Learn How to Trade Financial Markets!
Hello Students,
The primary focus of the General Trading series is to reduce the information gap between the financial world of trading and the general public. Every day since the housing collapse of 2008 and even before that, the media has publicized investing and Trading Financial Markets. Every so often, CNN will interview successful traders who have made millions, asking for their opinion on the markets. To the general public, most people think investing and trading is all about stocks and the equity/shares of companies.
Little do they know, the equity market is only 1 of the 5 primary markets. There exist other markets such as Options, Indices, Futures and Forex. This is the information gap that I aim to reduce. After going through the General Trading series, you’ll have the background knowledge to Trade any Financial Market of your choice.
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From these lessons, you’ll learn everything from the very basics to deep insights of higher level trading. Everything taught in this series is neutral and can be applied to all facets of Financial Markets. So that regardless of which Financial Market you plan to trade, you’ll have the knowledge to overcome any obstacles you might face. Thus, I consider the lessons in this series to be “background knowledge” and often at times, reference these lessons as prerequisites for my other series.
- I start off the 100-level with a brief introduction, followed by the general logistics of trading and move progressively onto charting platforms and the basics of Analyzing Financial Markets.
- In the 200-level, I dive into the psychological aspect of trading. You might think that all you need is money and intelligence to make money but you’re wrong, the human psyche plays a big role in every trader’s portfolio.
- The 300- and 400-level will be filled with more abstract concepts of general trading that are more advanced in nature. These topics are typically learned thru experience, which takes time and effort.
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All of the video links are embedded in the course codes below, just click on the course codes and you’ll be directed to the Youtube watch page. I will provide course descriptions to each video here and outline any important prerequisites (should be watched before). I hope these lessons help you as you venture into the world of Financial Markets.
Kind Regards,
Brian
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General Trading 100 Series
– Introduction to Trading Financial Markets
Basically covers the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of trading financial markets. I give a brief overview of what each instrument does and who’s suitable to be trading them. Pretty much just the logistics of trading in general and how to approach it. I give a scary fact in the video though, hopefully that doesn’t scare you off but it’s the truth.
– Directionality and Trading Jargon
This is probably by far the most important video in the GT series because it explains all the trading terminology or at least what I think are the important terms. People in the media or forums or wherever (including my own videos) use trading jargon, acronyms all the time leaving you wondering what we’re talking about. This should clear up all the confusion revolving around the language used by traders.
– Price Quotes and Spreads
Pretty self explanatory title, basically cover how prices are quoted as Bid/Asks, how to read them properly and why they affect your trading.
– Order Types
I remember when I first started out trading and read about order types. Sometimes reading just doesn’t cut it! Here, I give visual (drawn) examples of how/when to execute certain orders. I know I’m not the only because I get questions regarding order types all the time, people don’t understand when a particular order is useful.
Prerequisite:
– Chart Types
I cover the various chart types and outline the pro’s and con’s of all of them then arriving at Candle Sticks at the end for being the most informative chart type.
– Chart Timeframes
Overview of the key timeframes that can be displayed on charting platforms.
– Market Hours
Outline of the active trading hours of the various financial markets.
– Trading Computers
Goal of this is to dispel any trading myths on what you “need” to trade, such as a high tech computer or number of monitors necessary to trade successfully.
– How to Use Stock Charts
Overview of what Stock Charts has to offer. Focus is on how to I set up my charts for my strategy videos in the other series, also talk about how to customize the charts, portfolio and other important aspects.
Reference links: http://www.StockCharts.com
Prerequisite: &
– How to Use Free Stock Charts
Overview of what Free Stock Charts has to offer. Primary focus is to to show how to utilize the tabbed/split browsing because I use this type of chart display in my BO series for several of my chart examples. In addition, I show what I think is an effective way to set up your portfolio and how to customize the charts.
Reference links: http://www.FreeStockCharts.com
Prerequisite: &
– How to Use MetaTrader 4
Overview of what MetaTrader 4 has to offer. Focus is on how to set up charts, templates and profiles. I start off a bit with the tech support side of things before moving onto the actual charting platform.
Reference links: US Division: http://www.Oanda.com | Canadian Division: http://www.Oanda.ca
Prerequisite: &
Additional Reference:
– How to Use Think Or Swim
Overview of what Think Or Swim has to offer. Main focus is on how to set up multiple charts and how to display tick and time charts because I use these charts in BO301 for 60 second binary options strategies.
