In my last article I spoke about getting back to the basics of trading when you find yourself struggling. I also mentioned that it was not the complete picture and that an exit strategy is more a function of the trader themselves. In this article I explain why.

There are many ways to formulate an exit strategy. Other than an initial stop loss, which is there to get you out of a bad trade, exit strategies are used to achieve a goal. A lot of traders don’t understand this concept and...

All professions whether it be sport, business, or trading have what are called the basics and if you’re starting out in a new profession, the basics form the foundation or the core. However if you’ve been practicing your profession for quite some time and feel you’ve gone off track or are not hitting your goals, usually the best thing to do is just get back to the basics: and trading is no different.

This is not an article based on emotional discipline or psychology, it is based on...

Some traders will go through system after system, teacher after teacher, wasting thousands of dollars not only in useless systems but in lost trades before they realize they’ve been approaching the markets from the wrong standpoint because they’ve been trying to trade the wrong type of system.

The two types of traders are the mechanical type trader and the discretionary type trader. Therefore, there are two types of trading systems, a mechanical system and a discretionary system....

We as humans have the ability to evolve intellectually and have done so at a rapid rate, but when it comes to emotions we have been unable to change in thousands of years. The saying ‘this time it will be different’ is coming from the perspective of an intellectually evolved civilization, one that is somewhat aware of history, but emotionally has not changed at all to prevent it from repeating.

For proof of this, look at the last several thousand years or so. Many religious leaders...

You may have heard the statement before; the biggest battles traders will face are within. If there was an explanation as to what these sorts of battles are it’s more than likely along the lines of overcoming bad habits, emotional issues, biases, beliefs and so on. But why are these so important to master, and why is it so hard to do so?

I’ll address why it is so important first, as a lot of traders believe that trading should not be so difficult in that if one set of rules works...