100 Trading Tips and Secrets

1. Supply and demand zones are more valuable than classic support and resistance levels. They provide a more dynamic perspective. And this is because these zones represent areas where significant buying or selling pressure exists, potentially leading to stronger price reactions.
2. Volume analysis is essential. It confirm price movements and shows strength or weakness. Learn to read volume patterns for better insights into the market sentiment and potential future price movements.
3. Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) is one of the few indicators you should use: VWAP provides a reference point for assessing price fairness. Use daily VWAP as a benchmark for intraday trades and the weekly and monthly VWAP to assess whether the current price is expensive or cheap. 4. Incorporate leading tools into your analysis: Leading tools can offer early signals of price.
4. Incorporate leading tools into your analysis: Leading tools can offer early signals of price direction. You can spot potential trends or reversals before they become obvious in the price chart.
5. Volume profile is your personal insider guide to trading. Many traders are used to viewing volume as a histogram beneath a price chart. Volume profile, however, is plotted on the vertical axis. It shows how much trading activity has taken place at each price level throughout the trading session. And knowing where the volume occurs—in terms of price, rather than time—can be more meaningful.
6. Footprint charts are one of the few trading tools that allows you to see inside the candles. If you’re really serious about trading, you need footprint charts. By using them, you can extract powerful information on where buyers and sellers were active, where market imbalances are, and where the most trading volume took place.
7. Don’t place your stop losses in obvious levels, where everyone else puts theirs. When stop-loss orders are clustered at obvious levels, market makers may attempt to trigger those stops intentionally. “Stop-hunting” is a common tactic, where price briefly moves to hit these clustered stops before reversing back in the desired direction. Be open to adjusting your stop-loss levels as the market evolves. Avoid being too rigid and allow room for market fluctuations.
8. Be cautious with overbought and oversold signals: Overbought or oversold conditions don’t always lead to reversals. The market can remain overbought or oversold for extended periods, especially during strong trends.
9. Always look for signs of trend reversals: Know the warning signs. Keep an eye out for specific price action patterns that hint at trend changes.
10. Watch the 50% Fib retracement level for potential bounce zones in trends. When a market is trending, it often retraces to the 50% level, the halfway point of the previous price move. This level is a significant area.
11. Overloading your charts with too many indicators can lead to confusion and make it challenging to interpret price action accurately. Instead, focus on using a few essential indicators that complement each other and provide meaningful insights. Each indicator must serve a specific goal, such as momentum, trend, or volume analysis.
12. Recognize divergences in indicator analysis. A divergence occurs when the price action of a market moves in the opposite direction of the corresponding indicator. Divergences can signal potential reversals or shifts in momentum. Pay attention to price and indicator discrepancies.
13. Different timeframes offer varying perspectives on price movements. Use a longer timeframe to identify the overall trend direction and a shorter timeframe to pinpoint entry and exit points for trades.
14. Use pivot points to identify potential support and resistance levels. They offer valuable insights into the market’s sentiment and price dynamics. And they reveal price levels where the market might change direction.
15. Heikin Ashi charts are very good at filtering out market noise. They smooth out price fluctuations and make trends more apparent.
16. Use the ATR (Average True Range) indicator to assess market volatility and adjust your position sizing accordingly. Using the ATR as part of your risk management strategy can help you trade more effectively and protect your capital during different market conditions.
17. Watch for high volume spikes as they may indicate potential turning points. These spikes indicate a surge of interest and participation in the market at specific price levels. When there is a high volume spike, it means many traders are actively buying or selling at that particular price level.
18. Context Matters: Analyze price action within the broader market context to make better trading decisions. By considering the bigger picture, you will avoid getting trapped by isolated price movements and make choices that align with the prevailing market conditions .
19. Pay attention to candlestick wicks or tails, as they can signal potential reversals. These price rejections are essential as they show that the market participants were not willing to sustain the price at those extreme levels, indicating potential shifts in market sentiment.
