“In search of the holy grail”

A thread-

Holy grail- A strategy Which can make money all the time.

After going through two phases of a traders journey, the initial success phase, and Only why do i get loss phase, Traders enter the third phase -

THE SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL PHASE.

This phase has no limits, It can end in 1 month and it may not end till lifetime.

What exactly is this phase?

When a trader covers all the basics, they know how to lower their losses, they know the power of risk management.

And few of them may even develop their edges and systems over time.

But after some time, they feel that they are doing something wrong and there is more to trading than what they know.

THEN COMES THE HOLY GRAIL PART-

Few of them start to Read more books about trading,finding articles about “How to win 100% of the time” and listening to Youtube videos of few big traders who make big in trading.

A thread on Trend-lines

// What are trend-lines?

Trend-lines are support and resistance lines which are formed by connecting Important swing points.

The beauty of using them is that We can use them when stock is not Respecting the Horizontal S&R zones, they can indicate us when the trend may change.

// Things To consider while Making trendlines?

• A trendline formed by using 3 Major-Swing points is a potential trendline, But we will also use 2 points to form a trendline, will discuss how, as you read further.

• Trendline can be formed by two ways-

1. Wicks-

In this method we only connect the wicks to make a trendline, this is a precise way of making a trendline.

// Why only connect the wicks?

There are two type of levels - Precise and Less precise (Which we call zones).

So what we are doing is by only connecting the wicks we are making a precise level where we can take trades, either Mean reversion or Breakout trades.

Examples-

Three things which will make a difference in Your trading Results.

A thread-

1. Clarity- When the mind is free from fear and ego

The first step to successful trading is to be clear about everything you do.

BUT, the reality is that most traders don't even know what they are doing.

And because of this-

They don't have any goals.
They don't have any Trading plan
They don't know what is suitable for them
And the list goes, on and on.

If you are among the people as described above, don't worry, There is nothing wrong with you, almost 90% of Traders are like that.

So, what do you have to do to get CLARITY in your Trading-

Find one style that is suitable to your personality and double down on it.

Why?

In this world where we have plethora of information just one click away, most people are distracted and see a Glowy thing every time they go over the social media.

They Find something new every now and then, jumping from one strategy to another, searching for Holy grail.

THE TRADER'S EDGE: THINKING IN PROBABILITIES

Casinos make consistent profits day after day and year after year, doing something random

At the same time, most traders believe that the outcome of the market's behavior is not random,yet can't produce consistent profits

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What casino owners ,professional traders know is that probable outcomes can also produce consistent results if you " Have an edge" and trade on a large enough sample size.

The best traders treat trading like a numbers game.

1. To illustrate, let's look at the game of blackjack-

In blackjack, the casinos have approximately a 4.5-percent edge over the player.

This means that casinos will make profit over a large enough sample size, even after several winning streaks and big profits of many players.

At the end of the day, week, month, or year, the casino always ends up with approximately 4.5 percent of the total amount wagered.

That 4.5 percent might not sound like a lot, but let's put it in perspective.

Suppose a total of $100 million dollars is wagered collectively at all of a casino's blackjack tables over the course of a year. The casino will net $4.5 million.

What casino owners and pro traders understand about the nature of probabilities is that each individual hand played

A thread on Pyramiding-

What is pyramiding?

In pyramiding we add on to a position when it is going in our direction. Its basically opposite of averaging down.

MOMENTUM - Success of a pyramiding trade depend on this ingredient, the more the momentum the better pyramiding.

There are many way to enter and exit in a stock-

1. ALL IN - ALL OUT
2. ALL IN - SCALE OUT
3. SCALE IN - SCALE OUT
4. SCALE IN - ALL OUT ( I use this one)

Why traders use Pyramiding ?

More than anything what pyramiding do is keep your losers small and your winners - Big.

Pyramiding in my view keeps your dd smaller as your losers are very small because you enters with only a fraction of what you would have entered Normally.

BUT, not necessarily it should be more profitable than ALL IN- ALL OUT, Where one enters all at once and sell all at once.

HOW TO DO PYRAMIDING-

There are various methods which are used by traders for pyramiding ,while keeping the basic concept of adding onto the strength.

