SENIMAN TRADER MONEY MANAGEMENT 2014

Getting rich is not a short term project
 We aren’t taking A days.
 We aren’t taking A months.
 We are taking A years.
 Lots of years and maybe decades.
 This isn’t a get rich quick scheme.
 This is a get rich path!!!

1st STEP
Save your money. Save as much money as you possibly can. Every penny you can. Instead of coffee, drink water. Instead of going to McDonald's, eat Mac and Cheese. Cut up your credit cards. The first step to getting rich requires discipline. If you really want to be rich, you need to find the discipline, can you? If you can, you will quickly find that the greatest rate of return you will earn is on your own personal spending. You have to give things up and that doesn’t work for everyone, particularly if you have a family. That is reality. But whatever you can save, save it. As much as you possibly can. Then put it in 6 months CDs in the bank. The goal here is having cash available. You aren’t saving for retirement. You are saving for the moment you need cash. Buy and hold is a sucker’s game for you. This market is a perfect example. Right at the very moment when cash creates unbelievable opportunity, those who followed the buy and hold strategy have no cash. They can’t or won’t sell into markets this low that kills the entire point of buy and hold. Those who have put their money in CDs sleep well at night and definitely have more money today than they did yesterday. And because they are smart, disciplined shoppers, their personal rate of inflation is within their means. Cash is king for those wanting to get rich.

2nd STEP
Get smart. Invest your time in yourself and becoming knowledgeable about the business of something you really love to do. It doesn’t matter what it is. Whatever your hobbies, interests, passions are, find the one you love the best and GET A JOB in the business that supports it. It could be as a clerk, a salesperson, whatever you can find. You have to start learning the business somewhere. Instead of paying to go to school somewhere, you are getting paid to learn. It may not be the perfect job, but there is no perfect path to getting rich.
Before or after work and on weekends, every single day, read everything there is to read about the business. Go to trade shows, read the trade magazines, spend a lot of time talking to the people you do business with about their business and the people they buy from.

3rd STEP
Wait for times of uncertainty and change in your business. The time will come. It may come quickly, it may take years and years. But it will come. The nature of our country’s business infrastructure is that it is destined to be boom and bust. Booms are when the smart people sell. Busts are when rich people started on their path to wealth. You will know when that time is here for you because you will know your business inside and out. You will be ready because you will have been saving up for this moment in time!!!

TIPS
Despite the change and uncertainty in the financial markets, there are people right now making more money than they ever dreamed of. They are the ones who have been living the real estate market and the financing behind it and understanding what actually what was going on. They’re the ones who understood the complexities of the credit markets. When everyone was following the crowd, they kept on saving their money and avoiding the temptation of group think. Boom and busts happen to every industry. The question is whether you have the discipline to be ready when it happens for you?

Warning!!!
There are no shortcuts. NONE. With all of this craziness in the stock and financial markets, there will be scams popping up left and right. The less money you have, the more likely someone will come at you with some scheme . The schemes will guarantee returns, use multi level marketing, or be something crazy that is now “backed by the US Government”. Ignore them. Always remember this: If a deal is a great deal, they aren’t going to share it with you. The second thing to remember is that if the person selling the deal was so smart, they would be rich beyond rich rather than trolling the streets looking to turn you into a sucker. There are no shortcuts.

What is a Trading Plan?

Now that you’re about half way through college, here’s one piece of advice you should always remember.

Be your own trader.

In other words: Don’t follow someone else’s trading advice blindly! Just because someone may be doing well with their method, it doesn’t mean it will work for you.

We’re all in different situations in life, and we all have different market views, thought processes, risk tolerance levels, and market experience. Have your own personalized forex trading plan and update it as you learn from the market.

Developing a Trading Plan and sticking to it are the two main ingredients of trading discipline. But trading discipline isn’t enough. Even solid trading discipline isn’t enough.

It has to be rock solid discipline.

We repeat: rock solid.

Like Zac Efron’s abs.

Plastic solid discipline won’t do. Nor will discipline made from straws and sticks. We don’t want to be little piggies.

We want to be successful traders!

And having rock solid trading discipline is the most important characteristic of successful traders.

