Thursday, 12 July 2012

The Three Parts To Trading - Part 1


I have been trading now seriously for just over a year. I did start trading about two years ago, but it wasn’t until May last year when I start taking it more seriously. During this time I have read many articles on forums and also, more recently, I have started to read books on psychology and the mental aspect of trading in general.  

I would say that trading has three main parts to it:


All parts of the machine are needed to become a good trader.

Strategy

Everybody needs a strategy for trading. The strategy can be related to when certain odds are reached before or during a football match or a tennis match. This will be a point where you have an edge. This edge normally comes about by looking at historical odds data in that particular sport.
Another way of creating an edge is to look at historical data of a certain sport, or certain teams or players. This involves understanding the sport and the statistics and history of the game. An example of this is laying the draw.
When designing a strategy or even when using a strategy from somebody else, it is very important that you back-test the strategy or test the strategy with minimum stakes. It is important that you are completely confident in a strategy. This is particular important when it comes to the mental aspect of trading.



Risk/Money Management

You can have the best strategy in the world, but if you don’t have good risk/money management, you will not be successful. Everybody knows that a strategy will never be 100% successful; it is all to do with probabilities. Therefore with good risk/money management you control your losses and maintain your bank so you can fight another day when you have a bad day, which you will always have.
I tend to risk only 5% or less of my bank on any one trade

In the next post I will talk about the mental aspect of trading as this is the most important part of trading.

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