Author Archives: Uday Nath

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About Uday Nath

I'm motivated. I like to out-perform. I only strive for the best.

Nath on Trading – IV – We’ve got Stamina

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61). We’re able to take many, many small losses, without flinching.

62). Only that sets us up for the big wins.

63). We don’t second guess our stops.

64). In fact, we want the stop to hit. As in, hit me, if you’ve got the *****.

65). When the trade moves in our direction, we let it. We’re doing other stuff.

66). When the trade moves against us, we let it. We’re doing other stuff.

67). That’s because we fully understand the function of our stop. It will take us out of the market, whether in loss or in profit. It’s dynamic, you see. It moves with the market as per the definition provided by us while punching in the trade.

68). We’re not afraid that our stop could be jumped. Can happen, in a panic. Hopefully, our technicals will have placed us in the right trade direction before huge and fast moves. It comes to mind that this kind of move occured at least twice in the last six years, once with the swiss franc, and once during Brexit. If we start worrying about such one-offs, we won’t trade at all. 

69). We look at the technicals, and we listen to what they’re saying. The trend is our friend. We trade with the trend, either on fresh highs (fresh lows) or on pullbacks, depending upon the conditions.

70). This is trading, so I personally don’t look at fundamentals. However, cook your curry the way you like it.

71). We might zero into tradable underlyings with screens or searches, but…

72). …we eyeball into final trade selection.

73). Yes, the chart needs to look and feel just right. All but the one tradable entity are rejected by the look and feel of the chart. The one remaining is the one we trade. If none remains, we don’t trade. 

74). Price is king. We’re into price action.

75). Indicators only indicate. Price does the talking.

76). What the price is saying will reflect in the indicator, but with a time-lag.

77). Do we want this time-lag? I don’t.

78). Thus, price action it is, for me. However, everyone is looking at the same price.

79). Therefore, we need to think slightly out of the box, to make money.

80). Edge + out of the box thinking + stamina nails it.

 

 

 

 

Stamina of a Marathon Runner

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Yes.

That’s what a small entry quantum approach demands of its player.

To be frank, I’ve not run any marathons on field and track.

However, I’ve done my share in life, and continue to do so. 

If it’s not a marathon, I don’t get a kick.

If you’ve got that in yourself, you’re cut out for the small entry quantum approach.

There’s repetition.

Boredom.

The long-haul.

Life in the background.

No hype.

Going on and on…

…till you break through,…

…and the contents of your portfolio spill over…

…and start to show.

Might take a few decades. 

Do you have it in you?

What will make you hold out?

Stick to the tenets of the small entry quantum approach, and you will not only hold out, but your folio will burgeon too.

Buy with surplus.

Buy with margin of safety.

Learn to sit.

Enter small. Many times.

Keep entering over the years, till there is reason to enter.

Exit on highs. Only get rid of those stocks you don’t feel like holding anymore.

No fear please. Kill it. Create the circumstances for fear to vanish.

No euphoria either. That’s a tough one, especially when the whole world is dancing around you. 

Do your homework. 

Don’t listen to anyone.

You’re set.

 

Nath on Trading – III – Meat in the Middle

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41). If it’s high, it could go higher.

42). If it’s low, it could go lower.

43). Market forces tire the trader.

44). Engulfment in loss and loss-freeze suck one out.

45). That’s exactly why we’re not going to let that happen. You know how. (Hint : stops).

46). Trade selection is the least of one’s problems. It’s no biggie.

47). Trade management separates winners from losers.

48). Proper trade exits are the icing on the cake.

49). Longs exiting in a rising market – hmmm – really?

50). Shorts exiting in a falling market – hmmm – really?

51). What’s that other fellow trading? Who cares?

52). How’s that other fellow doing? You got it. Who cares?

53). The only entity stopping you from outperformance – is you.

54). All your demons – are in you.

55). They’ll slowly come out, over the years, one by one, or some now, some later. Hopefully sooner than later.

56). Let them emerge, show their antics, and disappear forever. Make sure you bid them goodbye.

57). That’s why, you’re trading small, right, till your demons have emerged, created havoc, and then disappeared, forever?

58). You’ll feel it from inside, when it’s the right time to scale up. Develop this dialogue with yourself. A clear voice emerging from within can carry great advice.

59). Sure, you’re looking at trade signals, and sticking to trade rules. However, the voice from within is the net resultant per saldo vector of your entire trading experience. It carries weight.

