23 Reasons To Be Bullish On Gold

It's been one of the worst years for gold in a generation. A flood of outflows from gold ETFs, endless tax increases on gold imports in India, and the mirage (albeit a convincing one in the eyes of many) of a supposedly improving economy in the US have all contributed to the constant hammering gold took in 2013.

Perhaps worse has been the onslaught of negative press our favorite metal has suffered. It's felt overwhelming at times and has pushed even some die-hard goldbugs to question their beliefs… not a bad thing, by the way.

To me, a lot of it felt like piling on, especially as the negative rhetoric ratcheted up. Last year's winner was probably Goldman Sachs, calling gold a "slam-dunk sale" for 2014 (this, of course, after it's already fallen by nearly a third over a period of more than two and a half years—how daring they are).

This is why it's important to balance the one-sided message typically heard in the mainstream media with other views. Here are some of those contrarian voices, all of which have put their money where their mouth is…

• Marc Faber is quick to stand up to the gold bears. "We have a lot of bearish sentiment, [and] a lot of bearish commentaries about gold, but the fact is that some countries are actually accumulating gold, notably China. They will buy this year at a rate of something like 2,600 tons, which is more than the annual production of gold. So I think that prices are probably in the process of bottoming out here, and that we will see again higher prices in the future."

• Brent Johnson, CEO of Santiago Capital, told CNBC viewers to "buy gold if they believe in math… Longer term, I think gold goes to $5,000 over a number of years. If they continue to print money at the current rate, I think it could be multiples of that. I see a slow steady rise punctuated with some sharp upward moves."

• Jim Rogers, billionaire and cofounder of the Soros Quantum Fund, publicly stated in November that he has never sold any gold and can't imagine ever selling gold in his life because he sees it as an insurance policy. "With all this staggering amount of currency debasement, gold has got to be a good place to be down the road once we get through this correction."

• George Soros seems to be getting back into the gold miners: he recently acquired a substantial stake in the large-cap Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) and kept his calls on Barrick Gold (ABX).

• Don Coxe, a highly respected global commodities strategist, says we can expect gold to rise with an improving economy, the opposite of what many in the mainstream expect. "You need gold for insurance, but this time the payoff will come when the economy improves. In the past when everything was falling all around you, commodity prices were soaring out of sight. We had three recessions in the 1970s and gold went from $35 an ounce to $850. But this time, gold is going to appreciate when we start getting 3% GDP growth."

• Jeffrey Gundlach, bond guru and not historically known for being a big fan of gold, came out with a candid endorsement of the yellow metal: "Now, I kind of like gold. It's definitely very non-correlated to other assets you may have in your portfolio, and it does seem sort of cheap. I also like the GDX."

• Steve Forbes, publishing magnate and chief executive officer of Forbes magazine, publicly predicted an impending return to the gold standard in a speech in Las Vegas. "A new gold standard is crucial. The disasters that the Federal Reserve and other central banks are inflicting on us with their funny-money policies are enormous and underappreciated."

• Rob McEwen, CEO of McEwen Mining and founder of Goldcorp, reiterated his bullish call for gold to someday top $5,000. "We now have governments willing to seize their citizens' assets. We now have currency controls on the table, which we haven't seen since the late 1960s/early '70s. We have continued debasement of currencies. And the economies of the Western world remain stagnant despite enormous monetary stimulation. All these facts to me are bullish for gold and make me believe the price will bounce back relatively soon."

• Doug Casey says that while gold is not the giveaway it was at $250 back in 2001, it is nonetheless a bargain at current prices. "I've been buying gold for years and I continue to buy it because it is the way you save. I'm very happy to be able to buy gold at this price. All the so-called quantitative easing—money printing—by governments around the world has created a glut of freshly printed money. This glut has yet to work its way through the global economic system. As it does, it will create a bubble in gold and a super-bubble in gold stocks."

And then there's the people who should know most about how sound the world's various types of paper money are: central banks. As a group, they have added tonnes of bullion to their reserves last year…

• Turkey added 13 tonnes (417,959 troy ounces) of gold in November 2013. Overall, it has added 143.6 tonnes (4,616,847 troy ounces) so far this year, up 22.5% from a year ago, in part thanks to the adoption of a new policy to accept gold in its reserve requirements from commercial banks.

