Hello traders,

I’m back from my week in London, and clearly markets loved playing a joke on me whilst i was away! Last weeks Market Update I wondered whether a rout was inbound? And it was, for Monday alone, and then the markets rebounded for the rest of the week! Some US Indices and Tech Stocks even hit new All-Time -Highs!

So today we covered: FX STAM, Antofagasta ($ANTO) Bitcoin ($BTCUSD), Ethereum (ETHUSD), Facebook ($FB.), Shopify ($SHOP) $DXY, $USD, $JPY and $GBP

Have a great trading week, and I’ll see you next Monday at 1230.

Trade well,

Paul

You can still join the VTP and access the Online Stage 1 Introductory Traders Course

Our preferred broker is Admirals

Hello traders,

The Online VTP Stage 1 Trading Course and Community launches on Monday 19^th July!

The training course will provide new traders with the ability to analyse and trade markets; whilst managing risk and improving their performance. 

Youll have access to videos and training materials which you can access at your own preferred pace.

You will also have access to the Monday Evening 7pm VTP Group Coaching Calls.

As mentioned above as part of the PRE-SALE for the online VTP there is whopping 30% discount off the standard price. The monthly price is £68 as opposed to £96 with the pre-sale. 

You can access this price using this link: VTP ONLINE PRE-SALE 30% OFF

If youd like to know more or have questions then feel free to reply.

Equally if you know people who’d be interested in joining the online course and community then I would appreciate you forwarding them this link: https://bit.ly/2UjgsBk

Trade well,

Paul

Fellow traders,

A few of you will know that I have for the last few years run a series of trader training courses under the banner of the Veterans Trader Project (VTP). Its initial aim was to provide an educated introduction into trading and financial markets for military veterans, which then expanded to assisting all new traders.

Over time the vision has grown into: turning veterans into traders, and turning traders into veterans of the financial markets.  Based on demand it has since expanded into a series of courses that cover: swing trading, intra-day trading, improving performance, and managing money for anyone looking to engage with financial markets.

Stage 1: Introduction to trading and financial markets

This is a stand-alone stage that will provide anyone with the basics of how to analyse, trade, manage-risk and improve as a trader.

Stage 2: An introduction to longer-term trading of FX, Indices and Commodities Markets

Stage 3: An introduction to short-term, intra-day trading of FX & Indices markets

Stage 4: On Managing Myself, Trader Performance, and becoming a Money Manager

Stage 5: Passing Trader Challenges;  becoming a funded trader (new for 2021)

All stages of the VTP leverage the acknowledged attributes of great traders and veterans alike: Process, Discipline and Self-Awareness.

Having run the courses in classrooms in London for the last 3-4 years there has been a clear need to move with the times.

On Monday 19^th July the online version of Stage 1 of the VTP will go live and here is an opportunity for you to join it at a sizeable discount of 30% off the normal price.

You can either simply buy the course at a reduced price of £208 as opposed to £297.

Alternatively you can join the VTP Community on a monthly basis.  Not only will this provide access to the course but will also offer other benefits, such as:

• Weekly Monday Evening Group Coaching Call
• Membership of the VTP Discord community
• Monthly Timeframe Chart analysis
• Most importantly, every 3 months you’ll be provided access to the next Stage of the VTP

As mentioned above as part of the PRE-SALE for the online VTP there is whopping 30% discount off the standard price. The monthly price is £68 as opposed to £96 with the pre-sale. 

You can access this price using this link: VTP ONLINE PRE-SALE 30% OFF

If youd like to know more or have questions then feel free to drop me a note.

Equally if you know people who’d be interested in joining the online course and community then I would appreciate you forwarding them this link: https://bit.ly/2UjgsBk

Trade well,

Paul

With the imminent release of the new Veterans’ Trader Project Online Stage 1 course here is a relevant article I wrote for the now defunct Bullbearings site a few years ago. Its still as relevant as always

The 3 keys to long-lasting Trader success

I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation last month by Clare Flynn-Levy. A former fund manager turned fin-tech CEO her company ‘essentia analytics’ help institutional traders improve their performance and turn-around their slumps using key metrics gleaned from their data. 

