Reader question: how to not blow yourself up. Pattern interrupts can help.
Reader Steve asks a good question: Hi. I know that most of what you talk about isn't really about daytrading, but I am a daytrader and I have a question.…
Staying in step: finding rhythm of the market
Rhythm is a fundamental aspect of the human experience: our bodies pulse with the rhythm of blood and breath. We experience the rhythms of day and night, and the longer…
Trading Edge vs trading edge
I did an interview a week or so ago with Abraham Thomas, one of the co-founders of Quandl. I love doing interviews because a thoughtful interviewer makes me ask questions…
Four steps to mastering your fear of trading
Every trader faces fear, sooner or later. In a perfect world, we'd be fearful at exactly the right times and use that fear to manage our risk, but we all…
How to deal with market uncertainty?
I received a good question from a reader, Jeremy, this morning: In you latest podcast (#26 - Taming the bear) you made the comment:".... participating in the market means fully…
MarketLife Ep 26 – Taming the bear: managing market declines
Markets have been a bit volatile over the past few weeks, and the future is uncertain. For many investors, these moves can be troubling because it's been many years since…
A few thoughts, at the end of a historic trading day
Before I call it a day, I thought I'd share a few thoughts with you. For those of you finding this post later, US stocks broke down Thursday of last…
The Illusion Of Control
I’ve written and said many times before that simplicity is a good thing—if you have a methodology that is overly complex, there’s a pretty chance it won’t work. However, so…
Six keys to managing trading psychology
We live in a "quick fix" world in which everyone is looking for "hacks" to solve and shortcut problems. The internet is filled with "you're doing it wrong" posts that…
Mostly meditation: my Stocktwits podcast interview
I was honored to be featured on the Stocktwits Must Follow Podcast series a few weeks ago. I had an interesting conversation with Sean McLaughlin in which we focused heavily…
You wanna be right? Or make money?
We all have ego. Everyone likes to be right, likes to be seen as intelligent, and likes to be a winner. We all hate to lose, and we hate to…
The hardest words to say
We live in a world where most of our basic needs are fulfilled; most of us have food and water, we have a sense of safety and security, a sense…
Efficient Markets? Ask trapped traders what they think!
One of the age-old questions is "why should any pattern work?" In this case, we're not simply talking about patterns on charts, but we could ask the same question of…
The most important question you need to ask
I spent an hour a week ago talking with a very experienced stock trader. This guy has made a lot of money, but he's made it while fighting a strongly…
A look at the meditation experience
Sixteen days ago, I started publishing a series of short daily podcasts on meditation. So many people are writing about meditation and its benefits, but there's also a lot of…
What to do with quiet markets?
Just a high level perspective on what we have going on in a few major markets this week. In general, most markets are in some kind of volatility compression. Volatility…