Assalammualaikum w.b.t,

Saya dengan berasa suka citanya ingin menceritakan bagaimana pengalaman saya dalam trade news2 yang boleh mendapatkan hasil yang sangat lumayan. Semoga artikel ini dapat memberikan keterbukaan minda kepada anda dalam mempelbagaikan trading style kita. Namun, setiap trading style mempunyai risiko yang tersendiri. Begitu juga dengan teknik news ini. Risikonya tersangat tinggi, tetapi pulangannya juga sangat lumayan dalam sekelip masa. Semuanya bergantung kepada individu itu sendiri untuk mencorakkan teknik-teknik tersebut.

Ok, tanpa buang masa saya akan cuba terangkan seringkas mungkin agar anda faham dengan cepat cara untuk trading news ini.

Kenapa trade news?
Kerana news dapat memberikan kesan impak serta merta dalam market forex. Kita dapat lihat contohnya news yang menjadi sebutan orang ramai, NFP. Jika kita lihat jam 8.30malam setiap jumaat pertama dalam setiap bulan kita akan dapati pergerakan forex sangat laju. Terutamanya jika kita dapat lihat pada candle M1 (Timeframe M1), pergerakannya boleh bergerak melebih 40pips hanya pada 1 candle M1 sahaja. Jadi disini, kita boleh mengambil peluang untuk mengambil pips-pips ini dalam jumlah yang banyak tetapi dalam masa yang singkat mungkin dalam satu hingga 5 minit sahaja. Teruskan pembacaan anda untuk mengetahui bagaimana cara trade news.

Bagaimana caranya untuk trade news?
Alhamdulillah, kita terus ke point asal. Sebelum kita trade news, kita perlu mengetahui terlebih dahulu apakah jenis news forex yang boleh kita trade. Dalam sebulan dianggarkan terdapat lebih 10-20 news yang sangat berpotensi untuk kita trade secara selamat.

Ok, kita ketahui dahulu senarai top news forex:

1. NON FARM PAYROLL
2. TRADE BALANCE
3. INTEREST RATE STATEMENTS
4. DURABLE GOOD
5. PRODUCER PRICE INDEX
6. PPI excl. FOOD AND ENERGY
7. CONSUMER PRICE INDEX
8. CPI excl. FOOD AND ENERGY
9. TRICHET, BERNANKE, & FUKUI SPEAKS
10. UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

Nanti saya akan jelaskan lebih lanjut mengenai setiap news secara terperinci. Strategi utama kita sekarang ialah HANYA memilih news yang berpotensi untuk di-trade. Bagaimana kita nak tahu news tersebut berpotensi tinggi untuk di-trade? Caranya:

Langkah 1
Layari laman web Forex Peace Army.

Langkah 2
Lihat pada kolum "Impact", cari news yang mempunyai bintang 4 atau 5 (Bintang 5 adalah news yang sangat mempengaruhi pasaran).

Langkah 3
Selepas itu lihat pada bahagian kolum "More" selari dengan nama news berbintang 4/5 itu dan klik pada History for event .

Langkah 4
Akan terpapar satu window baru dan menunjukkan detail event untuk news pada tarikh sebelumnya. Pilih salah satu tarikh dan klik pada sebelah kanan "Chart for event..."

Langkah 5
Lihat pada chart tersebut. Dan kita nilaikan sendiri candle pada TimeFrame M1 tersebut, adakah pergerakannya melebihi 30 atau 40pips pada 1 candle sahaja (katakan news pada jam 8.30, kita perhatikan candle M1 pada jam 8.30 juga). Jika ya, bermakna news ini mempunyai potensi yang agak tinggi untuk kita trade dengan selamat. Sebaliknya, kita tidak perlu trade news tersebut dan kita cari news yang lain.

P/S: Kalau pergerakan candle tu bergerak sehala (Buy atau Sell), memang rezeki kita mencurah-curah

Apakah strategi kita untuk menawan news yang berpotensi tinggi?
Syukur Alhamdulillah, akhirnya kita sampai ke tahap bagaimana cara nak masuk trade news. Pada umumnya, strategi kita adalah trade ketika result news telah diumumkan. Sekiranya result adalah baik untuk ekonomi negara tersebut, maka kita akan ambil posisi BUY untuk currency tersebut. Sebaliknya kita ambil posisi SELL. Tetapi mungkin agak mustahil bagi kita untuk masuk posisi BUY/SELL memandangkan sekiranya kita sudah mengetahui result news tersebut, mungkin kita telah terlepas dari mendapatkan pips yang banyak kerana market telah bergerak jauh dikala result news diumumkan. Jadi untuk mengatasi masalah itu, kita perlu membuat Pending Order Buy Stop dan juga Pending Order Sell Stop 5minit-1minit sebelum news diumumkan. Tujuannya adalah sekiranya news tersebut baik untuk ekonomi negara tersebut, maka kita dapat lihat BUY untuk currency tersebut. Katakanlah news Australia Rate Decision, sekiranya result news adalah bagus untuk ekonomi Australia, maka kita dapat lihat pergerakan pips naik lebih tinggi dan kita mengambil posisi BUY. Dengan terpasangnya PO BUY STOP, automatik harga akan mengena pada PO BUY STOP kita. Untuk Sell Stop yang tidak terkena itu, kita perlulah DELETE dengan segera. Untuk Take Profit dan Stop Loss, itu terpulahlah kepada setiap individu untuk meletakkanya. Saya akan beritahu kemudian bagaimana kita dapat mengagak Take Profit dan Stop Loss.

