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Know Your Trade: Trading Plans and You

December 26th, 2009 by Werner Michael Heus in Forex Trading Plans, Forex Trading System with 0 Comments

stock market. There’s an old saying that goes, “Fail to plan and you plan to fail.” Simple words to live by but a lot of people have ignored them and have consequently lost thousands of dollars to the vagaries of the market. If you don’t want to end up losing your shirt on the market, you better start your entry into it by formulating a trading plan.

So, how do we go about doing it then? Well, the foundations of a trading plan is this: what are your objective? How much money do you want to earn? It would be best and easiest to start your plan by setting a definite number for you to aim for every month or maybe weekly. This gives you a specific goal to meet and helps you focus on what you want.

Next, you should choose the particulars of your entry into the market. What markets are you interested in going into? What commodities or products? This choice should be based on your knowledge and interests. It’s pretty self-defeating to trade in stocks you’re in for purely money. That’s because lack of interest usually translates into non-interest in current events in that particular product’s field. Not knowing what’s happening in a market that you’re trading in would be disastrous. So focus on markets that you have knowledge of and are willing to learn about.

After knowing what you’ll be trading in, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and hit the books. Choosing particular stocks in a one field is important and this is done by reviewing the performance of the stocks in a particular market. This defines what stocks you will be getting and what your possible strategies are. Are you going to go for the slow and steady route? Stocks that have consistent performance through the years. Want some quick money? New stocks moving upwards in recent times can be a boon for you.

As I mentioned earlier, choosing stocks goes hand-in-hand with formulating a strategy. These strategies would specify at what price you would start buying a particular piece of stock and how much money to spend on it. They also indicate at positive and negative prices would you start selling the shares that you have accumulated.

Your trading plan should also include some specifics: just exactly what sort of trader would you be? A day trader who is focused on the daily market schedule or a swing trader who goes beyond it? The plan should also specify how exactly are you going to trade: calling up your broker once in a while or having your own computerized stock ticker on your home PC can make a whole lot of difference to your profit margin. Of course, there’s the danger of oever-planning: don’t be seduced by all that fancy software being advertised. All you need for stock trading is an accurate way to get stock information and that can be as easy as having Bloomberg TV always on or as involved as the aforementioned stock ticker.

Finally, your plan should have a margin of error or at least a level of adaptability. A whole lot of things happen on the stock market and you can’t exactly be expected to take into account everything that might happen in the market. Having your plan be able to handle something you didn’t think about can help make sure you don’t accidentally lose money.

A good trading plan can mean the difference between losing your savings or having a nice little retirement, so keep this in your mind as you formulate your own.




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Getting A Plan Together: How To Set-up Your Trading Plan

December 22nd, 2009 by Werner Michael Heus in Forex Trading Plans, Forex Trading System with 0 Comments

A trading plan is a definite requirement for becoming a successful stock trader. It can help you over the usual pitfalls that a trader may encounter in his career. But let’s be clear here: perusing a few books about stock trading and drawing up a few simple rules on a note pad does not a trading plan make. That’s pretty much a picture-perfect example of a bankruptcy waiting to happen. Trading plans require a lot of work and they need to be more detailed than having saying “buy low and sell high”.

To set it all up, first you have to sit down and take stock of what you have. This is more than in the monetary sense. You should know what you’re knowledgeable about and what you’re capable of handling. Your trading plan should match you and shaped by your quirks. If you don’t take into account your personal temperament when coming up with trading plan, it would feel artificial when you’re putting it into action and you would sometimes have the urge to not follow it. A natural-feeling trading plan is much easier to follow. You should also set your boundaries: just how much money are you willing to risk? How much loss are you willing to absorb? Knowing your limits is one of the important parts of making a business plan.

After you’ve done your self-reflection and have realized your limits, you should now concentrate on what you’re aiming at. Specifying a particular profit target for a specific time periods is one way of doing this. Aiming for a hundred dollars a day when trading helps you focus on gaining that amount of money. While you’re doing this, you should also look into what markets you’re targeting. You should choose market or a commodity you have knowledge about or are interested in. Interest will help keep you attentive to market conditions and knowing which way the wind is blowing can definitely help you be on top of changes in the market.

When you’ve picked out your market then it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty details of things. This means you have to hit the books and look at the performance of the several stocks found in your selected market. You should look at them all and see how they’ll fit in with your projected trading strategy. Stocks that have shown consistent but slow growth would be good for conservative trading plans while more volatile stocks can find their place in a more risky strategy.

After picking out the stocks, it’s time to decide about your entry and exit strategies. Knowing whne to jump in and start buying stocks isn’t just a matter of buy low and sell high. Experienced traders look for a particular price point to hit where they are sure to get a profit. They also time their buys to particular time, knowing when the market hass reached a particular limit. Good research should be able to give you this information. Your exit from the market is equally important. The price of shares may continually rise but your plan should indicate where you should start selling it off, even at thye loss of potential profit. This is the same for when the price is going down. Your exit strategy outlines how low you want to go before actually selling the stock, even at a loss. It sounds strange to follow your plan while taking a loss, but if you made a good trading plan, it should take the chance of potential loss into the equation.