• Russia bought 19.1 tonnes (614,079 troy ounces) in July and August alone. With the year-to-date addition of 57.37 tonnes—second only to Turkey—Russia's gold reserves now total 1,015 tonnes. It now holds the eighth-largest national stash in the world.

• South Korea added a whopping 20 tonnes (643,014 troy ounces) of gold in February, and now carries 23.7% more gold on its balance sheet than at the end of 2012."Gold is a real safe asset that can help (us) respond to tail risks from global financial situations effectively and boosts the reliability of our foreign reserves holdings," said central bank officials.

• Kazakhstan has been buying gold every month, at an average of 2.4 tonnes (77,161 troy ounces) through October. As a result, the country's reserves have seen a 21% increase to 139.5 tonnes from a year ago.

• Azerbaijan has taken advantage of a slump in gold prices and has gone from having virtually no gold to 16 tonnes (514,411 ounces).

• Sri Lanka and Ukraine added 5.5 (176,829 troy ounces) and 6.22 tonnes (199,977 troy ounces) respectively over the past year.

• China, of course, is the 800-pound gorilla that mainstream analysts seem determined to ignore. Though nothing official has been announced by China's central bank, the chart below provides some perspective into the country's consumer buying habits.

China ended 2013 officially as the largest gold consumer in the world. Chinese sentiment towards gold is well echoed in a statement made by Liu Zhongbo of the Agricultural Bank of China: "Because gold has capabilities to absorb external economic shocks, growth of its use in the international monetary system will be imminent."

And those commercial banks that have been verbally slamming gold—it turns out many are not as negative as it might seem…

• Goldman Sachs proved itself to be one of the biggest hypocrites: while advising clients to sell gold and buy Treasuries in Q2 2013, it bought a stunning (and record) 3.7 million shares of GLD. And when Venezuela decided to raise cash by pawning its gold, guess who jumped in to handle the transaction? Yes, they claim the price will fall this year, but with such a slippery track record, it's important to watch what they do and not what they say.

• Société Générale Strategist Albert Edwards says gold will top $10,000 per ounce (with the S&P 500 Index tumbling to 450 and Treasuries yielding less than 1%).

• JPMorgan Chase went on record in August recommending clients "position for a short-term bounce in gold." Gold's price resistance to Paulson & Co. cutting its gold exposure, along with growing physical gold demand in Asia, were cited among the main reasons.

• ScotiaMocatta's Sunil Kashyap said that despite the selloff, there's still significant physical demand for gold, especially from India and China, which "supports prices."

• Commerzbank calls for the gold price to enter a boom period this year. Based on investment demand from Asian countries—China and India in particular—the bank predicted the yellow metal will rise to $1,400 by the end of 2014.

• Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in spite of lower price forecasts for gold this year, reiterated they remain "longer-term bulls."

• Citibank's top technical analyst Tom Fitzpatrick stated gold could head to $3,500. "We believe we are back into that track where gold is the hard currency of choice, and we expect for this trend to accelerate going forward."

None of these parties thinks the gold bull market is over. What they care about is safety in this uncertain environment, as well as what they see as enormous potential upside.

In the end, the much ridiculed goldbugs will have had the last laugh.

We can speculate about when the next uptrend in gold will set in, but the action for today is to take advantage of price weakness. Learn about the best gold producers to invest in—now at bargain-basement prices. Try BIG GOLD for 3 months, risk-free, with 100% money-back guarantee. Click here to get started.

Technical Analysis MCX Metals And Energy.

Copper (Rs 465.5)

The MCX copper futures contract is not gaining momentum to rise above Rs 474. Supports are at Rs 462 and at Rs 459 which may be tested in the coming week. The contract can consolidate between Rs 459 and Rs 474 for some time. Nevertheless, the outlook is bullish as long as the contract trades above Rs 459. Declines to Rs 462 and Rs 459 can be considered for going long with a stop-loss at Rs 454. A rally to Rs 510 looks likely in the coming weeks. For the medium-term, Rs 510 is a key resistance level which can trigger a reversal.

