I never want to lose more than 1% of my total trading capital in any one trade. I try to put on position sizes where the worst case scenario is a  dollar loss equal to no more than 1% of my account. I want to risk 1% to try to make 3% on my capital. […]

The new trader must win the battle of your ego, of wanting to be right and change it to just wanting to make money and a big part of that is admitting you are wrong quickly. We have to win the battle of wanting to be lazy and instead do the homework required to be

    “Trading is easy money, how hard can it be to just buy low and sell high?”  The learning curve is steep and the work involved is intense mentally, emotionally, and intellectually. “I have a few thousand dollars, I will turn it into a million dollars quickly.” The bigger the attempted return the higher

   With all the perma bull fan fair we are sitting on a 4.33% return in 2014 for $SPY and it has been a choppy ride up with plenty of whip saws. I know many swing traders and day traders that are out performing buy and holders and trend followers. The 50 day sma has

Too many traders enter the markets with the get rich quick scheme, the delusion that trading is an easy way to make money, or too lazy to put in the effort it will take which is measured in years to be successful not hours. New traders need to focus completely on surviving that first year

  Their entry parameters have a historical edge that gives them a real probability of profitability. They are profitable becasue their winning trades are bigger than their losing trades over long periods of time. This is either due to a high winning percentage or really big wins when they are right. The successful traders know

$SPY has not closed beneath the 50 day sma in 27 trading days. This is our line of support. The 50 RSI on the daily chart has been our support level as well these past 27 days. With about a 3% return in $SPY this year the risk of long equities has really not been