A trading plan defines what is supposed to be done, why, when, and how. It covers your trader personality, personal expectations, risk management rules, and trading system(s).

When followed to, a trading plan will help limit trading mistakes and minimize your losses. After all, “If you fail to plan, then you’ve already planned to fail.”

A trading plan removes any bad decision making in the heat of the moment. Your emotions can consume you when money is on the line, causing you to make irrational decisions. You don’t want that to happen.

The best way to prevent it from happening is to minimize (notice we did not say eliminate) thinking by having a plan for every potential market action. With the right forex trading plan, every action is spelled out, so that in the heat of the moment you don’t have to make any rash decisions. You just simply stick to your trading plan.

The Difference Between a Trading Plan and a Trading System

Before we continue, we have to quickly distinguish the difference between a trading plan and a trading system.

A trading system describes how you will enter and exit trades.

A trading system is part of your trading plan but is just one of several important parts, i.e., analysis, executions, risk management, etc.

Since market conditions are always changing, a good trader will usually have two or more trading systems in his or her trading plan.

Trading systems will be covered more in-depth later on in the lesson, but we thought that it was important to point out the difference between the two upfront to avoid any confusion.

What is a Trading Plan?

Why Do Forex Traders Need A Trading Plan?

Why Trading Discipline is the Key to Consistent Profitability

How To Find A Trading Style That Suits Your Personality

What is Your Motivation to Be a Forex Trader?

What Is Your Risk Capital? How Much Money Can You Afford To Lose?

How Much Time Can You Dedicate To Forex Trading?

Which Kind Of Returns Do You Expect To Make From Forex Trading?

What Is Your Daily Pre-Trading Routine?

What Forex Trading Software, Hardware, And Other Tools Will You Use?

Stick With Your Trading Plan

Summary: Developing a Trading Plan

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/undergraduate/junior-year/developing-your-own-trading-plan/what-is-a-trading-plan.html#ixzz3Hz1MtFw4

Forex Pivot Points

Are you all excited? It’s your last year in junior high before you head off to high school!

Professional forex traders and market makers use pivot points to identify potential support and resistance levels. Simply put, a pivot point and its support/resistance levels are areas at which the direction of price movement can possibly change.

The reason why pivot points are so enticing?

It’s because they are OBJECTIVE.

Unlike some of the other indicators that we’ve taught you about already, there’s no discretion involved.

In many ways, forex pivot points are very similar to Fibonacci levels. Because so many people are looking at those levels, they almost become self-fulfilling.

The major difference between the two is that with Fibonacci, there is still some subjectivity involved in picking Swing Highs and Swing Lows. With pivot points, forex traders typically use the same method for calculating them.

Many traders keep an eye on these levels and you should too.

Pivot points are especially useful to short-term traders who are looking to take advantage of small price movements. Just like normal support and resistance levels, forex traders can choose to trade the bounce or the break of these levels.

Range-bound traders use pivot points to identify reversal points. They see pivot points as areas where they can place their buy or sell orders.

Breakout forex traders use pivot points to recognize key levels that need to be broken for a move to be classified as a real deal breakout.

Here is an example of pivot points plotted on a 1-hour EUR/USD chart:

As you can see here, horizontal support and resistance levels are placed on your chart. And look – they’re marked out nicely for you! How convenient is that?!

Pivot Point Lingo

Here’s quick rundown on what those acronyms mean:

PP stands for Pivot Point.

S stands for Support.

R stands for Resistance.

But don’t get too caught up in thinking “S1 has to be support” or “R1 has to be resistance.” We’ll explain why later.

In the following lessons, you will learn how to calculate forex pivot points, the different types of pivot points and most importantly, how you can add pivot points to your forex trading toolbox!

Forex Pivot Points

How to Calculate Pivot Points

How to use Pivot Points for Range Trading

How to use Pivot Points to Trade Breakouts

How to Use Pivot Points to Measure Market Sentiment

Know the 3 Other Types of Pivot Points

Summary: Pivot Points

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/middle-school/pivot-points/forex-pivot-points.html#ixzz3HyiU0IRo

Chart Patterns Schmatterns

By now you have an arsenal of weapons to use when you battle the market. In this lesson, you will add yet another weapon: CHART PATTERNS!