All of it may sound easy but, trust me on this, it will take a lot of work to create a trading plan that you’ll be comfortable with. So what are you waiting for? Go on and make a start with your life as a trader.




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Focusing On Your Strengths: Your Trading Plan And Your Abilities

December 18th, 2009 by Werner Michael Heus in Forex Trading Plans, Forex Trading System with 0 Comments

One of the important parts of formulating a trading plan is a bit of self-reflection. I know, it’s not exactly something that we envision when we look at stock traders, but a good trader knows himself very well and whatever plans a trader has are based on his knowledge of himself and what he’s capable of.

Let’s take a look at how your trading plan can be improved if you focused on your strengths and took a good stock of your abilities. First, let’s start with what you know: what is it that you have knowledge about or are interested in? This is where we start to lay the foundations of your trading plan. For example, you know about medicine or chemistry, and you have a definite interest in those fields na dkeep yourself up-to-date on the latest things happening in the field. This knowledge can be easily parlayed into something that will help your deals. For example, what chemicals would be in demand if certain inventions or products are released? Won’t chemical company stock rise with increased demand? That’s just one way that personal interest in a particular field can help shape your trading plan.

Another one of your strengths you should focus on is your current resources. Are you solvent? How much money can you safely invest in the market. Taking stock of your personal finances can help determine your trading capability and help shape what trading plan’s going to be. I mean, if you had a spare hundred thousand dollars, that would definitely be a good nest egg to start with rather than ten thousand dollars. You can be more daring with your trades, while if you had less money, you would seek to avoid risk above all. That is, at least, until you have made a tidy profit beside your capital. Your resources aren’t just your money. They’re also the tools you’ll be using for trading. These affect your chance at getting the latest stock information and what chances do you have for doing something about it. A simple computer with an internet connection is a whole lot differnet from just having a TV with Bloomberg and your broker on speed-dial. You definitely should have a different plan for each particular situation.

The next thing you should take into account when fixing up your business plan is your basic personality. What sort of person are you? What type of deals would you be okay with? How much money can you emotionally lose? These questions are the most important because these will help shape a trading plan that you will be comfortable with. If you’re a risk-taker, you would probably be willing to push things to the limit, letting that stock rise high before selling or the share price to go low, hoping for that sudden rebound. Risk-taking personalities should be taken into account into the trading plan but they also have to be reined in – too much risk and you’ll end up bleeding money. The opposite is true for the worrier, the guy who doesn’t want to lose a cent. The stock market has a certain amount of risk and your trading plan should reflect that, giving you a bit more latitude when you start buying or selling.

Remember these three things when making a trading plan and you’ll be able to stick with your plan through thick and thin and, hopefully, to a profitable future.




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A Trading Plan: Your Pathway To Success

December 14th, 2009 by Werner Michael Heus in Forex Trading Plans, Forex Trading System with 0 Comments

When people start talking about getting into the stock market nowadays, there’s a lot of doom and gloom. That’s understandable considering the condition of the economy nowadays.It may seem foolhardy to get into that mess right now. However, there’s a way to get into trading that would help cut down on the risks involved. Trading plans are what successful professional traders use to minimize the chances of loss in their investments. I’ll be showing you how to make one in this article.

First of all, a trading plan is more than just instructions that you write for yourself. A good trading plan is like a second set of instincts for a trader, something definite that they can refer to than just their gut feeling. This is because trading plans ame made by traders so that they would take into account the trader’s personal behavior and personality. That’s why when creating a trading plan, a trader usually starts with a short period of self-reflection.

I know, it sounds, like some psychoanalytical mumbo-jumbo, but knowing oneself is the key to making a successful trading plan. A trader should know what he’s aiming for, what he can do, what he knows about the market, and how he would react to specific situations in the market. All of these go into making a trading plan.

Having definite goals is important. Realistic aims help you keep track of your progress and give a sense of success and confidence which are important in stock trading. Quite a few traders keep track of their goals by defining a set amount of time, usually a week or a month, and having a target profit margin they should aim for. Aiming for a particular target profit keeps a trader on his toes and also imparts a sense of achievement if he meets it.

Next, self-knowledge of a trade’s capabilities is also important in formulating a trading plan because it defines what stocks or markets he would be focusing himself on. You wouldn’t go into anything blind, would you? Well, that’s the same with traders. A trader usually focuses his trading plan on a particular market or commodity. Usually, the market is in a field that he has knowledge about or is interested in. This is because knowing about what you will be trading in is important. Changes in market conditions and the upcoming trends can be noticed by a person who is skilled in a field of study and these changes and trends can often mean the difference between becoming bankrupt or exceedingly profitable.

Finally, knowing your own personality is important. This can help shape your entry and exit strategies into the particular market that you are interested in. Entry strategies are defined by what price of stock and what time would you start buying into a market. Exit strategies are the reverse, essentially marking a point where you start selling shares whether for profit or loss. With the constantly shifting stock market, having clear and defined strategies that match your personality is important. A person who likes taking risks would aim for larger margins of change while a person who likes to play it safe would go with lower margins. Always try to be comfortable with the strategies you make, since you have to follow them.

It all sounds pretty simple making a trading plan, but it’s a whole lot of work.




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