Articles by Markus Heitkoetter, Rockwell Trading on ArticleSnatch.com

The Evolution of Secure F

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:53:08 -0400

Kelly F, Optimal F, and Secure F are all money management strategies used by many traders. While the strategies may seem different, Optimal F and Secure F are actually evolutions of Kelly F. To better understand the strategies themselves, it is helpful to know how they got to where they are today. There are a few popular variations of fixed fractional money management that look for optimum fractions in order to generate the greatest returns possible when trading. These variations are the Kelly formula, Optimal F, and Secure F. Kelly F was a concept that came from a Bell Labs researcher. This researcher, John Kelly, found that there was an analogy between growth rate of a trading account, and the rate of information transmission through a communications channel, such as a telephone line. This led to the Kelly formula. The formula is used to determine a fixed fraction that will maximize equity growth. A Kelly formula, however, assumes that losses and wins will stay the same. This means that if you are betting the same, risking the same amount, and you are looking to see the same return, it could be a great formula to use. **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Stop Losses

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:51:16 -0400

Every trader should have a risk management plan in place before they start trading. A stop loss is a simple risk management tool that every trader should know and be able to use. There are several ways to implement stop losses into your daily trading. Depending on your goals and trading plan, not all stop loss methods might be the right one. Here we look at several stop loss methods so you can figure out which one is right for you. A stop loss is a handy risk management tool that many traders use in their day to day trading. A stop loss helps to limit risk because it helps the trader see a limit that they have set for themselves. It is generally a number that a trader sets that tells them when they should exit a market. There are a few different ways to set this number. The easiest way to use a stop loss is to use a fixed dollar amount. For example, a trader trading the E-mini S&P 500 might set a loss of $200 for his trading strategy. **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Profit Targets

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:49:09 -0400

Every trader should have a risk management plan in place before they start trading. Setting a profit target is a simple risk management tool that every trader should incorporate. There are several ways to implement profit targets into your daily trading. Depending on your goals and trading plan, not all profit targets will be the right one. Here we look at several ways to set profit targets so you can figure out which one is right for you. Profit targets are a risk management method that many traders use. While setting profit targets can be a more conservative risk management method, many traders enjoy using profit targets because they are easy to implement, and they help a trader to remain disciplined in their trading. There are several ways to set profit targets and incorporate them into your daily trading. Possibly the simplest way to set profit targets is to set a dollar amount. A trader would set a profit target as a dollar amount and incorporate this amount into their trading strategy. Let's say we are trading the E-mini S&P 500, and we decide to set a $150 profit target for ourselves. **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

An Overview of Fixed Percent Money Management

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:47:56 -0400

Fixed percent money management is a wonderful money management technique used by many traders with much success. As with all money management strategies, there are pros and cons, and not all money management strategies are suitable for all traders. This article can help you decide whether or not fixed percent money management is right for you. Fixed percent money management is one of the easiest anti-martingale money management strategies that a trader can apply. Fixed percent money management requires a trader to designate a fixed percentage of equity as the maximum risk per trade. When an account is going down, this percent will represent a lower dollar amount of risk based on the account size. When the account is going up, this percent will represent the higher dollar amount based on the account size. A trader using fixed percent money management will typically set a fixed percent of equity that is somewhere between 1% and 5% of their account. The 2% rule is very common, and simply means that a trader will risk 2% of their account at any given time. You do not have to use 2%, though. **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Fixed Fractional Money Management

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:45:03 -0400

Fixed fractional money management is a money management technique used by many traders with great success. As with all money management strategies, there are pros and cons, and not all money management strategies are suitable for all traders. This article can help you decide whether or not fixed fractional money management is right for you. Fixed fractional money management is one of the most common anti-martingale money management strategies that traders use. In fact, many money management strategies are based on fixed fractional money management. Fixed fractional money management involves risking a fixed percentage of equity on any given trade. Traders using fixed fractional money management select a percentage of equity between 0% and 1% to risk on a given trade. Stock traders, or traders trading larger accounts, typically use a smaller percentage, while Futures and Forex traders will often use a higher percentage to determine a fixed dollar amount per contract when trading. This money management method requires that in order to increase from one to two contracts, a trader would need a profit that reflects the fraction of the account that is being traded. For example, if a trader used 1. **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Risk Management Tools