60). Mostly, it doesn’t come. Clear the way for this voice to make itself heard when you need to listen to what it has to say. Trading, at first, is a bunch of rules. Later, trading becomes an art.

Nath on Trading – II – Building up on Basics

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21). You started small, right?

22). Ultimately, you’re staying consistently in the green, correct?

23). Then it’s time to scale up. Slowly does it.

24). Why the whole spiel about starting small? You make your biggest mistakes in the first seven years.

25). Hopefully, you don’t repeat a mistake once it has happened, and once you’ve learnt from it.

26). However, mistakes are good, because they teach you. Nothing else can teach you with incorporation into DNA. Mistakes can.

27). No university can teach you. No books. No professor. Play the market, make the mistake, and learn.

28). A big break early in the markets is a recipe for disaster. More likely than not, you’ll blow up later, when it matters.

29). The best possible way to scale up is using position-sizing as delineated by Dr. Van Tharp.

30). The good thing about position-sizing is that it makes you scale down, when trading corpus goes below par.

31). Day trading takes up the day. You’re exhausted and are not able to do much else.

32). Short-term trading also keeps you riveted to the terminal, mostly.

33). However, position trading and longer time frames keep you in the line for whatever else you wish to achieve.

34). Market TV makes it a video game. Switch it off.

35). Trading with targets caps big-win potential.

36). When you trade, you trade. You don’t invest.

37). Successful trading means buying high and selling higher, or…

38). …selling low and buying back lower…

39). …as opposed to successful investing, which is buying low, not selling for the longest time, and then selling for a multiple.

40). Read points 16 to 19 again.

Nath on Trading – Basics Win

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1). Put yourself out there. Again and again. Take the next trade.

2). Keep yourself in a position to take the next trade. How?

3). Take small losses. Have a stop in place. Always. Have the guts to have it in place physically.

4). Trade with money that doesn’t hurt you if it’s gone.

5). Don’t exhaust stamina. Put trade in place with smart stop that moves as per definition, and then forget it. 

6). Keep yourself physically and mentally fit. Good health will make you take the next trade. Bad health won’t.

7). Have a system…

8). …with an edge, and even a slight edge will do.

9). Keep sharpening your system. 

10). Don’t listen to anyone. You’ve got your system, remember? Sc#@w tips. God has given you a brain. Use it. 

11). Let profit run. Don’t nip it in the bud. PLEASE.

12). A big profit doesn’t mean you’re it. It can become bigger. And bigger. Remember that.

13). What’s going to keep your account in the green over the long run are the big winning trades. LET THEM HAPPEN. How?

14). You exit when the market stops you out. Period. Your trailing stop on auto is fully capable of locking in big gains and then some.

15). Similarly, make the market make you enter. Entries are to be triggered by the market. Use trigger-entries on your platform.

16). When a trade is triggered, you’re done with it, till it’s stopped out, in profit or in loss. Can you follow that?

17). Your trade identification skills are going to improve over time. Get through that time without giving up. 

18). Despair is bad, but euphoria is worse. Guard yourself against euphoria after a big win. Why?

19). Big wins are often followed by recklessness and deviations from one’s system that is already working. NO.

20). Use your common-sense. Is your calculator saying the right thing? Can this underlying be at that price? Keep asking questions that require common-sense to respond. Keep your common-sense awake. 

 

 

 

Robotic Stock Selection Anyone?

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No…

…thank you…

…is it?

Sure, stockscreens.

We use them all the time. 

A stock screen is a robot.

So why am I still saying no thank you?

I use stockscreens day in and day out.

I use them for trade selection, and I use them for long-term stock selection.

However,…

…(here comes the hammer),…

…the final say is mine. 

I’d like the human touch to answer yes or no.

Also, out of say a hundred selections, I can still say no to all.

And, if something catches my eye, I can dig deeper. 

I’d like to keep all these things in my hand.

I’d like my market approach to be with open eyes and usage of common-sense.

So where are we exactly?

Somewhere between one-fourth and half robotic.

That suits us. 

We save hours of sweat labour.

After sweat labour has done its work, we start applying our minds. 

We take over where the robot has left off.

Uff, sometimes it’s so boring, that…

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…you find yourselves asking,…

…was that it?

Aha. 

Need I remind you, that this is very good indeed?

You want your strategy to become to streamlined, that it’s outright sheer damn boring. 

That’s exactly when the strategy will perform.