She talked about helping a trader improve his performance by 0.5% a year, which you may think is not very much. However he’s running a $10billlion fund; now that half-a-per-cent can make a very hefty difference. She talked about the consistent challenges that most fund-managers and traders face. Regardless of the size and scale of their funds – the challenges are normally pretty similar whether you’re a fund-manager or a private trader.

The reason I mentioned Clare and her work is that at the end of her tech presentation she put up a slide that described what 3 key elements she’d found turned up again and again in the make-up of the very best traders that she’d seen and worked with.

And what were the three key elements on that slide?

• Process
• Discipline
• Self-Awareness

I bet you weren’t expecting that were you reader? I bet you were thinking it was something more technical like: Buy when ADX is above 25 or always buy new highs etc. etc.

It wasn’t about having the best computers or charting packages or brokers (though they can help.) It was about having those three key elements that keep showing up in all successful traders…

The truth is that for those of us who’ve been trading for years you’ll realise the technical side of trading starts to take a back-seat. When I say ‘technical’ that can mean a lot more than just technical analysis. It can mean; chasing the holy-grail of a perfect system or having the best IT set-up or learning more about markets and indicators, slavishly following social media etc. It becomes a lot more about managing yourself.

After her presentation a few of us went to the local pub to discuss our thoughts on the presentation. What pleased me more than anything was that the first thing one of the other traders said was “Well those are the same things Pauls been lecturing on at us for year after year.” (Finally maybe some of my sage advice is sinking in!)

Now many of you reading this may well be disappointed to find out what those three keys are. They’re neither exciting nor sexy.  In a Monty-Python-esque fashion it’s not some wondrous piece of fancy equipment that goes “Bing!” when it tells you to buy or sell.  They’re not anything that you can show-off to your friends and family over.

However here is the truly exciting part. All three of those keys are achievable to the private trader regardless of their level of experience, or availability of resources. All three keys can be learnt.

I have many, many times talked about advising traders to read and implement the teachings from the book “The Checklist Manifesto” by Atul Gawande about how surgery teams developed a simple process to help improve patient survivability rates. It’s a fascinating read, provides the history and development of checklists (from military aviation) and why they work for humans operating in dynamic complex environments. Read- Digest- Implement. There you go – that’s process taken care of.

Strangely enough if you develop your own ‘checklist manifesto’ and follow it ruthlessly then, hey presto, what are you demonstrating? Yep, that’s right: discipline. That’ll be a good start. (Here’s a top trader tip to help you along the way: Have rigid rules and flexible expectations. Not the other way round.)

As for self-awareness I’ve always been a fan of the work of Robin Sharma who says in his book ‘The Greatness Guide’: “With better awareness come better choices. And with better choices you’ll see better results. Clarity breeds success.”

So how do you actually raise your self-awareness? Well there’s a few ways (ideally you’d do them all). First keep a journal of all your trades and your feelings during those trades. Secondly review your journal constantly and look for patterns. Ideally get yourself around other traders that will be able to objectively view your trading and your black-spots. (Come along to the London Traders Network social events and make friends with like-minded souls. Blatant plug there!) Finally think about using a true coach (whether they be a trader, performance or executive coach) to help give you an ideal space and sounding board for all your trading experiences. They will help reflect your behaviour and develop your strengths. I guarantee doing any of them will help raise your self-awareness. Doing all of them will help propel you forward at a much faster rate of knots.

So there you have it: Process- Discipline- Self-Awareness. The three keys to long lasting trader success. Rather than be dis-heartened and dis-interested why not attempt to view those three keys as something that is eminently achievable and will make you a better trader?  All of the successful traders I’ve seen and worked with have demonstrated those three key attributes. You can too.

Trade well!

Hello traders,

Thanks to those of you who joined us today for the Monday Market Update

We covered: FX STAM, US 10Yr Treasuries ($10YR) Shopify ($SHOP) McDonalds ($MCD) and Ford ($F). Along with Gold ($XAUSUD) Ibex 35 ($IBEX) the Cac 40 ($CAC) the FTSE 100 ($FTSE) and Swiss 20 ($SWI) as well as $GBP and $USD and $DXY.

Have a great trading week and I look forward to seeing you next Monday at 1230 for the next Market Update.

Trade well,

Paul