Saya yakin mungkin anda akan tertanya-tanya adakah sempat untuk kita membuat Pending Order Buy Stop dan Sell Stop 5minit-1minit sebelum news itu. Untuk memudahkan trading anda, saya akan berikan script untuk membolehkan kita membuat Buy Stop dan Sell Stop hanya pada 1 klik sahaja. Dengan adanya script tersebut, kita hanya perlu masukkan berapa banyak Take Profit pips yang kita mahukan, jarak pips dari harga pasaran semasa, Lot, dan juga Stop Loss. Nak tahu tips rahsia kejayaan saya lagi? Saya siapkan setting script tersebut lebih awal (Masukkan Stop Loss, Lots, Take Profit, Distance price) dan pada 20 saat sebelum news diumumkan, saya hanya perlu tekan butang OK script tersebut. Selepas itu Pending Order Buy Stop dan Sell Stop akan dibuat sendiri, sekiranya salah satu PO dah terbuka, kita delete PO yang lagi satu (PO yang belum dibuka).

Namun begitu, strategi saya ini hanya sesuai dilakukan pada broker yang laju saja. Contohnya ialah IKO-FX dan FBS. Ini adalah kerana sekiranya broker tersebut lambat (Saya tidak kata mana-mana broker yang lambat), berkemungkinan sekiranya kita ingin Close Profit pada waktu harga tengah bergerak laju, mungkin akan makan masa sedikit disebabkan REQUOTE. Jadi terpulanglah kepada anda untuk memilih broker yang mana.

Hanya trade beberapa hari sahaja sudah mendapat profit yang melebihi dari jangkaan sebulan trading kita. Tetapi perlulah diingatkan bahawa trade news ini TIDAK SEMESTINYA profit berpanjangan kerana semuanya bergantung kepada result news. Sekiranya terdapat 2 news yang kuat dalam 1 masa, ini boleh menyebabkan pergerakan yo-yo (naik atas dan turun bawah) jika 1 news tersebut baik untuk ekonomi negara dan 1 lagi news bad news untuk negara tersebut. Jadi terpulanglah kepada kita untuk mengatur strategi Money Management kita. Pastikan Stop Loss itu sentiasa ada untuk mengelakkan perkara yang tidak diingini berlaku.

Download script PukatNews:
http://hotfile.com/dl/75423613/b2648e9/PukatNews.ex4.html

Sekian terima kasih.
P/S: Doakan saya dimurahkan rezeki

Trading psikologi merupakan aspek terpenting dari kesuksesan trader. Kita telah membuat kenyataan ini dahulu, tetapi perlu mengulanginya. Ada banyak faktor yang menyumbang terhadap psikologi seorang trader, dan tidak ada cara yang mudah untuk mencapai pola fikir trader. Namun, ada beberapa faktor yang mempengaruhi psikologi trader yang penting dan perlu diperhatikan. Sebelum ini kita telah membincangkan sebuah ciri yang merangkumi bagaimana seorang trader perlu berhadapan dengan drawdown (Trading Psikologi-Berhadapan dengan Drawdown). Topik sebelum ini membincangkan implikasi psikologi disebabkan oleh kehilangan straight siri perdagangan. Topik hari ini, menerima risiko, berkaitan dengan individual trades.

Best trader biasanya adalah trader yang paling konsisten. Untuk menjadi trader yang konsisten, penting untuk secara konsisten mengaplikasikan satu metodologi ke atas market dan membuat kesalahan sedikit mungkin. Kesalahan dalam trading adalah ketika seorang trader menyeleweng daripada metodologi mereka. Kesalahan umum termasuk mengambil kerugian yang lebih besar dari yang dirancang, keluar dari trade lebih awal daripada yang dirancang, membuka trade yang tidak sesuai dengan kriteria biasa trader, atau melepaskan trade yang sesuai dengan kriteria trader. Kesalahan ini boleh merosakkan modal trader dan kewarasan mereka.

