You DO want next year to be more profitable, yes?

The first step in being proactive about next year is
to get a clear picture of where you are right now and
also to review what you’ve done and not done that
has you in your current status.

Now the assessment of where you are now means
more than simply looking at your account balance
and your equity curve, although they are part of
the process.

Knowing your metrics is part of any successful
business, and for traders that means several key
performance indicators.  Such metrics include:

• Percent of Winning Trades*
• Profit-to-Loss Ratio*
• Average Return per Trade*
• Return per Dollar Invested*
• Total number of trades placed
• Total number of winners
• Total net profits
• Total number of losers
• Total net losses
• Average Profit*
• Average Loss*
• Your longest winning streak & how much you made
• Your longest losing streak & how much you lost
• Your greatest drawdown*
• Your REAL Reward-to-risk ratios for winners, losers and overall

Ideally, you have been tracking these numbers for your trading
throughout the year on a monthly basis, plus keeping notes as
to what has transpired along the way that has affected the numbers.

Running and tracking your metrics is one of the most effective
and efficient ways to stay in the continuous improvement cycle,
and when it comes to making money, you definitely want to
always be making progress.

The reason that metrics are so powerful is that they give
perspective to what you’re doing and give you clear focus
as to what is working and what is not - in hard numbers,
not just opinion.

If you are running and tracking your metrics, then now is
a good time to review them so that you can be proactive
to make sure that 2009 sees greater profits and fewer
mistakes than 2008.

If you haven’t been measuring your trading performance
and tracking it, then now is a great time to start.

To make doing this quick and easy, use the Trading
Performance Analyzer, which was created specifically
for you for this purpose.  You can check it out here,

http://insideouttrading.com/tpa/

Or simply click on the image to the right.

No matter what you’ve been doing or have going on right
now, this is one of the best practices to have as part of your
trading business and to have confidence in the future.

Cheers

Brian

P.S.  If you’ve had challenges with discipline and/or confidence,
this will help tremendously with these two aspects of your trading
as well.

http://insideouttrading.com/tpa/

R.J. was a raccoon that in his hunger, made the near-
fatal mistake of stealing the hibernating bear’s food
stash.

He snuck into the cave of a hibernating bear to get
his food-stash.  Had it all loaded up on the wagon
the bear had in the cave (hey it’s a cartoon) and was nearly
out of the cave when his greed got the best of him
and he just had to go get that can of “Spuddies”
that the bear was holding in his sleep.  When R.J.
opened the can, the bear heard it and awoke.

The wagon goes rolling down the hill only to be
run over by a truck and the food all destroyed.

Now R.J. finds himself with his head in the clutches
of the bear and having to replace all the food and
he’s only got a week to do it - or he’s dead.

Lesson 1:  greed can wipe out your account, even
with just one mistake.

The scene now shifts to the turtle Vern and his
“family” just waking up from their winter’s sleep.

First thing on Vern’s mind and which he reminds
everyone of, is that they have to start preparations
for the coming winter, because they were down to
a handful of berries for food from last year’s stock.

Lesson 2:  prepare for the coming year.  Don’t just
let the days pass until things are upon you, especially
when you can foresee them and make ready.

Back to R.J.

R.J. discovers Vern and his family and the light comes
on over his head (a firefly in the movie).

Here is a group that has the skills that he needs, as Vern
and his family are a group of foragers, so he enlists their
help (unbeknownst to them) to collect his needed food
and save his life.

They manage to get everything needed to save R.J.’s life
and in the short time frame of a week.  Had he gone
about it himself, he’d never had made it in time.

Now the way R.J. goes about it in the story is not the
right way to get help from others (through deceit), and
along the way, he finds that they are a good group.

At the end of the movie when the truth comes out,
Vern says to R.J., “All you had to do was tell us, and
we would have helped you.  That’s what families do.”

Lesson 3:  when you’re livelihood depends on it, your
best bet to make things happen quickly is to enlist
the help of people with the skills, knowledge or
experience to help you achieve your goals.

Quick summary of the lessons:

1.  Avoid mistakes, especially decisions made based
on emotions.

2.  Prepare for the future

3.  Get help, and don’t go it alone, especially if your
livelihood is riding on your success.

2009 will be upon us soon, so are you beginning
YOUR preparations?

Have you updated your business plan for the coming
year (or at least created the first one)?

If not, now is the time.

