Falling In Love With TradeTiger

As a small speculator earlier I did not have access to real-time intra-day charting. It is a bit expensive for independent traders and infact not possible to access in crowded brokerage trading rooms.

1. Many retail traders are forced to trade with tape reading and their own imagination from the screen.
2. Tradetiger of Sharekhan really a good tool for prepared traders.
3. Multiple time frame view of price action ( 3D,5D) helps traders to form a opinion about likely support & resistance areas.
4. Using this tool I could form a likely supply area for DLF at 487 in the morning trade. Combined with a range trading day hypothesis , me and my co-learner in the trading course decided to take a short trade. We covered for a 2% gain when other indicators started to deteriorate.
5. How many retail day traders can access multiday view of price action of their stock in real time? I would presume not many.
6. Chart based viewing of price action also helps traders avoid impulsive reactions and they can view with respect to a reference frame.
7. I am trying to illustrate my trade ideas and decision making process using Tradetiger in the trading course.
   

Fighting the Isolation of trading

Trading is based on Individual Opinion synthesised from various sources. But ultimately the trader has to decide and execute on his own. Trading is isolating in a way so as not to be biased by others random opinions.

1. In an effort to interact and share my opinions I have started my blog. I could form friend ship with excellent market participants and human beings like Newton Linchen, Soham Das, Sushil Kedia
2. I started to comment on market related blogs and in this process found myself approval from DailySpec , Newton Linchen, Jumpup
3. For the past one year, my thought process has got refined and I could explain my framework as a combination of ideas to beginning traders.
4. Initially I used to work from home but I shifted to my friend's office which made me more in control and reduced my overtrading to avoid boredom and frustation.
5. When I keep a trading student with me and start explaining trading setups to him and my process becomes more evident and my trading more responsible.

Newton LInchen's Observations on Course for Traders

I take liberty to post my esteemed friend, SpecList Author 's observations.

"Dear Prof.
I read the comment before your answer to it.I must tell you it has great merit to maintain such an aggressive comment in your blog, and it takes great humility and courage to answer it openly.I don't know the trading background of this person, but I'm suspicious of everyone who claims trading to be an easy task.Anyone who claims trading to be easy - surely doesn't make a living from trading. (That's why I don't like very much Dr. Brett books... It's clear to me that he is not a trader in the full meaning of the word. I rather to learn "trading psychology" from traders who really live from trading - In that matter, I would recommend an excellent book by Mark Fisher (the man who trained Paul Tudor Jones pit traders) - "The Logical Trader" (you find it at www.avaxhome.ws).You know, I also had my ugly ups and downs."BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, BOUGHT THE SHIRT"I started searching for guidance and I first found it in the person and work of Larry Williams (www.ireallytrade.com). Then I started to read other authors, (including Victor).The point is that I spend many years just to develop a conceptual framework for trading!!!! Many years just to understand (although roughly) the INTELECTUAL part of trading.Now, imagine my position, some time ago: being a market encyclopedia - and trading poorly.When I had enough bad trades, I realized that INTELECTUAL knowkedge of the markets wasn't enough.And... no "psycho trading" books were of ANY help.ANY. AT ALL.The first good "trading psychology" advise came from Larry Williams (I will quote it in my blog, next post!). It was something like this: "It's not the positive feelings that generate good trades...It's doing the right thing that generate good trades - and the good trades generate positive feelings."SO, there I was, stuck in the middle of bad trades - but "knowing" a lot about the markets. In sum, my TRADING didn't correspond to my KNOWLEDGE.Then I realized a trading METHOD that just solved every trading discipline issue I had. And it worked well for my students and for everyone who started using it. (I can disclosure it for you via skype).But, the point is: one struggle a LOT to achieve a minimal understanding of the markets - then, one have to struggle EVEN MORE to make this knowledge "work".I can see you are definitively in the path of making your knowledge work... And if I can be of some help in this process, I would be honored.
NAMASTE! " - Newton Linchen
I believe we all get resilience and humility from the exemplary path shown by the Chair Dr Victor Niederhoffer.