1. PYRAMIDING AND TRAILING BASED UPON STRUCTURE-

In this method we scale in or pyramid the qty when the stock breaks above

A THREAD ON SL, TSL AND RE-ENTRIES-

WHERE TO PUT THE SL-

1. NEAREST PIVOT/SWING POINTS-

Normally I use this method for placing sl, In this method we use swing point for placing the SL.

As normally the stock would not try to go below previous swing point if it is to go in our direction.

2. ATR method-

Sometimes the Stock do not have any nearest pivot at time of buy, So we use this method as it gives us a level on basis of current volatility of the stock.

I use 1.5 ATR away sl , say the ATR at point of entry is 30, so I place sl
1.5 X, or 45 rs away from entry

In below example the entry is 120, ATR=5, SL= 1.5X ATR= 7.5 OR 113.

Nearest pivot was too far away, that’s why this method is used in these cases.

4. Anchor candles-

Anchor bars are those which have extreme Volume, gaps or wide Ranges.

Here, we place our sl below those candles which has the above characteristics.

"A trend once established, is more likely to continue than it is to reverse"

A thread on Trend (Market structure)-

A trend is a path of least resistance, basically the side where the smart money is betting upon.

And our work is to be on their side, to make some money.

Why do we use trend?

In an uptrend, the sum of the rallies will always be greater than the sum of the declines.

In a downtrend, the sum of the declines will always be greater than the sum of the rallies.

How to Find the trend?

There are 3 methods which one can use-

1. Swing points method.
2. Moving averages.
3. Trend lines, channels.

1. Trend identification by using swing points-

• UPTREND in simple words - Higher highs, higher lows

• DOWNTREND in simple words - lower lows, lower highs.

• Flat trend - The price stays in a range

A thread on Risk and Returns

Trader X -

Net-worth - 5 Cr
Trading capital - 25 lakh

Trader Y -

Net-worth - 30 lakh
Trading capital - 25 lakh

Trader X take risk of 2% per trade and he makes about 30-40 % Return on trading capital per month,

Whereas Trader Y only risk 0.25% per trade and he makes about 3-4 % on Trading capital per month.

Trader Y saw how much trader X is making with the same amount of capital that he has.

He is frustrated with his mediocre results as compared to Trader X, though he don’t know the fact that Trader X Is only trading with 5 % of his total net worth.

Trader X has much more risk taking ability in Rupee terms as compared to the Trader Y because he has higher net-worth.

Trader X will not have much impact when he goes into deep Drawdowns , 40-50% where as if the Trader Y goes below 15% DD , it will have deep psychological impact on him.

Even if the Trader X makes 100% return on his trading capital , turns 25 lakh into 50 lakhs ,

Like humans , stocks too have different nature and if you are trading every stock the same way then this thread may be for you.

A thread on Nature of stocks and how it can help you to improve your trading results.

First start with what is the nature of stocks ?

I broadly categorize stocks in two categories-

1. The momentum stocks-

These are the stocks where most of the moves are swift in nature, or we can say that the pullbacks in a trend are smaller.

2. The AKBC stocks-

These are the stocks where most of the trending moves comes with deep pullbacks.

Examples-

So the purpose of categorizing these stocks, is that we Trade those stocks/instruments which are more suited to our style.

Say if you are a mean reversion player and you are trading in the momentum stocks category then you are more bound to lose over large number of trades.

"Don't change the trading rules after every trade."

If you do change them frequently then this thread is for you.

Let's talk about the law of large numbers and how it benefits traders to be profitable.

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Most people start tweaking the rules, chart settings and the indicator settings because now they think they have found the holy grail.

But they again end up changing them after next losing trade.

If you believe in the law of large numbers then;

Changing the buying rule from buy 1 point above the breakout to buy above 5 points or any tweak like that will not make much difference in the long run.

Law of large numbers is best illustrated by the example of a coin flip :

It has a 50% chance of landing on heads.

If we flip the coin twice, we have almost exactly equal chances of any scenario happening: heads twice, tails two evenly split.

The probability of getting 5 heads and 5 tails on ten flips is just 8% but that probability keeps increasing as we increase the sample size.

If one flips the coin 100 times, the probability of getting 50 heads and 50 tails (P=0.5) increases to 70% and so on.