Kesalahan dalam trading biasanya disebabkan oleh emosi dari trading sebelumnya. Emosional yang paling berbahaya (menurut saya) berlaku ketika seorang trader kehilangan sebuah perdagangan yang mereka rasakan itu adalah sepatutnya win trade. Setelah kehilangan trade ini, seorang trader merasa sedih, marah, atau bahkan dendam terhadap market. Hal ini menyebabkan trader masuk trade dengan tidak rasional untuk memenangi kembali apa yang mereka telah hilangkan. Tentu saja, trade ini juga biasanya diakhiri dengan loser. Jika menang, hal ini menjadi lebih buruk lagi, kerana sikap ini mendorong keputusan yg sama di masa depan, dan boleh menyebabkan kerugian yang lebih besar.

Menurut pendapat saya, alasan senario tersebut adalah umum di kalangan trader ialah mereka tidak dapat menerima risiko ketika mereka menempatkan perdagangan. Mereka menharapkan sebuah perdagangan yang pasti akan menang, jadi ia menjadi sengsara jika perdagangan itu sebuah kerugian. Bahkan, peniaga mungkin menolak untuk menerima kerugian mereka kerana mereka begitu yakin itu adalah win trade, yang boleh mengakibatkan kerugian yang menghancurkan. Inilah sebabnya trader harus menerima risiko dari setiap perdagangan sebelum mereka memasuki posisi mereka. Dengan kata lain, seorang peniaga harus melihat jumlah wang yang mereka risk kan sebagai kos untuk melihat apakah idea perniagaan mereka akan bekerja. Sekali seorang trader menerima risiko, mereka biasanya akan merasa tidak tertekan walaupun perdagangan itu bukan perdagangan yang menang.

Menerima risiko dari setiap perdagangan tidak mudah, terutamanya bagi trader yang tidak berpengalaman. Sudah tentu, ada beberapa langkah yang boleh kita ambil untuk membuatnya lebih mudah menerima risiko. Pertama, sangat penting untuk merancang setiap perdagangan. Ini bererti kita harus tahu di mana kita akan memasuki perdagangan, tempat kita berhenti/SL, dan tempat kita menempatkan TP. Dengan cara itu tidak ada keputusan yang perlu dibuat selepas posisi sudah dimasukkan. Otak manusia akan melihat maklumat yang berbeza apabila perdagangan dimasukkan dan berfikir jauh lebih jelas sebelum perdagangan dimasukkan. Selain itu, jika kita mengetahui jarak antara entry dan SL, kita dapat mengetahui secara persis berapa banyak modal kita yang dirisikokan. Hal ini penting kerana tidaklah mungkin untuk kita menerima risiko ketika kita tidak tahu berapa besar risikonya. Setelah memasukkan rencana pra-perdagangan, emosi tidak boleh dielakkan, tapi setidaknya ia tidak akan mempengaruhi keputusan perdagangan.

Seperti yang kita katakan sebelum ini, seorang trader harus melihat jumlah wang yang mereka risikokan sebagai kos untuk melihat apakah idea perniagaan mereka akan bekerja. Setiap trader pasti mempunyai kerugian. Namun, peniaga konsisten melihat kerugian sebagai sebahagian kos perniagaan. Kerugian adalah aspek penting perdagangan, dan tidak ada cara untuk mengetahui yang mana perdagangan akan menang atau perdagangan yang mana akan kalah ketika perdagangan dimasukkan. Oleh kerana itu, jika kita boleh menerima risiko dari setiap perdagangan sebelum menempatkannya, kerugian ini dapat lebih mudah dilihat sebagai sebahagian daripada perdagangan berbanding serangan peribadi terhadap market. Sekali seorang pedagang belajar untuk menerima risiko pada setiap perdagangan dan mengakui mereka tidak tahu yang mana satu perdagangan akan menang, mereka akan lebih mudah untuk mengendalikan emosi dan mencapai keputusan yang konsisten.

Psikologi dalam trading merupakan aspek terpenting untuk kesuksesan trader. Hal ini mungkin mengejutkan beberapa pembaca, khususnya mereka yang baru dalam trading. Namun, faktor psikologi trader lebih penting daripada pengetahuan market, analisis pasaran, bahkan money management. Alasan mengapa psikologi begitu penting adalah walaupun informasi terbaik diperolehi ia boleh diselewengkan oleh poor mindset atas dorongan faktor psikologi.

Kebanyakan trader baru berfikir kunci untuk profit dalam trading adalah mengetahui lebih banyak tentang market. Sebagai contoh, sebahagian besar trader baru menggunakan pelbagai indikator yang mereka temukan, membaca GDP tren, dan merasa bahawa pro trader memiliki pengetahuan yang special. Namun, ini tidak menjamin memberikan keputusan yang diharapkan oleh novice trader untuk berjaya.

Setelah menyedari bahawa mengakses informasi market yang berlebihan tidak membantu (dan mungkin mengelirukan) keputusan, saat berikutnya ialah trader ini akan melihat sudut money management. Tidak kira trading dengan sekecil 1 lot setiap kali, atau semaksimum lot yang dibenarkan dari akaun, trader ini menyedari kerugian tetap terjadi tidak kira apapun. Ketika mereka menyedari bahawa setiap orang pasti mengalami lose, mereka akan melihat mengapa money management diperlukan. Ini adalah langkah besar, tetapi tetap tidak menjamin kesuksesan.

