Trading Triggers

Trading Vehicles, Stock, ETFs, Futures, and Forex

Welcome to Trading Triggers. If you are an active trader or a first time investor looking for a trading method that suits your personality, then you have the right book. Trading for a living is an amazing and yet risky business. There is more to trading than buying and selling. There are often-missed but important issues that many books do not mention, such as not only how to make money in the market but also how to keep it and create a positive cash flow. The purpose of this book is to take you to a new level of trading knowledge by giving detailed explanations of technical tools that will help you develop your own trading system so you can cultivate and extract money from the market, especially those traders who want high alpha (big returns) with reasonable standard deviation (volatility). I will explain some of the most obvious yet simple concepts of how to interpret technical analysis and improve your chart-reading skills so you can make money in the markets.

There are two theories on how markets perform: efficient market theory and random walk theory.

1.  Efficient market theory lends to the belief that markets are always priced correctly because the current price reflects all factual information. If the markets are efficient, then no fundamental information will give an investor an edge in the market.

2.  Random walk theory lends to the belief that price movements do not follow any pattern or trend and that past price behavior cannot be used to predict future price movements. In other words, the markets are completely unpredictable.

I fall in the category of believing that history can and does repeat itself. People can and do make money based on technical analysis, and I am here to help prove it.

IMPORTANCE OF A RULE-BASED APPROACH       

You may have heard of Jesse Livermore, who was immortalized by Edwin Lefevre’s book Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (G. H. Doran, 1923; Wiley, 2006). Jesse was considered one of the greatest speculators of his day. Many of his principles and ideas are still used. His three key concepts of trading are (1) timing, (2) risk management, and (3) emotional control.

This quote from Richard Smitten’s Trade Like Jesse Livermore (Wiley, 2005, p. 70) sticks with me because it is as true now as it ever was (keep in mind that Jesse committed suicide in 1940, so this was stated nearly 70 years ago): “All through time, people have basically acted the same way in the stock and commodity markets as a result of greed, fear, ignorance, and hope: that is why the formations and patterns recur on a constant basis. The patterns the traders and technicians observe are simply the reflections of human emotional behavior.”

Most traders who are consistently profitable have learned to develop a rule-based approach that doesn’t change. They have within their arsenal of trading tools, definitive, recognizable, and frequently reoccurring patterns that can be used to trade by a set of established trading rules. They can clearly define, without guessing or using a vague approach, support and resistance levels and what to do once prices reach those levels. Moreover, they have the ability to clearly define their entry, stop-loss, or risk parameters and their profit objectives in a consistent, repetitious fashion each time they place a trade. This is what I do when trading my own account and what I have taught my son and even my own father. My dad used to think trading commodities was like gambling until I showed him a method. This is the same method that will be disclosed in these pages.

It is important for you to realize that it is the emotional balance that helps keep you on the profitable side of the ledger. You must never anticipate what the market might do, but rather wait for confirmation on your triggers.

Most traders who are profitable are flexible as to the anticipated outcome that may occur on each trade. Successful traders have the mindset to develop the perspective that their trading business is to manage their money rather than to predict the future. Successful traders can emotionally handle losing trades or the negative trades that result from an error or trading equipment malfunction. Remember that the business of trading for a living requires that you establish some kind of structure in a market place with countless variables. Why not consider trading by a set of rules? Most traders do not trade by a system; the term “black box” just means that a trader has input a set of trading parameters and automatically exe-cutes a trade based on a specific set of criteria—strict rules to automatically trade by.

START TRADING AS A BUSINESS   

          If you are currently trading for a living or if you are expanding your knowledge to learn how to trade for a living, remember that this is a business. You need to treat it like a business. Therefore, some considerations need to be made, for example, forming a corporation in order to deduct such expenses as your computer equipment, quote feed, DSL (digital subscriber line), office rent, travel to investment conferences, and continued education seminars. What matters most to every trader and investor is creating a positive cash flow. You wouldn’t want to finally start learning to make money consistently in the market and find out that you cannot take any expense deductions. You should seek advice from a tax specialist so that you can take advantage of all regular and necessary expenses as business deductions and save thousands of dollars each year.

Let’s add up the examples I mentioned: Suppose your quote feed is $200 per month and your DSL is $40 per month. Renting a small one-room office could run $500 to $700 per month. Then there are equipment expenses, such as your desktop computers, a laptop for travel, monitors and printers and ink cartridges and general office supplies to purchase and upgrade from time to time, say $2,000. Attending an investment conference could mean $700 round trip airfare, plus $250 per night for hotel and meals. If you have business entertaining expenses and went to at least two conferences per year, you could be talking as little as $5,000 to as much as $25,000 in actual business expenses that can be deducted if you are running trading as a business.