Crude oil (Rs 5,897)

A steep fall in the global crude oil prices has led to a sharp decline in the MCX crude oil futures contract last week. Technically, last week’s reversal has happened just below the 21-week moving average, at Rs 6,330. This signals the end of the corrective rally witnessed in December. The overall downtrend remains intact and an immediate fall to the support at Rs 5,750 looks likely now. A breach of this support can drag the contract lower to Rs 5,500. Resistance is at Rs 6,100. Traders can go short now and accumulate more on rallies to Rs 6,100 with a stop-loss at Rs 6,350. For the medium-term, Rs 5,500 is a strong support and the contract can reverse higher again from this level.

Natural gas (Rs 273.2)

The MCX natural gas contract is trading sideways between Rs 263 and Rs 281 in the past three weeks. As mentioned last week, the contract has to rise past Rs 281.6, the January 2010 high, to extend the current uptrend. Failure to breach Rs 281.6 can either keep the contract range-bound between Rs 263 and Rs 281, or can trigger a corrective fall to Rs 255 and Rs 245. Traders can avoid any fresh positions until a clear signal emerges. The medium-term trend is up, with strong supports at Rs 240 and Rs 220.

Zinc (Rs 126.9)

The MCX zinc futures contract has reversed sharply lower just below the key medium-term resistance at Rs 137. Immediate support is at Rs 126.5. If the contract declines below Rs 126.5, traders can go short with a stop-loss at Rs 129.5. The target on the downside will be Rs 121. If the contract extends the fall below Rs 121, it can touch Rs 117. Overall last week’s reversal is turning the outlook bearish. The contract has to breach Rs 137 decisively to turn the sentiment positive. Else it can remain in a broad sideways range between Rs 115 and Rs 137 in the coming months. Within this range, the bias is bearish, and the contract can breach Rs 115 and fall to Rs 105.

Lead (Rs 134.9)

The MCX lead contract has come off sharply from its high of Rs 144.65 in the last two weeks. A strong rise and a decisive close above Rs 140 is now required to turn the short-term outlook positive. Below Rs 140, the contract can fall to Rs 130 in the coming weeks. Short-term traders can take short position near Rs 140 with a strict stop-loss at Rs 142. For the medium-term, Rs 130 will be a key support level to watch out for. This level will set the medium-term trend.

Excess supply to keep aluminium price on leash

The demand from China for aluminium combined with an economic recovery in the developed markets, could increase the overall demand and help the metal price to recover.

The aluminium sector in India is in a slowdown phase. Data from the World Bureau of Metal Statistics shows that aluminium consumption in India declined by 22 per cent in 2013 (till October) compared with an increase of 7.2 per cent and 6.4 per cent in 2012 and 2011 respectively. The metal’s production too declined. It was down by 23 per cent in 2013 compared with an increase of 3.3 per cent in 2012 and 3.1 per cent in 2011.

The aluminium market experienced surplus supply of 5.86 thousand tonnes in 2013.

GLOBAL SITUATION

Over supply could continue to keep the price lower for a while. However, if the economy recovers and demand increases, aluminium price can see a recovery going forward. Data from the International Aluminium Institute shows that the global production in 2013 was down by 4.9 per cent (January to November). However, production in China — the world’s leading producer of aluminium, was up slightly by 1.3 per cent for the same period. China accounts for over 40 per cent of global aluminium production and consumes around 45 per cent of the total production.

The demand from China for aluminium is expected to grow by 10 per cent in 2014. This, combined with an economic recovery in the developed markets, could increase the overall demand and help the aluminium price to recover.

Long-term view: The MCX aluminium (Rs 109.2) contract has been trading between Rs 62 and Rs 151 ever since it began its trading. The contract is likely to trade in this range only in the long-term. Important intermediate support is at Rs 90. A break below this support can take the contract to the lower end of the range. On the upside, Rs 125 is an important resistance. The contract has to breach this level to rise to Rs 151, the upper end of the range.

Medium-term view: The medium-term range for the contract is between Rs 96 and Rs 125. Within this range, the trend is down. Resistance is at Rs 118. Below this, the contract can move down to Rs 96, the lower end of the range. Intermediate support is at Rs 100.

