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“I’m not a chartist and know little about technical trading. However, MarketClub supplements for my deficiencies. I’m a single-market floor trader who had to adapt to electronic trading. MarketClub has helped me make the transition by teaching me to balance strategy and my own instincts. Also, as a result of being a member, I’m trading many more markets both in futures and equities. Watch those triangles.” ~ Veteran Trader, NYC

To send your own success story, please email blog@ino.com. We wish all of our members the best and we look forward to hearing your success story.

I think you’ll enjoy this video as it is brief, to the point and educational.

You can watch this video with my compliments and there is no registration requirements. I would love to get your feedback about this video on our blog.

All the best,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-creator, MarketClub

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So you’re new to investing.  Or maybe you’re an intermediate or perhaps even an advanced trader.  Regardless of where you are in your investing career, there’s one trick that I’ve learned through the course of my investing experiences that really helps me gain a slight edge every time I trade.  Over time, this strategy leads to a pretty significant amount that could be added to your overall gains.

Most of you are already well aware of the limit orders.  Unlike the very basic market orders that let you purchase a stock at the current “market” price, limit orders allow you to buy or sell shares at a specified price or better.  Limit orders also allow an investor to limit the length of time an order can be outstanding before being canceled.

So what’s the big deal? You already know about it?  Sure, using limit orders is rather simple and nothing very advanced.  Most people use it from time to time to get into a position at a certain price.  What I challenge you to do however is to look back at your past security purchases and tally up how many market orders you placed over the last year.  I bet you’ve had many of those in the past.  I, for one, realized most of my trades were executed at the market price.

What I’m going to discuss today is one of the simplest tactics you can use to gain a slight edge every time you trade and convert it into a big gain in the long haul.

Example:

Let’s say you’ve analyzed the current market condition, eyed on a stock to purchase (call it ABC) with the conviction that you will profit.  You decide to get into ABC at around $5 per share with an exit target price of $7.  A few days later the stock nears the target price of $5.  Here comes the execution, and you hit your “place order” button at a market price.  You get a confirmation email stating something like:

Trade type: BUY - Market order
Security symbol: ABC
Quantity: 1000
Price: $5.08

At this point you spent $5080 purchasing 1000 shares of ABC. You executed according to plan right?  Sure, I would say that was a pretty good execution given you executed to the plan formulated.  That alone puts you well ahead of many investors who go into a position without too much thought, yet alone an entry and an exit plan.  However, if you are like me when I first started trading, you most likely purchased the stock at the market price…  Now this is where I want to challenge you to have a new perspective.  Let’s look at a very similar scenario, but with a limit order instead:

Trade type: BUY - Limit order
Security symbol: ABC
Quantity: 1000
Price: $5.06

What if you had actually placed a limit order to buy slightly below the current trading place at the time of execution? Whether you’ve observed this or not, stock price usually fluctuates within a small range as the price trades up or trades down.  It’s certainly not always true, as stocks can quickly change their course from time to time, but you’ll quickly start to realize that opportunities exist on many of the trades you plan to make.

In this case, even though it’s only a 2 cents difference, you now spent $5060 instead of $5080.  Some of you are saying “hell it’s only $20, what’s the difference?”  It’s certainly a very marginal amount for a one time trade, but imagine the long-term benefit if you challenge the stock market with this mindset every trade:

10 trades a month x $20 savings = $200/month

$200/month x 12 months (1yr) = $2400/year

$2400/year x 3 years = $7200 of potential “savings”

This of course assumes you get to save $20 per every trade, but what matters is the concept.  Regardless of whether you save a penny per share or even a dollar per share on highly volatile stock, the opportunities to gain more money by using limit orders are out there.  If you equip yourself with this mindset every time you trade, I guarantee you will find opportunities.

Here are some tips on when to employ this limit order strategy and when not to:

Do Use Limits – When the stock is in a consolidation stage intra day and moving in a tight range, up and down.
limit order

5 min chart

Do Not Use Limits – When the stock is in a trading/trending stage intra day and moving upward or downward quickly.  The chances are, your limit orders will be left behind.
limit order 2

5 min chart

I challenge you to think about this next time you’re planning to buy or sell a stock at the market price.

Best of luck in the markets,

Hiro

My10000dollars.com

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Please enjoy the article, to be notified when the upcoming The Disciplined Trader Intensive
Program will be held visit TheDisciplinedTrader.com to learn more, and please comment as much as you can below! We want to hear your journal story…or lack there of!

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In The Disciplined Trader Intensive Program, where we train traders of all modalities to be disciplined in their trading, one of the topics we delve into deeply is journaling.  You see, journaling is the most effective way to self-evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as a trader, therefore allowing you to target specific problems for correction.

Here are two very popular basic questions about journaling that keep coming up in our Intensive along with answers that I hope will be helpful for your own journaling:

What is the purpose of having a trading journal?

