Trading Rules - Keep to yourself

Drawing from the teachings of Turtle Traders, I must keep my trades to myself and increase confidence and faith in myself. The Golden Agri case is a classic example. I bought at 0.315 on 15th July and it went up to 0.335 the next day. I happen to call a friend (who is a full time trader, sort of) for some sharing. He warned me to sell away stocks that are in-the-money to cash out quickly because overall market seems to be soften. That prompted me to sell off my Golden Agri at 0.315 for a quick profit (5.5%). Sounds good for a one-day job. After selling, I realized that I had made 2 mistakes. One, I was succumbing to fear of losing because I didn't justify the selling by the chart and the counter did not hit my stop loss. Two, I was not sticking to my rules and consult my charts before making any moves.

Important Rule: Trading is a lone game (Jesse Livermore, Turtle Traders). Do not discuss your trade with other people.

This important rule was both mentioned by Jesse Livermore and Turtle Traders.

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Spanish Debt Issues

There is a lot of talk about Spanish sovereign debts recently. I came across a research paper which I think is very useful for me and wish to share it here. This is taken from www.fundsupermart.com, an online fund broker where you can purchase funds form various fund managers. This portal provides some research and comparisons and it is essentially a self service portal. From the chart provided, we can see that there is a problem for Spain to service their debts for the next 4-5 years if the debts are not re-structured. With this kind of risk, no sane investors would want to risk their money to buy Spanish bonds. They can only turn to European central bank for bail out. The blue arrow is a fictitious line I draw assuming re-structuring is going to happen. Essentially, they have to move the payment of capitals into next 5-20 years to be affordable. In addition to that, they can't make additional loans. This is just taking a very simplistic view of the situation. To have that hap...

How to do technical analysis for stocks?

I started investing in stock market about 20 years ago. Initially subscribing to IPOs. I had not have luck with IPOs. All of them ended with money losing deal, even though I held on to them for a few years. So, I concluded that the IPOs in Singapore market is over priced. Then I started to read analyst reports on stocks and invest in companies (typically blue chips). Not much profit but good dividends during the good years. Then, came the financial crises. I went on to buy blue chip companies during crises and I held them over the years and sold of a about 120% gain over 5 years on average. Due to some distraction, I stayed away from the market during this crisis and missed the opportunity to buy during the lows. Recently (few months ago), I had been doing some stock trading and currency trading using technical analysis method for more than a year. So far, I had tried many different technical analysis using different indicators (Moving averages, MACD, RMO, Fibonacci, Stochastics, RSI e...

Trading systems

Here are some trading systems that can be used for trend following trading: ATR Channel Breakout : A volatility channel system that uses ATR as the volatility measure. Bollinger Breakout : A volatility channel system that uses the standard deviation as the volatility measure. Donchian Trend : A breakout system with a trend filter. Donchian Trend with Time Exit : A breakout system with a trend filter and a time-based exit. Dual Moving Average : A system that buys and sells when a faster moving average crosses over a slower moving average. Unlike the other systems, this system is always in the market, either long or short. Triple Moving Average : A system that buys and sells when a faster moving average crosses over a slower moving average but only in the direction of the major trend defined by a very slow-moving average.

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