Short-term view: The short-term trend is also down. The contract has come down sharply after rising to a high of Rs 130 in August.

The immediate resistance is at Rs 112 and short-term resistance is at Rs 115. Only a break above Rs 115 can reverse the trend. Immediate support is at Rs 106. A break below this support can take the contract lower to Rs 102 in the short-term.

Russian Banks Buy 181.4 Tons Of Gold In 2013

With headlines crowing of gold's worst year since 1981 as a signal that the status quo is winning and proof positive that fiat-currency naysayers must be wrong, it would appear that the rest of the world's central banks (and banks) have used the price depreciation to stack the precious metal. As Bloomberg reports,

• *RUSSIAN BANKS BOUGHT 181.4 TONS OF RUSSIAN GOLD IN 2013: RIA
• *RUSSIAN BANKS BOUGHT ALMOST 90% OF RUSSIA 2013 GOLD OUTPUT: RIA

This 5.834 million ounce addition (8.3% YoY) is more than double that of Russia's central bank additions in 2013 with Bitcoin-favoring Sberbank piling up 48.5 tons alone in 2013.

Russia's central bank added 2.485 million ounces to November - so the bank additions are very large...

Biggest buyers according to Finance Ministry include Sberbank (48.5 tons), VTB (38.9 tons), Gazprombank (29.1 tons), Nomos Bank (19.6 tons), Lanta Bank (8.6 tons).

So, like China, we are sure Russia will be sending a big "Thank You" to the Fed (and BIS) for their efforts.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill's Thirteen Steps Toward Riches

I admit, I was pretty sceptical in the first place. Being overwhelmed by the law of attraction, you would not blame me right? Yes, this is one of the earliest books using the principle of the law of attraction. I was quite uncomfortable reading the language style – not our modern day style but of the yester years (note that this book was written in 1930s). Thus, a little more concentration is needed to understand the author’s message. Believe me, it pays to persevere and read the entire book, if not several times. The 13 principles are indeed very powerful and critical for your success, even if it isn’t about being rich. Basically, you will know the necessary ingredients for attaining any goal you want in life.

My favourite paragraph from the book:

“Examine the first hundred people you meet, ask them what they want most in life, and ninety eight of them will not be able to tell you. If you press them for an answer, some will say – security, many will say – money, a few will say – happiness, others will say fame and power, and still others will say – social recognition, ease in living, ability to sing, dance, or write, but none of them will be able to define these terms, or give the slightest indication of a plan by which they hope to attain these vaguely expressed wishes. Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant persistence.”

If you are one of the ninety eight, you MUST READ THE BOOK NOW!

Book Summary:

“When you begin TO THINK AND GROW RICH, you will observe that riches begin with a state of mind, with definiteness of purpose, with little or no hard work.”

Be success conscious and not failure conscious.

I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul. We must become money conscious until the desire for money drives us to create definite plans to acquire it.

There are 13 principles that lead to riches:

1) Desire – Strong desire that makes a person determined to accomplish a certain goal. Burn all bridges behind you so you have to do it or perish. There are 6 definite steps to achieve it:

• Set a specific amount of money you want
• What do you intend to give in return for this amount of money
• Set a definite date that you intend to have it
• Create a plan to put into action at once
• Put the previous 4 steps on paper – black and white
• Read what you wrote once before you sleep and once after you are awake. Visualize, feel and believe yourself as being rich as you read.

Dreams are necessary before they can be realized in physical forms. Reach the state of mind, then you are ready to receive what you want.

2) Faith – A state of mind which may be induced, or created, by affirmation or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind, through the principle of auto-suggestion. This is the reason people fail to succeed because they possess negative thoughts in their subconscious minds. Thus, one should pass your desires to the subconscious mind so that it will be translated into physical forms and realities. Formula for Self Confidence:

• Believe you have the ability to achieve your goal and demand that you persistently act towards it.
• Using 30 mins of each day to visualize the person that you want to become.
• Dedicate 10 mins a day to develop self-confidence.
• Do not stop trying to attain the goal until you gathered enough self-confidence to attain it.
• Love and believe in others besides yourself, so that they will help and believe in you.

