I would like to take this opportunity to thank our subscribers and to wish you all a wonderful and prosperous 2010. Vince Lombardi once said, “It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That’s why they are there – to compete. The object [...]
Likeness to the truth is not the same thing as truth – SOCRATES A set of statistics that suggest a positive expectation (a system) is quite helpful when sailing the seas of uncertainty. In fact I believe most traders need a definitive plan to assure discipline. We need to look at the various measurements [...]
This is a very interesting video from Howard Lederer, the famous poker player. He draws some very significant similarities between being a great poker player and a great trader. Howard Lederer is known as “the Poker Professor” because of his demeanor, analytical style and long history of wins. He is known for his focused, calm [...]
I had the pleasure of working with Jack Schwager from 1980 to 1983. At the time Jack was the Director of Commodity research at Paine Webber Jackson Curtis, Inc., and the author of the famous book “Market Wizards,” Interviews with top traders. In the Wizards Jack interviewed successful traders like Michael Marcus, Paul Tudor Jones [...]
I love to read, and find myself reading quite a bit about trading. It seems to me that most of the advice focuses on the Holy Grail type thinking, where you are sold the method. There are numerous fundamental and technical methods that claim a secret way of making money. Good advice shows you that [...]
So if you can teach someone to trade, why is it that all the turtles didn’t succeed, let alone have returns similar to one another? Michael Covel, author of “The Complete Turtle Trader”, gives an explanation. “Some Turtles like Jerry Parker have chosen a path of less risk and less return. Some like Tom Shanks [...]
We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are – ANAIS NIN US (French-born) author I was having a conversation with one of my clients yesterday on the subject of whether good traders are born or whether they can be taught. I brought to his attention that this was the [...]
Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous – VOLTAIRE What if we knew for sure that the Philadelphia Eagles would beat the Carolina Panthers yesterday, and that we were also certain that they would beat the betting spread? Any wager we made would pay off. Betting on a “sure thing” would be equal to a [...]
It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it – ARISTOTLE When using a mechanical trading approach we must learn how to entertain a good set of probabilities without accepting them as fact. What is potentially more dangerous than the information which makes up the numbers is how we [...]
My 10 year old nephew Kevin paid me a visit this week. I thought he would enjoy meeting the guys I work with, so I brought him into the office one day. After looking at the screens and watching the prices go up and down, he asked, “How do you make money from all this?” [...]