Think of chart patterns as a land mine detector because, once you finish this lesson, you will be able to spot “explosions” on the charts before they even happen, potentially making you a lot of money in the process.

Chart patterns are like that funny feeling you get in your tummy right before you let a fart explode.

In this lesson, we will teach you basic chart patterns and formations. When correctly identified, it usually leads to an explosive breakout, so watch out!

Remember, our goal is to spot big movements before they happen so that we can ride them out and rake in the cash. After all, who doesn’t want to have a pool of cash to swim in like Richie Rich?

Chart formations will greatly help us spot conditions where the market is ready to break out. They can also indicate whether the price will continue in its current direction or reverse so we’ll also be devising some nifty trade strategies for these patterns.

Don’t worry, we’ll give you a neat little cheat sheet to help you remember all these cool patterns and strategies!

Here’s the list of chart patterns that we’re going to cover:

• Double Top and Double Bottom
• Head and Shoulders and Inverse Head and Shoulders
• Rising and Falling Wedges
• Bullish and Bearish Rectangles
• Bearish and Bullish Pennants
• Triangles (Symmetrical, Ascending, and Descending)

Chart Patterns Schmatterns

How to Trade Double Tops and Double Bottoms

How to Trade the Head and Shoulders Pattern

How to Trade Wedge Chart Patterns

How to Use Rectangle Chart Patterns to Trade Breakouts

How to Trade Bearish and Bullish Pennants

How to Trade Triangle Chart Patterns

Know the 3 Main Groups of Chart Patterns

Forex Chart Patterns Cheat Sheet

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/middle-school/important-chart-patterns/chart-patterns-schmatterns.html#ixzz3Hycnwfoj

How to Use Bollinger Bands

Congratulations on making it to the 5th grade! Each time you make it to the next grade you continue to add more and more tools to your trader’s toolbox.

“What’s a trader’s toolbox?” you ask.

Simple!

Let’s compare trading to building a house. You wouldn’t use a hammer on a screw, right? Nor would you use a buzz saw to drive in nails. There’s a proper tool for each situation.

Just like in trading, some trading tools and indicators are best used in particular environments or situations. So, the more tools you have, the better you can adapt to the ever-changing market environment.

Or if you want to focus on a few specific trading environments or tools, that’s cool too. It’s good to have a specialist when installing your electricity or plumbing in a house, just like it’s cool to be a Bollinger Band or Moving Average expert.

There are a million different ways to grab some pips!

For this lesson, as you learn about these indicators, think of each as a new tool that you can add to that toolbox of yours.

You might not necessarily use all of these tools, but it’s always nice to have plenty of options, right? You might even find one that you understand and comfortable enough to master on its own. Now, enough about tools already!

Let’s get started!

Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands, a chart indicator developed by John Bollinger, are used to measure a market’s volatility.

Basically, this little tool tells us whether the market is quiet or whether the market is LOUD! When the market is quiet, the bands contract and when the market is LOUD, the bands expand.

Notice on the chart below that when price is quiet, the bands are close together. When price moves up, the bands spread apart.

That’s all there is to it. Yes, we could go on and bore you by going into the history of the Bollinger Band, how it is calculated, the mathematical formulas behind it, and so on and so forth, but we really didn’t feel like typing it all out.

In all honesty, you don’t need to know any of that junk. We think it’s more important that we show you some ways you can apply the Bollinger Bands to your trading.

Note: If you really want to learn about the calculations of a Bollinger Band, then you can go to www.bollingerbands.com.

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/common-chart-indicators/bollinger-bands.html#ixzz3HyaaZoRj

What Are Moving Averages?

A moving average is simply a way to smooth out price action over time. By “moving average”, we mean that you are taking the average closing price of a currency pair for the last ‘X’ number of periods. On a chart, it would look like this:

Like every indicator, a moving average indicator is used to help us forecast future prices. By looking at the slope of the moving average, you can better determine the potential direction of market prices.

As we said, moving averages smooth out price action.

There are different types of moving averages and each of them has their own level of “smoothness”.

Generally, the smoother the moving average, the slower it is to react to the price movement.

