Today I finally found some time to read Adrienne Laris Toghraie's excellent newsletter "The Discipline Perspective of Trading". Adrienne is a Trader's Coach and has taught hundreds or maybe even thousands of traders emotional control and discipline.

In the latest issue of her newsletter, Adrienne talks about "Excellence Versus Mediocrity in Trading". She explains the relationship between excellence and competition. In a nutshell: Without competition you won't be able to achieve excellence.

For many years we have been teaching the power of weekly profit goals in our Day Trading Coaching Program.

We help our students to determine a weekly goal that is attractive for them and realistic. Once this goal is achieved, we tell them to stop trading for the rest of the week and start fresh the next week.

At first glance this sounds weird and traders ask me: "Why should I stop trading when I am ahead? If I keep trading, I will make more money". 

Let me show you proof:

This morning I received a trading log from a trader who has been taking 138 trades in the past 4 weeks. Unfortunately the past couple of weeks have been challenging for him: he realized a loss of $1,365.

This morning I received an email from Michael in Australia. He has been following our Simple Day Trading Strategy for trading multiple markets and wrote:

"I only trade the e-mini S&P".

Here's my answer: BIG mistake!

Never trade only one market. There are some times when a market is trending and easy to trade, and there are times when markets are just moving sideways. Take a look at the 5 min chart of the e-mini S&P on 10/20/2008:

In our Simple Day Trading Strategy I use a stop loss and a profit target based on the volatility of the markets. This means that I am using a larger stop loss and profit target in more volatile markets and a smaller stop loss and profit target in quiet markets.

This morning I received an email from a trader asking me:

"Why do you use profit targets? I heard that you should let your profits run."

Using a profit target will help you controlling your emotions. Just think about it: When you exit a trade, it is usually too early or too late. You won't be able to pick tops and bottoms, at least not consistently.

Today we conducted a Live Day Trading Webinar. It was really exciting: We received more than 900 registrations for this event.

The agenda was simple: In the first 30 min I presented our Simple Day Trading Strategy and at 9:30am EST, when the markets opened, I would use this strategy to trade several markets live. Sounds like a great plan. 

But before the webinar I was a little bit worried:

If I achieved excellent trading results, then most of the participants would wrongly assume that day trading is easy and jump right into it. It's human nature! If I would make $1,000 in the first 30min of trading, then it would have been difficult to teach aspiring traders that trading is a profession and needs to be taken very seriously.

Hi guys,

In this short video I discuss briefly how to find trends. The video was recorded a few weeks ago at the Forex Trading Expo in Las Vegas:

http://www.moneyshow.com/video/video.asp?t=3&wid=2605

Don't expect too much from this short video. I just posted it since many traders asked me to post an updated picture of me. Well, here you go!

Enjoy and leave your comments about this handsome guy.

No doubt: The markets are crazy!

On Friday the Dow Jones Index dropped 700 points and then rallied back 900 points. Today the markets opened with a huge gap, and after a lackluster morning the Dow Jones then rallies in the afternoon, closing almost 1,000 points higher than Friday.

Does this scare you?

Here's are some great thoughts on what to do from Glen Larson, President of Genesis Financial Technologies:

These days you hear a lot about the $700 Billion Bailout Plan. Actually, I just heard that is has been renamed to "Rescue Plan" or "Economic Stabilization Plan". You can't escape the discussion: It's all over the news, the internet and you might even receive emails asking you to contact your representative to vote for or against it. It's getting confusing, and many people wonder if investing $700 billion to rescue the US Financial System and ultimately economy is really a good idea.

Let me put it in perspective:

$700 Billion sounds a lot, but in 2008 the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve already committed more than $900 billion dollar to bailouts, but since they occurred throughout the year you might not have noticed the magnitude.

Here's the list:

As you know, a few weeks ago the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) temporarily banned the short selling of a large number of stocks.

Thie morning the SEC announced that it has extended its ban through October 17, 2008.

How does that affect our day trading? - Not at all.

Here's a short articles that Rockwell Trading's Head Coach Mark Hodge wrote on that subject last week:

As the markets digest the recent events on Wall Street, federal intervention and regulation have been used to stimulate an environment for growth and recovery. One of the most recent policies to be introduced is the SEC's Short Sale Order, but how does this affect you?

No doubt: Today was a black day for stock markets all around the world.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index fell 7% and the S&P 500 dropped by 8.8%. 

The Dow's declines were the largest since the September 11 attacks, and the S&P 500 posted its worst day since the Black
Monday in 1987.The media jumped on the news and did not hesitate to draw comparisons to "Black Monday 1987", "Stock market crash", "Crash of 1929" or even "The Great Depression".

But is it really that bad?

Let's look at the facts:

Before the US stock markets opened this morning, bad news hit the wire: The financial crises reached the Old World. Three European governments bailed out Belgium bank Fortis, the U.K. nationalized mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley and Germany's Hype Real Estate Holding. 

Hi everyone,

Two weeks ago I attended the Forex Trading Expo in Las Vegas and conducted a seminar on how to trade today's volatile markets. Thanks to the folks at Intershow this session has been recorded and is available for FREE.