When the market conditions are not in favour of a strategy, it's normal that it will suffer from drawdown.

In this period most traders can't face the heat,

The four stages of markets-

1. Accumulation
2. Markup
3. Distribution
4. Decline

Thread-

1. Accumulation phase-

This phase starts after the completion of a downtrend.

In this phase the furious selling activity of downtrend comes to a rest.

During this phase there is a gradual shift from sellers to a more neutral environment .

Institutions starts to show interest in stock, Because they can not buy the stock in one time ;they buy it slowly over a long period of time.

Sometimes it takes years for a stock to come out of this phase.

The easiest way to recognize if a stock is in this phase is that the Longer term moving averages will start go decline even when the stock bounce higher.

This shows that there is indecision and there is no powerful force present In the stock at this time.

But, Its super risky to buy in this phase because it can also be a second distribution zone , and the stock may again go lower in many cases.

The first signs of an accumulation zone is the stock will try to make higher lows and try not to break the swing lows often .

How even after knowing everything about your work, a series of emotional judgments can place you in a difficult situation.

A thread on how loss Aversion causes us to take irrational decisions-

An experiment by professor Bazerman of Harvard.

On the first day of class, Professor Bazerman announces a game that seems innocuous enough. Waving a twenty-dollar bill in the air, he offers it up for auction.

Everybody is free to bid; there are only two rules. The first is that bids are to be made in $1 increments. The second rule 30 The Swamp of Commitment is a little trickier.

The winner of the auction, of course, wins the bill. But the runner-up must still honor his or her bid,

while receiving nothing in return.

In other words,this is a situation where second best finishes last. Indeed, at the beginning of the auction, as people sniff out an opportunity to get a $20 bill for a bargain, the hands quickly shoot up, and the auction is officially under way

A flurry of bids follows. As Bazerman described it, "The pattern is always the same. The bidding starts out fast and furious until it reaches the $12 to $16 range." At this point,

Objectivity- Undistorted by emotions or personal bias.

What is objective Trading?

Trading in which decisions are taken on pre-decide rules, decisions in objective trading are not decided by Feelings or opinions.

What is subjective trading?

It is discretionary trading, in which one uses his intuitions and Analysis to take trading decisions.

Is one superior to other?

The rules in a mechanical system are going to be decided by you, the plan is going to be made by you,

the positions sizing and all other aspects are going to be made by you.

So your psychology is going to filter the information coming towards you, even in a mechanical system as well as in discretion.

WHATS THE USE OF OBJECTIVITY-

I am a Discretionary - Rule based trader.

So, I take trades based on my analysis, my entries are discretion based, but the exits , position sizing and Risk management rules are pre decided.

WHY USE SUBJECTIVE TRADING?

The biggest benefit that objective trading do is that it makes the chances of you thinking less during the time of taking an execution decision.

As a beginner trader you will not have much experience, and you will inevitably do a lot of mistakes.

"Start your Trading day with a fresh and empty mind."

Ever faced stress and strong emotions after having loss day and under-performance for a long time after that?

Thread on Emotion and how to control them with help of trading journal

Poker players calls it TILT.

Tilt is pretty much any reason for you to trade sub-optimally.

Greed and fear are tilts in trading.

When normally you have a stressful day (not in trading) and you go to bed with a bad mood, the next day you wake up fine without much stress .

So where did the emotion go?

The brain absorbs and digests all the emotions.

But, when you have a big emotional and loss day , and then a sleepless night, the brain cant digest those emotions as easily.

The next day you wake up to trade , you don’t feel quite right, you feel fear.

So, now you are not starting with an empty cup.

Now your tilt threshold level ( the level where your decision making ability reduces and you take bad decisions ) decreases.

Now, you will be angry a little faster then normally and feel fear more then you do.

So,how to empty your mind after having a bad or even a good day?

By using a Trading journal.

When tops are formed , two things happen The public is buying and the big boys are selling, and vice-versa when bottoms are formed.

In simple words Volume climax is the last "AHA" movement for the public before the stock make a top or bottom.

Thread-

What is Volume climax?

• Volume climax appears at the extreme of a trend, or when top or bottoms are formed.

