How to Build a Trading System - The Essential Guide

To become a successful trader, it's crucial to follow a systematic approach that incorporates various key elements into your trading strategy. This article will break down these essential components and guide you in creating a coherent and profitable trading system.

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The Noisy Reality of Unusual Options Activity

UOA revolves around the trading of option contracts at volumes significantly higher than their daily averages. The allure of UOA lies in its potential to uncover market insights and potentially ride the coattails of informed traders -It is data that we tracked and traded with for a number of years in the Trader’s Thinktank. However, as we'll explore, this approach has lost some of its luster.

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The Power of Emotions in Trading: Understanding Regret and Risk

The interplay between emotions and risk-taking keeps many traders second-guessing their choices. When confidence in a trade's success runs high, execution is swift, but uncertainty can lead to hesitation, causing traders to miss out on profitable market moves.

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How To Reduce FOMO as A Trader

The fear of missing out (FOMO) is an emotion that often haunts traders, casting a shadow on their progress and overall equity curve. Unrestricted FOMO can cause traders to chase trades, oversize, and revenge trade - All of which do serious damage to trading portfolios. In this article, we present seven concise steps to help you seamlessly transition from the anxiety of FOMO to the joyful state of missing out (JOMO).

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The Perils of 0DTE Options Trading: Why Day Traders Should Think Twice

0DTE (Zero Days to Expiry) options have gained popularity as a high-risk, high-reward trading instrument in recent years, especially with the advent of daily expirations in SPX. These ultra-short-term options promise quick profits, but as we'll explore in this article, they come with significant dangers that can leave even seasoned day traders with a blown portfolio.

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Elevate Your Trading with a Weekly Performance Review

If you have been in the trading world for a few years or longer, you know that consistent improvement is the key to success. To achieve this, traders rely on a powerful, but incredibly simple tool: Trade Review. An important component of this is the Weekly Performance Review. This structured process is designed to evaluate your trading activities, pinpoint strengths, address weaknesses, and pave the way for better decision-making.

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Volume Price Analysis - 5 Lessons From Anna Coulling

Anna Coulling's Volume Price Analysis (VPA) is a powerful tool for traders, regardless of what timeframe you like to trade on. With almost a decade of trading experience, this continues to be the only book that I personally recommend to traders of all skill levels. VPA is rooted in solid technical analysis concepts that have been tried and true since the early days of Jesse Livermore. Here are five key lessons from Coulling’s approach that will help you become a better trader.

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How To Use Volume Profile - A Complete Guide

If you want to improve your trading performance, understanding and implementing volume profiles is essential. After training hundreds of traders throughout my near-decade-long trading career, I've noticed a common issue among unprofitable traders: they often dive into trading setups and patterns without considering the broader context. Trading without context is not a strategy, it's merely trading patterns.

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Are Trading Gurus Legit? Here Is What The Data Shows

It appears that 28% of these financial influencers possess genuine skills, consistently generating impressive monthly abnormal returns averaging 2.6%. However, the majority, a staggering 72%, are either unskilled or worse, have negative skill, resulting in monthly abnormal returns as low as -2.3%. This significant skill divide is a crucial aspect that every trader and investor should be aware of.

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Options Flows on SPX Price Action - A breakdown of Gamma, Vanna, and Charm

Options have emerged as the new bedrock, with SPX functioning as the derivative. Tail wagging the dog scenario. For traders engaged in the SPX, ES (futures), or SPY, understanding the ramifications of options flows is paramount - But is this information really needed to be consistently profitable, or is it just noise?

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3 Pillars of Trading Success

Trading is a journey of mastery, viewed through the multifaceted prism of three overlapping lenses. These lenses are the Technical Lens, the Performance Lens, and the Self Lens. To achieve true mastery in trading, one must skillfully balance and synchronize these three lenses. Let's delve into each of them.

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When to Trade Breakouts and When to Avoid Them

When it comes to trading breakouts, knowing when to seize the opportunity and when to exercise caution can be the difference between success and disappointment. In this article, we will explore the key scenarios that dictate when it's appropriate to trade breakouts and when it's wise to steer clear.

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Triple Witching and SPX 0DTE: Unveiling Market Mysteries Amidst Soaring Options Volumes

A recent phenomenon that has been making waves is the peculiar performance of the S&P 500 on Triple Witching days. Over the last 15 occurrences, the S&P 500 has experienced declines in a staggering 13 instances. This raises questions and piques the curiosity of market participants and analysts alike. What could be driving this pattern, and how does it intertwine with the surging volumes in the world of options trading?

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How to Game Plan for a Trading Session

If you’re a trader of any experience level, having a game plan is your secret weapon. Whether you're a seasoned trader or just starting your journey, a well-defined trading session game plan is the key to success. This simple system is what I personally use on a daily basis, and what we talk about in real-time during our Premarket Prep Livestreams in the Trader’s Thinktank - It will keep you prepared for every trading day.

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7 Effective Trading Techniques for Stocks and Futures

Intraday trading can be a rewarding venture in options and futures markets. For newcomers and developing day traders, mastering the right techniques is essential. This comprehensive guide will explore seven effective intraday trading techniques that can significantly enhance your day trading strategy.

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6 Ways to Accelerate Your Learning Curve as a Developing Trader

Becoming a consistently profitable trader is a journey that requires continuous learning and adaptation. Whether you're just starting or have some experience, there are essential principles to consider that can significantly speed up your progress in the world of trading. In this article, we will explore these valuable insights to help you navigate the markets more effectively.

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Cognitive Load - Why It Plagues Traders and How To Beat It

In trading, the battle isn't just against market forces but also against something less tangible yet equally formidable: cognitive load. It's a challenge that plagues newcomers, causing them to feel overwhelmed, disoriented, and often leading to a merry-go-round of trading strategies.

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