So I’ve taken the Tharp Trader Test – What type of trader are you? mentioned over at Gav and Jules blogs. The test includes 35 questions typical to personality traits tests covering areas such as introvert vs. extrovert, detailed vs. big picture etc. Some questions I had a hard time picking an answer since my first thought was: it depends – mainly on context. I also realized that I would have given different answers to some questions at different times depending on my mood and interests at that point in time. And of course at different stages of my trading career development, I used to read a lot of trading books for example, these I days I seldom do that, Van Tharp’s material is one exception.

So diving right into it the result I got was:

Here’s a detailed PDF description of the Strategic Trader.

It is largely accurate, for example the “core qualities”:

1. The ability to see the big picture, new possibilities and connections between things.
2. Making decisions based on logic and analysis.
3. Being decisive, orderly and doing things sequentially.

The test and information in the results is well worth your time. I’ve read most of Van Tharp’s trading books and consider his first one to be the ultimate must read trading book, a true classic. I’ve also read his newer book SuperTrader which gives a nice high level overview of all the different aspects of trading and trading as a career and serious hobby / occupation.

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This looks like it might be the best trading laptop ever. In truth, I traded on this kind of laptopfor a long time and made good money. But still, I know some traders who hop from country to country every now and then and I’m sure this would come in handy for them. At 12lbs it’s not something you’d carry with you to a cafe, but who trades from a cafe, or the beach or any of those other noob fantasy locations.

See the Laptop With Two Full-sized Screens – Tom’s Hardware

As for me, I’m happy with my desktop. Awesome piece of hardware, now if only I had more space I might add another monitor to my current dual setup. And to think that just a year or so ago I was still trading just off a single 15″ LCD, it’s funny how you get used to having all this “extra” space and all of a sudden you find yourself thinking it isn’t enough.

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Tags: dual screens, laptop, pc, toms hardware, Trader, trading, trading laptop, trading notebook

So I’ve been spending the whole summer getting some education, opening my horizons, getting exposure to different speakers, trading instruments, methods and styles. I thought it will be useful for someone out there to list all the resources I’ve come across over the last couple of months.

Before I do that though I need to caution that not all trading webinars are created equal, some were really good and gave ideas I could pursue almost straight away, and some were just pure sales pitch. It’s difficult to know in advance which would be which, a lot also depends on your areas of interest, current level of trading expertise and which type of trading you’re attracted to and trying to pick up or improve on. Nevertheless I think it’s been a really good summer in terms of going beyond my usual trading style and comfort zone.

If you know of other relevant trading webinars sources, either free or with minimal cost such as opening a brokerage account (no $4995 webinars please) then feel free to leave a comment and I will add it to the list.

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Tags: brett steenbarger, candlestick trading, commodity trading, Education, elite trader, Futurepath, futures trading, General Trading, japanese candlestick, Linda Raschke, market profile, mb trading, mirus futures, online, PFGBEST, Seminars, Technical, thinkorswim, trading education, trading webinars, web seminars, Webinar

Some generally good observations made by Ziad in a reproduced comment which can found here:

E-Mini Player: EMini S&P 500 Futures Trading Journal: Learning to Become a Successful Trader

Before I give my 2c on it, it sounds like Ziad is trading index futures. I don’t trade them (yet), I trade stocks. So maybe that accounts for some differences in approach. Also I have no idea who Michael is (no link to the original comment) nor what sort of trading issues he’s facing.

Anyway, the slightly different perspective I wanted to add is that it seems that Ziad is confusing simplicity with “clear cut”. Trading can be simple and ambiguous at the same time. I don’t see a contradiction in that. Anything related to taking on risk with expectations for a future outcome is going to be ambiguous by definition, on any single occurence basis.

As for setup, in my experience locking in on a decent risk:reward “setup” (i.e. pattern) and then building on top of it is a very valid approach. The problems start with people’s expectations, i.e. when people expect the setup to be “it” and all that’s required. This sort of expectation leads to ignoring other important aspects that Ziad mentions and also to frustrations as things don’t work out immediately even when the ‘setup’ is executed correctly. This in turn usually leads to changing the setup or replacing it and then repeating this ad infinitum (or ad going bust financially or as is more common, emotionally).

So what would I advise? I would advise someone to just pick a setup, preferrably one you know is traded by someone who is already successful. This is a natural starting point, you can’t trade completely without some definition of a pattern to look for. Then trade it day in and day out . Don’t expect it to work in some magical way like an on/off switched system, instead consider it a starting point, an over-simplification. And then over time, practice, observation of self and market gel it into a trading style that works for you. When does the ‘setup’ work, under what conditions, when does it do really well, when should you filter signals out and ignore the setup, etc. etc.

Overall I think every trader can benefit from Ziad’s observations and advice, especially on the learning process of observation, journal keeping, mental state etc. But one just needs to be aware that what works for one person doesn’t always mean is The best/only way to go about things. And yes that covers my advice above as well :-)

- via Andrew.

I’m back from a short vacation in Israel. Getting back to trading after a break is always kind of tricky. Good thing the markets are still slow and in summer mode as I can ease my way back into it and also spend some time on R&D projects aside from my usual trading. I also spend a lot of time catching up on RSS subscriptions and online resources. Just came across the revised sections of Thomas Bulkowsky’s site here and here. Hard to imagine someone not finding something of use there.

I’m also attending various webinars, mostly hosted by Futurepath and Linda from LBR. There’s one which looks promising this Wednesday.

NinjaTrader came out today with the first ever communication on the actual “upcoming” release of the much awaited NT7. It’s been delayed for about 12 months, we have 2 weeks till the re-re-vised release date which was reiterated all through this quarter, and this is how it looks:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elliott Wave Does this mean that the initial beta 1 release we have all been waiting for, which is scheduled for the end of this month, will only be released to ‘NinjaScript development partners’ and the rest of us will have to wait for a second, as yet unannounced release date?

Yes, this is correct.

__________________
Ray, NinjaTrader Customer Service

Speechless.

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For those who can read Hebrew there’s a new site with some interesting investing and market related articles, analysis and tools. Like this one about John Templeton’s $10K portfolio that was replicated this year and returned 400%(!) in the last 4 months.

 I think it offers both unique perspectives on the market as well as some more basic guides which are useful for people like me who don’t normally do fundamental analysis. Check it out here: Thebigpicture.co.il