A hung parliament
For the first (oops, second) time in our history, we have a hung parliament. Under a parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when no political party has an absolute majority of seats. Resolving a hung parliament will usually result in a minority government forming a coalition, with independents or other smaller parties to […]
Who’s to blame? – Part 2
Carrying on from last week’s journal post “Who’s to blame?”, I will now discuss shifting our thought process to make change. To improve your responses you can do one of two things: Change your perception of the outcome to see it as positive or at least as not causing pain. Change the process to make […]
Who’s to blame?
As human’s we’ve been programmed by society to not accept the following situations on an event by event basis: • being proven wrong or not being right, • losing, • not belonging or missing out. This starts at a very early age as our subconscious is bombarded by experiences and words all indicating that these […]
Find the right trading environment for you – Part 2
Having discussed the need to ensure your cash is secure, and that you are satisfied with the way your cash is held by your stock broker, this week I will take a look at how your shares are ‘held’ by your broker. I will also briefly cover what happens in the CFD and FX markets. […]
Find the right trading environment for you
The recent collapse of brokerage firm Sonray Capital Markets raises a number of issues and questions that are important to all investors – not only those trading Australian shares and CFDs, but traders in all markets and all instruments. Reports from the appointed administrators suggest that SONRAY has lost around $46 million of client’s funds […]
When things go against you – part 3
A better way to think about bear markets The beauty of long bear and sideways market periods is that they are almost always followed by long rising market periods. The majority of the time, the longer and stronger the bear market, the longer and stronger the bull market that follows. This is how consistently successful […]
When things go against you – part 2
Thinking about the markets from the market’s perspective can remove fear from the equation by creating a belief that down markets are a necessary part of market behaviour in the future and just as tradable as low market risk periods. If you think from the paradigm of your business, your job objectives or from your […]
When things go against you – handling drawdown
Research shows that the average down market lasts three to four months. However, it is not the short-lived down market periods that active investors should worry about, but the occasional longer and sustained down market periods, such as the one we are now experiencing. All ‘long’ strategies, whether they are Buy & Hold or more […]
How low can the All Ords go?
This week I have moved away from psychology training as I feel that it is important to add my commentary on the current market conditions. I’m not one to normally predict the direction of the market. To be honest I don’t get caught up in the economic noise or the negative press articles on the […]
Right mindset – Part 3
A competitive mindset will take you out of flow with the market and cause you to try to control and beat the market with whatever means you have. The typical weapons of choice are analysis and trying to predict price movement to prove that you were right and the market was wrong. Many novice traders, […]