Why A Course for Traders

A reader commented on the blog about teaching trading without being a super trader. I will summarize my thoughts on this in response to his observations.

1. I am a co-learner in this course for traders. Each participant is a student as well as a teacher including the mentor.
2. I humbly accept that I had my highs and lows in the never ending journey called Trading ( " Hilotrader")
3. My effort is to find my own fusion of academic finance and trading.
4. I am not teaching a canned system but a thinking process.
5. Can I emphasize Mechanics,Tactics and Strategies thereby accelerating the learning curve of beginning traders.
6. My own learnings from 2003 onwards in the tradition of DailySpec, Traderfeed, Fooled by Randomness will give a framework to approach trading.
7. The course fulfils my desire and need to express myself and find flow in the feedback of my co-learners.
8. My effort to integrate Pivot points, Day Structure,Sector Themes, Preparation for the Day, Risk management,Trading psychology into a coherent framework will definitely protect beginners from blowing out before market allows them to learn to be competent traders
9. To put things in perspective, I have never blown my account in the past ten years of my active trading. Never panicked in a 10% move in Index, 70% down move in my stock ( Unitech in Oct 2008) in one trading session and always manged my risk.
10. An approach to markets, relentless drive to find your own trading style, Discovering your niche are the points I drive home in my course.
11. As for being a supertrader, knowledge is necessary but not sufficient, Risk-taking capacity is also needed. I try to trade within my risk parameters avoiding entering into Gambling territory.
12. I thank the reader for helping me clarify my thoughts on the course for Traders

Horse sense in the Market and Underestimation of VIG

Allow me to quote from Daily Spec

"This reinforces T@leb's argument that life is becoming over-optimised, reducing the slack in the system that's necessary to absorb the impact of the unforeseen. I have seen this myself recently, having interviewed a kid who was near top of his class at IIT and IIM, top of his class at a top tier MS in quant finance, straight As and a bonafide mathemagician. But he had zero intuition about the mechanics of the market, the vig or anything else. Everything was an equation to be solved where one simply cranks the wheel and spits out the answer." - Nick White

I have encountered situations where learned people under estimating the market realities and friction ( transactional costs).

1. One stockbroker explaining to me how high brokerage costs doesnt matter . It reminded me of Victor's anger when he was given dubious quotes on the floor of the exchanges.
2. Dealers buying 5% spread for customers and buying at the market in which there is scant volume.
3. Inappropriate use of Order types in the market situation.( Stop loss, Limit Orders)
4. Need for recognising how the " Obvious therefore Dubious " ( Courtesy GM Nigel Davis of DailySpec) more often than not as evidenced by Indian Market on Friday ( Nifty opening at + 110 points and closing at -40 points). Am I hearing Victor's admonition here ( You can find any example retrospectively in the market to fit your analogy )
   

My Friend a Fantastic Teacher, Trader & SpecList Author

Today I had wonderful conversation with Newton Linchen. I am all ears to his most incisive explanation of edge in market microstructure and Index futures trading.

1. I believe Newton Linchen 's constant encouragement enabled me to succesfully launch the " Active Trader Course " in Hyderabad.
2. I am very excited for the past two days looking forward to this conversation. We had a good time ." Trading & Exchanges " is a book that has to be digested many times over.
3. The excitement with which Newton Linchen described Round numbers and their relevance still resonates with me.
4. As the saying goes " When the student is ready, the teacher appears ".
   
5. I look forward to more conversations with Newton and India - Brazil Connections .
6. The effort to meet the Stock Exchange authorities to discover the edge is a lesson I always keep with me.
   

Learnings from Trading Course

Some observations from my trading course conducted successfully.

1. Two participants having good educational background attended the course.
   
2. I am really pleased to have them as co-learners. We enjoyed mutual sharing of knowledge.
3. One participant who traded forex has very good feel for charts and Elliot wave, Fib retracements. This has shown me the importance of trading niche and individual style. Another participant has feel for Correlation trading.
4. I enjoyed interacting with them and we could observe the market real time making good inferences.
5. Another point that came to the fore in my discussions is individual risk tolerance levels.