Basketball Study #1
Let me tell you about a classic psychological study that I found online and has important insight for us as traders and investors. In the early 1980s, two psychologists Amos Tversky and Thomas Gilovich began sifting through years of statistics from the Philadelphia 76ers – a US basketball team. (Amos Tversky is well known for […]
Active Investor e-Newsletter
Gary’s Comments Plenty of red in the international equities indices but lots of green in the commodities table over the last week. All major equities indices around the world are in short term downtrends. The S&P500 and DJI indices are holding their major support levels of 1320 and 12400, respectively, but only just. I know that […]
Trading is a journey – not a destination
As soon as one can accept that trading is a business of accepting losses, the sooner consistent success will come. Losing trades are like breathing, you have to have them in order to stay alive. None of us can ever hope to be right all the time in anything that we take on. This is […]
Time is on your side
People from all walks of life are drawn to trading for many different reasons – a desire to do something for their financial future, to work for themselves, to build an investment portfolio for future generations, to generate cash flow, and a host of other valid reasons which are personal for each and every one […]
Overcoming fear
For many traders and investors, particularly those new to the world of trading, fear is the most difficult emotion to overcome and control. Fear can manifest itself in any number of ways including, but not limited to, fear of being wrong, fear of not being right, fear of facing another losing trade, fear of losing […]
Keeping promises with yourself
For the untrained mind, there is no harder promise to keep than the promise we make with ourselves. It is easy to rationalise with ourselves as to why a promise we made is no longer valid and/or that we should forget about it altogether because it doesn’t really matter as it was only something we […]
Active Investor e-Newsletter
Gary’s Comments World equity markets hang in the balance following their respective bounces after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Short term trends in the tables below are all mostly down. It is important to note that equity indices had run strongly up until the middle of February and were due for a breather – either […]
Overcoming doubt
Trading and investing using a methodology or system that outperforms the market over the long term is a wonderful feeling and one that contributes greatly to the elimination of fear. Knowing that you have an edge over the market and that probability is on your side allows you to focus on the trading process rather […]
Discipline in trading – Physical discipline
This week we look at a trading discipline that is a bit more ‘out there’ than the mental and technical discipline we have discussed in the previous two posts, that of physical discipline. The trading environment can be a stressful and tense place for some traders and investors – perhaps more for the short term […]
Discipline in trading – Technical discipline
This week we take a look at the second core component of trading discipline – the area I call technical discipline. Trading and investing approaches vary but at the very least you need a process for choosing what stocks to buy and when to sell. Because you have accepted that “no-one knows with 100% certainty […]