• Most of the time volume climax appears when breakouts happens after a long extending move, and then fails to hold at higher levels.

• In this, at time of breakout we see big volumes (atleast 2-3X more then normal volume) coming in stock when the stock is already extended.

• More volume is not always good, though retail traders doesn’t distinguish between them.

• After the Volume climax we may see a top/bottom or at-least the trend becomes sideways.

• The best setups are those in which we see full reversal candles with big range.

Example of volume climax-

1. The stock was in Uptrend, And has give a quite good run , Stock was giving a big move as you can see in last 2 candles, they were super extended.

2. But at the top candle, the bulls lost the control and the stock closes with a weak candle,

Richard dennis made "$80 Million " in 1986. That kind of money making put him squarely at the center of Wall Street .

How Richard dennis became one of the greatest trend follower of all time.

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1. Personality-

Though he made big profits in the year of 1986, but Profits and risk comes hand in hand.

He was down $10 million in a single day that year before bouncing back, a rollercoaster ride that would have made mere mortals lose serious sleep.

Yet Dennis cockily said that he slept like a baby during all that volatility.

His money making style was to go for the home runs and swing for the fences,But dennis was never a gambler.

Dennis was believer of the Empiricism philosophy.

Empiricism is rooted in the notion that knowledge is derived from experiment, observation, and experience

2. Family-

Dennis family was not of market operators. Dennis was always honest about his father’s “hatred” of the market, explaining,

“My grandfather had lost all his money in the stock market in the Depression. The urge to speculate kind of skipped a generation.”

"The 200 EMA play."

As most of you may know, that 200 EMA is mostly used to find the Value zone at any time frame, many times we see reversals happening at this zone.

Thread on How to use 200 EMA as a trading setup.

I use this setup mostly on daily and weekly time frames.

So ,what to look for -

1. First check whether the index is in uptrend or not, simple way to know this is if the index is above 20 and 50 DEMA then its in uptrend.

2. So if the index is in uptrend we will try to find the stocks for buying and if the index is in downtrend , find stocks for selling.

3. Now the best setup would be if the stocks is getting close to 200 EMA after a long time, buying/selling would be more furious in that case.

4. The best condition will be if the stock first touches the 200 EMA and shows rejection from that , it would be the ideal condition.

5. We have to buy above above the high of the rejection candle.

6. Stop loss can be 2 ATR away from the entry, ATR will be based on previous candle of the entry.

7. And trail sl with every 1R move in our favor.

Example 1 - Canara bank

Position sizing is most important aspect of system development, which makes a big difference in your returns.

Thread on Position sizing strategies-

Money management is not any of the following-

• It does not tell you how much you will lose on a trade.
• It does not tell you when to exit.
• It is not risk control.
• It is not risk avoidance.

What is Position sizing-

1. Position sizing is that par of your trading system that answers the question "HOW MUCH" throughout the course of the trade,

• It tells you how big a position you should have at a given time when you are in a trade.

• This 'How much' makes a whole lot of difference in a trader's performance.

* Position sizing strategies-

* There are two basic position sizing strategies -
• Martingale
• Anti-Martingale.

1. Martingale strategies increase one's bet when equity decreases.

2. Anti-martingale strategies increase one's bet when equity increases.

Casinos love people who uses Martingale strategies.

Lets see an example of Roulette where one uses the martingale strategy and double the bet every time he loses-

10 truths I wish I knew when I started trading:

Trading always was, is, and will always be a game against yourself. Nobody can make it happen for you, and there’s nobody to beat.

Your only chance of winning is to practice being a better version of yourself today than you were yesterday.

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Traders waste so much energy lamenting on "I missed this" - if all that energy was spent on fixing a problem they just identified — many of them would be better off than they are today.

Be a good problem solver, not a complainer. That negative energy is no bueno.

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Performance is a byproduct of position sizing.

Position Sizing stems from conviction.

Conviction is built by doing deep dives and studying specific setups in the markets, especially ones that tap into its structural tendencies consistently.

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Have a few setups you know really really well.

I have hundreds of examples on each, done deep dives & can trade them when I see them instinctively.

You have to know exactly what ur looking for…so u can repeatedly execute those setups & make them sources of income.

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