Recent content by Joe Ross

Hey Joe! How should individual traders with not so large accounts handle times of increasing volatility? I’m a long term trader and I have to find a way to stay in the market! Personally, I think that high volatility offers a great opportunity for smaller traders to participate in the commodity...

I think you might agree that trade management for system traders has become increasingly important as markets have become more volatile. As more money moves into commodity futures, particularly managed futures and system trading, commodity markets are experiencing higher levels of volatility and...

Hey Joe! It is so hard sometimes to make myself exit a losing trade. What should I do? There is an old saying that goes like this: When day trading positions have had negative open equity most of the day, and an opportunity arises with less than 30 minutes of trading left in the day to exit the...

Day traders should learn to press the market and add con¬tracts at crucial trend confirmation intraday prices, moving all protective stops to break even with additional contracts. When a bull market makes new half day highs, instead of trading a one price unit size, trade two or more price units...

Fear and greed drive market action. We enthusiastically put on trades when we think a huge profit is assured, but when we see the market shift dramatically, we get out as quickly as possible. We fear being trampled by the masses as they all rush to sell. Fear and greed are powerful emotions that...

If only humans were more like machines. In theory, the ultimate trader would act like a robot, analyzing market data with unfailing accuracy, devising a trading plan, and executing it without flaw. But does trading work that way? Trading is more art than science. Without an intuitive grasp of...

It's a muggy day and Skip can’t seem to do anything right. He's fumbled around all morning. He didn’t sleep well last night. He's tired, and he is tempted to just quit for the day, drink a few tequilas, and sit in a hammock by the pool. But he still has enough willpower to fight temptation a...

Do you remember your first impressions of trading? Perhaps you were young and had a strong desire to achieve early success, but if you were like most people, you had unrealistic expectations about the financial resources and skill level that were needed to trade profitably. You probably figured...

On the popular sitcom, "That '70s Show," Eric asks his father, "Bad things always seem to happen to me. Why do I have such bad luck?" His father replies, "Son, you don't have bad luck. Bad things happen to you because you're a dumb-ass." Novice traders often feel like Eric. They make trade after...

As students of the markets, it's informative to study everyday examples of mass psychology. Although humans are highly intelligent, they can act like cattle blindly following the leader of the pack to the slaughterhouse. For example, have you ever observed how people drive in busy rush hour...

Winning traders are extremely disciplined. They astutely study the markets, devise a trading plan, and follow it. They control their impulse to abandon their plans prematurely, and they don't allow emotions, such as fear and greed, to influence their trading decisions. In the trading profession...

Social psychologists are often fond of saying that people are "lay scientists." Like formal scientists, they try to understand their world. They make hypotheses and test them. Rather than conducting formal experiments, however, they use their everyday experience to test out theories they have...

Whether you're a novice or seasoned trader, there are days when you face setback after setback: Adverse events go against you. You make a trading error. You misread the markets. The possible setbacks can be endless, and it hurts a little to watch your account balance take a hit when one of them...

Do you ever wonder if you secretly want to fail? It's hard to believe, but some people do want to fail. They may not want to do better than their parents, and secretly they set themselves up for failure. Others fear success. They associate success with added responsibility and they want to avoid...

If you’re like most modern traders, you try to do it all. You study charts and historical data for trading opportunities. You struggle to devise a thorough, well-designed trading plan. You enter trades on your own electronic trading platform, and you monitor your trades to make midcourse...