Jangan salah faham, anda juga perlu memiliki suatu bentuk analisis dan bentuk money management untuk profit dalam jangka panjang. Dengan kata lain, anda memerlukan satu kelebihan yang bila diterapkan bersama dengan proper money management untuk menjamin kepada positif return dalam banyak trade. Great money management tanpa kelebihan itu hanya akan bererti anda kehilangan wang dengan kadar yang lambat. Great strategi tanpa money management akan menyebabkan akaun akan mudah blow up. Namun, tanpa proper mindset, ia mustahil untuk terus mendapatkan keputusan yang baik dalam jangka masa yang panjang.

The bottom line adalah poor mindset boleh memberi sabotaj walaupun kita mempunyai best trading strategi atau money management strategi. Kita melihat salah satu contoh. Ujian terbesar dalam psikologi trading berlaku semasa drawdown. Hal ini terjadi ketika seorang trader tidak dapat perform dan mendapat bad result dalam jangka waktu tertentu. Biasanya keadaan bertambah buruk jika drawdown menghilangkan sejumlah besar keuntungan yang diperolehi sebelumnya.

Perlu diketahui, drawdown adalah sesuatu yang normal. Setiap trader melalui keadaan itu. Namun, kuncinya adalah bertindak dengan proper terhadap drawdown itu. Inilah sebabnya mengapa psikologi dalam trading begitu penting. Reaksi natural kita semasa drawdown adalah kita mudah menukar strategi yang ditetapkan. Kadang-kadang trader akan masuk trade tanpa alasan yang munasabah kerana mengejar peluang profit dalam keadaan desperate. Dengan beranggapan anda percaya bahawa metodologi anda adalah key, tidak ada alasan untuk anda mengubah apa pun walaupun semasa drawdown. Bahkan, ia adalah masa yang penting untuk mengikut basic. Atas beberapa alasan trader cenderung panik dalam situasi ini dan mengubah segalanya. Ini menyebabkan kepada drawdown yang lebih besar, yang biasanya hanya berakhir jika trader beralih kembali kepada strategi asal mereka.


Simple Math untuk Recover dari DrawDown...

Loss 10% - % Profit untuk Recover - 11%
Loss 30% - % Profit untuk Recover - 40%
Loss 50% - % Profit untuk Recover - 100%
Loss 80% - % Profit untuk Recover - 400%
Loss 100 % - Top Up...

by Sam Evans
Trading discipline is simply a hard skill to master. With dreams of making big money in the fastest possible time, the vast majority of novice and beginner traders typically learn this lesson the hard way. Being disciplined and patient is pretty much the last thing on the rookie trader's mind in the early stages of their career. They want to make money and get results quickly after seeing and hearing how the professionals do it and aspiring to reach these upper echelons in the shortest possible time. As a full-time trader myself, I completely understand this scenario all too well, from my own personal experiences and also from teaching around 500 students through Online Trading Academy. I had to learn to control my money and my emotions the hard way and I now take pleasure in teaching students of the market around the world how to avoid the mistakes I made in the early days.

In one of my recent Extended Learning Track (XLT) sessions, I was sharing with the class some ideas on how they could learn to keep things under control when they are trading. They asked me how I learn to be disciplined in my trading and I said that after putting together a solid trading plan, learning to control loss and then applying consistency, really all it comes down to is keeping myself in check and to be honest, I used to find this difficult at times! I am only human after all with the same emotions as everyone else. I told them how I went to get some help from a coaching friend of mine and how his suggestions enhanced my trading considerably. It should be noted that he is not a trader. His area of expertice is in streamlining and increasing an individual's performance in their subject field, and this is what I especially liked about working with him.

You see I already understood the importance of risk management, was working from a trade plan and had trained myself to look for the best low risk, high probability trades, but something was missing. I didn't want to be advised by another trader as I was happy with my trading skills. In essence, it was me who was making errors in how I managed myself and maintained my discipline, so the work required needed to shift to my persona and attitude before I could witness any further breakthroughs. My coach suggested I carry out a simple exercise in my daily trading routine and made me implement it and follow-through with it for a couple of weeks. For the focus of this article, I would like to share with you the same powerful exercise, what my XLT students have named as "Mental Push-Ups."

In the nature of keeping things simple, I would say that this exercise in generating trading discipline focuses on two main areas. First, it is about controlling loss and being patient with waiting for entries and taking trades. Secondly, it is designed to maximize profits from the market and create a powerful overall risk to reward ratio in a trader's overall trading performance. Note the word control being used here. A consistent trader needs this in their makeup to even have a genuine shot at being successful. Even after quality education and mentorship, the novice trader needs to not only understand this dynamic, but to have actually experienced taking control and being disciplined at the same time. I have found with students I have worked with that after getting to grips with market direction and the use of stop losses, they still tend to suffer from a combination of over-trading, chasing the market when they are wrong or missed an entry and finally, not letting the profits run enough. This practical exercise can help to correct these fatal flaws in the psyche of the novice trader.