Reference links:
US Division: https://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/displayPage.tos?webpage=paperMoney
Canadian Division: https://www.thinkorswim.ca/tos/displayPage.tos?webpage=paperMoney
Prerequisite: &
Additional Reference: &
GT113 – How to Use Forex Pros Charting (TBA)
GT114 – How to Use Netdania (TBA)
GT115 – How to Use Google Finance (TBA)
– Holiday & Seasonal Trading
There are several “trading seasons” during the year where you should tread carefully. Knowing when it’s not “safe” to trade due to dangerous market conditions is a very valuable piece of information. If you get caught trading during these market conditions and get into the wrong trade, things can end poorly for you.
GT117 – Fundamental & Technical Analysis (TBA)
– Fibonacci Retracements
Based on the Fibonacci Sequence developed by Leonardo Fibonacci, now a very popular drawing tool for technical traders. Helps determine continuation points of a trend.
– Moving Averages
I explain the back story for why traders enjoy using moving averages. I start by explaining what an average is then move onto how they can “help” while we’re trading. I end off with a brief demonstration of how to add them on Free Stock Charts.
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General Trading 200 Series
– Phases of Trading
This outlines what I think is the “best” route to developing your trading skills. By going through these phases, I think you’ll improve greatly rather than trying to “learn everything at once”.
: Intro to Price Action
Price Action (PA) aka naked trading is the “art” of being able to look at charts, draw lines and be able to trade based on those lines. Here I’ll cover the basic mentality of it, but the actual strategies are saved for the other series.
: Break Down of Price Action
Part 2 was made to explicitly mention which markets each price action tool is appropriate for, but I thought it’d be pointless to make a 30 second video just mention that. So I did a visual recap of part 1 in addition to the added details for a total of 7 minutes.
– Pattern Formations
Overview of all the basic/popular/reoccurring pattern formations seen in financial markets while trading.
Prerequisite: &
Reference Links: FX Weekly Analysis is my own analysis of 4 Forex pairs that I release on a weekly basis.
– Back Testing
The process of testing a trading strategy on prior time periods. Instead of applying a strategy for the time period forward, which could take years, a trader can do a simulation of his or her trading strategy on relevant past data in order to gauge the its effectiveness. (Definition provided by Investopedia)
– Time and Effort
Trading does not come easy for many, there is no easy way out. You must learn trading like anything else in life, the hard way. You are expected to put time and effort into learning how to trade before you can become successful. I tell my honest and detailed life story here in this lesson hoping that it will help motivate you onto the right path.
– Trading Psychology
In trading psychology, I cover the 3 primary ways people approach trading: gambling, hobby and business. Competitive hobby and business are the right ways to approach trading, any other way will surely lead to failure. I proceed to compare and contrast the similarities and differences between trading and the maintenance of a business. Topics include: Failure rates, costs and profits.
– Trading Mentality
Unlike trading psychology, trading mentality is not how you approach trading but rather what you think about while trading. I start off by stating my observations of typical trader behaviors then share some of my personal experience on the topic. The remainder of the lesson focuses on previously developed expectations and developing new expectations. Topics include: Accuracy, Value of Money, Trade Obsession and Trade Independence; I end off with a check list to help you find get on the right path.
– Emotions
Although trading mentality is what you think about while trading, other factors can affect your thought process and thus, hinder or boost your performance. These factors primarily stem from emotions. In this lesson, I go over the 4 out of the 6 basic emotions: Fear, Anger, Happiness and Sadness. The first 3 have direct influences on your trading while the last one has an indirect influence. The best and only solution to these factors is to be emotionless.
– Patience
Usually the first thing you see when you venture into the world of trading is someone claiming that you can get rich overnight or over the span of a few days or weeks. If you’re starting with $200 and your goal is $1,000, this represents a 400% gain and this doesn’t happen overnight. It is possible if you trade high risk assets like penny stocks or options but otherwise with most other investment vehicles, it will take some time. Thus, you need patience. In this lesson, I explain the act of self-control when it comes to trading and how a little goes a long way.
– Money Management
Which do you think is more important, making profits or preserving capital? This is one of the questions that I address in this lesson, if you take a step back and look at the big picture. You’ll realize that you have to preserve your capital in order to give your trading strategy a fighting chance to make profits. In addition, I go over sources of money and help you develop some expectations of money while trading.