20. Find zones with trapped traders and capitalize on them. Look for areas on the chart with consolidation, wicks, or where significant price reversals occur. These could be around key support and resistance levels, trendlines, or common chart patterns. Trapped traders are often caught on the wrong side of the market after these reversals. Look for strong and sudden price moves that suggest traders are getting trapped and will be forced to exit their positions.
21. Watch for increased volume at support and resistance levels as a sign of accumulation or distribution. Understanding volume at these critical price levels can provide valuable insights into market participants’ behavior and their conviction in their positions.
22. Don’t memorize candlestick patterns. Learn to understand how to read them, as a result of buying and selling pressures. Instead of memorizing patterns, focus on understanding the psychology behind them. By doing so, you can grasp the market sentiment and anticipate potential price movements more effectively.
23. Trading only when the charts show a clear pattern or setup based on your strategy is a critical aspect of successful trading. Not every day or moment in the market will offer clear setups. It’s better to wait for the right conditions rather than entering trades just for the sake of it.
24. You need to locate pockets of enough liquidity on your chart. Understanding how to trade off these levels is absolutely critical. The ABCs of technical analysis orbits around finding and exploiting these levels. Where do you find these levels? Where stop-loss orders are placed.
25. Focus on areas of buying and selling pressure. These areas can be identified by observing sudden price rallies or declines, sudden volume increases, and large candlesticks.
26. A confluence between a supply/demand zones and Fibonacci retracements is a powerful concept. When these concepts align around the same area, it strengthens the significance of those levels. This increases the probability of a potential price reversal or a breakout.
27. Indicators are based on past price data, which means they lag behind the current market price. While they can provide valuable insights, it’s essential not to rely on them alone for trading decisions. Price action, including supply and demand levels, is more immediate and represents real-time market activity. Use indicators only to confirm what you see on the chart.
28. Study order flow. Order flow refers to the real-time buying and selling activity in the market. By analyzing order flow, you can gain insights into the actual demand and supply levels for a particular market. With time, you will slowly anticipate potential price movements, spot trends, and identify areas of support and resistance more effectively.
29. Use volume to confirm breakouts and trend changes. Increased volume during a breakout or trend change suggests that more market participants are actively participating in the move, making it a more valid and stronger signal. It indicates strong buying or selling interest and confirms the market’s conviction in the new direction.
30. Trade the time frame that matches your strategy. Day trading, swing trading and positional trading require different time frames. Choosing the appropriate time frame ensures that your trading strategy matches your preferred trading style and risk tolerance. It’s essential to understand the demands and challenges of each time frame and adapt your approach accordingly.
31. Study Wyckoff’s Theory of Market Dynamics to learn how smart money accumulates and distributes. In short, Wyckoff’s theory emphasizes the importance of volume, price action, and market phases in analyzing and predicting market movements. It focuses on the actions of large institutional players, or “smart money,” as they accumulate and distribute positions.
32. Use the Commitment of Traders (COT) report to identify potential market trends. The Commitment of Traders (COT) report is a valuable tool to gain insights into the positions of different market participants. This report provides information on the positions of various market participants, including commercial hedgers, large speculators, and small speculators.
33. Pay attention to market correlations. Correlated assets can impact each other’s price movements. Understand how assets can influence each other. For instance, if you prefer swing trading and you hold stocks and you also invest in gold, and there is a negative correlation between stocks and gold, the gold investment may serve as a safe-haven during stock market declines, helping to protect your overall account value.
34. Common price patterns like head and shoulders, double tops, and double bottoms are useless without volume reading. It’s not enough to spot a potential chart pattern. Without volume, you’re basically guessing. Volume provides the essential confirmation to these chart patterns, revealing the strength of the buying or selling pressure during these phases.