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:50:15 -0400

Risk management and money management are two things every trader should have as part of their trading plan. While they can be similar, it is important not to confuse risk management with money management. When incorporating risk management into a trading program, there are four tools every trader should use. Many traders do not understand the difference between risk management and money management. Often, traders mistakenly think that the risk management principles they have incorporated into their trading will suffice as money management as well. Risk management and money management are two different aspects of trading that all traders should make part of their daily trading strategy, but they are not the same. Risk management addresses the amountof risk a trader will accept on a given trade. Money management is the strategy for increasing and decreasing your position as your account moves up and down. The goal of risk management is to accept and limit risk. There are four main risk management tools that every trader should use. Mastering these simple tools will help you more effectively incorporate your risk management strategies into your trading. The first risk management tool is to use stop losses. **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Incorporating Risk Management

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:49:03 -0400

You may have a risk management plan, and risk management tools, but do you actually know how to incorporate your risk management into your trading? There are several good techniques for incorporating your risk management strategies. By studying these techniques you will be able to decide which techniques will be right for you, and your trading plan, based on your goals, trading experience, and emotions. There are many ways a trader can incorporate risk management techniques into their trading. As a veteran trader, I firmly believe all traders should have some risk management techniques applied to their trading. But it is important to understand the best ways to incorporate these techniques once you have time. In this article I want to talk about what I think are the three best ways to incorporate risk management strategies into any trading technique. The first technique I suggest to traders is to use bracket orders. A bracket order is an order than can be attached to your entry order, and will allow you to set a stop loss and a profit target. **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Guidelines for Money Management

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:47:44 -0400

There are so many money management strategies out there for traders that it is hard to know where to begin. Many traders choose a strategy at random without considering how that strategy will work with the other aspects of their trading. Here are a few simple things every trader should know before picking a trading strategy. Money management is an important part of any trading strategy. Many traders feel that money management will hinder their trading, or that they can do without it. But time and time again it has been proven that incorporating money management into trading is the best way to limit risk and to increase returns. But before choosing a money management strategy, there are a few things you must remember. First of all, money management will have the largest impact on how fast or how slow your account will grow over time. Money management will allow you to control how much growth you see in your account, as well as how quickly you see that growth. This can be hard for some traders who want to see fast growth, and want a large return on their account. **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Choosing A Money Management Strategy

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:46:15 -0400

Money management is one of the most important elements of trading for any successful trader. However, this is an aspect of trading that is often overlooked. Before you can incorporate a money management plan, you must evaluate your trading. These are the steps to take before incorporating money management. There are many types of money management that traders can apply. Some of the best-known methods, and probably those methods which are best for the beginning trader, include Fixed Percent, Optimal F, Fixed Fractional and Fixed Ratio money management. With all of the many money management options for the beginning trader, how can you be sure the strategy you choose will work for you? Regardless of the money management method you choose, the best method for you will be the one that is acceptable for your account and your emotions. It is also important to take your psychology into consideration when thinking about an appropriate money management method. There are several things that you can do to prepare yourself before attempting to pick a money management strategy. First, you must plan out your trading. **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

10 Steps to Become a Trader

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:44:40 -0400

Traders, regardless of experience level, often ask the same question: Where do I go from here? If you find yourself asking this question, here are ten easy steps that will help you improve your trading and move to the next level. Here at Rockwell Trading, we come across many types of people. Some of our clients come to us with some experience trading, and want to improve their trading. Others come to us with very little knowledge about trading, and want to learn everything we have to offer. However, the question for all of them is the same: Where do I go from here? I have put together ten steps I think are crucial to becoming a trader. If you are wondering how to proceed from where you are now, or don't know how to get started, these are the steps you need to follow. First, you need to decide what kind of trader you would like to be. Do you want to be a day trader? Do you want to be a swing trader? What kind of markets would you like to trade? Would you like to trade Stocks, Futures, Forex, or Options? **End Summary** Topics: Day Trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Day Trading At The Beach - Can It Get Any Better?

