet margin calls.

RULE 9 : REMOVE PROFITS FROM YOUR ACCOUNT

“Probably no more than 1% of traders have a rule to take profits out of their trading account. The few wise investors I know have bought a house, a car or simply put part of their winnings into a fixed deposit account, otherwise the chances are high that they may lose them all back.” Honestly I had never think of this issue, cause I always want my capital keep growing and I had ignore this rules. Perhaps I’m too greedy…It is time to add something that is important to me already.

RULE 10 : HAVE A GAME PLAN

“Lack of a game plan does not know what to do when you are wrong – and not knowing what to do even when you are right.”

Here are a few guidelines:

1. Know when and at what price you are going to enter the market.
2. Know how much money you are going to risk on each and every trade.
3. Know when and at what price you are going to get out when you are wrong.
4. Know when and at what price you are going to take your profits if you are right.
5. Know how much money you are going to make if you are right.
6. Have a safety stop in case the market does the unexpected.
7. Have an approximate idea of when the market should meet your objectives or when it should begin to make a move; and if it has not done so, get out.

Honestly I don’t have any game plan before I going into any trade. I don’t know how much profit I going to make and I don’t even know where is my cut loss point. I just follow the exactly what the system tell me, and I believe that it should leads me to where I want to go. I going into a trade without any game plan, and basically I understand why I hitting badly this time already.

From the 10 rules above, for those I breaking the rules I marked as red color whereas for those I obey I marked as green color. Surprisingly I get 4 green out from 10 rules. This indicates what? I still far away to be a successful trader. In order to achieve my dream, I think I have to become a investors that always obey the rules of trading. This 10 golden rules, I will keep it in my mind and whenever I start doing not smooth again, I will refer back this 10 rules and try to find out is it I trying to break the rules of trading again. Actually I like to learn from mistake, because mistakes will cause the pain in u. And then from the pain, it motivate u for finding ways to prevent it happen again cause no one like to feel the same pain. U can fall down, but don’t ever fall down from a same place over and over again. Remember the pain, learn from mistakes, by doing so, u only can keep improve yourself. I love trading and I try to not give up easily, cause I really want to enjoy the fruits of success in trading.

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