35. Moving averages crossovers work better in trending markets and are not reliable during periods of high volatility or in choppy, sideways markets. You need to be very cautious when using moving averages crossovers during such market conditions and may consider other indicators or approaches better suited to volatile or choppy environments.
36. If you are a swing trader, pullbacks and consolidations within a trend should not be feared but embraced as potential opportunities. These consolidations are natural and healthy components of any trend. No need to panic or reverse positions when your live profits starts to decrease.
37. Breakouts often fail, so wait for retests of prior levels. This is a prudent way, and may lead to some missed opportunities, but most of the time, retests of prior levels will give you more confidence in the market’s conviction and can help reduce the likelihood of getting caught in false breakouts.
38. Look for gaps on charts as potential key areas to take trades from. A “gap” on the price chart, is indicating a sudden shift in market sentiment or supply and demand dynamics. And they can serve as potential turning points or continuation areas for price movements. They offer valuable clues about market participants’ behavior and are an essential aspect to identify potential areas of interest for your trading decisions.
39. Focus on risk management, not chasing returns. Return will come with good risk habits. By prioritizing risk management, you will maintain consistency in your trading approach and stay in the game even during periods of market volatility.
40. Always ask yourself “what if I’m wrong?” Have an exit plan before entering any trade. Having an exit plan means knowing in advance at what point you will exit the trade if it doesn’t go as expected. Always know this, it will help you stay disciplined and avoid letting losses spiral out of control.
41. Stop trying to pick bottoms and tops, nobody knows the exact point a market will turn. Timing market reversals accurately is extremely difficult, even for experienced traders. The market is unpredictable, and attempting to catch the absolute highest or lowest price often involves making speculative guesses that are based on emotions rather than sound analysis.
42. Learn to read tape to identify large orders. Understanding how institutions trade, such as laddering in/out (gradually entering or exiting positions to avoid causing significant price movements), spoofing (placing fake orders to create false market signals), and painting the tape (engaging in wash trades to manipulate the appearance of market activity), can reveal the intentions of smart money and market manipulation attempts. Reading the tape and understanding institutional trading requires experience and expertise, but if you master it, you’re gonna be unstoppable.
43. The longer a consolidation period, the greater the breakout that will likely follow. This phase is often characterized by reduced volatility and indecision in the market. As the consolidation period lengthens, market participants build up buying or selling pressure, leading to the potential for a significant price movement once the consolidation is resolved.
44. Be aware of market manipulation: Manipulation can affect prices in the short term. Use multiple sources of information for your analysis and avoid making decisions solely based on isolated price movements. Technical and fundamental analysis, along with volume analysis, can help confirm the authenticity of market moves.
45. Thinking in probabilities is a critical mindset for successful trading. It involves approaching each trade as a probability-based event and understanding that no single trade is guaranteed to be a winner or a loser. By thinking in probabilities, you acknowledge you cannot control the outcome of any individual trade. Instead, you focus on the long-term edge of your trading system, over a series of trades.
46. Swing trading can be a more suitable option if you struggle with emotional control or find day trading too intense. Longer timeframes can reduce the pressure of making split-second choices often required in day trading. And can lead to reduced stress levels, allowing you to plan and execute trades in a more relaxed manner.
47. Accepting uncertainty is a fundamental aspect of trading, there are no guarantees in the markets. Trading involves dealing with an ever-changing and complex environment, influenced by a multitude of factors. By acknowledging and accepting uncertainty, you will adopt a more realistic and pragmatic approach to the markets.
48. A trading strategy that works well in one market, such as the stock market, may not necessarily be effective in another market like the Forex one. The differences in market characteristics, price movements, and influencing factors can significantly impact the performance of a trading strategy.
49. Accept that losses are a natural part of trading. Your goal is not to avoid losses but to manage them effectively. It’s impossible to be right all the time. Even the most successful traders experience lots of losses. The key to long-term success lies in managing losses effectively and ensuring that they don’t significantly impact your trading capital.
