Wednesday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: Neither trade triggered. 

Quick Tip: Style Matters

I hosted a group coaching session last night on the topic of trading style. This decision is critically important to your success. You must find a style of trading that resonates with your personality. 

Jack Schwager, author of the “Wizards” series of books (interviews with top traders) observed that almost every trader approached the markets differently, yet they all made money.

If there are so many ways to trade profitably why is it so hard to achieve? Jack’s answer was they all found a style that suited them. 

In our trading room we run 5 different strategies that require different skills and time commitments. A new trader joining our team can explore the various styles of trading and select the one or two that “fit” their personality best. 

For example, two strategies require very...

Tuesday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: The suggested buy level @ 3940.75 stopped out. 

Quick Tip: Risky Business  

There probably isn’t a book, course, or video on trading that doesn’t stress risk management as the key to ultimately succeeding. 

Determine your risk number. Make sure you consider losing streaks and drawdowns. Size your position. Use a stop loss order. Done. 

Not quite. That was simply one part of your “trade risk.” You still need to know if, and when, you’re going to move the stop. How are you capturing the profit that remains “at risk?”

There are many forms of risk in trading that require preset rules in your plan. 

1. Trade Risk: Managing open trades. 

2. Psychological: Managing your emotions. 

3. Market: Preparation for outlier events.

4. Liquidity: Ensuring your chosen asset has enough buyers/sellers. 

5. ...

Friday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: The suggested short level @ 3990.50 was a breakout entry (not reversal) and ran for 16.75 points to the next volume level. That level was unpublished here and returned the favor for another 16.75 points. The suggested buy level @ 3933.50 only offered a 9.75-point bounce. 

Quick Tip: Play to Win 

All your results start with your orientation toward life. In Larry Wilson’s book, Play to Win: Choosing Growth Over Fear in Work and Life, he reveals the two orientations that you must choose between.

1. Play to win.

2. Playing not to lose. 

What’s the difference? 

People who have a positive attitude packed with a view of abundant opportunities that are willing to overcome challenges, grow and risk for gain are “Playing to Win.” 

Conversely, people who need to remain in their...

Tuesday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: The suggested buy @ 4038.00 was only good for a quick 6-point bounce. 

Quick Tip: Target Optimization

Yesterday you learned about the ratio between the Maximum Favorable Excursion (MFE) and Maximum Adverse Excursion (MAE). The higher the ratio the better. 

Yesterday’s suggested buy only offered 6.25 points before reversing. If your target was greater than that, you stopped out. Here’s how knowing the historical MFE for every individual trade your strategy set up, not just the average MFE (for the ratio mentioned above), will be very helpful. 

Let’s say you have collected MFE on hundreds of trades. You didn’t need to take the trades, they just needed to fit your strategy rule set. Sort the data by MFE, high to low. Now you can ask, “What percentage of the time does price go how far?”

Now you can assign targets to scale out of your winning...

Monday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: The suggested short @ 4049.75 was a 32.75-point runner. What you didn’t know was the opposing volume level (unpublished here) was a buy @ 4106.00. That runner, selling the morning top, came 2.75-points from 4106.00 and ran all the way back to 4049.75. Enough of the time, volume levels work just fine! Read the P.S. and get involved!

Quick Tip: Calibrating Edge

Every trader and any worthwhile educator of traders talks about edge. It’s what the casinos have. You can win any given day, but they will win every day. Edge is advantage. 

Edge is also mysterious to many traders. How do you find edge? Research is the best start but what are you looking for to validate it? 

Here’s a simple formula to calibrate and validate the edge in any trading strategy. 

1. Look at as many trade setups as you can find going back in time as far as you have...

Friday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: No suggestions were given for Volume Profile with the expected (and arrived) volatility. Trend was the BIG winner from our multi-strat trading room. 

The World Sentiment Index: (+100/-100) PLUMMETS from -7 to -79 with all major world markets bearish with spiking volatility. Expecting a wide range day with more downside trading than upside: This index at -79 historically moves -40 points average from open to low, +31 points average from open to high.

Catalysts: Nothing on the economic calendar. Powell confirmed the latest up move as a bear market rally. Worldwide we’re heading down.  

Today’s Best S&P Turning Points (in fast moving markets consider a wider stop and less size): 

Sell 4049.75 stop 4055.25.

Buy 3982.00 stop 3976.25. 

Trade Fearlessly,

Mike Siewruk 

P.S. Multiple strategies, software tools, teammates, and coaching. Learn why you should join...

Thursday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: The short @ 4196.75 failed but triggered 3 minutes to the close (filtered out based on time). 

Quick Tip: In Your Head

Yesterday I shared a quote from Curtis Faith in his book “Way of the Turtle,” because Curtis was the most successful of the legendary Turtle Traders, and I re-read his book recently. 

BTW, Curtis was chosen to learn to trade the “Turtle” way at 19 years old and excelled to #1 amongst his peers. I don’t know Curtis personally but based on his success, he KNOWS trading. 

In the bibliography of the book Curtis gives his recommended reading list. 25 books in total. Can you guess what aspect of trading was titled in 12 of those books?

Psychology. 

‘Nuff said. 

If you want the tools and techniques to change your behavior and catapult your trading results, click here for details. 

The World Sentiment Index: (+100/-100)...

Wednesday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: Another narrow range day when neither trade triggered. 

Quick Tip: Outcome Bias

Imagine this: your strategy has a track record that while not proven to repeat in the future, is statistically sound historically. No curve fitting. Simple, logical rules that make sense. 

You’re trading it and getting great results. Some days the strategy performs better than you, other days you do a little better. Expected. We’re human and we let discretion slip into our trading occasionally.

When you started trading this strategy you were a fearful of it not working. You overcame that fear by starting with very small risk. As you started winning more often and growing your account you felt fearless entering your first few trades every day. 

On days when you started losing you quit after a few losses. On days when you started winning you...

Tuesday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: Neither trade triggered. 

Quick Tip: Market Diversification

You know market conditions change. Hopefully you’ve perfected a few different strategies that align with the different Market States (trend, breakout, reversal, spread, etc.)

One of the most effective ways to improve your performance now is to trade a diverse range of markets. Include as many as are affordable in your portfolio given your account size. You certainly won’t trade every signal so make your first pre-trade decision in your plan “Market Selection.” 

Here’s an example: Our trading room currently focuses on the S&P, oil & gold futures. We’re expanding this portfolio gradually. Lately, gold has been the laggard in range and return. The risk is less, but the rewards have been as well. If you are more conservative you’d select gold. If you were more aggressive you’d select the...