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volatilityMan
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Posts: 70
Joined: January 16th, 2015, 6:06 pm

Tools for becoming a great trader

May 23rd, 2017, 10:59 pm

Hi guys

The subjects says it all. I would like to gain some knowledge in becoming a great trader i.e. what thoughts one should do before executing a trade, how to think and act, maybe even some basic tools for calculation/visualisation etc. 

The best way to put it is simply: How to become a top scorer. 

I hope someone with many years of experience and success could give some advice and maybe suggest a book. 

Thanks!
 
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DavidJN
Posts: 241
Joined: July 14th, 2002, 3:00 am

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

May 25th, 2017, 3:43 pm

I've been in the business more than 25 years. I've worn many hats and successfully traded derivatives on a couple of major asset classes. I suppose it is possible to "learn to trade" but my sense is that the industry is better off to hire the people who naturally have suitable qualities in them. Than's why I've always insisted on a two-step interview process - one set for technical basics (a dime a dozen given the proliferation of financial engineering schools) and another far more important set of interviews to assess mindset and ethics (a psychological excavation). 

What are these qualities? First and foremost, one has to have a very good idea of where the underlyings are hiding, many are effectively in short supply. You REALLY have to know where the product is and how to get your hands on it. Second, one has to have the instinct to quickly learn from one's mistakes and not dwell on them, every trade is a new game. Lastly and relatedly, one has to understand that trading is a repeated game and one can be a genuine success being right only 60 percent of the time. One has to be able to turn off the primitive defensive "lizard brain" that leads people into bad financial decisions. You might start with that literature as there are books on it.
 
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fomisha
Posts: 29
Joined: December 30th, 2003, 4:28 pm

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

June 1st, 2017, 8:43 pm

to make money: buy low, sell high. there is no substitute for business intuition and common sense. 
if you need top tier tools for option pricing and volatility fitting/analysis - talk to me.
 
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VolMaster
Posts: 20
Joined: December 5th, 2009, 8:48 am

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

June 16th, 2017, 3:50 am

I've been in the business of proprietary trading for about seven years and few things that I found out:

1. If you are a model/systematic trader, stick to your model. Don't try to cheat/overfit/ deviate from the model. If your algorithm is a winner, you will not fulfill its potential, and if it sucks that cheating will not make the problem go away.
2. Learn from both your mistakes and success. Always analyze your actions and trading activity to find flaws and strengths.   
3. Evolve - keep on researching and developing models and algorithms, because you can find one day that your running model stop making money and you need to be able to pivot.
4. Gradually grow your risk and the psychological capacity to carry the risk
 
 
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MartinGale7
Posts: 70
Joined: April 1st, 2011, 7:42 am

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

September 11th, 2017, 3:44 pm

Get yourself a good simulator such as ForexTester3. Spend hours, days and weeks working your way through charts. After a while you will start to develop heuristics and notice patterns, especially between markets. The trick is then to turn these into algorithms. This approach is usually much more effective than exhaustively searching indicators.
 
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traderjohnlaw
Posts: 4
Joined: October 17th, 2017, 11:09 am

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

October 17th, 2017, 11:34 am

What i suggest is, first of all practice trading with the paper money. If you search on google, you can find ample of trading simulators where you can trade using your own algorithm with virtual money. Check the charts, indicators, backtest, trade and learn.
 
alanW
Posts: 3
Joined: March 1st, 2018, 7:33 pm

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

March 1st, 2018, 7:38 pm

I am using FinPricing http://www.finpricing.com
 
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Cuchulainn
Posts: 20207
Joined: July 16th, 2004, 7:38 am
Location: 20, 000

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

March 1st, 2018, 7:52 pm

I am using FinPricing http://www.finpricing.com
Of course you are.
 
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SimonK
Posts: 4
Joined: October 2nd, 2018, 10:03 am
Location: Canada

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

October 2nd, 2018, 10:42 am

I'm using only review websites like babypips, and trying demo accounts.
 
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volatilityMan
Topic Author
Posts: 70
Joined: January 16th, 2015, 6:06 pm

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

October 19th, 2018, 12:18 pm

I had a few months experience of trading so far. Own account and real money. No success so far. The initial goal was to get some experience (and we all know that it aint free in the stock market). I know what NOT to do :) 

- I'm quite surprised to see how big of an impact news have. And - how the news are used to push the price in either direction. (Let's not go too much into the conspiracy theory). 

- Technical analysis had mixed results for me. Good when used on a few days/weeks horizon. Not so good when used intradaily. 

- My next project will be on making some API solutions. Unfortunately, both yahoo and google have closed down their API access. 

If anyone has some great strategies which can be exploited - feel free to tell. In particular I think of pair trading, things to look at in technical analysis, news web sites that are good at keep the investors informed, carry over positions, volume etc. 
 
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Alan
Posts: 2957
Joined: December 19th, 2001, 4:01 am
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

October 19th, 2018, 7:49 pm

Re news impacts, this is something you can practice. Whenever there is a significant news event, either macro or single-name specific, first guess the impact before looking at the market reaction. Over time, you can learn to ballpark things -- or certainly improve upon where you are now.  
 
InvestmentBulls
Posts: 2
Joined: March 27th, 2019, 5:43 am

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

March 27th, 2019, 6:07 am

Hello, you can use Idea-generation tools and Stock charts for the analysis also you can go for technical analysis of stocks and fundamental analysis of stocks before investing in it. Learn more strategies like arbitrage, averaging, short selling etc.
 
InvestmentBulls
Posts: 2
Joined: March 27th, 2019, 5:43 am

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

April 10th, 2019, 12:43 pm

The first tool is knowledge and the another most important one is research. Keep your command in fundamental and technical analysis. Tools which I prefer are Cross-platform trading charts from NetDania and Advanced trading charts from IT-Finance.
 
JoWee
Posts: 17
Joined: August 11th, 2019, 2:31 pm

Re: Tools for becoming a great trader

September 6th, 2019, 2:41 pm

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