First, you need to define clearly your daily or weekly loss limit on the trading account. This could vary between 1 to 3% of your equity, depending on the style of trading and personal preferences. Let's, for example purposes, say we are going to have a maximum daily loss limit of $100. Now that this has been decided, the key is to not lose more than this – if you do, you have to quit for the day. Of course, you could wait patiently for a trade and it stops you out, but you still have to quit for the day. Close down the PC, shut the door to the office and walk away, even if that trade lasted mere minutes or seconds. It does not matter, you walk away. This is true discipline and any experienced trader reading this article right now will know just how hard it is to stop trading for the day after a single loss, but remember this is an exercise in control, nothing more nothing less. It is a rule which aims to prevent the trader from chasing back a losing trade, which typically leads to poor and emotional trading decisions and big losses for the day, when this could have been avoided by ceasing trading at the first loss. The object is to lose small and stay away from the market when you are wrong.

The second part of the exercise is quite simple. If that first trade is a winning trade, you have to carry on trading for the day. Now of course I am not suggesting jumping into new trades recklessly and playing up the winnings irresponsibly, but rather to carry on when you are doing well. Many market newbies pat themselves on the back when they make money and set daily profit targets. When they hit these targets, they stop trading, comfortable in the knowledge of their profits sitting there in the account. However, when they do this for a few days running and one day lose a trade, they get angry and take another to win back the lost money. When this course of action results in a further loss, what do they do? They trade again and the losses begin to mount up, eventually eating into the previous day's profits...sound familiar? So, instead of stopping when we are winning and carrying on trading when losing, I want you to flip this the other way around. Carry on when you are winning and stop when you lose. You should give yourself some guidelines for this as well.

I decided to carry on trading if my first trade was a winner, but I was only allowed to take two more trades in total, giving me a max potential of three winners for the day. This meant that at worst case, I could have one loser for the day, but at best three winners (please make sure that you are using at least a 3:1 reward to risk ratio to make this effective), meaning that I would be consistently looking to maintain higher average winners to average losers. But yes, there is one more tiny detail...if you win the first trade and take a second, you are still only allowed to risk your daily loss limit, which in this case is $100. Again, the aim is to maximize returns so that if you win first and lose the second, you will still be up for the day and protected for the next day, too. If you do lose the 2nd trade, a third is not allowed – you have to stop. Remember, you carry on when winning, but quit when you lose, making sure all along that you make the very most of the winners and cut the losers off sharply.

This was a simple exercise given to me by a great coach and I can honestly say, it turned out to be the psychological kick in the rear end I so needed! I learned the power of control, managing risk at all times and allowing my profits to run. I carried out the exercise for a month and it was hard at first, especially when I placed a loser and had to stop for the rest of the day. But in time I saw how my profits and performance increased to the plus side in a very short amount of time, all as a result of control and discipline. And I was spending less time at the computer screen, too, which is always a good thing. I hope it does the same for you. Finally, I would like to thank my good friend and mentor Guy Jacobs for his support along the journey

by Richard Olsen

The biggest danger for any trader is excessive exposure. An unexpected price spike can then trigger a margin call that wipes out all the profits generated over months of hard effort. This is the most frequent reason why traders lose money. How can we prevent this from happening? What do we have to know?

Diversification
As there is no such thing as perfect foresight and an unexpected price spike can occur at any time, a trader should always diversify his risk and trade not just one, but two or three ideas at the same time. It is through diversification that he can improve his risk profile – when one trading idea is in the profit, the other runs a loss and vice versa. Overall his performance is smoother and more importantly, this approach reduces the pressure to perform. The trader is then more relaxed and less emotional in managing the exposure of his trades.

How To Realize Profits?
Whatever the underlying trading ideas are, the method for converting an idea into a realized profit is always quite similar. First, the trader should define a budget in terms of assets that he intends to commit to the trading idea. It is best to divide the budget into targeted position size and additional capacity that he intends to use in case that the market turns against him. I advise that the targeted position size should be only one third of the overall budget of the trading idea – a large two thirds are additional capacity that is kept in reserve. When he opens his position based on his trading idea, he should split the initial trade into three tranches, because there is no way to know the optimal timing for an opening a trade, so it is better to diversify this risk into three opening trades.

How To Manage A Trade?
In the blog on why butterflies cause cascading margin calls I explained that a trader needs to be on the continuous lookout for unforeseen events that can trigger a cascade of margin calls. When this happens, any trade can turn into a losing position, where the entry price is so far from the current price level that the profit target is out of reach.

Improving Price Average To Turn Losing Position Into A Profit
A losing position can be turned into a winning trade by turning the negative development into a positive and take advantage of the new price level to add to the existing position thus improving the price average of the whole position. In doing so, the trader shortens the distance between price average and current price thus increasing the likelihood of a price bounce that is sufficiently large to turn his position into a profit.