3) Auto-suggestion – or self-suggestion. No thoughts can enter the subconscious mind without auto-suggestion. Reading the statement of desire daily is a form of auto-suggestion and it must be done with emotions attached in order for the subconscious mind to register. The price to pay for success is persistence to apply these principles. As you concentrate on visualizing the amount of money you specified, demand a plan from your subconscious mind and act on the plan immediately when it appears. However, do not use your own reasoning when implementing the plan. It is important to visualize yourself rendering the service in return for the money.

4) Specialized Knowledge – General knowledge does not attract money, only organised knowledge with a definite plan and endpoint is able to draw money. First, you need to identify the specialized knowledge you will require which can be determined by the major purpose in your life. Next, you would need to find reliable sources like libraries, night school or courses, where you can increase your specialized knowledge. Paying for a course may be good because it forces you to complete it to make your money worth. Schooling is not able to furnish a person useful knowledge as it is too general and unorganized, thus signing up for additional courses after graduation is necessary.

5) Imagination – Gives shape and form to desire and formulates into plans for action. Synthetic imagination helps one to combine old concepts into new ones. If synthetic imagination is unable to solve a problem, creative imagination is needed to create totally novel ideas. Keep your imagination active as it may weaken if you do not use it. Ideas are products of imagination.

6) Organized Planning – Gather a group of people needed to carry out the plan. This group will be known as the “Master Mind” alliance. In order for them to help you, you need to address the benefits or compensation method for each of them. You would need to meet up with this group at least twice a week until you have formulated a concrete plan. Harmony within the group is paramount to success. The reason to have people to help you is because no one is equipped with sufficient knowledge, skills, ability and experience to acquire large wealth. Plans should be formulated together or at least be approved by the Alliance. It is crucial to have the persistence to continuingly replace failed plans with new plans, until a plan that works. “No man is ever whipped, until he quits in his own mind”. Remember, “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits”.

7) Decision – Lack of decisiveness and often, procrastination, are the major failures to riches. It is necessary for cultivating a habit that “reach decisions promptly and change them slowly”. It is also important not to be influenced by opinions on your decisions as they would not be your own desires. Heed advice only from your “Master Mind” group.

8) Persistence – One of the major causes of failure where people lacked of it, will give up at the first sign of opposition. By having a stronger desire, it may strengthen your persistence. “With persistence will come success”; “Be persistent no matter how slow you may, at first, have to move.” Having a master mind group helps you to persist when problems arise.
Four steps that will lead to persistence:

• A definite purpose backed by burning desire of fulfilment
• A definite plan, expressed in continuous action
• A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences
• Alliance with people who will encourage one to follow through with plan and purpose

9) Power of the Master Mind – Power has been defined by the author as “organized and intelligently directed knowledge”. Power in turn can be attained from the Master Mind – “Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose”. To put it simply, being in a Master Mind group works on the notion that “two or more heads are better than one” with the condition that all heads work in harmony, and will achieve a multiplying effect. “No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may likened to a third mind”.

10) Sex Transmutation – Sex is man’s most powerful desire which often drives them to even risk their lives in order to indulge in it. This desire cannot be suppressed but can be diverted to useful channels. Transmutation of sex energy may lift one to the status of a genius, where the mind is functioning at a higher rate of vibration than a normal mind; thereby the person goes beyond ordinary thought with abundance of creative imaginations. High sex drive is actually an ingredient for success! If only the energy is used in other areas, instead of dissipating it physically. However, it does not mean that there should be no sex. The emotion of sex must be balanced with the emotion of love to make the person more sane and reasonable. It is also because the emotion of genuine love lasts longer, if not for eternity, where the person can constantly harness the energy. “Man’s greatest motivation or desire is to please woman” and by “[taking] woman out of their lives, and great wealth will be useless to most men”.

11) The subconscious mind – The subconscious mind cannot be controlled but can be “installed” with your desire or plan into it through autosuggestion. It operates 24 hours daily, recording thoughts voluntarily without your notice. It must be remembered the subconscious mind responds more readily to emotionalized thoughts. Hence, it is important not think of negative thoughts predominantly. The importance of the subconscious mind is that it connects the human mind to infinite intelligence where the answers can be seeked.

