Wednesday, April 7, 2010
I smiled a little bit the other day, when I saw the grumpy old men in the corner coffee shop excitedly engaged in a conversation. I couldn’t hear all of what they were saying, but based on the animated pointing and gesturing at what looked like a paper price chart of Gold [...]

Wednesday, March 31, 2010
In the classic book “Market Wizards,” one of the famous traders interviews recommends that traders risk no more than 2% of their capital on any one trade.  Any amount higher, the expert trader proclaims, is akin to being a cowboy gunslinger.
Although everyone’s circumstances are different, in general this is a very good [...]

Monday, March 22, 2010
I’m sure you’ve seen ads from forex or futures brokers touting the incredible leverage you can have trading.  While it is true that leverage is great when a trade moves in your favor, it can wipe out your account in an instant when it goes against you.
For example, many forex brokers offer [...]

Friday, March 5, 2010
If you’ve been around trading for a while, you probably have seen system vendors tout their performance results via “backtest” or “walkforward test” reports.  Unfortunately, most people think these two types of tests are the same, or virtually the same.  Nothing could be further from the truth.
So, what is the difference between [...]

Monday, March 1, 2010
It is easy to know when to start following an advisor or trading system – start trading as soon as you have determined it is the right investment for you.  But, do you know when you’ll stop following that new system?
Whether you are following your own trading system, or following an advisory, [...]

Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Would you believe that a 14th century priest, and his concepts, can help make you a better trader?  Well, English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham really can make you a better trader.
Ockham developed the concept commonly referred to as Occam’s Razor.  Simply put, this principle favors the simple over the [...]

Friday, February 19, 2010
I have been trading futures for about 18 years, and many of the early years were consumed with searching for the “perfect” trading system.  One of the approaches I found that seemed to make sense was scale trading.  It is an interesting concept that “wins” most of the time, but is really [...]

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I recently received an e-mail from a relatively new trader.  He was trading a system he purchased, based on its alleged stellar performance. “I’ve been using this system for a few weeks, and sometimes I just KNOW the signals it gives will be wrong. What do you think if I’d take the [...]

Friday, February 5, 2010
If you’ve been trading futures, commodities or forex for any amount of time, chances are you’ve heard the phrase “past performance is not necessarily indicative of (or no guarantee of) future results.”  It is a government mandated statement that is required for groups involved in certain trading activities.  And as you’ll see, [...]

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

If you are looking at purchasing or leasing a trading system, or looking at following a publisher’s trading signals, a legitimate question to ask the vendor is “do you trade this with your own money?”
While the answer to this question can be illuminating, and assuming you get a truthful answer, is it [...]

Monday, February 1, 2010
by: Kevin Davey
A new trader I know was lamenting about a futures trading system he was interested in trading.  “I like it a lot,” he said, “but it holds trades overnight.  That means I can only trade half as many contracts, because of the exchange margin requirements.  I am trying to trade [...]