I was referred to Brett Steenbarger’s blog of Nov 14 ( http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/) . As I read, it struck me that the tools we use in our trading plans are of less importance than having a plan.
Brett’s approach to the markets is very different to mine. He is a short-term trader and to gain […]

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As a discretionary, technical trader, I find my intuition plays a strong role in my trading. Today’s price action in the ES was a great example of what I mean.
I subscribe to a few Sentiment Indicators, Floyd Upperman, Whisper Numbers, and Sentiment Trader. All were bearish to some degree, and one was bearish even though […]

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I have received mail from purchasers of Nature of Trends (Wiley Edition) asking how to use Barros Swings. In fact a large section of the book deals with that topic. In addition, the Appendix shows you how to construct the swings. So, in this post, I’ll only briefly summarise the uses for the […]

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Two important ideas I learned from Peter Steidlmayer:

The use of different timeframes in my trading and
The idea of ‘context’.

As a discretionary trader using technical analysis, ‘context’ has made a great difference to my bottom line. Before I explain what I mean, let me first define some critical terms:

By discretionary I mean I have a set […]

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Today I have posted a review by a student and friend on my book Nature of Trends, Wiley Edition. By the way, my self-published edition has been withdrawn from sale. The Wiley edition is available from Amazon.
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REVIEW by ANNA WANG
As an STCer of Ray Barros, I could finish reading the new book within 24 hours […]

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The Expectancy Return formula identifies the key area on which we need to focus.
Most newbies focus on the win rate. But the win and loss rate are less under our control than the Avg$win and Avg$Loss. This post will explore the reasons for this.
No matter how good a trader we may be, we will […]

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A most important formula for our trading is the Expectancy Formula. Its basic formulation is in dollars terms.
(Average Dollar Win/Win Rate) - (Average Dollar Loss/Loss Rate) = Expected Profit per Trade
Let’s say:

My AVG$win is $750.00
My Win rate is 48%
My Avg$ loss is $183
My Loss rate is 52%
My avg trades per year is 300

My expected $ […]

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Today I’m addressing Winning Psychology. If we look behind the reasons why traders fail we find one or both of these reasons:

The don’t know what to do and/or
They don’t do what they know.

Winning Psychology addresses the latter. I define Winning Psychology as a set of tools that facilitates the consistent execution of our […]

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Once we have identified the trend identification of your timeframe, we have your strategy. The next event is for us to identify a low risk entry. I see low risk entry comprised of three factors:

Zone

Setups

Entry and Initial Stop (and/or exit strategy)

Our zone will be a function of whether we are taking a breakout trade […]

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This is the first in a series on trading plans. In this article, I shall be looking at the elements of a discretionary plan. But before I do that, let’s look at the different types of traders and plans:

Subjective: There is no plan as such. The traders use […]

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