Workshop » Reference Section » Grimoires » Trading Education Notes » Hypotheses to be tested

Size Down

I heard an interview with a trader (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ETvTftY-tw) who never takes a trade that he is not willing to accept a complete loss on. I'm thinking about that PLTR protective bear spread that I sold when it was halfway to a $600 loss,, and price moved so it would have ended far in profit. By his philosophy: I should have halved the profit, not done that. I got greedy. His way of thinking is I should have taken half the size spread instead or not taken the trade at all. But I don't know, because it was protective... I was trying to protect against a loss. (Actually I should have used a collar.) In another video, this same guy said "Stop swinging for home runs. Start stacking small trades." Which fits.

He said "I only enter trades where if it goes to zero, I'm still good." He's limiting…

Workshop » Reference Section » Grimoires » Trading Education Notes » Hypotheses to be tested

Get Really Good At One Thing

Everybody seems to say this. For me it could be the strategy I've been working on paper trading lately. But everyone says lack of focus will cost you.

Workshop » Reference Section » Grimoires » Trading Education Notes » Hypotheses to be tested

Patience

You need patience. You can't say "I don't want to wait, I might miss the trade." You wait for confirmation and then only get in if you didn't miss the trade.

Lack of confirmation doesn't mean you're not wrong. Nor does confirmation mean you're right. But being right by not waiting for confirmation will cost you. You can't fomo the money you miss by doing this.

Workshop » Reference Section » Grimoires » Trading Education Notes » Explainers, Definitions, & Terminology

Open Interest

Open interest in options is how many live contracts are currently held.

Larry Williams points out that when there's a lot of open interest, there's nobody left to buy. It's not necessarily bullish. In fact it depends whose interest is open—institutional is bullish. Retail is bearish because they don't know what they're doing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp6S0Onz_iw

Workshop » Reference Section » Grimoires » Trading Education Notes » Explainers, Definitions, & Terminology

Trading Thesis

Traders refer to a "thesis" a lot. I've come to believe this is just jargon for a hypothesis. "I think it will do this".

Workshop » Reference Section » Grimoires » Trading Education Notes » Options Trading Mindset

Options Are For Strong Conviction Trades

I got some advice recently that I liked: options are for strong conviction trades. "I think this might work" is for shares trades, not options.

"This is working as expected" is when you keep an options trade open.

"This still has a chance it might work as expected" is when you close an options trade. Maybe reopen a smaller position with shares if you absolutely have to gamble.

Pretty much, I'm thinking, whenever you think "It still might..." it's time to close the options trade. The thesis is broken.