The 'Complete Trader'

Hello me hearties! Arrrggghhhh! To be a swashbuckling swing trader, or scalper, these days on the high sea's of the stock market, one must have a treasure chest of tools and experience.

Technical Analysis...... a good fundamental knowledge of markets....... an understanding of human psychology...... and most important of all - SELF CONTROL.....

And this is what this page is dedicated to....... the making of "The Complete Trader".....

We will be discussing 1) Trading strategies..... 2) Technical Analysis..... 3) Money Management Rules...... 4) Stop Losses......5) Risk Vs Reward Ratio's....... 6) Profit to Loss Ratio's....... 7) Scaling in strategies..... 8) Scaling out strategies..... 9) Patterns probabilities (usually from T Bulkowskis data).....10) Good trading books to read.....

Pretty much everything.

We welcome all opinions...... fundamental and technical..... and all strategies. And out of the 'soup' of infomation we will try and create profitable strategies for winning more money than we lose!

But in order for this board to be effective...... we have all got to be honest! Honest about our stats...... because otherwise we could easily be influencing new traders into taking trades that they think are guaranteed winners.... when the truth be told NOTHING is guaranteed in the markets.....

So this board is just about trying to get an 'edge'......

I think most people (who matter to me!) know my background...... and know that I have had my fair share of ups and downs. On the whole I would say that I have quite a bit of market experience... and more than a few battle scars to prove it...... but I still got a HECK OF A LOT to learn.... and perfection is something I can only aspire to... and probably will never achieve. This year my trading been pretty bad.

Slowly but surely I'm getting my mojo back...... but at the moment I need all the help I can get to keep that trajectory going! So ALL opinions and strategies are welcome as far as I'm concerned!

Good luck guys..... and may the battle (with the markets!) commence!

WCB

Having a bit of trouble with IG Index charts at the moment - but as soon as their back online I'll be posting up my most recent charts on any stocks I'm trading.

I'm also in the process of going through my old links.... to videos on YouTube.... and trading related websites - so I can kick off some discussion on interesting topics - and get the process of learning going.

I really like the pitchfork trading methods which a trader called Joe. has been using around the bulletin boards. Its an old fashioned method thats seeing quite a comeback on the forex markets......

Would be great to see some 'pitchfork' methods being discussed here - as I think its a method that is too little used by the majority..... which makes it a great tool IMO! Because anything that EVERYONE uses..... NEVER works in the market......which is why I actually find the MACD and such tools better on AIM where (I believe) more people are using fundamental strategies than technical.....

I've noticed MACD often being a bit of a bum signal on the indices..... with many pro's trading AGAINST it to wipe out the amateur armchair technicians.

Anyone else seen the same?

Ok.... some interesting video links to get some discussions started:

These are some of my favourites over the years (watch at your leisure!):

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOS8QgAQO-k

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jwEwlZnSFY

3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_RuPo5kMVY

4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4yJd9q8VQw&feature=related

5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmUV8JBLsg&feature=related

6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhQoddzl7pc&feature=related

7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t23ZcJWnvlw&feature=related

8) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sASc4zsqyfU&feature=related

9) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z0WhROsQP0&feature=related

10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLbndy0fogc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

On my next post - I'll do a quick run down of the best trading websites that I have used to learn about trading over the years.

WCB

One more really good link:

The Common Traits Of Winning Traders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQC8lroa6kE&feature=related

Some good website links for people starting out in techs

1) http://www.swing-trade-stocks.com/

I would HIGHLY recommend that any aspiring Techie - does his homework on these sites.

2) http://thepatternsite.com/

3) http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/04/091504.asp#axzz1cLoTUOzX

Any useful additions to these links would be appreaciated.

WCB

WCB grays elroy et al:

Thanks for all your kind thoughts & for once, humour is evading me.

The irrational exhuberance almost wiped me out last week, together with my death wish of fighting the market & overextended short position. I realise i had become more of a gambler than an investor & my gamble on the crash after the EU summit backfired on me & got stopped out of 75% of my positions, near the peaks!!

Like the monkey, i will have to take hold of my gambling instincts & be more cautious in my investment decisions in future - starting with small steps & smaller positions!!

Thank you all again & WCB - thanks for the sxx tip & got in a small position last week & although today has seen volatile trades, it seems to have broken 17p on very high turnover.

Good luck with the new board & will keep watching & hopefully learning.

Howdy WCB, Count me in.. My 3 favourite books are Alexander Elder's Welcome to my trading room, Channel surfing ( Michael J Parsons )- got that rec from you lol, Encylopedia of chart patterns by Bulkowski. I started looking at the Andrew's pitchfork over the weekend, watched a few youtube videos on it, i need to look more closely at probability of price heading to outer channel when price crosses the middle line as I read this was 80% but where i plotted it I was seeing a much lower success rate. Another useful tool to have in the box without a doubt.

Also..... to get the ball rolling on stock analysis....(both fundamentally and technically) - I wonder if I can ask each contributor to the board to compile 5 stocks that they like.

The 5 stocks can be listed for fundamental long term investment reasons...... or for short term technical trades..... or a mixture of both.

I'll get the ball kicked off - and then when I'm able to post charts later on i'll post my fundamental and technical reasons for following these stocks.

1) SXX - Sirius Minerals
2) RRL - Range Resources
3) CZA - Coal Of Africa
4) BZT - Bezant Resources
5) BMR - Berkeley Minerals

These are all AIM stocks..... and all good stocks to trade in the short term.... but ALL have good underlying fundamental stories too and BIG potential, should certain fundamental jigsaw pieces fall into place.

I'm not in all of these stocks at the moment..... but probably worth watchlisting all the same for future trades IMO.

I could name 20 more...... but I'll see what other people come out with first! I reckon I could guess which names are gonna come out of the hat - because I generally know which stocks are pretty popular to trade and invest in on AIM......

Over th ecourse of the next few day we can analyse the charts and fundamentals on these stocks and make decisions and post opinions accordingly.

The more that go into the top of the 'funnel'..... the more potential money spinners we can weed out through the bottom.

WCB

well this is a bit better. Feel the pressure is off a bit as any losing trades on the other board had some numpties gloating over them. Great place for links - http://www.lse.co.uk/general-chat-discussion.asp?page=1&TopCode=CX8JI9OU

hi, nice job wcb :)
short on anto and bp, anto first target 1035, gap fill down the road,will see if its midday action might let it run to the gap fill.
BP - straight to 420, so 42 pips target. Both with no stop losses. Fairly confident indexes are on the retreat dragging the market down. Plus got more time to stay and watch the screen so would react if it goes wrong.
I have no favourit stocks, well apart from rrl/rmp which i am invested heavily in and running currently about 24% down on both, better performing on rrl and about 65% to 35% funds in there. Limited funds to trade stocks in tranches so just taking short or long positions here or there with small amounts. Not nice to have all eggs in one basket but confident on puntland also georgia no abandoned, on rrl t&t exceeding expectations, and expecting also boom from smith2 soon. In there for a very, very long term at least 2-3 years, piling up for a 5-10-20 bagger, trading it from time to time when obvious patterns appear. Trying to set money aside for trading but keep buying in rrl/rmp as they constantly go down.
Leaving indexes alone,shorting stocks as market got wild recently and needs to cool off. FTSE first level of support got breached today at 5645, got 5536 nothing till 5365-5400 which in my opinion should hold. so if 5536 goes might short but stocks are easier now to short. Good day all