The choppier the moving average, the quicker it is to react to the price movement. To make a moving average smoother, you should get the average closing prices over a longer time period.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “C’mon, let’s get to the good stuff. How can I use this to trade?”

In this section, we first need to explain to you the two major types of moving averages:

1. Simple
2. Exponential

We’ll also teach you how to calculate them and give the pros and cons of each. Just like in every other lesson in the BabyPips.com School of Pipsology, you need to know the basics first!

After you’ve got that on lockdown like Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi’s ball-handling skills, we’ll teach you the different ways to use moving averages and how to incorporate them into your trading strategy.

By the end of this lesson, you’ll be just as smooth as Messi’s!

Are you ready?

If you are, give us a “Heck yeah!”

If not, go back and reread the intro.

Once you’re pumped and ready to go, head to the next page.

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/moving-averages/silky-smooth-moving-averages.html#ixzz3HyZJazTg

Fibonacci Trading

We will be using Fibonacci ratios a lot in our trading so you better learn it and love it like your mother’s home cooking. Fibonacci is a huge subject and there are many different Fibonacci studies with weird-sounding names but we’re going to stick to two: retracement and extension.

Let us first start by introducing you to the Fib man himself…Leonardo Fibonacci.

No, Leonardo Fibonacci isn’t some famous chef. Actually, he was a famous Italian mathematician, also known as a super duper uber ultra geek.

He had an “Aha!” moment when he discovered a simple series of numbers that created ratios describing the natural proportions of things in the universe.

The ratios arise from the following number series: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144…

This series of numbers is derived by starting with 0 followed by 1 and then adding 0 + 1 to get 1, the third number. Then, adding the second and third number (1 + 1) to get 2, the fourth number, and so on.

After the first few numbers in the sequence, if you measure the ratio of any number to the succeeding higher number, you get .618. For example, 34 divided by 55 equals .618.

If you measure the ratio between alternate numbers you get .382. For example, 34 divided by 89 = 0.382 and that’s as far as into the explanation as we’ll go.

These ratios are called the “golden mean”. Okay that’s enough mumbo jumbo. With all those numbers, you could put an elephant to sleep. We’ll just cut to the chase; these are the ratios you HAVE to know:

Fibonacci Retracement Levels

0.236, 0.382, 0.500, 0.618, 0.764

Fibonacci Extension Levels

0, 0.382, 0.618, 1.000, 1.382, 1.618

You won’t really need to know how to calculate all of this. Your charting software will do all the work for you. Besides, we’ve got a nice Fibonacci calculator that can magically calculate those levels for you. However, it’s always good to be familiar with the basic theory behind the indicator so you’ll have the knowledge to impress your date.

Traders use the Fibonacci retracement levels as potential support and resistance areas. Since so many traders watch these same levels and place buy and sell orders on them to enter trades or place stops, the support and resistance levels tend to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Traders use the Fibonacci extension levels as profit taking levels. Again, since so many traders are watching these levels to place buy and sell orders to take profits, this tool tends to work more often than not due to self-fulfilling expectations.

Most charting software includes both Fibonacci retracement levels and extension level tools. In order to apply Fibonacci levels to your charts, you’ll need to identify Swing High and Swing Low points.

A Swing High is a candlestick with at least two lower highs on both the left and right of itself.

A Swing Low is a candlestick with at least two higher lows on both the left and right of itself.

You got all that? Don’t worry, we’ll explain retracements, extensions, and most importantly, how to grab some pips using the Fibonacci tool in the following lessons.

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/fibonacci/fibonacci-who.html#ixzz3HyON0Ok8

What is a Japanese Candlestick?

While we briefly covered Japanese candlestick charting analysis in the previous lesson, we’ll now dig in a little and discuss them more in detail. Let’s do a quick review first.

Japanese Candlestick Trading

Back in the day when Godzilla was still a cute little lizard, the Japanese created their own old school version of technical analysis to trade rice. That’s right, rice.

A Westerner by the name of Steve Nison “discovered” this secret technique called “Japanese candlesticks”, learning it from a fellow Japanese broker. Steve researched, studied, lived, breathed, ate candlesticks, and began to write about it. Slowly, this secret technique grew in popularity in the 90′s. To make a long story short, without Steve Nison, candlestick charts might have remained a buried secret. Steve Nison is Mr. Candlestick.