The immediate use of a journal will be to jot down and capture all the information needed to analyze your trading skills. You then use the information to improve your practical trading skills.

But if that was all that made up a good trader, then we would be seeing a lot more successful traders today. Unfortunately the statistics show that close to 70% of new traders fail and give up after 6 to 9 months of active trading. The other 30%…well out of that figure maybe only 10% make it and become really rich and successful. The next just manage to survive and can’t seem to break through to consistent profits.

After a lot of analysis and research I have found that most of the “failures” did not have certain necessary tools to succeed. They are namely:
1) A proper trading plan
2) Discipline
3) Money Management Rules
4) Correct PSYCHOLOGY

Your trading journal will help with point 2 & 4. In trading it is 99% attitude and 1% aptitude. You may have the best technical skills, but watch time you trade you are plagued with self doubt or fear or excitement. What happens?

Well your journal will tell you what happened. Go back and flip through it as you are reading this. IF you had placed your emotions in when you made the trade…look at the results.
Did you make a wining trade when you were angry, or afraid or overly excited?

Start tracing back to all your trades…a pattern will emerge. You can then start to train yourself to detach your emotions with the help of your journal.

Analyzing and looking at your trades to see what you could have done better is a good start, but you have to use your journal for more than that. Relive your trades, in your mind go through those emotions again. This requires you to be quiet and focused. If you are serious about making money as a trader these are essential steps you have to follow. Like Sherlock Holmes the crime is solved in your mind, with evidence supplied by your journal.

I will say that you use your journal for several things:
1) A guide
2) Checklist
3) Information Booklet
4) Reference
5) Emotional dump

The most important in my opinion is the emotional dump and guide. Dumping all your emotions allows you distance your emotions away from the trade.

This is a huge benefit, but do realize that it will take some practice.
A guide helps you along the way…especially when you are in self doubt…it happens to us all. Look back in your journal and read and see just how far you have gone. You will be surprised at the results.

How do you go about keeping a journal?

Ok some quick tips …

1) Be quick but accurate
2) Be honest
3) Be regular

These are my 3 B’s of journaling next up or the 3 Ds’

1) Don’t get distracted
2) Don’t discuss your entries
3) Don’t clean up your entries

Lastly I have the last cardinal rule
1) Write down everything and anything. All information is useful and helpful.

Let me explain my 3 Bs first

1) Be quick but accurate. Well this is really when you have a pile of trades coming along. Don’t spend too much time thinking about what you want to write. You are not going to write a novel. The emotions are the important part you want to note down because we are using the journal as an emotional dump to help us store away our emotions when we trade. There is no need for proper spelling or grammar, as long as you can read and understand what you are writing then it’s cool

2) Be honest!!! You know I had this problem when I first started, I used to dress up my journal. I have no idea for what! Maybe I thought that my girlfriend would like to read it someday (my current wife). It turns out that she wasn’t really interested at all (quite the crushing blow to my ego I must admit…). You want to be totally honest because only then can you analyze your emotional state correctly. Your journal has become a tool for you to help you better understand yourself. This can only be accomplished if you are completely honest with your feelings.

3) Be regular. A lot of my own students have this problem, and they only write in the journal when they fell like it. or when they remember to write in it. You got to write in your journal EACH & EVERY trade. There are no excuses, because writing in your journal is an exercise in building your discipline.

Next, my 3 Ds:

1) Don’t get distracted. When you are writing in your journal, focus on it and pour out your feelings into it. Completely unload everything into it. Do not look at your screen or do something else. You want to capture your emotional state like a photograph. If you are looking at your charts and something happens…your emotional state changes and that means you got distracted!

2) Don’t discuss your entries. I know that it is cool sometimes to talk about our trades. Your journal is quite private and if you ever have the need to discuss your entries it should be with your mentor. The reason for this is that when you post it or discusses it with others; you open yourself up a lot of comment and advice. This is something you don’t need, you have to be focused on your own plan not let someone else who has no idea what is happening in your trading life, just come in and pop off some remark which may affect your trading confidence and judgment. If have the need to talk about it, talk to God or to your mentor…in that order. Your mentor will of course be able to point you in the right direction but if you have to tap on your mentor’s experience all the time, you will never be able to trade on your own.

3) Don’t clean up your entries!!! I can’t stress this enough! No editing at all. You want to relive your trading not publish your journal! So stay away from creative writing and keep everything original.

Lastly my cardinal rule:

“Everything and Anything” I really mean everything and anything. Just write what is on the top of your mind. Usually you will find that you can describe your state of mind in a single word. These, keywords are called “pattern language” and are used in many fields to help create easily recognized patters so that it shortens the time needed to describe and analyze things.

While this is a technical skill, what you can do is that you can just write based on your own vocabulary. You can use symbols (as long you understand what they mean).