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Day trading attracts plenty of hype. Slick vendors want you to believe that you can trade whenever and wherever you want. You could even be on vacation and make money at the same time. They push the image of someone with a laptop on the beach, ticking off profits in between swimming, building castles with the kids, and taking romantic walks with a tanned, beautiful someone by your side. This dreamlike image is, of course, just a dream. You cannot trade at the beach. And, believe me, I have tried. I have done my best to live up to this dream of making money in luxurious leisure. But there are some serious problems with that image of the laptop at the beach. Three serious problems in fact. First, the beach is a sunny place. Of course, youâ€™re saying; thatâ€™s why it ought to be a wonderful place to do business! But anyone who has taken their computer outside knows that the sun makes it impossible to see the screen. Add to that the problem that my eyes are light sensitive, which means I have to wear sunglasses (which are also necessary beach wear). **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the internation bestseller Day trading (www.rockwelltrading.com) and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website www.rockwelltrading.com.

The Art of Growing A Day Trading Account

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

One of my day trading students told me he was disappointed. He has been trading $10,000 for six weeks, but realized only $600 in profits. He told me that he was considering getting out of day trading because he thought he could make much, much more. After all, $600 in six weeks is only $100 a week, just a fraction of the money he set aside to invest. He could work as a fast food clerk and make more money, so, he thought, why bother with such an inefficient form of income? I told him he was dead wrong. When it comes to day trading, consistency is more important than the dollar amount of your profits at any given time. This trader was already making a fortune, but he didnâ€™t know it. In fact, he was already an incredibly successful day trader, and I told him that I could likely learn something from him. All he needed to do was recognize that he was making consistent profits, determine where that consistency came from, and then apply those sound money management strategies to achieve stellar results. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

The High Cost of "Free"

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Who knew that freeâ€ really meant expensiveâ€? That may seem like a contradiction, but day traders can easily find themselves in a situation where it turns out to be true. I teach a number of strategies that require software that displays tick charts. However I often have students who tell me that they use such-and-such piece of software that will not display them. But they refuse to change because the software they are using was free. Since many people try day trading as a supplement to their regular income, they do not often want to invest in it before showing a profit. But there is a problem with this line of thinking. Why does it seem so unreasonable for people to spend around $100 on a piece of decent charting software when they hope to make thousands of dollars from it each month? On the one hand, this attitude is wrong because the software you use is not simply a tool. It is an investment which should pay for itself multiple times over. But there is a larger problem with this attitude of not wanting to invest in a commitment to day trading. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

The $700 Billion Bailout Plan - A Good Idea?

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

We have all heard plenty of talk, both positive and negative, about the $700 billion bailout plan, and there are now rumors of similar plans in the works. The discussion dominated the recent election, and it continues to be a primary concern both on Wall Streetâ€ and Main Street.â€ Many people who have never concerned themselves with high level economic issues are finding themselves writing, or being solicited to write, letters to their congressmen and women in support of or opposition to the plan. But with this high level financial decision and high level of potential effect on individual taxes, it is important for those of us who do not spend our days reading about the Secretary of the Treasury to know what is involved with this plan. Many people continue to wonder if investing $700 billion to rescue the U.S. financial system, and as a result the U.S. economy, is really a good idea. A little perspective helps us see what is really involved with this plan. $700 billion is of course a huge amount of money. But in 2008 alone, the U.S. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Should You Let Your Profits Run?

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Knowing when to accept your profits is key to successful day trading. However, many people often think that you can earn more by letting your profits run. This strategy almost always fails, and it is why I find that setting profit targets is one of the few ways to guarantee that you turn a market gain into a monetary gain. The main principle behind using profit targets is that it helps you to control your emotions. When people exit a trade, they are usually too early or too late. Most people cannot pick tops and bottoms, or at least not consistently. What often happens, then, is that people get out too early, see the market continue to move in their direction, and feel tempted to re-enter. They often grow angry at themselves for leaving too early and want revenge. So they enter again. But now, of course, it is too late, and the trend is already exhausted. As soon as they enter, prices move against them, and they realize a loss. In this situation, regret, revenge, and greed take over and end up costing someone money. But the same thing can happen when people get out too late. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

How Many Markets Should You Trade?

