I’ve just spent a couple of days switching to another hosting company. I probably wouldn’t have bothered changing if I didn’t get an email all of a sudden that my hosting fee will increase threefold. Turns out my old hosting company sold the business to iWeb which then promptly issued me a new invoice (later cancelled). Turns out they did send an email, titled migrating servers but without timeline, without giving any options and with no details about the new servers, logins, etc. I just saw my site was down all of a sudden. When I called iWeb the tech support although very polite had no idea what was going on, why the site was down, where my account and data is. They asked me to change NS at the registrar and just wait. I was then sent login details which worked briefly and then just sopped. In short it was a big mess, at the end I got an email that my site actually hasn’t been migrated yet and is still on the old servers. By then I’ve already had enough of iWeb and just moved to a new hosting company called stablehost.com so far so good and hopefully it will stay that way. I also cut down the cost of the hosting from $13 a month (I know.. pricey, legacy plan which I didn’t bother changing) to a really low cost of $2.56 ($7.7 quarterly). It’s a really basic plan (enough for my needs) which explains why it’s so cheap, one of the cheapest cpanel hosting I could find, but also because of the coupon / discount promotion they’re having at webhostingtalk.com

Anyway, it’s not that I update the site much (ever?) anymore but some posts still attract traffic so people are still finding some useful tidbits here and I also get traders contacting me via the site which is nice so I’m keeping it alive for now. And make sure my backups are good, I had the wordpress db emailed to me automatically every day, a bit overkill, but helps when you need it.

Tags: backup, blog, cheap, cpanel, hosting company, iweb, servers, tech support, webhosting, wordpress

Just came across an interesting website, http://www.texasholdeminvesting.com . I’ve been playing Texas Hold’em poker for a while now via Facebook/Zynga and unlike past experiences I now really enjoy my time playing it. I’m not sure why in the past I didn’t catch the holdem bug. If I try to think about it then maybe it’s a developmental thing. In the past I was attracted to holdem, and did reasonably well but found it too similar to trading on the emotional side and therefore a bit of a drain while now that aspect disappeared and I can play it for hours.

Anyways, as the title of the post and the website indicate there are countless parallels between investing / day trading and Texas Holdem Poker. In fact the Texasholdeminvesting website came up with a book dedicated to identifying the similarities. I’ve just downloaded it (free intro), and looking through he’s got most of the topics covered, like: managing emotions, thinking in probabilities, performance analysis, and bankroll size and position sizing. I’m hard pressed to find a game with more similarities with trading than poker. Depending on your personal traits poker can be a good way to sharpen some trading related skills or just have some fun during market downtime.

H/T to Meir.

P.S. If you’re playing texas hold’em and haven’t tried Zynga I think it’s one of the nicest free fake money poker out there that I’ve come across. If you’re on my facebook list give me a buzz if you want to play a few rounds.

Tags: Buzz, Day Trading, emotions, experiences, facebook, game, market, parallels, performance, performance analysis, position sizing, probabilities, stocks trading, texas hold em poker, texas holdem poker, trading, Zynga

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my list of Best Trading Books which I recommend to traders looking to up their game. And there’s a good reason for that, I didn’t see anything interesting out there that would make it as a “Top Trading Book”, that’s till I recently came across this fantastic book. First I need to say this isn’t a paid or incentive driven review, I didn’t get a free book, and I have absolutely no affiliation with the writer. I just think that One Good Trade is a damn good trading book which almost any trader can benefit from.

I did skip the first couple of chapters (mostly prop trading related) but then instead of skimming through to the end like I would do with most new “get rich quick” / secret formula trading book for stocks / futures / options and all other instruments on the planet, I actually started seeing some really good material in it which kept me reading. It’s like one of those gem of a trading book that Dr. Brett Steenbarger publishes (his 2 books Enhancing Trader Performance and The Daily Trading Coach are absolute must read).

The author of One Good Trade, Mike Bellafiore covers almost everything you can think of in terms of the journey to becoming a good trader. From specific advice on Tools of Success:

To real world examples and explanations on sound trading building blocks such as

And more advanced stuff such as reading the tape, high frequency trading, when to press your winners etc.

Even if you’ve read dozens of trading books in the past (who hasn’t..) I would still encourage you to pick up this one.

Incoming search terms for this article:

• best trading books ever written
• best trading books ever
• high frequency trading books
• best high frequency trading books
• best trading books list
• secret project x trading
• prop trading books
• best trading books 2010
• the greatest trading book ever written
• best books on high frequency trading

Tags: best trading book, best trading books, Book, brett steenbarger, Commodities and Futures, Day Trading, high frequency trading, journal, journey, Mike Bellafiore, performance, profitable, prop trading, Reading, recommend trading books, Steenbarger, Stock Market, Stocks, Success, tape reading, Tools, top trading books, Trader, trades, trading, trading books

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.

Incoming search terms for this article:

• what kind of stock trader are you quiz
• what type of trader are you quiz
• tharp strategic trader examples
• what kind of trader am i

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.

Incoming search terms for this article:

• trading laptop
• best laptop for trading
• best laptop ever
• best trading laptop
• trading laptops
• day trading laptops
• laptop for trading
• trader laptop
• day trading laptop
• best laptop for day trading

Tags: best laptop for trading, best trading laptop, day trading laptops, dual screens, laptop, pc, toms hardware, Trader, trading, trading laptop, trading laptops, 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.

Incoming search terms for this article:

• raschke Webinar
• thinkorswim webinars
• linda raschke webinar
• infinity futures recorded webinars
• brett steenbarger webinar
• thinkorswim webinar
• webinars linda raschke
• infinity webinar archive
• infinity futures webinars archive
• recording of brett steenbarger

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.