Don’t know how to create a business plan for your
trading business?  That’s what we’re doing in the
Trading P.I.T. Club - and it’s easy when you know
how.

Don’t wait until New Year’s Day to get ready for ‘09.

Begin preparations now so that it will be your best year
yet.

Cheers

Brian

P.S.  By the way, did you know that you can save $120
on the membership to the Club for a limited time?  Go
here,

http://insideouttrading.com/pit/save120.html

For the initial group of traders that joined the
Trading P.I.T. Club, this week’s lesson and
assignment is where we’re building the 12-month
financial plan as part of the business planning
session in the training.

In any business venture, the business plan is
essential to having a business that generates
income in a reliable and consistent manner, and
the same is true for your trading business.

Now if you have never created a business plan,
it can be a daunting task, especially making
the financial planning portion of it.  Being
unable to forecast the income and expenses with
any reasonable accuracy is one of the main
reasons that business plans don’t get created.

Throughout the training in the P.I.T. Club, the
lessons and assignments build toward the creation
of the business plan and make it a breeze.

If you’re sincere about having a thriving
trading business that you can rely on for
building wealth and generating income (the
reason anyone goes into any business), then
you might find the Trading P.I.T. Club very
helpful in building such a trading business.

You can find out more about the P.I.T.Club
and how it can help you become a true
professional trader and owner of a successful
trading business here,

http://insideouttrading.com/pit/save120.html

Also, to give you incentive to do the right
thing for your trading business (you already
know that you should be treating your trading
as a business) if you take action now rather
than wait, for a limited time you can save
20% by using the coupon code 50C50A67FA which
means you save $120

http://insideouttrading.com/pit/save120.html

Don’t leave your trading business to chance -
invest in yourself and make your trading business
all you hoped it would be.

Cheers

Brian

P.S.  This is a limited offer, so don’t delay or
put it off.  Make your life easy starting right
now!

http://insideouttrading.com/pit/save120.html

The method for doing it is easier than you might think.

There is a way to do it that’s done by hundreds if not
thousands of traders, and it gives them the confidence
to trade with comfortable discipline every day.

Also, it’s not some big secret that just a few are
keeping for themselves.  It’s simply not as widely
known and certainly not put into use by everyone.

Also, it is applicable to any market and any
trading style.

Want to know how to predict the future as a trader?

Would you like to have your own personal crystal
ball?

Go here,

http://insideouttrading.com/tpa/indexc.html

If you are tired of hoping and want to be able to
look to your future with confidence and a sense of
security, then this is what you’ve been looking for.

Cheers

Brian

P.S.  Skeptical?  That’s understandable, but you’ll
see within 60 seconds how this is real and how you
can make it your advantage in your trading for
greater confidence and comfortable discipline.

No kidding.

http://insideouttrading.com/tpa/indexc.html

There are many parallels between trading, business and gambling, and your ultimate success long-term will be determined by how you approach any of the three. Playing to your strengths is critical in all three.  In any of the pursuits, there is competition and you always want to make sure that you’re playing to your strengths and not your weaknesses.  The objective is winning, that is profiting, and you want every advantage that you can get.

Too often, the opportunity seeker will go after an opportunity just because they see that there’s money to be made, and they figure that they can shore up their weaknesses (learn more) enough to go get that money.  Let’s take a brief look at how this applies in each area, keeping in mind the parallels between them.

In business, the long term successes are built by those with an end goal in mind, a vision of what the business will look like when it’s mature.  This is critical because the company must stay on a course that is consistent with its vision while it is growing. Distractions and deviations from the path only serve to slow it down or even take it backwards.  Successful business leaders know when to pursue an opportunity and when to say “no”. Saying “no” is essential to keeping the company’s activities (investments of time) focused where competitive advantages exist and avoiding those where the company is at a disadvantage.

In gambling, the poker player will stay at the BlackJack table and make his money there. He won’t jump up and run to the Roulette table just because he heard somebody just won $50,000 over there. He knows what he’s good at and will only venture over to other tables for entertainment, not to make money.

In Trading, let’s say investing for the sake of argument, a good real estate investor that knows how to make $1 million a year isn’t necessarily going to do well in trading. They are completely different games.  Just because a person knows how to buy properties right, increase their value through rehab or raising rents, does not mean that they will have the talents or skills to make money in the Futures or Forex markets.  Even an experienced trader should be hesitant to jump from one game to the next. A buy-and-hold position trader should exercise great caution before jumping into day-trading, and a spread better should hone his skills before thinking about buying (or selling) outright futures contracts.  Each strategy (or game let’s say) has different skills associated with it, and different emotional requirements.

