Exit Strategies for Stocks and Futures

Exits are important because your exit strategy will determine:

• Size of your profits
• Size of your losses
• Length of your trades
• Amount of your risk
• Size of your position
• Your percentage of winners
• Your total return

http://www.4shared.com/document/Ehjvy9ms/Exit_Strategies_for_Stocks_and.html

Investments are part of financial planning, say analysts (Channel NewsAsia)

- Investments should be seen as part of one's financial planning and long term goals.

- Having a goal keeps you motivated to stay invested whether it is good times or bad times

- If you are very clear of your goal, if you know the reason why you are doing, then there is a better chance that even through tough times, you will stay throughout for your investment.

- The collapse of US banking giant Lehman Brothers in 2008 proved that no financial institution is too big to fail. And for some investors in Singapore, it was a painful lesson to learn that no investment is risk-free.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1053211/1/.html

Develop a Trading Plan

Extracted from the book: Trading in a Nutshell, Stuart McPhee

If you want to trade successfully, you need to develop and then follow a written trading plan that is right for you. All consistently profitable traders have a plan they follow, as successful traders understand the importance of having a plan to guide them in their trading actions.

I believe that many people approach the market with a sense of confidence, yet with little idea of why or how they are going to trade on it successfully. There is a well-known phrase that says: 'If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!'

Trading Plan Model - The 3Ms!!!

1. Trading Psychology for Mindset
2. Risk or Money Management for Money
3. Trading system for Methods

Trading Basics

Extracted from the book: Trading in a Nutshell, Stuart McPhee

Trading can be a very exciting and worthwhile endeavour and there are several attractions for most people (not including 'making money' which is obvious).

Some of the advantages of trading include:

• Self employed – you are your own boss
• Geographical freedom – technological advances are making this easier every day
• Minimal capital outlay – compare this with purchasing a franchise or establishing a new retail store in your nearest shopping complex.
• Unlimited potential for profit – financial freedom is what most traders aim for
• Flexibility with time – you choose when you trade and when you don’t
• Almost anyone can do it – if you are old enough (usually 18 or 21), you can open a trading account and begin

There are of course some disadvantages which include:

• No guaranteed success – many people don’t make money trading
• Can be stressful and emotional – when you are ‘playing’ with your own money, this is almost inevitable
• Solitary existence – trading can be a very lonely profession
• Takes time – like many endeavours, consistently profitable trading takes time. I list this as a disadvantage because I believe many newcomers don’t recognise this, nor do they fully appreciate what is required to develop the skills and attributes for successful trading.

There is one thing you need to be aware of however. Trading has a greater potential for reward than investing but with that extra potential for reward is greater risk. Those who trade well have been well educated and prepared. Very seldom does somebody start trading and make money from day one. Often you will hear the saying ‘Only Educated Traders Survive’.

Greek Stocks Regulator Bans Short Selling From April 28 to June 28

Greece’s securities regulator banned short selling on the Athens stock exchange for two months from today after shares slumped yesterday and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services downgraded Greece’s credit rating and banks on concern about Greece’s funding crisis.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-28/greek-stocks-regulator-bans-short-selling-from-today-to-june-28.html

The Success Principles

Success is a journey! If you want to be successful, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything you experience in your life. From the level of your achievements to the results you produce, to the quality of your relationships to the state of your health and physical fitness — even responsibility for your feelings, your income, your debts... Everything!

This is not easy.

In fact, most of us have been conditioned to blame something outside of ourselves for the parts of our life we don’t like. We blame our parents, our bosses, our teachers, our friends, our co-workers, our clients, our spouse, the weather, the economy, our astrological chart, our lack of good golf clubs—anyone or anything we can pin the blame on. We never want to look at where the real problem is — ourself.

How many times do you look for the answers to your problems outside yourself, when the answer lies within? It is you who creates the quality of the life you lead and the results you produce. No one else!

Choose Now to Make a Change

Our final admonition to you as you start down your path to future success, is that you have control over just three things in your life — the thoughts you think, the images you visualize and the actions you take. How you make the most of them determines the outcomes you experience in life.

If you don’t like what you are producing and experiencing, choose now to change your responses. Change your negative thoughts to positive ones. Change what you daydream about. If you don’t like the way people treat you, say something about it or spend your time with different people.

If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten. In fact, if what you are currently doing was capable of producing the “more” that you are seeking in life, the “more” would have already shown up. If you want something different, you’re going to have to do something different!

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer.
http://www.thelucrativeinvestor.com/downloads/13492246.pdf

Purpose of this blog

OBJECTIVE:

• Pen down any personal development and success principles I've learned from books.