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How to Safely Following Timothy Sykes and Other Gurus
As we’re all aware that the public calls us sheep. Us who follow trading gurus like Timothy Skyes trying to learn and adopt their trading strategies into our own trading. No doubt that most of us are novice traders who have not yet hold a mature trading system of our own. Thus, comes the public discrimination of viewing us as being pathetic. While ignorance is not the same thing as stupidy. Us sheep were there to learn when we started trading following the guru, and yes, we were hoping for profits also following the big guy, as we have not yet able to perform like him on our own.
It’s true that some of us, if not all, had gotten trapped in trades after the guru took profits. Ignoring and not to follow guru’s trades has not done much for me. I did not learn. Also trading alerts are part of my purchase which I wound’t want it to go to waste. What is the solution then?
Step 1.
Commit to the objective of learning. Decide that not matter how this trade goes, I will learn every facet that this trade has to teach me.
Step 2. (Most important)
Keep losses under control by trading on paper instead of trading with money.
Paper trading is like journaling. First, jog down
your time of entry,
long/short,
position size (according to parameters of your money account),
stop loss,
reasons of entry, risk/reward and support/resistance
and strategy which is used, eg. buying breakout, dip buying earnings winner.
Also important to record details on guru’s entry and his reasons.
List your thoughts as the trade progresses. After you “closed” the trade on paper, jog down your exit price, profit/loss, and reason of exit.
Step 3.
Analyze, conclude and future guidelines.
Reviewing these trading records periodically, you’ll see patterns and mistakes which you would’ve paid to learn with losses in real cash plus commissions otherwise.
Rewards.
1. Saving money on commissions and losses.
Looking my own trading journey, those so called “speculative play” would’ve been paper-traded. The profit/losses are tiny and I had to pay commissions for each entry and exit. Also, for those who are not fluent with trading, who have not yet even practiced any trading system (buying breakout, dip buying earnings winner), do you really want to just jump in with your money and see what happens? Think about it, if you’re a beginner like that, how much of chance you have at succeeding/profiting from each trade, and how you’re going to stay in the game when those losses really add up?
2. Over-your-shoulder lessons at no added cost.
Looking back my trading records on profitly has always helped me at bettering my strategy and being aware of the mistakes I tend to make in the past. Mostly likely no one else would be teach me these lessons tailored to my personal trails. Now you can choose to learn and keep these lessons.
3. More practice! without PDT restriction
Trade as much as you want, without any commissions or Pattern-Day-Trading rule. Scale in and out as much as you want as long as the trade calls for it. I wish I started doing this when I first started. I’d have saved so much in cost of trading losses.
4. Spotting trades that have high probabilities of success
From time to time, we can spot high probability trades in the crowd of highly risky and/or uncertain ones. It is time to take it to real money trading. Be sure your account is ready, jump in and keep your risk under control.
5. Know when you’re ready to trade for real.
When your record is showing profit steadily, you’ll know you’re ready to trade with real money. You’ll even know a sound trading system by looking back at your record. Through trading on paper, you’ll get fluent with the trading process, not just executing a trade on a platform, but to plan and strategize a trade. Trading without a strategy, like most of the newbie traders often do, is like jumping in water without knowing how to swim.
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Last but not last, I want to give my thanks to fellow traders who excel and care for us in the trading community, Michael Goods, Chicago777, Tim Grittanni, airplane Jane, Palmer, osirustwits, Ike, digitalBrass and many more. It’s great to have you guys.
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