The other serious consideration is your proficiency level - period. This combined with your ability to devote time to trading.  If you are completely new to trading or you haven’t yet become proficient at the necessary skills to trade, then you definitely should seek out help.  The learning curve can be very costly in trading, and if you don’t have the time or a plan to become proficient, how do you ever expect to make regular profits from it?

If you don’t have the proficiency, the strengths, needed to be a good trader, nor do you have the time and resources to become one, you may want to consider other choices available to you.  If you have neither the skills nor the time to develop them, but want to take advantage of the nice money to be made in trading, you may want to consider a managed account. Why settle for an amateur trading with your money (YOU), when you can have a pro do it for you?  Do your Due Diligence first though!!! Ask for the track record and the plan going forward.

Your next option if you’re “starting from scratch” is to trade with the assistance of a seasoned broker.  That’s what they are there for. Of course you can find very low commission brokers to deal with, but you may get just what you pay for. A good broker can be found for $50-$100 round turn commission, and they’ll give you the best advice they can.  In the long run, you’re likely to be way better off - if you’ll follow their advice!  Again, ask for their track record, and check with the NFA to see if they have any complaints.

It wouldn’t hurt to see if the broker you’re considering is recognized within the trading community as being good.  Many very good brokers publish regular articles or advisory columns on respected websites and in established periodicals.  Generally, if you see that the person has been published for a period of years, then that is a good sign.  The wackos and charlatans bounce around too much and aren’t allowed to stay in one place for long before their reputation catches up with them.

Until you have the strengths yourself, borrow them from someone who has them while you’re developing.  When you have the proficiency, the skills, and the resources, only then should you venture out on your own. And that is only if you are so inclined to actually becoming a trader and doing it all yourself.

If your true objective is to make money, then play it smart. Make use of other people’s knowledge and skills until you have developed your own.  Of course, if you really don’t want to devote the time to being a full-time or highly active trader, but still want trading to be part of your income portfolio, consider your other choices.  Whatever you do, don’t simply chase another “opportunity” to make money if it doesn’t play to your strengths.

For Trading, those strengths need to be discipline, emotional control, coach-ability, ability to focus, follow-through, decisiveness, understanding of probabilities, dealing with uncertainty, and a slew of others.  There are activities for entertainment and others for making money.  Trading can be both, but if it is not taken seriously, with a sincere review of your own characteristics and desires, then it can wind up being neither.

You hear the hype all over the place and it never
seems to end.

Do you ever wish you had a B.S. meter so that you
could filter out the crap from the hyped up claims?

How can you tell if something that’s being put
out there is just junk, or if maybe it’s worth
looking into?

Even more challenging is how can you tell if
something that YOU come up with is better than
what you’ve already been using?  That is of course
WITHOUT having to risk money in the markets to find
out.

There is a way…

If you want to work with the best possible system,
whether you create it or it’s made by someone else,
there is a method to actually put a number to how
good a system is and what you could expect if you
traded it.

No hype.  No loud claims.  Hard numbers.

http://insideouttrading.com/tpa/

What you’ll find here is NOT some HUGE secret
that’s been closely held by a few stellar traders.

There is one particular technique employed by many
traders to give themselves an edge.

You can give yourself this same edge.

It’s a tool that makes the ‘trick’ easy for
you to implement - and benefit from.

It’s also applicable for a critical element
of the Proven Formula of All Highly Profitable
Traders.

http://insideouttrading.com/tpa/

Check it out.  You will be very glad you did.

Have a great weekend (and for those in the U.S.,
Happy Halloween!)

Cheers

Brian

P.S.  If you haven’t already gotten your copy of
the Formula, you can get it here,

http://insideouttrading.com/formula/

When you have a system that you fully understand and believe in, this helps tremendously with the whole ‘trading psychology‘ aspect of being a trader.

Needless to say, having that reliable system is also one aspect of trading that many people struggle with.  Not necessarily finding or creating one, as they can be found all over the place and making one isn’t really that tough either.

Anyone can make up a system, be it mechanical or discretionary, technical or fundamental, or any combination.  Heck just throw some ideas out there and you have a system.

The challenge is ending up with a GOOD system that meets your objectives, fits your comfort zones and performs RELIABLY so that you can have the confidence in it to stick to it with the winners and losers alike - the old discipline challenge.