Okay, so what the heck are Japanese candlesticks?

The best way to explain is by using a picture:

Japanese candlesticks can be used for any time frame, whether it be one day, one hour, 30-minutes – whatever you want! They are used to describe the price 

Japanese candlesticks are formed using the open, high, low, and close of the chosen time period.

• If the close is above the open, then a hollow candlestick (usually displayed as white) is drawn.
• If the close is below the open, then a filled candlestick (usually displayed as black) is drawn.
• The hollow or filled section of the candlestick is called the “real body” or body.
• The thin lines poking above and below the body display the high/low range and are called shadows.
• The top of the upper shadow is the “high”.
• The bottom of the lower shadow is the “low”.

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/japanese-candle-sticks/what-is-a-japanese-candlestick.html#ixzz3HyLq3IRQ

What is a Japanese Candlestick?

While we briefly covered Japanese candlestick charting analysis in the previous lesson, we’ll now dig in a little and discuss them more in detail. Let’s do a quick review first.

Japanese Candlestick Trading

Back in the day when Godzilla was still a cute little lizard, the Japanese created their own old school version of technical analysis to trade rice. That’s right, rice.

A Westerner by the name of Steve Nison “discovered” this secret technique called “Japanese candlesticks”, learning it from a fellow Japanese broker. Steve researched, studied, lived, breathed, ate candlesticks, and began to write about it. Slowly, this secret technique grew in popularity in the 90′s. To make a long story short, without Steve Nison, candlestick charts might have remained a buried secret. Steve Nison is Mr. Candlestick.

Okay, so what the heck are Japanese candlesticks?

The best way to explain is by using a picture:

Japanese candlesticks can be used for any time frame. whether it be one day, one hour, 30 minutes and whatever you want! They are used to describe the price action during the given time frame.

Japanese candlesticks are formed using the open, high, low, and close of the chosen time period.

• If the close is above the open, then a hollow candlestick (usually displayed as white) is drawn.
• If the close is below the open, then a filled candlestick (usually displayed as black) is drawn.
• The hollow or filled section of the candlestick is called the “real body” or body.
• The thin lines poking above and below the body display the high/low range and are called shadows.
• The top of the upper shadow is the “high”.
• The bottom of the lower shadow is the “low”.

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/japanese-candle-sticks/what-is-a-japanese-candlestick.html#ixzz3HyKgSyNT

Forex Support and Resistance

Support and resistance is one of the most widely used concepts in forex trading. Strangely enough, everyone seems to have their own idea on how you should measure forex support and resistance.

Let’s take a look at the basics first.

Look at the diagram above. As you can see, this zigzag pattern is making its way up (bull market). When the forex market moves up and then pulls back, the highest point reached before it pulled back is now resistance.

As the market continues up again, the lowest point reached before it started back is now support. In this way, resistance and support are continually formed as the forex market oscillates over time. The reverse is true for the downtrend.

Plotting Forex Support and Resistance

One thing to remember is that support and resistance levels are not exact numbers.

Often times you will see a support or resistance level that appears broken, but soon after find out that the market was just testing it. With candlestick charts, these “tests” of support and resistance are usually represented by the candlestick shadows.

 Notice how the shadows of the candles tested the 1.4700 support level. At those times it seemed like the market was “breaking” support. In hindsight we can see that the market was merely testing that level.

So how do we truly know if support and resistance was broken?

There is no definite answer to this question. Some argue that a support or resistance level is broken if the market can actually close past that level. However, you will find that this is not always the case.

Let’s take our same example from above and see what happened when the price actually closed past the 1.4700 support level.

In this case, price had closed below the 1.4700 support level but ended up rising back up above it.

If you had believed that this was a real breakout and sold this pair, you would’ve been seriously hurtin’!

Looking at the chart now, you can visually see and come to the conclusion that the support was not actually broken; it is still very much intact and now even stronger.

To help you filter out these false breakouts, you should think of support and resistance more of as “zones” rather than concrete numbers.

One way to help you find these zones is to plot support and resistance on a line chart rather than a candlestick chart. The reason is that line charts only show you the closing price while candlesticks add the extreme highs and lows to the picture.

