Do you hide the trades that aren’t going well from your spouse and only show them the ones where you’re making money? Are you a perpetual bull, or a perpetual bear when talking to your spouse? Do you deluge your spouse with details about trading, until their eyes glaze over and they start looking feverishly…
The minute we start to feel like life is mundane is the minute we start to feel old. Ahhh… the enthusiasm and vigour of youth. Makes you envious doesn’t it! Or does it? Is it that you still feel like bouncing out of bed, eager for the day’s challenges? Or, are you feeling stale, tired…
Chris and I are subjected to all sorts of mind blurts from people who are researching buying shares in Australia. Many are feeding their minds crud. Here is a count down of our favourite idiot trading statements… Idiot Trading statement #10: “I can trade alone, without a Mentor… it’s easy”. Far out – Do you even…
One of the issues currently bedevilling FX markets is the combination of low volatility and steady interest rates – these in concert add up to a profoundly dull market where the majority of major pairs are going sideways. Interestingly, it is also have an affect on turnover as can be seen in the chart below.…
We decided to investigate further, and asked Alessandro Acquisti, a professor of information technology, and the psychologist Eyal Peer at Carnegie Mellon to design an experiment to measure the brain power lost when someone is interrupted. To simulate the pull of an expected cellphone call or e-mail, we had subjects sit in a lab and…
First the definition: “The ability to work hard and respond resiliently to failure and adversity; the inner quality that enables individuals to work hard and stick to their long-term passions and goals.” Now the word: Grit. The definition of grit almost perfectly describes qualities every successful person possesses, because mental toughness builds the foundations for…
Having just been told I have won $10mil the thing that really sells me is that I have also won a Toyota Camry because nothing says your a winner like a Camry Hello: your Email-ID Won you a lump sum of($10,000,000USD and Toyota Camry car) with other prizes. Reply Back For Claims/redemption with this info…
Study those who are a great success in your chosen field. Find out what makes them tick. Not so that you can copy their methods verbatim. (Any trader who has bought an ‘off the shelf’ trading system knows how hard it is to follow a system they haven’t had input into themselves). Study the successful…
Perfectionism within trading is a major impediment to a lot of new traders. The thought of having a string of losing trades (the norm) is simply an anathema to them and is completely intolerable. The unfortunate part about trading is that it is a profession of being wrong and that sets it apart from most…
I tend to be fascinated by data – I am also a student of history and when those two things combine I can amuse myself for hours. The chart below is from The Economist and it looks at a series of social and economic measures that came about as a result of the First World War.…
I am just putting the final touches to a presentation I am giving at the AIA Conference on the Gold Coast next week and I have been looking in part at the inherent bias within recommendations by analysts. Fortunately, this topic is well covered in the literature and I have been able to pull together…
Following on from my post on the Dow following the events of last week comes this analysis by the WSJ on how investors react to bad news. I agree with the general sentiment however I think the 13.5% experienced during the Israeli invasion of Gaza owes more to the market being in the…
Sometimes its good to look at the participants in other asset classes just to get an idea that it is not only people involved in finance who are useless. I have to admit I find real estate fascinating in the ability of agents to be successful despite their absolute and total incompetence. For example I…
