Options Trading in Progress

Today we will discuss why your results in your demo account will probably contrast sharply with the results in your live account. When most people start trading, they believe their results trading with fake money will be the same as their results trading with real money. Of course, that is almost never the case. The reason for this is that a person's emotions greatly impact their decision making ability when real money is on the line . We will go over why this is, and we will go over some tips for blurring the line between demo accounts and live accounts. First off, I want to point out that I am not slamming demo trading. Trading a demo is how everyone should learn the basic mechanics of the trading platform. It also allows people to practice following their strategy and practice entering orders. If a trader goes in a slump, it can be effective to switch to the demo for a while. When a trader is in a slump, their brain is so focused on the money they are losing that they...

I am willing to bet that almost every person that has attempted to trade has heard some variation of "you should follow the trend" spoken as gospel. There are many traders who use a system called "trend following". Of course, this type of system is more complicated than just looking to see if prices are going up or down. But to the novice, this sounds like easy money. In fact, on this very site I have seen multiple comments to my features that basically say "this is so complicated, all you have to do is follow the trend...trading is easy!" Needless to say, it isn't that simple. First, we must decide how to define an uptrend and a downtrend. The easiest way to do this, is by looking at a plain old chart. If there are consecutive lower lows and consecutive lower highs, that is a downtrend. If there are consecutive higher lows and consecutive higher highs, that is an uptrend. That part really is that simple. There are many tools available to he...

What is concentration? For some traders, concentration is a mystical legend of some magical act performed by other traders, those who have access to magical spells. For others, it is a naturally occurring ability that is so second nature that they arent even really aware that they are concentrating. For the vast majority, however, concentration is an act that falls somewhere in between a magical feat and a second nature instinct. When we are feeling strong and positive, concentration comes easily. When we allow our negative emotions to cloud our ability to focus, we end up with poor concentration. Concentration is the act of focusing on one external or internal position or task without disruption from other thoughts. That is why when we have negative feelings about something unrelated to the task at hand (or on occasion really excited feelings about some unrelated topic) we find concentration so difficult. The mind is generally controlled by what we want to see, think, an...