Thrill-seekers have a video-game experience of the markets and then burn out. 

You will go on and on with your boring strategy. 

What does this mean for your time?

You’ve got something streamlined, so you’ve got time on your hands. 

Twiddle your thumbs, or do something new. 

I’ll take new. 

I’d go for another strategy. 

Approach another market. 

Anything that attracts you. 

Develop something in that market. 

Make sure there’s no overlap between your markets. 

Why?

When you wind up the day’s input for a market, you want to be exactly there, i.e. wound up with that market. 

Entering the other market is something fresh for you. 

You look forward to it. 

Why exactly?

Because of no overlap with something you’re done with for the day. 

Slowly, get a few strategies going, such that your working day is taken care of. 

This is how you proceed with a market.

Enter-do-exit. Done.

Next market.

Enter-do-exit. Done.

And next market. 

Once you’re done with a market for the day, only look at it the next day. 

This way you’ll stay fresh, and your time and energy won’t be exhausted by hourly nitty-gritties. 

Once done with all your markets for the day, do other stuff in life. 

Non-market stuff.

Like cultivation of hobbies, spending family-time, sport, meditation, chanting, reading, what have you. 

Do full justice to life. 

This is Why Your Blockbuster Gain Story is going to Happen

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You’re learning to sit. 

You buy with margin of safety. 

You buy in small quanta,…

…and that’s why you’re always liquid,…

…to avail any opportunity that arises. 

Yeah, there’s nothing impeding your liquidity…

…because you’ve kept yourself virus-free, i.e. debt-free. 

You only buy quality…

…that’s going to be around for a long, long while,…

…because you don’t sell for a long, long while. 

You don’t listen to what the grapevine is saying…

…because of the conviction and strength of your own research and opinion.

Yes, you regularly go against the crowd. 

You either buy into debt-free-ness, or into managable debt that spurts growth. 

Your input into the market doesn’t affect your daily life, leaving you tension-free to address your non-market world and thrive in it,…

…and that is why,…

…for all the above reasons,…

…your blockbuster gain story is going to happen,…

…and what’s more,…

…you are also enjoying the ride leading up to it. 

Blockbuster Wealth Stories in Equity still do the rounds

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The latest one doing the rounds…

…is the Bezos parents’ story. 

Their investment in their son’s company twenty three years ago has returned a whopping twelve million percent, making them become worth billions.

Staggering.

You can have such a story too. 

Here’s how. 

Identify pockets of value. 

Invest in these pockets of value. 

Money going in is something you don’t need to touch for a long, long time.

Build up a sizable investment in each pocket, bit by bit, as long as it remains value. 

When value becomes growth, let it be.

Occupy your mind elsewhere, looking for more value. Don’t bother looking at what’s started to grow. 

If you’ve picked well, out of your many pockets of value, some will become good growth stories over the years. 

A few of these runners will turn into multibaggers. 

And then, there might one odd investment, that returns a staggering amount, just like the above mentioned example. 

It’s not over. 

You let this one run. 

Don’t finance your prodigal son’s wedding from this one. Do it by selling your losers, if you have to. 

Why let it run?

What’s returned a hundred thousand percent today might well return a million percent or more over time, if we let it…

…be.

 

 

Born in Silence

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Do you get alone-time?

Can you live with noise?

Does noise cover fact?

Can you see the forest for the trees?

Why do I ask?

Do you want your ideas to turn into multibaggers?

Bask in silence. 

There’s something about silence. 

You don’t need to think. 

Thoughts just come. 

Eventually, a blockbuster idea appears. 

Distracted, you might not even recognize it. 

It will come, and go, worthless as it is forgotten. 

Alert, you recognize it. 

You put it on paper. 

Ramifications. 

Aha. 

You see it. 

Implementation. 

Benefit. 

It was born in silence. 

The biggest money can be made when you think like no one has thought before.

Using Doubt as an Asset

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Is this really working?

Have I thought this through enough?

Is my strategy sound enough to hold?

Am I going to look like a fool?

Should I just scrap it?

What if I’d followed that other strategy, where the other fellow said he was making tons of money with? (Like hullo, just forget the other fellow, period).

Questions…

…crop up…

…when a strategy stalls, or doesn’t behave like you want it to.

Doubt is par for the course.

Doubt is good.

Keep it at good.

Control doubt.

Don’t let it control you.

I have a great strategy for when doubt crops up.

Nothing.

