Hey guys,
For those that know me, you are aware that trading is a huge part of my life and my main source of income right now. You are also aware that I hang out in the Tidetraders chat rooms. I try to post most of my trades, or at least most of the option trades I take that do not cause Obligation. I try to limit my posts to options that give you rights and not obligations. The main reason I do this, believe it or not, is because there are many people out there who do not do their own research and may not be aware of the risks they are taking. With that being said, my conscious does not want me to hurt anyone financially. I do not want those who choose to take my trades to ever lose money. I do post both my winners and losers. And believe me guys, I have losers as well, sometimes more than I would like.
The key is money management. I always preach that there is not a book in existence that can teach you about yourself. Your fears, your greed, and monetary value, and what money means to you. You have to identify the type of personality that you have. When I say you have to identify your personality, I mean, your personality as a trader. Are you someone who has to be in and out quickly by scalping because you like that style better or you just do not want to have any money at risk over night and prefer to have a clean slate every morning? Are you someone who likes to day trade positions and give them time to work throughout the day and close all positions out prior to close so you can avoid any overnight swings and again start fresh every morning? Are you the type of trader that likes a slower pace of trading, more relaxed sit back and watch type trader? If so maybe you prefer to employ a swing type trading strategy. Maybe trading is not your main source of income and you have another job. These traders, should consider swing trading positions and maybe looking at types of equities that will allow them to set there stops and let them develop and work for them at a slower pace.
After identifying your personality, you must also ask and understand the risks that personality entails. If you are still not comfortable with those risks, you have not identified your trading personality correctly. Do not care what others think of you. Do not lie to yourself. It is very important that you identify your trading personality correctly otherwise you can not advance to the next level.
When you have identified your trading personality, you can step forward and move to setting up proper money management techniques. A 6 month to 1 year period is recommended to study and hone your trading skills. You do this by paper trading an account as if it were real money. There are some issues with that because emotions are difficult to identify when you do not have real skin in the game. However, you will sharpen your skills, learn the required information including patterns, correlations between multiple trading vehicles, and many other issues that affect the markets. You will learn and understand money management and trading techniques using different types of financial vehicles. You will develop rules based on hours of practice and identifying the indicators and parameters that work and do not work.
When you have completed this personal identification, training, and have built a confidence based on indicators and consistency you should have a solid foundation. Now you are a Rookie, a Newbie or any other name that you can use that describes you as being a new trader or green.
Please do not be in a rush to lose money. Remember, any profession you take on, to be a real professional you have to dedicate yourself and put in many hours of studying verbally, written and practically. I like to use the example of my personal life. For those of you who do not know, I am an airline Captain. I invested years of my life and thousands of hours studying, taking hundreds of written exams, oral examinations, and practical tests including simulators and real airplanes under strict rules and a strict examiners eye. I had to perform under all these rules that are dictated by the FAA and be able to perform and execute within very strict limitations. I did all of this to become a professional, to be one of the best at what I do, to be able to compete with other professionals that may have many more years of experience than me. I did this because I love flying. I did this because I had to in order to fly people around and visit all the countries that I studied as a child.
OK, enough about me, the point that I am getting at is, there are many professionals out there that have been trading the markets for many years and are ready to take your money at any given time. So before you get into a business with experienced seasoned professionals who have been properly taught and trained to take your money you better get your act together and be prepared to put in hundreds if not thousands of hours to be able to compete in this great business we call the Stock Market.
Now for those who hang out in the TideTraders chat rooms, you are aware of the promotion they have going. They have free chat rooms and other chat rooms that include Equities and Forex. In these rooms J-P, Rickster, and the Witch Doctor post their trades live. These guys have greater than 40 years of trading experienced combined and are some of the best at what they do. They are not only traders they are also fantastic educators. You will have weekend updates on the stocks they are going to trade with entries, targets, and stops. During the week they post their entries and exits as they take them. They give you extremely detailed commentaries including the use of charts and videos. The price for this information currently is $24.95. Today at midnight the price will increase to 29.95. In the free rooms you can watch over Rickster's shoulder everyday and watch him trades the S&P E-mini futures and ask all the questions you want throughout the day. In 2009 Rick made over 1,000 points trading the /ES and in 2010 he came in just shy of 1,000 points I believe the final was 937 on the /ES. For those of you who do not know what that equals. Each /ES point is worth $50.00 per contract. So 1,000 points is equivalent to $50,000 if you were just trading 1 contract, $100,000 for 2 contracts and so on. Oh yeah, let me also tell you. He showed all of this live, as he pulls the trigger you can see his monitor and the trades triggering with both the stop and limit orders in place and the contracts he is trading. This information is all live, real and best of all it is FREE!!!
I am a chartered member and am extremely blessed to be considered their friend. Outside of being a chartered member I have no affiliation what so ever with Tidetraders. It is just the best chat room by far to spend some of your time in and get educated and profitable throughout the day.
For those of you who sign up before the price increases tonight from $24.95 to $29.95 a month you will also be entered into a contest to have 5 hours of personal coaching on Options via Skype with me.
I am doing this because I choose to. There is nothing in it for me. I am just thankful for what I have and want to give back.
The entry rules to qualify for the 5 hours of 1 on 1 personal options coaching with me are as follows.
1. You must sign up with TideTraders before midnight tonight Saturday February 5, 2011.
2. Your membership must be for a minimum of 6 months.
3. You must submit a stock of your choice, no options by Sunday night February 6, 2011 no later than 11:59 pm est .
4. Please submit your stock in the comments section below or at petevoptions@gmail.com
5. At the end of the 2 week period and market close on February 18th 2011 the stock the performs the best, percentage wise, will dictate the winner.
6. If there are multiple people who have chosen the same stock I will ask you to choose a second stock and we will go off that percentage.
7. If the second choice stock is the same the procedure will continue until there is a different stock choice.
Please visit
www.tidetraders.com for any questions or further details, most importantly you will love the environment, and maybe you might learn a thing or two, and more than likely become more profitable.
Good luck and have a great weekend,
Pete