12) The Brain – The brain uses the broadcasting principle – Creative imagination is the receiving station where thoughts are received. The brain must be stimulated to a higher degree of vibration in order to be more receptive. One of the stimulants can be brought about by sex transmutation. The substation is the sending station where it must be told what to send before thoughts can be received. Auto suggestion is where one plants the desire into the subconscious mind. It is important to operate your brain in this way.

13) The Sixth Sense – This can only be achieved when the first 12 principles are mastered. The mind receives ideas, plans and thoughts readily. You may call it hunches.

The Universal Principles of Successful Trading by Brent Penfold.

The Universal Principles of Successful Trading: Essential Knowledge for All Traders in All Markets (Wiley Trading)

Brent Penfold believes that there are universal principles that are applicable to all traders, regardless of which trading systems, time frame and instruments you trade.

A typical journey of a novice trader

I found his descriptions of a novice trader’s journey accurate as I can relate to some of them. The novice trader will lose money in the beginning as he interact with the market. Many traders give up at various stages as they fail to accept the losses. It takes a lot of self awareness and acceptance to learn the ropes of trading. Here is the typical journey:

• React to news and tips
• Begin a trading education
• Switch methodologies
• Switch gurus
• Switch markets
• Switch time frames
• Switch client adviser
• Blame psychology

Imagine you have to go through this to learn more about yourself and the market? And meanwhile you made these mistakes, you are constantly losing to the market. Not easy I would say. Brent thinks that the turning point to become a profitable trader is when you learn to apply money management rules to minimise your losses.

Brent has 6 universal principles of successful trading.

#1 Preparation

He thinks that the first principle is about preparing your mind to have the right perspective of the market. The belief to plant in your mind is that the market will put up many obstacles to prevent you from profiting. Since you are bound to lose, make sure your losses are small. The best loser is the eventual winner.

#2 Enlightenment

He believes all traders must have 0 percent for “Risk of Ruin”. Risk of Ruin is the probability that your accumulated losses are so huge that would make you stop trading. You can find “Risk of Ruin” calculators online to do your calculations.

Second, you must understand that it is the expectancy of your trading system that matters. It is not the accuracy. Casinos use a slight positive expectancy to win over the gamblers. The edge of a trading system is positive expectancy. You can find out more about expectancy here.

Third, the more opportunities you can trade, the more money you can make for a period of time. Your trading system must allow sufficient trading opportunities.

Fourth, the trading system must be simple. Brent said it must pass the McDonald’s test – the trading system is not good if a teenager cannot understand your method. Ultimately, trading is about identifying resistance and support, do not complicate it further.

Fifth, you must search opportunities that are contrarian to the crowd, since 95% of the traders lose.

Sixth, test your system backwards but not to the point of tweaking it such that you curve fit it perfectly according to the past data.

#3 Trading Style

Here are some of the key characteristics of various trading styles and time frames:

• Short-term swing trading (time-frame: days to a week, small capital, small drawdowns, high accuracy)
• Medium-term swing trading (time-frame: weeks, small capital, medium drawdowns, high accuracy)
• Short-term trend trading (time-frame: days to a week, small capital, small drawdowns, low accuracy)
• Medium-term trend trading (time-frame: weeks, small capital, medium drawdowns, high accuracy)
• Long-term trend trading (time-frame: months, large capital, large drawdowns, low accuracy)

Brent believes that each trader must find the style that best suits his capital size and personality – tolerance level for drawdowns and accuracy of the system.

#4 Markets

Brent favours the Futures market. Some of the good attributes of a market or instrument are:

• Price and volume transparency – Reflect the true price and volume
• Liquidity – healthy demand and supply so that you can buy and sell easily
• Zero counterparty risk – good governance to enforce honoring of trades
• Volatility – you need decent volatility to make money
• Growth – the market volume must be able to accommodate your increased position as you grow as a trader

There are a lot more attributes stated in the book. You should trade an instrument that satisfy most of the attributes.