Why Are Price Rebounds Bound To Occur?
In liquid financial markets up to 98% of all the trading is based on speculative positions and the hedging of those positions. These positions being speculative are temporary and any opening trade will need to be closed. When the closing trade happens, this has the effect of inducing a price reversal. Due to the duality of the opening and closing trade the price movements are never fully one sided. At some stage, sooner or later, positions will be closed and then the price rebounds occur.

A trader can use these reversals to turn a losing trade into a winning position. The method of increasing the position size to turn a losing trade into a winning position has, however, big drawbacks, which the trader has to be fully aware off.

Smoke And Mirrors
Human beings do not find it easy to correctly identify price extremes. They typically interpret relatively small price moves as extremes, where in actual effect the moves are only moderately larger than average. This deficiency is even more pronounced when a trader faces mounting losses. When under pressure, the trader’s internal clock ticks faster and he poles the market price at a higher frequency. Time will seem to flow more slowly, minutes will feel like hours and days like weeks. Under these circumstances, the trader’s natural instinct is to time his trades in terms of his internal clock, but this is wrong. Unaware he will focus on smaller-scale price movements that are out of step with his overall trading strategy. He will decide to increase his bet too early. There might be a bounce back, but this will not be enough for him to exit his position with a profit. If the price resumes its slide, the trader will accumulate losses even faster than before because of the larger position.

A trader needs to take into account that his sense of timing is skewed when under pressure: he needs to lean back and slow his natural instinct and wait for a price overshoot that is in sync with his regular trading frequency. Patience is of essence.

Reducing Position Size
If a trader has increased his position size to improve the average price of his position, he has to reduce the size of his position at the next opportunity, when the price rebounds. This is important because he has to free up margin capital, so that he can increase his position, when the price falls back again. By carefully managing the position size during the ups and downs in the price, he earns incremental profit that turns a losing position into a winning trade.

Trader Deep Freeze
The biggest danger for a trader is the so-called ‘deep freeze’ mode: a trader, who is close to a margin call, freezes up and does not have the mental energy to take decisions and blindly hopes for a price rebound. He can be lucky once, twice or three times, but not on an ongoing basis. Similar to a mouse that is hunted by a cat and cannot move for fright, the same happens to the trader. It is important to preempt this situation. The trader has to set himself a stop loss, where he will get out of his position, whatever may happen. Ideally, the stop loss is never triggered and he is able to maneuver out of any unrealized loss by increasing and decreasing his position size in response to the local highs and lows of the market. In case he fails, he has to have a stop loss strategy in place that limits his overall risk. It is all too easy to close one’s eyes and hope for the best

Guest post from Jason Madison
1. Develop a trading plan and stick to it.
Trading is just like any other business if you don’t have plan of action you are destined to fail. A trading plan is a necessity because without one you are just gambling. A good trading plan will have defined rules that tell you: when to take a trade, how much to risk, and when to exit a trade. It is important that you develop a trading plan and adhere to its rules if you hope to be a successful trader.
2. Learn To Accept Losses.
Losing is a part of trading and you will never escape it. As human beings we seek perfection we want to believe that if we can just find the right method we can trade the markets flawlessly and never take a loss. Unfortunately that is not the case as even the best traders in the world take losses it’s a part of the game. The key however is to not fear these losses but to simply expect them to occur and to manage your risk accordingly
3. Use Proper Money Management.
The key to lasting in the world of forex trading is to control your risk. You have resist the temptation trade to maximize gains and to instead trade to minimize loss. You have to treat your capital as you would a loved one. You wouldn’t risk a family member’s life would you? So don’t risk your capital unnecessarily because your capital is the life line of your trading career. Keep your maximum risk to between 2-3% per trade and you will ensure that even if you suffer a string of losses you will live to trade another day
4. Don’t Be Greedy
When you open a trade and the market does exactly what you thought it would do you are going to be tempted to hold on to the trade because you figure its going to keep moving in the same direction making you more money. This however could backfire as the market could quickly reverse and wipe away all your gains. To avoid this you need to take profit once the market has given you a certain amount of profit. This amount should be defined in your trading plan and should be strictly adhered to.
Forex Trading may seem like an impossible thing to learn but with these tips you will be well on your way to a successful forex trading career.
Do you want to take your trading to new heights? Do you want to become one of the 5% of traders that actually make it in this business? Do you want to discover the revolutionary price action techniques that will allow you to trade for a living?

1 Introduction
In this article we cover the few important rules that should never be broken in trading. If you can apply these rules consistently, and with discipline, you will be well on the way to being a profitable trader.
The rules we cover are:
o Have specific goals and objectives
o Be consistent and disciplined
o Let profits run
o Cut losses short
o Never add to a losing trade
o Don't take too much risk
o Only trade positive expectancy systems
o Minimize all trading business costs
o Be well educated
o Don't trade scared money

2 The Golden Rules of Trading
The following sections outline a set of rules that can significantly improve your chances of success if they are understood, practiced, and implemented consistently in your trading. These rules have been learned the hard way, by study, research, trial-and-error, and the inevitable mistakes that everyone makes when they start a trading business.
We hope that you can learn from the work we have done, and benefit from our experience. The rules will now be discussed.