It is important to note everything down as you will never know what is the most important information you might need for your analysis later on. So if omit 1 or 2 things…you might have just thrown away the critical clue.

Well, I hope this helps in your journal writing. Remember use what you have learned, follow the rules of taught in this course before branching out to evolve your own style.

Norman Hallett CEO and Head Trainer of The Disciplined Trader Intensive Program

Visit this link right now to watch the presentation “Idealized Trade Set-ups for the Intraday Trader”

Just leave a comment stating if you think the banks or the government run the federal reserve. Don’t do any research, just shoot from the hip on this one.

Prize

Winner will receive 1 FREE months of INO TV and a prize pack of 6 DVD’s from the INO TV collection. Customize your set and pick 6 from a collection of over 600 seminars.

INO TV & DVDs (+$130.00 Value)

How To Enter:

Comment on this post telling us who you think runs/controls the federal reserve. Add a little bit of commentary or opinion if you would like to… just keep it clean and remember that there is only one entry per person.

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Rules

1. This contest is open until 11:59 PM (PST) on July 31st, 2009.

2. No wrong answers, any participation counts as an entry.

3. One entry per email address.

4. Winner will be picked by random integer software.

5. Winner will be contacted on Monday August 3rd, 2009 via email.

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Good luck!

Congrats… Allan S., New Market, Ontario

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After crunching everyone’s guesses:

Mean - $1,262.46

Mode - $1,200.00

Median - $1,203.5

I will be sending your books out today and I will be setting you with a two month free subscription to  MarketClub. Don’t forget to enter July’s Contest, where we ask , “Who runs the federal reserve: the banks, the government, or other?″ Thanks for participating… keep it up cause we love to hear from you.

Best,

The MarketClub Team

I am going to be analyzing a daily S&P index chart and making some observations that I think potentially could work out if certain elements fall into place.

At the present time our “Trade Triangle” technology is indicating a neutral stance in this market. With the -55 reading our “Trade Triangles” are indicating a trading range which could possibly be an early sign of a reversal.

You can watch this video with my compliments and there is no registration requirements. I would love to get your feedback about this video on our blog.

All the best,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-creator, MarketClub

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With the proliferation of online trading over the last decade, and the fears of being robbed by “evil” investment managers such as the likes of Bernard Madoff it is no wonder why so many individuals are attracted to the concept of managing their own investments.  It is interesting to note that Madoff will reach the ripe old age of 221 years old when he finishes doing his time for stealing billions of dollars out of hundreds of people.  When it comes to trading the markets however, it is crucial to recognize that as a trader you are faced with the same types of risks as those defrauded by Madoff, risks that can leave you betrayed by your own lack of self discipline.  An effective money management strategy is the difference between your success or failure as a trader.  Then why is it that so many of us spend countless hours studying charts, listening to expert commentary, and are glued to the latest news feeds without the careful respect and study of effective money management strategies.

Perhaps it is because we lack the discipline to see that proper money management will keep us in the game.  It is about conserving and protecting your capital and a focus on winning consistently versus trying to win it big.  It means waiting for the right moment for each trade where a winning position is almost assured.  It means having a clearly defined exit strategy for every position you enter both on the win and lose side. It also means fortifying your portfolio with insurance to protect yourself from financial catastrophe.  It means protecting yourself from what one Madoff victim testified as saying   “Life has been a living hell.  It feels like a nightmare we can’t wake up from.”

One simple form of trader insurance is to consistently purchase physical gold for the life of your trading career.  Regardless of the price of gold, if you dollar cost average it over an extended period of time you will have a real tangible form of insurance that will guarantee your future success.  I once knew a trader that loved to trade anything related to gold, gold stocks, gold etfs, gold options, and gold forex.  There were many occasions where he won it big by making all the right trades, sometimes because of his charting skills and at other times it was simply because he traded at the right time.  He devoured books, news and any analysis that he could find on the subject of gold.  His account continued to grow and he lavished himself with exotic trips and gifts for his wife.  Unfortunately, he lacked discipline and a commitment to proper money management principles in his trading.  No longer did he time things right, no longer did his charting strategies seem to work.  In a desperate attempt to recover from his losses he allowed his emotions to take hold of his portfolio.  It wasn’t long before he had lost everything.  He was no longer in the game and his exotic trips were only a distant memory held in a photo album to remind him of the good old days.  Now had he simply taken percentage of equity from his trading successes and consistently purchased physical gold itself, he would have assured himself victory over the long haul.

Why not add this simple money management strategy of buying physical gold to your overall trading strategy.  Every month go out and buy yourself a few grams, ounces or bars of gold and if you do it consistently, you will never be wiped out by the man made markets that can from time to time be ruthless and without remorse.

Justin Tazi
TradeGoldOnline.com