I, Jacques Magliolo, declare that I will:
• Set out easy to read and understand financial concept and trading methods.
• Offer readers direct access to my trading programs and mentorship.
• Provide readers with continuous research and information via financial and trading newsletters.
• Start with easy strategies and help you develop more complex systems in a building blocks basis, starting with the establishment of a solid foundation of knowledge and increasing that knowledge throughout these three volumes, to ultimately become a professional trader.
• I will teach and guide you to create a three-level portfolio.
The first will be your long-term trading portfolio, or also known as your retirement portfolio.
The second will be a medium-term trading portfolio, which is futures and hedging portfolio to take advantage of market noise and anomalies.
The third will be a day trading portfolio, which will enable you to generate a monthly salary.
The aforementioned must become habit and, consequently, your entrée to professional trader status.
• I will show you how to research, disseminate, and analyze information to trade with knowledge and discipline.
• I will show you how set up a trading journal and how to implement realistic and easy to use trading strategies.
These are my promises, but in turn, to become a successful trader you have to pledge the following:
• You will be diligent in conducting trades.
This means that you will gather knowledge about markets, sectors and shares before you conduct any trade.
• You will be disciplined and keep to your own strategies, which means that you will trade according to a predetermined set of self-created and developed rules.
• Trading without strategy is merely guesswork. You may succeed in numerous trades and it may be fun, but ultimately your career will be short lived.
• You don’t have to trade every day; nobody is forcing you. That is, if the market does not meet your personal trading rules, stay out of the market. There are always market opportunities, so don’t see lost trades, but rather concentrate on future opportunities.
Why do I ask you to make such a pledge?
Well, for starters, emotion plays a phenomenal role in a trader’s long-term success or failure.
It is well documented that about 90 percent of the world’s population work for the remaining 10 percent, which means that it is the norm to work for a salary by selling your services or professionalism for a minimum of 40 hours a week.
To change from this salary income base to one where you have to be self-sufficient in obtaining your salary takes discipline and knowledge.
For instance, imagine making losses 4 days in a row, or not trading for 5 days because market conditions were not conducive or too volatile and so on. The novice trader will start to think about his salary, which he or she now has to make up in the remaining 15 trading days of that month.
Panic often sets in and strategy is abandoned to favor of higher risk trades. A simple solution is to have a salary buffer of 6 months as part of your trading strategy. This way, you trade according to strategy and whatever the shortfall is at the end of the month you can draw from your money market account.
When you surpass your salary target, place the additional funds in your money market account. Remember that some months are more difficult to trade, such as holiday times and elections.
Understand that as the mundane regular job falls away, so too does a regular, normal, and safe income. This means that while your time may become your own, it also means that “no work, no pay” becomes all too often a cruel reality. Achieving this financial independence therefore comes with specific monitory management and properly planned goals.
You do not have a choice, but to take these goals seriously. Remember the following truism, which many novice traders fail to learn until it is too late:
• You do not have to trade every opportunity that comes your way.
• You do not have to trade every day.
• You do not have to trade every type of security available.
• Effectively, trade according to your level of knowledge and comfort. Stay focused and disciplined.
When you achieve the following simple basics:
• Ensure that you start slowly to build knowledge.
• Ensure that you are disciplined in your trading.
• Ensure that you are serious about this new “job.” Going to work in your pajamas, or taking regular unnecessarily long lunches to not being prepared prior at the opening bell, is not being serious. Your attitude to success plays an extremely important part of your future success.
Stated differently, you need to master two basic habits to be a trader:
• The habit of being scrupulous in using a realistic set of rules or strategy to earn both a salary and a long-term retirement investment income.
• The habit of refining your strategies and researching how markets work. Essentially, you start investing and trading within your level of comfort, that is the country that you are most familiar with and then expanding that horizon as your knowledge grows. For instance, if you are an American trader, develop your trading skills for the U.S. markets and then, over time, expand to trading emerging market stocks as your knowledge of how such markets work improves.
If you can acquire these two basic habits, you are certainly ready to start your journey to becoming a trader. The three volumes are thus set out to achieve the aforementioned; as follows:
• Volume 1: Basics of trading.
We start with an overview of how markets work, outlining different types of securities, and how they function in the market.
More importantly, though, is an outline of professionals’ lessons about trading; outlining wisdoms from past and current market masters.
• Volume 2: Setting up your own brokerage.
An overview of critical structures for trading is established.
A more complex overview of markets and cyclical fundamentals is highlighted.
This volume is essential as a precursor to Volume 3.
• Volume 3: Combing fundamental and technical analysis.
This is the volume all novice traders have been asking for.
To succeed as a trader, you need to understand both fundamental analysis and how to use technical triggers.
The three volumes combine to give you an overview of markets, trading techniques, and strategies to succeed as a trader. If you need more techniques or understanding of how markets work, don’t hesitate to send me a message.
–Jacques Magliolo
[email protected]
www.bci.za.com
2017