If you would like to view this recording, just click here.

And as always: Leave your comments and let me know if you enjoyed it.

One of the biggest mistakes of novice day traders is to follow only one trading strategy.

Let me explain:

A trading strategy is either a trend-following strategy or a trend-fading strategy.

A trend-following strategy means that you buy when the market is going up and you sell when the market is going down. You follow the acumen of Jesse Livermore, the world's greatest trader, who once said: "Successful traders always follow the line of least resistance. Follow the trend. The trend is your friend."

Forex Trading has become extremely popular these days. Unfortunately most Forex traders have no idea what forex trading is all about. So let me explain.

Why do currencies move?

You need to understand that Forex Trading is all about interest rates. If you are trading the EUR-USD, then you are BUYING the Euro currency and SELLING the US Dollar. In Forex trading, accounts are settled every day at 5:00pm ET, and at this time you EARN interest rates on the currency that you bought and PAY interest rates on the currency that you sold.

Let me give you an example:

Last weekend I met Adrienne Toghraie at the Forex Trading Expo in Las Vegas. Adrienne is an internationally recognized Trader's Coach, focusing on emotional control and discipline. As Adrienne says: "You cannot trade a proven system without discipine".

In her latest newsletter Adrienne talks about the importance of rules in trading. Here's what she says:

Although many traders stumble along without rules, anyone who succeeds at trading has them.  Rules are the foundation of self-discipline and self-discipline is the real Holy Grail of trading.  Some of the best traders would argue that they trade by the seat of their pants and earn a  very good living doing it. Yet, if you were to sit these people down and ask them what criteria they have for entering and exiting a trade, they would eventually come up with their answers and those answers are their rules.

This weekend I was invited by Intershow and the CME Group to speak at the Forex Trading Expo in Las Vegas. I've only been to Las Vegas once before, and all the gambling and casinos fascinate me.

I don't gamble. As a trader, I want to control my risk and - even more importantly - have an edge. If you are playing roulette or the slow machines, you definitely don't have an edge, but what about Black Jack? As far as I know Black Jack is the only game with changing probabilities throughout the game, so I asked myself: Is it possible to apply solid trading techniques to the game to gain an edge?

When I am playing the money game, I am playing it to win, so I approached my "Black Jack Adventure" in a systematic way:

1.) Learning the rules

Over the past couple of years I have been conducting countless webinars. In many webinars I presented a simple day trading strategy based on Bollinger Bands and MACD.

Many traders asked me if they can watch me trading this strategy LIVE, and therefore we opened our Live Day Trading Room two weeks ago. We have been trading this strategy every day, and haven't had a losing day thus far. As one of the traders in the room said: "This strategy is a money-making machine!"

Today one trader in the chat asked me: "How do you come up with these trading strategies?"

Actually, I am doing exactly the same things that I have been teaching for years:

On September 29, 2008 a new book will be released called "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life". 

Warren Buffet is a legend. Before he gave almost his entire fortune to charity, Warren Buffet was the richest man in the entire world. In 1962, when Buffet began buying stock in Berkshire Hathaway, a share cost $7.50. Today Buffet is Berkshire' chairman and CEO, and one "Class A" stock is worth more than $118,000.

No doubt that Buffet is a genius and many try to follow his advice to become rich.

But there's a common misconception:

Buffet is NOT a stock trader. 

He does NOT invest in stocks!  

Buffet invests in companies.

Let me explain. Warren Buffet says: "If, when making a stock investment, you're not considering holding it at least ten years, don't waste more than ten minutes considering it."

Did you know that "free stuff" can actually be quite expensive?

Let me explain:

A few days ago we started our Live Trading Chat Room. In this room we are trading several markets using a simple day trading strategy. In order to trade this strategy, you need to have a charting software that fulfils the following three criteria:

Do you know the story of the Holy Grail?

In Christian mythology, the Holy Grail is the dish or plate that Jesus used at the Last Supper. It is said that Jesus' blood during his crucifixion was caught in this vessel. It's supposed to possess miraculous powers. The search for this cup became the principle quest for the Knights of King Arthur - and the main theme of the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

When it comes to trading, the Holy Grail is loosely interpreted as a trading system or strategy that can't fail. Many aspiring traders devote countless hours and dollars to the quest of "The Trader's Holy Grail".

Why am I telling you all this?

Because I don't want YOU to become one of these traders. The "Modern Knights of King Arthur" fall into the following trap:

Today I received an email from an investor with the following question:

Markus, right now the Dow Jones Index is at 11,600.
What do you think: Where will the Dow Jones be at the end of the year?

I thought I'd share my answer with you. Here's what I wrote:

Raj, to be honest: Predicting the Dow for the end of the year is like throwing a dart.

Most traders would be happy if they could predict the Dow for a couple of minutes or a couple of hours.

I assume you're asking this question because you need this information for your investment decisions.

Keep it simple:

1.) Buy when the market is going up and sell when the market is going
down.