Archives: 2008 December

A stock market trading plan will not guarantee your success in the markets, but a good plan will enable you to work methodically toward your stock market trading goals while reviewing on a regular basis what is working and what is not. It will act as a roadmap for your trading journey. It will enable you to respond positively and constructively no matter what happens with your individual trades. And, most importantly, it will help you control the only thing a trader can control: his or her own actions.

Finally, stock market trading is a business. It can be a fascinating and sometimes thrilling business, but in the end it is a business. A trading plan helps you treat it as a business.

Successful stock market trading begins with a winning trading plan. It’s as simple as that. If you develop a well-conceived trading plan to guide your actions in the stock market you will already have the advantage over most of your market competition. Put simply, it gives you the edge you need to win over the long haul when trading the stock market or forex market.

Finally, stock market trading is a business. It can be a fascinating and sometimes thrilling business, but in the end it is a business. A trading plan helps you treat it as a business.

Here are some important elements of a trading plan.

1. Why am I trading? What are my goals?

There are literally hundreds of candlestick patterns that traders use to increase their trading performance. Best used with other technical analysis tools, here are the top 10 patterns that provide the most consistent results.

* Dark Cloud Cover: This is a two-day formation which arises when the candlestick formed on the first day has a long white body followed by an opposite colored candlestick, which opened at a new high only to close below is the midpoint of the previous day’s trading. This pattern is considered a bearish reversal signal.

* Doji: You will find doji’s where the open close, high and low are in close proximity. The candlestick ends up looking like a small cross. It means that the buyers and sellers are indecisive and can indicate potentially that a reversal is about to take place.

* The engulfing candlestick pattern: This formation consists of just two candlesticks. The first of the two will open and close within the real body of the second candlestick, and as such the second one will have an open and close outside the first candlesticks real body. This can be a bearish or bullish engulfing pattern depending upon the full or empty bodied candlesticks in the pattern.

* Evening star pattern: The evening star is a 3 bar candlestick pattern. Initially the first candlestick is long and bullish resuming the bull trend. Second is a small candlestick that gaps up and fails after that to make much headway. The next day or session is a gap down and a bearish candlestick who’s close reaches well into that of the first candlestick in the pattern.

A well fact amongst the trading community is that 90 percent of investors lose money in futures and Forex tradin! This leaves 10%, which is then broken down to 4-6 percent break even and only 4-6 percent make money.

What Group Are YOU in?

Given the high numbers of clients that are unsuccessful, it is all the more important for investors to approach futures and forex trading in the right manner. So we have put together some rules that hopefully help you become a more successful trader.

Secret 1: Trade with Money you can afford to Lose

Now that you have decided to get involved in trading, sit down and asses how much money am I going to trade, investor, speculate on the market with. I understand that this is trading and therefore there is the chance that I can lose my money.

Secret 2: It’s Not how many trades: Do not OVERTRADE

So many new traders come to the market thinking, I am going to pick 8 winners out of 10 and make all of this money. Well it is possible to pick more winners but still lose on the market. Why because of risk and money management, so always put in equal amounts per trade. Eg: if you have $20,000 to trade, break it up into $2,000 trades, this will help with you staying in much longer and increasing your success to become a successful or a full time trader.