2.1 Have specific goals and objectives
Few things are more important to your trading success than having set (i.e. written) goals and objective for what you are aiming to achieve. It is amazing to me how often we hit our targets, meet our objectives, and reach our goals only when we articulate them and write them down.
For any business to be successful it must have measurable objectives that are actually achievable. In trading (obviously) the primary objective is to make money, but it is important to have other objectives that are not purely cash-related. We must always remember that reward and risk go hand-in-hand in trading and that we cannot expect to achieve high returns without planning for high risk (i.e. draw-downs).
Your objectives and goals will be very specific to you, but they must have the following characteristics to be useful:
o Be measurable (in completion and timeframe)
o Be achievable
o Be worthwhile
o Be positive
As an example, here are some of our current objectives (this is only a partial list):
o Develop 2 new positive-expectancy trading systems each year
o Make fewer errors implementing our trading systems each year
o Achieve a return to maximum draw-down ratio of 1.5:1
o Take 2 weeks vacation each year
Note that only one of them is about making money, and that has a measurable objective that is relative to draw-down, not absolute (i.e. make 100% per year). If you know what you are trying to achieve, and when you are trying to achieve it, the whole business will be focused on meeting
your objectives and help guide you to only pay attention to things you really want to achieve with your limited time and resources. This will also give you a way to measure the success and progress of your trading. Generally traders with well-defined objectives will be much more successful than those that do not have pre-defined goals.

2.2 Be consistent and disciplined
In order to realize the full potential of your trading systems it is critical that you take every trading entry, adjust every stop, and close out every trade as and when your system says you should do. This takes extreme confidence in your trading systems, good robust reliable technology, and the mental discipline to stick to your trading plan whatever happens (assuming it is complete).
An underlying assumption about being consistent and disciplined is that you have a pre-defined plan for every situation you may face in your trading, so that you know how you are defining what being consistent is. Your plan needs to include at least the following items:
o All your trading rules for entering, adding to, and exiting positions
o What you will do if your trading computer, internet connection, broker, power, telephone
etc. fails
o What you will do if you are unable to trade
o What you will do if you lose X% of your account
o What you will do if all the markets are closed and you can't exit your positions
Unless you write the answers down to all these issues, you cannot be consistent and disciplined in your approach to trading and if you lose money you will not know whether it is because you didn't follow your plan, because your plan is incomplete, because your systems do not work, or simply because you are going through a losing period.

2.3 Let profits run
This simple rule is the key to being a successful trader. It is three simple words that are very hard to actually implement. When we get a profitable trade our natural fear of losing the unrealized cash kicks in and we truly want to close it out now and take the money. Most trading consists of long periods of small winners and losers followed by a few huge winners that make the difference between overall profitability and simply breaking even or losing due to trading costs(commissions, spread, and slippage).
It is our ability to let the huge winners become just that - huge - that determines how we will perform overall during the year. The key to letting winners run is to have trailing stops that are outside the daily noise of the market so that they are not tight enough to get stopped out during 'normal' trading. This means being prepared to give up a significant portion of a winning trade's open profit and is the thing that makes this so hard to implement. In fact, we should be adding to a winner and widening stops rather than working out how tight our stops can be to capture maximum profit. The trade has already shown you that it intends to be a winner, and the chances are it is a low-risk idea to add to the position now rather than 'strangle it' with stops that are too tight.
It is very important that your position management rules allow for large winning trades, and that the rules are pre-defined and understood before you place the trade. This will allow you (if you have confidence in your method and discipline) to stick to your rules when you do get the big
winner.

2.4 Cut losses short
This is the sister rule to the previous one, and is usually just as difficult to implement (although it
is very easy to define). In the same way that profitability comes from a few large winning trades, capital preservation comes from avoiding the few large losers that the market will toss your way each year. Setting a maximum loss point before you enter the trade so you know before-hand approximately how much you are risking on this particular position is relatively straightforward. You simply need to have a exit price that says to you 'this trade is a loser and I will exit before it gets any bigger'. Due to gaps at the open, or limit moves in futures we can never be 100%
certain that we can get out with our maximum loss, but simply having the rules, and always sticking to it will save us from the nasty trades that just keep on going and going against our position until we have lost more than many winning trades can make back.
If you have a losing position that is at you maximum loss point, just get out. Do not hope that it will turn around. Given that trades are either winners or losers, and this one is shouting 'Loser' at you, the chances that it will turn around and become a large winner is tiny. Why risk any more money on this losing trade, when you could simply close it out (accept the loss) and move on. This will leave you in a much better place financially and mentally, than holding the position and hoping it will go back your way. Even if it did do this, the mental energy and negative feelings from holding the losing position are not worth it. Always stick to your rules and exit a position if it hits your stop point.

