THIS IS A WEBSITE CREATED FOR, AND DEDICATED TO, DEVELOPING TRADERS


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U.S. equities continue to slide lower on Thursday, but up slightly overnight.
FACEBOOK DEBUT TODAY (are u in?)

Fed Minutes summary from Tuesday can be viewed through link.

May has not been good to equities so far. Almost 1000 points down on the Dow in the first 17 days. I doubt we will see a tumult, but continued weakness is likely. Oil has followed suit. Very Dramatic weakness in the first two weeks of May with oil dropping from 106.5 to 92.5. $14 is a huge drop in such a short time. I look for some recovery here when things settle down.

Bonds are showing incredible strength. Those of you who have read here for a while will remember my links to Richard Koo, the Nomura economist and his comments on balance sheet recesion. If you have not read his work, look it up and start here. The U. S. is making headway in the move to more economic growth, but the World is in shambles. Europe will faces the issue of disagreement among major players with no unified government to deal with the problem. This will affect global growth. Mr. Koo makes the point that Japan has been through a similar situation and 20 years later......is still there. Bonds are pricing in that possibility, and are higher still on the lack of safety in equities.




  • To Explicitly state how difficult learning to trade can be
  • To Describe common pitfalls for the developing trader
  • To recount mistakes that I have made, in the hopes that others may avoid them
  • To direct novice traders towards the optimum resources for learning to trade
  • To document my thoughts on current market conditions, ONLY for documentation purposes, so that I might learn from this. I will also post real time trades and review trades with explanations, again to help both myself and others learn.

    • Learning to trade can be exceedingly difficult. This is not only because the process of understanding trading is so difficult, but also and most importantly because it is so difficult to know where to turn to get a proper trading education.

    My goal is help those trying to learn, by explaining what it has been like for me.
    I can recount my mistakes, explain my misunderstandings, describe the books, tutors, and platforms that have made my trading easier---and also explain others that have not been so helpful. Those unprepared for what is ahead can end up ruining their financial, and personal lives. If you are new to trading please listen to these comments.

    The road to trading success is hard, ....much more difficult than most else of what you will attempt to learn in life. To be successful requires enormous dedication, discipline, self evaluation and most importantly time......a LOT of time.

    If you are willing to dedicate everything you have towards learning to trade, willing to spend countless hours in front of computer monitors, willing to approach trading as a business which requires intense accountability, and especially willing to do whatever it takes to harness your emotions and limit your investments (despite the fact that you think you know what the market will do next), then you may be one of the successful ones. If you instead think that because you have been so successful in other ventures you can learn to trade with little or no effort and you are anxious to put your money on the line.............then don't waste your time. Instead, take the money that you were going to put in a trading account and give it to a charity. Then at least at some point you can feel good about that. If you don't believe in charity, then flush it down the toilet. That will only hurt once, and it will be quick.

    Read the sections on this site. Listen to someone who has been where you are. Trading successfully takes enormous time, effort, and most of all self discipline, but you can do it.

    What is the World Economic Outlook?

    Bloomberg notes Asian stocks at 3 month lows. Where to from here?

    See my comments on using Bar Close Trading in the oil trades today recently.

    We know about "Too Big too Fail" with brokerage firms, What happens if the clearinghouses consolidate? The Economist addresses this clear and present danger in the current issue.

    New section on learning to trade. This section is all about placing a specific trade. How do you do it, where do you put the stop, how much do you risk, what specific patterns trigger the trade.
    Take the time to read this!

    TRADING ECONOMIC CALENDAR
    Week of May 13

    Monday

    Tuesday 8:30 am CPI // Retail Sales // Empire Manufacturing
    10:00 am Business Inventories and Housing Index

    Wednesday 8:30 am Housing Starts
    9:15 am Industrial Production
    10:30 am Petroleum Status Report
    2:00 pm FEDERAL RESERVE MINUTES

    Thursday 8:3O JOBLESS CLAIMS

    Friday

    Yahoo Economic Calendar here.

    Bloomberg Economic Calendar here