– Coping Strategies
What happens when you fall down? You get right back up and try again. This may not always work though, sometimes you need to take a breather to rethink your strategy or collect your thoughts prior to trying again. The moral of the lesson to get you to realize that failure is OK and that it happens to everyone, including me.
– Execution of Order Types
This lesson continues onwards from GT104, so you’re expected to have knowledge of what each order types does. This lesson outlines how to execute specific order types (depending on the market conditions) for both long and short orders.
Prerequisite:
– Leverage
In this lesson, I go over the basics of leverage, how it works including a couple numerical examples as well and then I end off with margin calls.
– Traders vs. Investors
The primary difference between traders and investors is the time horizon of their trades. In this lesson, I go over the different types of trades each type of trader can make and then illustrate the example on a stock chart.
– Risk Reward Ratio
A common misconception for new traders, is they think they’re always going “all in” which they can be, if they’re not trading properly. So that when they calculate their profit%, it may appear smaller than it should due to wrong calculation methods. In this lesson, I go over how to calculate risk reward ratios properly with a “story line” approach to put things into context easier.
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General Trading 300 Series
– Conformity
This lesson is being placed here because in the 300 series of each program, you’ll find many strategies and thoughts from my own personal experience. You may also find the need to conform to me in order to replicate the results but I explain why you don’t have to.
– Hedging
In this lesson, I outline three hedging scenarios and go through the possible outcomes when you use them. Hedging basically just provides some “insurance” for your trade and just like every type of insurance, you have to pay a premium for a sense of “safety”.
– Diversification
Although the world doesn’t think so, I like to think of diversification as a subset of hedging. While hedging is a strategy used to reduce your losses within your trading position. Diversification is when you spread out your risks within your trading portfolio. Take note of the last word of the two sentences for the differences. The concept of diversification will be explored in this lesson along with a surprise at the end.
– Currency Exchange & Currency Strength
Although you may enter foreign exchange transactions on a daily basis, do you really understand what’s going on? When you purchase a product internationally, you pay via credit card and they do all the exchange work for you. They then bill you the domestic currency, but do you know how the final number was determined? Well, that’s what I go over in the first half of this lesson. The latter half will cover currency strength and how it affects exchange rates.
– Unemployment
In this lesson, I cover the basic definitions of unemployment terms, how specific rates are calculated and go over issues that you should be aware of when reading employment reports. I urge you to pay close attention to the “issues” that I outline because these are notable causes of “counter moves” in the markets following data release.
– Creation of Money
If you thought money was simply created via central banks injecting them into economy, then you were wrong. This is simply the first step. In this lesson, I cover how ‘money is created’ in our banking system. By the end of the lesson, you should be pretty shocked or angry at how banking systems work in reality. Especially when you take into account how much money was injected into the economy during the Financial Crisis of 2008.
– Inflation
Most people understand what inflation is and but no one really understands how it happens. Usually central banks set a target inflation rate on a yearly basis based on how much they manipulated the interest rates and money supply. Going one step further, do you understand the thought process behind inflation?
– Hyperinflation
This lesson builds on the content presented in both GT306 and GT307. Hyperinflation is basically the result of large increases in money supply (like in the Financial Crisis of 2008). But what is hyperinflation? It’s basically inflation on steroids, e.g., extremely rapid inflation. In this lesson, I give an example of what it looks like, why it hasn’t happened yet and how you could combat it.
Prerequisites: &
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General Trading 400 Series
– Trading Accuracy versus Profits
In this lesson, I walk through the 4 typical phases that a trader goes through from newbie to experienced. Usually, newbies aim directly for profits when in fact, they should be focusing on accuracy first. Throwing more money into trades doesn’t actually help if your overall accuracy is still crap. I end off the lesson with a simple illustration showing choice of guns for target practice, tying this analogy back to the 4 phases.
– Persistence
Persistence is the hardest lesson to teach in trading or anything in life for that matter. Since I already outlined the factors to “keep you going” in the GT200 series. In this lesson, I continue telling my story from GT205 with a bit more detail. I go over the two factors that you should consider and the bare minimum that you should endure before you “give up”.
Prerequisite:
– Making Money versus Being Profitable
Both may have the same meaning but they’re used by different traders at different stages of trading. Usually new traders want to make money while veteran traders want to be profitable. Anyone can make money in the short term but staying profitable in the long term is what counts. In order to achieve this, you’ll need to have the proper mindset, the right vision and the skills to execute.