If you are a first-time smaller investor and decide that trading for a living is something you have the financial resources, time, and emotional makeup to do, what business plan do you have in place to protect the money you make in the market? Where will you put your profits as a short term trader? Some traders have had many problems with this issue; it is similar to the old expression of “Robbing Peter to pay Paul.” After all, who wants to make money in a buy-and-hold long-term position strategy only to give it back day trading, and vice versa.

I am going to show you a trading method based on combining candle charts, to help identify shifts in momentum, and pivot point analysis. I will teach you very succinct rules, which is what I have taught to professional traders on the floor of the exchanges and introduced to thousands of private investors, including other leading trading educators who now effectively teach my trading methods. I will walk you through deciding what investment vehicles are available, when and how to decide which investment vehicle would better suit a trader under various market conditions, and how to develop a trading strategy based on the specific trading triggers.

EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS  

Traders need and, moreover, have an obligation and responsibility to understand as much as possible about how the markets that they trade work and what makes them function. It is vital to your success that you continue to learn not only about the market but also about your trading hardware or computer equipment. For example, if you trade off a laptop, you should know how to disable the tapping feature on the touch pad. After all, who wants to accidentally place the wrong order on line? That has happened to traders because the touch pad is ultrasensitive. Simply moving your finger or having your shirt sleeve touch the pad can act as an action click. Traders should know how to set up and troubleshoot office or home Internet connections or at least have a brokerage account that offers assistance in taking over-the-phone orders.

Traders need to learn and comprehend all the features and benefits that charting software packages offer and should know all about the order entry platforms and, more specifically, the brokerage firm rules and procedures for trading. Traders should make sure the brokerage firm has the title of the account set up so if ever there is a situation where you wish to wire money into an account, it matches the name on the bank to your trading account. You don’t want an important wire to be rejected. In a situation where you want to either put on more positions or add a second account to trade a great opportunity, how sad it would be for back-office personnel to reject the wire, resulting in a lost opportunity.

A great trader is always looking to learn. One of the best processes to learn is asking a series of questions; evaluating the dynamics of a situation or event; and seeking out how to take advantage of that event within the financial resources, risk factors, and time constraints in place.

The traits that most professional and consistently profitable traders possess are that they follow a trading plan on extensively tested research and limit losses while letting winning positions ride. Winning traders exhibit the qualities of patience and discipline. The techniques that will be taught in this book will help you master those two qualities.

Other traits that winners possess are that they diversify into various trading positions, while committing only 10 to 40 percent of accounts equity in the markets. Successful traders commit their full attention to the market trends and prices, and they act on trading signals immediately.

They also seem to possess the ability to accept winners and embrace losers, and they don’t let either of these outcomes generally influence their next trade decision. They stay in the now and react to what the market is currently doing. Winning traders take breaks from trading. Through continued education and the process of asking questions, they gain an edge and stay on top of their competition through diversification or other more advanced trading strategies.

TRADERS NEED TO ASK MORE QUESTIONS

          The process of asking questions is what is needed in order to gain more knowledge. The trouble is, most traders do not have enough experience to know what the right questions are. If you apply simple common sense, then you will be on a great start to learn how to identify investing or trading opportunities and find the right strategy to take advantage of those opportunities.

Some questions traders need to ask themselves include, just for starters: How much time do I have to dedicate to the markets? If I enter a day trade, do I have the time to watch this position, or do I have an appointment or meeting scheduled for that day? What are the possible outcomes of what I am about to do, based on what I have control over?

Focus on what it is you want to achieve, write it out, and concentrate on that goal. Think of the consequences or possible outcomes of your actions so you will have a more balanced emotional reaction if the outcome is not as positive as you expected. Ask questions such as:

·       Do market conditions warrant increasing or decreasing my position size?

·       Are there reports coming out that may impact the market or my position?

·       Are my entry and exit targets justified?

·       If the market is so bearish, why won’t it go down?

·       If the market is so bullish, why won’t it rally?

Trading without asking questions or without probing leads to trading blindly or without a plan. It opens the door for destructive emotional interference. Another quote from Jesse Livermore helps confirm this: “There is nothing new on Wall Street or in stock speculation. What has happened in the past will happen again and again and again. This is because human nature does not change, and it is human emotion that always gets in the way of human intelligence. Of this I am sure.” (Smitten, Trade Like Jesse Liver-more, p. 167)

That statement was made over 65 years ago and is without a doubt still applicable to this day. Do not let your emotions get in the way of your trading decisions. If you ask the right question before placing a trade, you stand to gain an edge on winning the emotional battle of trading. It is generally those who are afraid of losing through fear itself who stand to lose because that emotion will interfere with rational, well-thought-out trading plans.