As you probably know, I created the Trading Performance Analyzer so that you can analyze, evaluate and track the metrics on an existing system, activities that are tremendously helpful in building (or rebuilding) confidence in an existing system, comparing systems to see which is best, and to evaluate changes made to your system when you wish to optimize it.

The new project that I’m working on is a Trading System Design Guide for more of an Engineer’s approach to designing a trading system from scratch, but in layman’s terms, applying the strategies and thinking that I’ve learned over my years as an Engineer.

Where I could use your help is to know what your thoughts, questions and concerns are when it comes to trading systems.  This is wide-open here, so any questions you have are welcome.

My objective here is to end up with a guide for designing a trading system that is geared to the beginning, novice and intermediate trader, that will provide you the step-by-step process for designing your own trading system that works, is user-friendly and makes complete sense to you.  No more ‘black box’ or ambiguous system to work with.

Simply post your thoughts below.  Again, this is wide open, so any question, thought, concern or suggestion is welcome.

Thanks, and yes I will be making this available to you when it’s completed.

Cheers

Brian

P.S.  This is the first of a few posts on this project, and the questions will get more detailed as we go along, so make sure to check back here or be checking your inbox.

Below you can play or download the mp3 recording of the call
with Derek Frey held on Saturday October 25, 2008!

An Interview and Q & A Session With Derek Frey, Head Trader

Right-Click on the link below to save the mp3, or click on it to listen

Recording of the Q&A call with Derek Frey on October 25, 2008

I want Derek Every Day!

Enjoy!

Cheers

Brian

If you are wondering how to trade Forex successfully in these volatile markets, and there is no better way to learn than directly from a Professional trader that is knee deep in the markets every day.

You have the opportunity to attend a call with a very sharp and well-seasoned Pro with over 15 years experience.

This Saturday, I’ll be interviewing Derek Frey, the Head Trader of Odom and Frey - and you’ll have the opportunity to pick his brain and ask the questions that are on your mind right now.

Derek has extensive experience in the Forex markets, as well as the Futures and Options markets, plus the trading community as a whole, so he can be a tremendous asset for you.

This call is going to be all about how to make the most of these volatile markets and avoid losing your shirt as the markets make their wild swings up and down.

Click the link below to register for the call.

Pick Derek’s brain call October 25, 2008

Cheers

Brian

P.S.  Most of the call will be Q&A, so you won’t want to miss this one!

Adopting the proper mindset about trading is the first step as you learn to trade Forex. A highly competitive industry is where you are starting your Forex trading business. You have some fierce competitors that are just as hungry as you. Thousands of seasoned veteran traders, large corporations, institutional investors and international banks make up your competition. Treat your trading as the business that it is.

Taking full responsibility for everything is the next step as you learn to trade Forex. You don’t control the markets, but you do have control over everything you do. It is totally unproductive to blame the markets or anything else. As a Forex Trader, it is your duty to deal with the uncertainty of the currency markets. When you blame, you surrender the ability to do anything and thus lose control.

Learning to trade Forex also includes getting yourself and your business organized. The ultimate goal of Forex trading is consistent profits, so you must be consistent yourself first. Getting organized and systemized is the beginning.

Documenting your system is a must, whether your chosen style of trading is fundamental, technical or a combination of the two. Regularly running and tracking the system metrics is a commonly overlooked yet crucial step as many learn to trade Forex. Confidence, discipline and ability to profit often are result of this step, as it is the turning point for many traders.

If you were starting a business in any other industry, you’d hopefully treat it as a business and you should do the same here. Avoid the get-rich-quick mentality, the hype and impatience. Creating a business plan helps this in many ways. As a business, trading has unique advantages over other types of businesses to pursue, but you must avoid the mistakes and pitfalls.

It can be extremely difficult to learn to trade Forex all on your own. Sorting through the mountain of misinformation, hype and B.S. that’s out there about trading can consume hundreds of your hours of time in addition to being a daunting task. You can save substantial time and money with training or mentoring. Even though training may seem expensive to some, avoiding costly mistakes and developmental time often makes it a very wise business decision.

Be smart with your capital - distinguish between investments and expenses. One mistake many new traders make is to simply start throwing money at systems or trades. Investments in yourself will yield the greatest returns because your trading is all centered around and controlled by you the trader. As you learn to trade Forex, you will also learn a great deal about yourself. Approach your trading properly and you’ll have an asset to serve your for the rest of your life.