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Too often, I hear from traders who insist that they "specialize" in a single market. Although they may feel a sense of comfort and even mastery by trading exclusively in one market, this kind of approach is a serious mistake. As day traders, we are interested in profitable markets. But what defines a profitable market has nothing to do with the kind of market it is; rather, it depends on how it is trending. Consequently, a successful trader should commit him or herself to trading trending markets, no matter what they are. By limiting yourself to only one market, you limit your chances to profit. There are times when a market is trending and easy to trade, but there are times when markets are just moving sideways. The more markets you watch, the more opportunities you get to locate a trend each and every day. As I like to say, "Finding good trades means de-selecting the bad trades," but you can only stay away from bad trades by having a number of sources of good trades. You can see the problem with only trading a single market with the following analogy. Let's say that you want some ice cream. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

The Power of Day Trading with Weekly Profit Goals

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

I insist on the power of weekly profit goals in my Day Trading Coaching Program. I help my students determine a goal for each week that is at once attractive and realistic. I insist that sticking with this goal should be a hard and fast rule. So, no matter how confident, or lucky, they may feel, I tell students that the only way to guarantee long term success is to stop trading once they achieve their goal. They should wait until the next week to start trading again, even if they have a hunch that the market will stay in their favor. This is a difficult habit to maintain. The reason behind my advice is that consistent gains will always outperform your "hunches" over the long run. But, at first, almost every student finds it to be unintuitive. After all, they think, why should I stop trading when I am ahead? If I keep trading, won't I make more money? The answer is that, no, on average you will not make more money. In fact, by not sticking to a target goal each week, you drastically increase your chances of losing money, not simply diminishing your profits. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Are Things as Bad as They Seem?

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

We have seen a number of dark days for stock markets all around the world in the past months. But how frightened should we be? Is the next Great Depression upon us? How can we distinguish a small crisis from a huge one? One way to deal with these questions and to calm our feelings of panic is to look closely at a single bad day. When we do that, the details can show us that the bigger picture may not be as bad as we fear, and, hopefully, quell our feelings of panic. Letâ€™s look back at September 29. On that day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7% and the S&P dropped by 8.8%. The Dowâ€™s declines were the largest since the 9/11 attacks, and the S&P had its worst day since Black Monday in 1987. Media headlines included comparisons to the Crash of 1929â€ and even The Great Depression,â€ but, in spite of all of this, were things really as bad as they seemed? The first thing to do when we have a horrible day like this is to look at as many of the details as you can. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

A Day Trading Strategy with a 90% Winning Percentage?

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Day traders cannot avoid losses. If anyone tries to sell you a system that has no losses, or even as little as 10% losses, you can be sure that they are unreliable. The fact is that traders engage in a very risky endeavor, and, even with the best plans, the markets will do unpredictable things. One point to be careful of when researching strategies is the idea of a winning percentage.â€ Many day trading programs will tell you that they have a winning percentage of over 90%. This sounds wonderful, of course, but what does it really mean? Does it mean that they profit from 90% of their trades? Does it mean that they always profit with an additional 90% of what they put in? By itself, this statistic tells you nothing. You can get away with making your winning percentage sound better than it really is. In day trading, your winning percentageâ€ is a function of the ratio between your stop loss and your profit target. If you increase your stop loss and decrease your profit target, your winning percentage will go up. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

Day Trading and Pivot Points

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

I am frequently asked how to use pivot points in day trading. They can certainly be useful tools, but, by themselves, they are not a real trading system or strategy. If you know how to calculate pivot points, however, they can be a helpful source of information. Pivot points are most commonly used to determine support and resistance levels, which are the prices at which trends will tend to reverse direction. The support level indicates where the price will likely find supportâ€ as it goes down and start to turn back up again. The resistance level is the opposite: the price where a trend tends to stop rising and start dropping. When it comes to actually using pivot points, most traders refer to the "5-point-system." This system uses the previous day's high (H), low (L) and close (C), along with two support levels (S1 and S2) and two resistance levels (R1 and R2). **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach.]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the international bestseller "The Complete Guide To Day Trading " and a professional day trading coach. For more free information on day trading visit his website http://www.rockwelltrading.com

The Problem with Predictions

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Investors often look to experts and experienced traders for their predictions on how the market will trend. For example, I am often asked to predict where the Down Jones Index will be at any given time. The truth is, I have no idea how to answer these questions. Predictions on the market are like throwing a dart. Most traders would be thrilled if they could predict where the Dow will be just minutes from now, and, as the recent extreme fluctuations prove, no one knows when huge movements will occur. What many day traders need to remember, however, is that successful trading does not require predictions. It requires a system to deal with the markets no matter what direction they are trending. I always tell traders the same thing: keep it simple! There are three simple rules to remember when trading that are better than any expertâ€'s prediction. First, buy when the market is going up, and sell when it is going down. I know this sounds overly simple, but too many investors forget to follow this very obvious advice. They may fall for concepts like Dollar Cost Averagingâ€ where you actually buy a stock even though it is falling. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the internation bestseller " Day trading " and a professional day trading coach . For more free information on day trading visit his website www.rockwelltrading.com.