Asking yourself the right questions will help you to choose a more appropriate investment vehicle or trading strategy. For example, ask yourself before entering a trade: What are the time expectations for a result to occur? Do I have availability of time to see the trade through? Would short-term day trading or swing trading be possible if I have a regular day time job? In what time zone do I start work? This is relevant because a person living on the West Coast could trade an early morning market such as the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) bond contract opening session; however, a person with an early morning job may want to consider foreign currency or forex (Foreign Exchange) trading on the European session starting at night.

In order to know what time demands you need, you should also ask yourself if you have the tolerance for trading a leveraged product and if you have the tolerance for the risks: Should I use a time period stop—if the market does not move or react within a specified time period, should I exit the position? Should I use a conditional stop, such as a “stop-close only” order? Does my order platform take such orders, or do I need to manually watch and then implement such an order? (In intraday trading, the answer is yes, you need to manually watch the close of the time period you are trading in.) Can I afford to place a stop, say, 10 or 20 percent of my overall account value?

You need to be clear and honest with yourself when answering these evaluation questions. Remind yourself by asking: Why am I trading? What are my expectations? (I have met too many people that look at trading as an easy and quick way to make money or to replace their current career.) Based on your trading account size or your risk capital, ask: What returns will I need in order to generate sufficient income? Is my starting equity size or bank roll inclusive of my living expenses? Are my expectations on that return realistic on a constant basis?

These questions are important because they will help you to determine which type of investment vehicle and which type of diversified trading strategies you can incorporate into your trading repertoire.

RISK PER TRADE    

          A most important yet simple thought process that a trader can start with is learning how to determine how much equity to put into any one trade or position. How much to risk per trade is a concept that many novice traders fail to realize until it is way too late. They end up learning the exact wiring instructions on a regular basis to their brokerage account; the real hard cases end up remembering those instructions by heart. Once you learn and have the confidence to trade a system or follow a trading plan with a set of conditions and specific rules, you still need to have an effective method for risk controls. I would start by considering how much risk per trade I should use by looking at my overall account size, then at the market’s volatility and liquidity conditions, and then at a certain percentage of the overall account on a percentage basis. Let me show you what I mean; and when we go over various stop types and methods later in the book, you will be able to better comprehend my meaning. If a person wanting to start a day trading account begins with $10,000 and uses a 10 percent risk factor per trade based on the overall beginning equity size, if the first five trades go bad, then he or she has lost 50 percent of the overall account. Therefore, it is imperative that traders learn different techniques to protect their trading equity. Investors also need to know the number of positions with which they should start in connection to the account size and the point at which they add on to their contract lot or position size. In Chapter 11, I will go over a method to help you determine answers to those questions. Then you will have a better understanding of a proper ratio and the point at which you should start to increase your trading size.

NUMBER ONE TRADING FOCUS-RISK MANAGEMENT

As most trading books will explain, risk management is the key to survival and what trading is really all about. While it may sound like a cliche, the hard truth is that consistently profitable trading, in my opinion, significantly depends on proper risk taking and risk management combined. Winning traders follow a tried-and-tested plan based on rules or on a defined set of criteria. Winning traders recognize the importance of risk management and of money management. As I stated in my first book, the common denominator among losing traders was that most guess and hope and usually say, when asked about placing a stop-loss or taking a profit, “I’ll think about it.”

Always remember that when trading with a set of rules, you will never be 100 percent right. But if you do not follow a set of rules, you increase the odds of being 100 percent wrong in your trading. If you manage your trading risks and execute promptly on the trade signal, then you increase the odds that you will be successful. When trading, your mind can play tricks on you. You start to anticipate a buy signal only to act on a false signal. You need to learn when and how an actual signal is generated and what and when you should trigger the action to initiate a trade. When you are trading market signals by a predefined set of rules and a set of criteria, then the mind cannot play tricks on you. When a signal says buy, then buy; when a signal says sell, then sell. It’s that simple. Generally speaking, from my experience, if a trader says, “I am tired of this,” and decides not to take the signal, that ignored signal is the one that becomes a big winner. If you have traded before, you may relate to that syndrome. For day traders in stock or stock index futures, this usually happens in the last hour of the trading session!

DIVERSIFICATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS         

          This observation was written by Peter L. Bernstein in his book Against the Gods, The Remarkable Story of Risk (Wiley, 1996):

All of the tools we use today in risk management and in the analysis of decisions, from the strict rationality of game theory to the challenges of chaos theory, stem from the mathematical developments that took place between 1654 and 1760 with two exceptions: In 1875 Francis Gal- ton, an amateur mathematician, discovered regression to the mean; and in 1952, Nobel Laureate Harry Markowitz, then a young graduate student at the University of Chicago, demonstrated mathematically why putting all your eggs in one basket is an unacceptably risky strategy and why ‘diversification’ is the nearest an investor or business manager can ever come to a free lunch. That revelation touched off the intellectual movement that revolutionized Wall Street, corporate finance, and business decisions around the world; its effects are still being felt today. (pp. 5-6)