I do nothing.

I sit on the strategy in question, and occupy my mind with other things.

Now, two things can happen.

Either the strategy starts to work again,…

…or things remain status quo.

If your patience is over, fine, scrap it.

However, mostly, things do get back to normal.

You’ve taken your time to develop something.

Effort and sweat have gone in.

Don’t be in a hurry to scrap something valuable.

A new strategy will take long to develop. Be prepared for that.

Remember, no strategy works all the time.

You’re well served by one that works more than it doesn’t work.

Doubt serves like a stop-loss.

As doubt overshoots critical mass, you start to change things.

Use doubt as an asset.

Till it is overshooting critical mass, keep observing it, but don’t act.

Is there Peace of Mind in the Markets?

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Hey,

First up, is this even the right question?

Should the proper question not be person-centric?

Is there peace of mind in you? Or in me? Or in whoever’s asking?

Sure.

Let’s just cast aside what the proper question should be for a bit.

We are in the markets, and, if not at first, then ultimately, we do crave for peace of mind.

We’ll probably be in the markets for life.

Where does that leave us?

To answer this question in our favour, our mental, physical and monetary condition needs to be peace-of-mind-appropriate while approaching the markets.

Only surplus goes in.

What goes in, does so in small, digestible quanta, an action that does not disturb one’s equilibrium.

Also, we are not perturbed about any down movement because of our small entry quantum strategy.

We have rendered ourselves peace-of-mind-appropriate.

We have also rendered ourselves open to the effects of big moves.

Big move down?

No worries. Buy some more. Small entry quantum strategy ensures ample liquidity, whilst commitment till date has been small.

Big move up?

No euphoria please. Enjoy your peace of mind and sit tight.

For all you know, it becomes an even bigger move.

You actually end up wishing that the underlying cools down, so you can buy some more.

You’re good.

We’ll Take Boring

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Boring…

…is good.

Boring means…

…that you’re on the right track.

We’ll take boring.

What are we talking about?

Equity.

When it’s working according to plan, yeah, you got it, it tends to become a bit boring in the long run.

Don’t get alarmed.

That’s exactly where you want your equity to be.

When it’s there, it’s fulfilling its function, and then some.

You’ve moved away from euphoria.

You’ve moved away from fear.

You’ve arrived at boring.

Look no further.

You’re ready to scale up.

Using Auto-Manual Mix Towards Peace of Mind

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Create…

… an asset.

Move on.

Create…

… next asset.

Move on.

Loop to the nth and decide what your magic n is.

Retire.

Ha!

Formula for financial independence in 22 words?

You decide.

How?

By treading the path.

The act of creation is manual.

One can use many tools while putting the asset together manually. That’s absolutely fine.

Let the asset loose.

From this point on, it’s on auto.

It’ll remain on auto, hopefully, till its logical conclusion is reached.

If the asset misbehaves in between, it will attract your attention.

If your attention is attracted beyond your critical mass, you will stop what you’re doing and attend to the asset.

You will either tweak and repair and let it loose once more.

If the asset is beyond repair, you will terminate it, i.e. sell it off, even at a loss. After all, it is misbehaving. You don’t wish to hold something that bothers you.

Peace of mind is the most valuable asset in your portfolio.

Manual has a Tendency to Enslave

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There is something about things by rote.

They create a groove.

We enter the groove on a repeated basis.

Entering becomes a given.

Our system has aligned itself to entering.

Our system gets comfortable.

It wants to stay there.

It wants more.

How does one extract oneself from this vicious cycle?

Firstly, why do we wish to extract ourselves?

We wish to control Manual, and we don’t want to let Manual control us.

If there’s too much of Manual, our day is gone, and we are not able to attend to more important things in life, like family, extra-curricular activities and all the jazz.

How to go about it is a question of awareness and setting limits.

Thus, you find yourself saying that you will engage to this particular level, and no more, and once this level of engagement is reached, you will put the strategy on auto, and disengage, and remain disengaged till the next screening is due.

Easier said than done, sure.

How is one able to stick to this plan?

If the day is busy, with multiple engagements, one forgets about the activity of the morning by afternoon, because the afternoon has brought with itself a whole new set of activities. Stay busy.

Learn to take small losses in stride. That’ll line you up for the big wins. Strategies left on auto till next screening can incur losses and then get stopped out. That’s part of the deal. Have faith in your stop. You have placed it at a strategic location, where it can not be reached so easily. For your stop to be reached, the market will have to go out of its way. If the market is doing that, you don’t wish to be in the trade anyways. You’re stopped out, and that’s good. That saves you from big losses. Have faith in this philosophy.