Warren Buffet is Not a Day Trader

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Day traders often seek out stories of people who have had amazing success in the markets for guidance. They flock to biographies of financial celebrities hoping to gain insight and tips to get an edge on their own careers. One such celebrity, Warren Buffet, is often seen as a role model, and a recently released book on him, The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life, will no doubt increase his influence. But while Buffet has plenty to teach us about investing, his lessons are less applicable to day traders because of the kind of investing strategies that he uses. Iâ€'m not at all discounting Buffetâ€'s success, but I do want to stress that traders need to understand the difference between the strategies that will work for them and Buffetâ€'s kind of investing. Warren Buffet is, of course, a legend. Before he gave almost his entire fortune to charity, he was the richest man in the entire world. In 1962, when he began buying stock in Berkshire Hathaway, a single share cost $7.50. Today, Buffet is Berkshireâ€' chairman and CEO, and one Class Aâ€ stock is worth more than $118,000. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the internation bestseller " Day trading " and a professional day trading coach . For more free information on day trading visit his website www.rockwelltrading.com.

The Difference Between Day Trading and Gambling

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I have often said that day trading is fundamentally different from gambling, or at least successful day trading is. A successful trader controls his risk with a thoughtful and well-tested strategy, not intuition; but a gambler depends on luck. Most types of gambling are pure luck, such as roulette or slot machines. But blackjack is a game in which, with a good system, you can have an edge or at least thatâ€'s what Iâ€'ve heard. I thought it might be interesting to apply my trading techniques to blackjack to see if I could gain an edge, which means simply developing a strategy that is consistently profitable. If I could do that, perhaps Iâ€'ve been wrong about gambling, and maybe it has more in common with trading than I thought. This is the story of my experiment and evidence that I was right all along about the vast difference between gambling and day trading. I started by approaching blackjack the same way I teach novice day traders to approach the market: systematically. I teach them to learn the rules, find a decent strategy, test that strategy, evaluate the results, and then improve the strategy. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the internation bestseller " Day trading " and a professional day trading coach . For more free information on day trading visit his website www.rockwelltrading.com.

The Difference Between Fundamental and Technical Analysts

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I am a day trader, and yet people sometimes ask me questions about the market that go beyond my area of expertise. They assume that since I am successful at one aspect of the market, I should have insight into questions of national and international economics, particularly as it relates to large scale political events. The fact is that day trading does not require any specialized insight into these issues. But since many people often assume that success in one economic arena implies knowledge of any and all other economics topics, it is important to distinguish the difference between a day traderâ€'s expertise as an analyst and that of other economists. When you do, you will also understand that there are different ways to interpret and act on the market, and I would like to explain why I find my own area of expertise particularly useful. To put it briefly, there are two kinds of financial analysts: a fundamental analyst and a technical analyst. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the internation bestseller " Day trading " and a professional day trading coach . For more free information on day trading visit his website www.rockwelltrading.com.

How To Develop Trading Strategies

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

People who want to profit from the market often ask experienced traders how they come up with their trading strategies. Newcomers are often overwhelmed by the amount of available data and are a bit mystified about how to navigate through it. But, even more often, they want to know how to develop a strategy that works consistently, and they expect to find secretsâ€ that brings them a stable profit. As I tell them, however, there is no crystal ball, no magical insight to be had on the market. Instead, I like to share with them three proven rules and habits that allow me to test my strategies and determine which to continue using. My three rules are actually quite simple: 1. Learn to identify the direction of the market and follow it; that means that you buy when the market is going up and sell when the market is going down. 2. Always know when to exit a trade; specifically, remember to always place a stop loss and a profit target after entering a trade. 3. If you are using a trend-following strategy, find a trending market. **End Summary** Topics: Day trading]]> day trading coach]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Markus Heitkoetter is the author of the internation bestseller " Day trading " and a professional day trading coach . For more free information on day trading visit his website www.rockwelltrading.com.