Bitcoin Forum

http://www.wallstreetcrypto.net/2014/01/why-most-traders-will-fail.html


I don't think most traders fail because of lack of ability, but more likely lack of discipline.

Maybe this will help some people refine their techniques.

Cool read!

A bit of a generalisation though, I think greed is the main cause leading traders to fail. That and buying and selling at the wrong time  :D

Good post,

I agree as well, most of the traders in the marketplace are very much noobs and have not even done the due diligence of reaserching what all those spikey lines mean.

Knowledge is power.

If everyone will suddenly become a reasonably adept trader, the people who are "good" at trading now will make a lot less money. Zero sum game and all that.

Looking at it that way the net effect of my article is zero.  People looking for these kinds of resources and advise will find them or discover the lessons themselves, thereby adding to the pool of effective traders.  So the article really only accelerates the process of learning for those capable of accepting the lesson in the first place.

:P but this is kind of a ridiculous pseudo-philosophical discussion.

But with Bitcoin it`s impossible to lose if you hold?

Depends on when you buy in I guess.

Well, someone has to fail if someone else has to make money, right? ;-)

The dirty secret of trading :P, but if your going to play the game you'd better know the risks.

for someone who's thinking of taking trading a bit more seriously, where would you suggest to get the best info? traditional market/forex books, webinars, etc? any tips for good classes?

IRC isnt a bad place.

I think many traders would gasp at the idea of getting information from a source that doesn't update :P

You main goal is going to be to get as much experience with the more popular indicators as possible, investopedia has good explanations of most of their backend math and common usage.

From there your going to want to search around trading discussion forums (serious) ones and expose yourself to as many different kinds of strategy as possible.  After that its all about just getting your feet wet!

I suggest you study indicators etc such as Bollinger Bands, MACD, CCD, Divergence etc. This will make it easier for you to choose ENTRY and EXIT points. There are many videos on YouTube demonstrating the same. Sooner or later, you will be able to design the indicator which falls within your own comfort.

Forget indicators! Learn to trade support/resistance. Add is some Fibonacci levels and your set.

Example

buy/sell at the break of support/resistance and consolidation levels.

http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab194/liquidxskin/Scalp1_zps0ad7bd06.png (http://s863.photobucket.com/user/liquidxskin/media/Scalp1_zps0ad7bd06.png.html)

Here a short term resistance level had formed @ 727

Price had failed to break previous resistance level 727 noted as a white horizontal at the top which caused a point of consolidaion. When price broke below the resulting consolidation level @723 I shorted


These are price based range bars not time based candlesticks.

This is the next topic on our Cryptoforex 101 page, thanks for reminding me.

Support/resistance levels are especially important in cryptocurrency markets and I'm a huge fan of Fibonacci/Golden Mean based analytic techniques myself!

Although I believe indicators are important for confirming reversals you may already think will be happening based on support/resistance.

Alpha - While you may be right I'd still advise any newbie to keep it simple. Learn the basics Support, Resistance, and Fibonacci levels. Then try to implement indicators if needed.

Solid advise, although Fibonacci may be a bit complicated for new traders just trying to learn the basics of candlesticks.

We wrote this article based on what would be most available to new traders.  At the time the ability to draw lines on BTCwisdom wasn't even available so we decided starting with indicators made more sense.

For anyone that may end up reading this in the future.

http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/support-and-resistance-levels/support-and-resistance.html (http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/support-and-resistance-levels/support-and-resistance.html)

http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/fibonacci/fibonacci-retracement.html (http://www.babypips.com/school/elementary/fibonacci/fibonacci-retracement.html)

Trading is only as complicated as you make it.

If you can't draw lines on the chart write down/note levels of importance.

Thanks for the links!  Very much appreciated.

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for someone who's thinking of taking trading a bit more seriously, where would you suggest to get the best info? traditional market/forex books, webinars, etc? any tips for good classes?
[/quote]

read with great attention and open mind, more than once if possible, especially all the parts dealing with psyhology and everything else, besides the actual trading techniques described (which are useless at this phase in bitcoin in my opinion):

http://www.forex.co/i/img/books/alexander_elder/alexander_elder_en.jpg

and then his next book:

http://pixhost.me/avaxhome/94/36/00103694_medium.jpeg

That if you take your money seriously. If not I suggest you save yourself the bucks and go for a weekend in Las Vegas, preparing to lose everything anyway.

One basic idea that helps me always is:

DON'T BASE YOUR TRADING DECISIONS ON HOW MUCH YOU COULD WIN, BUT RATHER CONCENTRATE ON HOW MUCH YOU RISK LOSING.  :o

Great topic! Very informative  :)

Thanks!

Seems to be something most new traders know on some level but they need more experienced traders to remind them just how important it is to remember.