These highs and lows can be misleading because often times they are just the “knee-jerk” reactions of the market. It’s like when someone is doing something really strange, but when asked about it, he or she simply replies, “Sorry, it’s just a reflex.”

When plotting support and resistance, you don’t want the reflexes of the market. You only want to plot its intentional movements.

Looking at the line chart, you want to plot your support and resistance lines around areas where you can see the price forming several peaks or valleys.

Other interesting tidbits about forex support and resistance:

• When the price passes through resistance, that resistance could potentially become support.
• The more often price tests a level of resistance or support without breaking it, the stronger the area of resistance or support is.
• When a support or resistance level breaks, the strength of the follow-through move depends on how strongly the broken support or resistance had been holding.

With a littel prctice, you'll be able to spot potential forex support and resistance area easily. In the next lesson, we'll teach you how to trade diagonal sipport.

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/support-and-resistance-levels/support-and-resistance.html#ixzz3HyISSvx9

Advantages Of Forex Trading

There are many benefits and advantages of trading forex. Here are just a few reasons why so many people are choosing this market:

No commissions

No clearing fees, no exchange fees, no government fees, no brokerage fees. Most retail brokers are compensated for their services through something called the “bid-ask spread“.

No middlemen

Spot currency trading eliminates the middlemen and allows you to trade directly with the market responsible for the pricing on a particular currency pair.

No fixed lot size

In the futures markets, lot or contract sizes are determined by the exchanges. A standard-size contract for silver futures is 5,000 ounces. In spot forex, you determine your own lot, or position size. This allows traders to participate with accounts as small as $25 (although we’ll explain later why a $25 account is a bad idea).

Low transaction costs

The retail transaction cost (the bid/ask spread) is typically less than 0.1% under normal market conditions. At larger dealers, the spread could be as low as 0.07%. Of course this depends on your leverage and all will be explained later.

A 24-hour market

There is no waiting for the opening bell. From the Monday morning opening in Australia to the afternoon close in New York, the forex market never sleeps. This is awesome for those who want to trade on a part-time basis, because you can choose when you want to trade: morning, noon, night, during breakfast, or in your sleep.

No one can corner the market

The foreign exchange market is so huge and has so many participants that no single entity (not even a central bank or the mighty Chuck Norris himself) can control the market price for an extended period of time.

Leverage

In forex trading, a small deposit can control a much larger total contract value. Leverage gives the trader the ability to make nice profits, and at the same time keep risk capital to a minimum.

For example, a forex broker may offer 50-to-1 leverage, which means that a $50 dollar margin deposit would enable a trader to buy or sell $2,500 worth of currencies. Similarly, with $500 dollars, one could trade with $25,000 dollars and so on. While this is all gravy, let’s remember that leverage is a double-edged sword. Without proper risk management, this high degree of leverage can lead to large losses as well as gains.

High Liquidity.

Because the forex market is so enormous, it is also extremely liquid. This is an advantage because it means that under normal market conditions, with a click of a mouse you can instantaneously buy and sell at will as there will usually be someone in the market willing to take the other side of your trade. You are never “stuck” in a trade. You can even set your online trading platform to automatically close your position once your desired profit level (a limit order) has been reached, and/or close a trade if a trade is going against you (a stop loss order).

Low Barriers to Entry

You would think that getting started as a currency trader would cost a ton of money. The fact is, when compared to trading stocks, options or futures, it doesn’t. Online forex brokers offer “mini” and “micro” trading accounts, some with a minimum account deposit of $25.

We’re not saying you should open an account with the bare minimum, but it does make forex trading much more accessible to the average individual who doesn’t have a lot of start-up trading capital.

Free Stuff Everywhere!

Most online forex brokers offer “demo” accounts to practice trading and build your skills, along with real-time forex news and charting services.

And guess what?! They’re all free!

Demo accounts are very valuable resources for those who are “financially hampered” and would like to hone their trading skills with “play money” before opening a live trading account and risking real money.

Now that you know the advantages of the forex market, see how it compares with the stock market!

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/preschool/why-trade-forex/advantages-of-forex.html#ixzz3HyFZARiZ