#5 Three Pillars

To him, there are three main pillars to trading:

• Money Management
• Methodology
• Psychology

Money Management – The chapter on money management is simply the longest chapter in the book. I cannot describe it in detail and I urge you to read the chapter as money management is one of the most important component to successful trading. Brent explained the various money management methods and ran tests with the methods. Based on the results, he found that the “Fixed Percent” and “Fixed Volatility” had the lowest “Risk of Ruin” but they are not suitable for small accounts. The methods suitable for small accounts are “Fixed Risk”, “Fixed Capital”, “Fixed Ratio” and “Fixed Units”. There are pros and cons for each method and Brent has stated them clearly in the book.

Methodology – Brent talked about mechanical and discretional trading. He advise that it is easier to start with a mechanical approach when you are a new trader, as it would provide structure and consistency to your trading. As a Elliott Wave and W.D. Gann trader for 15 years, he shared his disappointment in predictive indicators. he also discourages the use of technical indicators like moving averages and stochastic. To quote, “most indicators are derivatives of price that contain adjustable parameters. Consequently, they represent second-hand curve-fitted information.” To him, traders should focus on price and volume and use tools like breakout analysis and market profile. He also emphasised the importance of having a system that is objective. There are not 2 ways to interpret the data.

Psychology – Brent suggests we should manage our greed, fear, hope and pain. He even has a list of affirmations to manage his psychology from time to time.

#6 Trading

This Principle is about learning the mechanism of trading. The different types of orders that you can use to your advantage.

In the final chapter, he interviewed 15 traders for a piece of advice. In conclusion, I think this is a good book for all aspiring traders and existing traders who are having problems with their trading. If you are able to understand and apply the principles in this book, you would be able to become a successful trader.

TRADERS NEED TO GET THEIR MIND RIGHT

The following is for those traders who, with a fixed mind-set, think…

…success is something over there

…trading is about being right, not about making money

…trading is too challenging

…the stock market is fixed with too many obstacles

…trading is about finding the effortless holy grail

…losses are to be avoided at all costs

…others’ success is threatening

In many years of research, We have found that some people hold a "fixed mindset" about their personal qualities (like their intelligence or talents). They believe they have a fixed amount and that's that. This belief often makes people so concerned with how much they actually have, that they will close themselves off to challenging tasks for fear that they will reveal (permanent) deficiencies.

But other people hold a "growth mindset" about these same qualities. They believe these qualities can be developed with effort and instruction. As a result, they are ready to take on challenges, they are not afraid of mistakes, and they bounce back from failures. And they often end up accomplishing more.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

In the book, It will show how these mindsets operate in educational settings, in business, in sports and in relationships. I also show how parents, teachers, and coaches promote the fixed and the growth mindsets. For example, my work has shown that praising students intelligence can be harmful because it creates a fixed mindset. More about this later.

It's such a simple concept, really, but revolutionary for all that. Freeing ourselves of that fixed mindset is incredibly liberating, also a bit scary. How do you teach people to radically alter a way of thinking that has been entrenched for so long? Is it a difficult and painful process? Can you give some examples of how this works?

You're so right--freeing ourselves of a fixed mindset can be incredibly liberating, but also scary. Why is it so scary? Well, maybe our "fixed" intelligence or talent made us feel special, a bit better than others, and it's hard to give that up. Or maybe we used our lack of fixed talents to explain why we haven't succeeded or as an excuse for not exerting effort. That's also hard to give up. In short, a fixed mindset offers a simple way to see the world (everyone has fixed traits) and an easy way to understand why some people succeed (they have high fixed ability) and some don't (they have low fixed ability).

But people can be taught to embrace a new way of thinking--to replace a fixed mindset with a growth mindset. First, people should be aware of the new neuroscience, which is finding that the brain is much more malleable than we ever imagined. Cognitive psychology is also identifying the core components of intelligence and showing they can be taught.

Next, people can look into their own experiences for evidence for a growth mindset. What is something that you weren't good at and are now very good at? How did this happen and what does it tell you about ability and how it can be developed? Or, think of someone you thought could never do something, but he or she did it.Finally, look at the diagram below. Every time you find yourself thinking a fixed mindset thought, transfer over to the growth mindset side of the chart and replace it with the growth mindset thought. Use the diagram to learn to think and talk to yourself from a growth mindset place. (By Carol Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.)