2.5 Never add to a losing trade
One of the few trade management rules that we can state we never break is 'Never add to a losing trade'. Trades are split into winners and losers, and if a trade is a loser, the chances of it turning right around and becoming a winner are too small to risk more money on. If indeed it is a winner disguised as a loser, why not wait until it shows it's true colors (and becomes a winner)before you add to it.
If you do this you will notice that nearly always the trade ends up hitting your stop loss and does not look back. Sometimes the trade turns around before it hits your stop and becomes a winner and you can count yourself very fortunate. Sometimes the trade hits your stop loss and then
turns around and becomes a winner and you can count yourself unlucky. Whatever the result, it is never worth adding to a loser, hoping that it will become a winner. The odds of success are just too low to risk more capital in addition to the initial risk.

2.6 Don't take too much risk
One of the most devastating mistakes any trader can make is risking too much of their capital on a single trade. One thing is certain in trading and that is if you lose all your capital you are out of the game. Why risk so much you could be prevented from continuing? There is a saying in
poker than going all-in (risking all your chips) works every time but once. This is true of trading.
If you risk all your account on every trade it only takes one loser to wipe you out (and no trading method is 100% accurate), so you will be out of the game at some point - it is only a question of time.
In general, we only risk 1-3% of the available capital allocated to a system on any individual trade. This is calculated using the size and, the difference between our entry price and our maximum stop price, and the amount of capital allocated to the system. With the win probability
and ratio of size of winning trades to losing trades we are almost certain never to lose all of our trading capital. In fact, the chance of us hitting our maximum drawdown for the year is tiny.
All trades should be of a size that almost seems insignificant. If you are worried about the size of a trade then it is too big and you should reduce the size immediately. Remember that longevity is the key to making money by trading - slowly over a long time with minimal risk, is always preferable to rapidly with too much risk.

2.7 Only trade positive expectancy systems
If you have a positive expectancy trading system, the only factors that determine how much money you will make per year are the number of trades the system generates, how much capital you allocate to the system, and how accurately you implement the trading signals. If you do not know whether your trading system is positive expectancy then why are you trading it? Expectancy is calculated using the profit or loss on each trade (net of trading implementation
costs) divided by the initial risk (using your stop loss) and then taking the average of this number of a series of trades. Systems that have positive expectancy will make money on average and those with negative expectancy will lose money.
Successful traders only trade systems where the odds of success are in their favor (i.e. the system is positive expectancy) so they know that making money is the result of accurately implementing the system and not just pure luck.

2.8 Minimize all trading business costs
Some trading systems have only marginal profitability, and trading implementation costs (commission, spread, and slippage) can be the difference between profitability and making a loss. With the easy availability of modern electronic brokers, and fully-automated trade processing and
execution, it is definitely worthwhile looking for a very low cost way to implement your trading system. High commission, wide spreads, and large amount of slippage can be reduced considerably simply by carefully choosing a broker. This can be the difference between a system
(especially a high frequency one) being useable or not. Paying too much for trade implementation is an avoidable way to lose money.

2.9 Be educated
In order to compete at the highest level in the trading business and be one of the few truly successful participants you must be well-educated about what you are doing. This does not mean having a degree from a well-respected university - the market doesn't care where you were educated.
Being well-educated means that you have thoroughly researched and tested your trading ideas and know why your trading system worked in the past and is continuing to work now. It means understanding all the technology and applications that your system needs to perform accurately.
It means understanding your goal and objectives and how trading will achieve these. It means understanding yourself and how your personality affects your results. It means understanding the markets and instruments you trade.
In order to succeed you really need to become an expert in your own trading business to understand how it all fits together, when it is broken, and how it can be improved. As with all worthwhile endeavors, this takes commitment, hard work, dedication, and more hard work.

2.10 Don't trade scared money
Lastly, no one ever made any money trading when they had to do it to pay the mortgage at the end of the month. Having a requirement to make X dollars per month or you will be financially in trouble is the best way I know to completely mess up all trading discipline, rules, objectives, and
leads quickly to disaster.
Trading is about taking a reasonable risk in order to achieve a good reward. The markets and how and when they give up their profits is not under your control. Do not trade if you need the money to pay bills. Do not trade if your business and personal expenses are not covered by
another income stream or cash reserve. This will only lead to additional unmanageable stress and be very detrimental to your trading performance.

3 Summary
In this article we have covered the rules that we believe should never be broken in trading. If you work on never breaking them, your trading should improve dramatically.
We sincerely hope this information has helped you to improve your trading performance.
Good luck in your trading.
Paul King is owner and head trader of PMKing Trading LLC, a Vermont-based proprietary trading company founded in May 2002. Paul has published a series of eBooks and articles about what he considers to be the important aspects of trading.