So, you’re busy, and you have faith in your philosophy.

You engage, disengage and move on.

You don’t look behind.

That’s how you keep Manual from enslaving you.

A Little Bit of Manual is a Good Thing

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Sure.

Auto is the motto.

Keep some pivotal stuff on manual, though.

It’ll give you something to do.

Because it’s pivotal stuff, it decides direction, or quantum, or what have you.

Position-sizing is ideally done on auto.

You can write an algorithm for it too.

Yeah.

You can take auto to the nth level and then some.

Keeping position-sizing on manual, though, for example, makes you remain in touch with portfolio expansion or contraction. Central.

In my opinion, setting risk:reward is a trade to trade thing, and depends upon the underlying chart. Hence, being manual here gives more dexterity.

Same goes for setting stop-losses.

Which auto strategy to look at, when, is by default a manual thing. It should be, anyways, in my opinion.

This adds spontaneity to life.

Spontaneity has a certain freshness to it which makes work fun.

Some strategies are better off when not looked at for days.

Manual helps here.

When an auto strategy stops working, one needs to manually fit it to work again.

If the strategy needs dumping, you’ll need to see to this yourself.

Creation of a new strategy – you got it – manual.

The manual stuff keeps you moving, and fit.

The auto stuff just goes on auto, and if that’s all there is for you, you’re going to start getting lazy.

Befriend manual, but don’t become a slave to manual.

A little bit of manual is a good thing.

Making Forex Go on Auto W/o Software Robotics

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Charts.

Chart.

Identification…

…of trade.

Trigger Entry.

Feed in entry level.

Trigger Stop.

Choose between dynamic and fixed stop.

I like the fixed stop that keeps raising itself in chunks, chunk after chunk.

However, you might prefer a dynamic stop.

Trigger Limit. Not necessarily a must.

Put trade on.

Entry triggers.

You are now live…

…and your forex is now on auto,…

… whereby you’ve not used a software robot to achieve this.

Well done!

🙂

Auto Strategies Befit This Age

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Create an asset. 
 
Move on.
 
Create next asset. 
 
Move on.
 
So on and so forth. 
 
Very soon, you are sorted for life. 
 
What is an asset?
 
An asset puts money in your pocket.
 
As opposed to a liability…
 
…which takes money out of your pocket. 
 
Therefore, we are in the business of creating assets. Period. 
 
Once an asset is created, it becomes a strategy on auto…
 
…till it needs handling for a bit. 
 
You handle for a bit, make it go on auto again, and then you move on. 
 
When it needs handling, it will tell you. It will scream. 
 
When it doesn’t need handling, it won’t bother you. 
 
At these times, it will silently put the money in your pocket, even if you’re too busy looking elsewhere. 
 
The idea is to get as many such assets in place as possible, in a balanced and no-nonsense fashion. 
 
This is the age of short attention-spans.
 
Creation of an asset requires short attention-span focus, mostly. 
 
Auto strategies befit this age. 
 
Go for it. 

The Why of Movement

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Spread.

Buyer.

Seller.

Willingness to buy.

Willingness to sell.

Buying pressure.

Selling Pressure.

Which is more?

Willingness leads to pressure…

…if buyer or seller is serious about it.

Willingness stops at willingness and does not lead to pressure when buyer or seller is in two minds.

Back to…

…buying pressure…

… and selling pressure.

When overall buying pressure outdoes overall selling pressure…

…prices move up.

When overall selling pressure outdoes overall buying pressure…

…prices move down.

We Don’t Want Anymore

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There comes a time…

…when we don’t want anymore.

Why has this happened?

It’s a spin-off from our small entry quantum approach.

We’ve been buying at sale prices, with small entry quanta, each day, a quantum a day.

A groove has been set.

After umpteen failed attempts, prices break through.

An interesting thing happens to us.

Slightly higher prices start to pinch us.

As prices go even higher…

…our mood is off, and…

…we don’t want anymore.

From a strategy perspective, this is the best thing that could have happened to us.

We will not be buying as margin of safety vanishes and remains vanished.

Our want will be triggered once more, when margin of safety returns.

This has not taken place for free.

It is an indirect result of our painful sticking to a small entry quantum approach.

🙂