50. Trailing stop-loss orders are a powerful tool to protect your profits and manage risk effectively, as long as you’re giving the trade enough room to breathe. If you just add them after a few points in profit, you’ll completely destroy your risk management.
51. Never average down a losing trade. It just compounds your losses. Averaging down means adding to a losing position by buying more of the same asset at a lower price in the hope of reducing the average cost of the entire position. This is a risky and harmful trading strategy that you definitely should avoid.
52. Backtest your strategy over years of historical data to prove its effectiveness. Make sure you clearly identify the strengths and weaknesses of your strategy, in which market conditions the strategy performs well in and which conditions it struggles to adapt to.
53. When in doubt about a trade’s direction, go with the higher time frame trend. Higher time frame trends provide a wider and more significant perspective on the market compared to lower time frames.
54. Automate as much of your trading process as possible! This is powerful way to remove emotional biases and enhance trading efficiency.
55. Optimize risk-reward and only enter trades where potential reward greatly outweighs risk. This process is not about being right on every trade, but about ensuring that your trading strategy has a positive expectancy over the long term. 56. It takes time and experience to develop your “edge.” Developing your edge is a continuous process of learning and adapting to the markets. You won’t become an expert in a short period, so be patient with yourself. 57. Be open to new ideas and strategies. The markets are constantly evolving, and new approaches and techniques are continually emerging. That’s why being open-minded and continuously learning is essential. Embracing new ideas and strategies and learning about different techniques can help you refine your edge and find what works best for you. 58. You must learn to manage drawdowns. These are the temporary declines in your trading account that occur when you experience consecutive losing trades or adverse market conditions. Understand that drawdowns are a natural part of trading and don’t get discouraged by short-term fluctuations.
59. Monitor the daily and the weekly open price. The daily and weekly open price serves as reference points for the trading day and the trading week. They provide a starting point from which price movements are measured and can be used as a baseline for analyzing price action. So pay attention to how price reacts around the open level. Notice if it acts as support or resistance and how it affects price movements.
60. Adapt your strategies for different market conditions. The markets can go through various phases, including ranging, trending, and volatile conditions. Each market condition requires a different trading approach, and using a one-size-fits-all strategy will not yield consistent results.
61. Understand market sentiment versus fundamental analysis: Differentiate between short-term sentiment and long-term fundamentals. Consider both factors in your trading decisions. Combining technical analysis with these factors can further enhance your edge.
62. Be aware of trading hours: Different markets have specific hours of operation. Trade during active hours for better liquidity. The overlap between the London and New York sessions tends to have the highest activity and can offer the best trading conditions. Avoid trading during illiquid hours, such as the closing hours of some markets or during holidays.
63. Avoid holding onto losing trades out of hope: Cut losses early to preserve capital for better opportunities. Hope is not a strategy. Hope can only cloud your judgment and lead to emotional decision-making.
64. Studying investor psychology and behavior is a valuable aspect of becoming a good trader. Learn about Herd Mentality, Contrarian Opportunities and emotional Biases to understand how people react to different market conditions and events.
65. Limit open positions. No more than 2-3 at a time to limit risk and complexity. Trading is not about taking as many trades as possible but about making well-calculated and disciplined decisions.
66. Monitor weekly highs, 30-day highs and 90 day highs. Price reacts around these high levels. And these price levels can provide valuable insights into market trends and potential trading opportunities
67. Don’t believe news headlines. The market usually moves for its own reasons. By the time a news headline reaches the public, the market may have already incorporated the information into prices.
68. Know your psychological triggers and your emotional biases. Your psychology is prone to various emotional biases, such as fear, greed, and overconfidence. Being aware of these biases can help you avoid falling into the same traps.
69. Only trade assets you understand. Don’t trade what you don’t fully comprehend. Trading unfamiliar markets may lead to emotional reactions and impulsive decisions.
70. Taking a break after experiencing 2-3 consecutive losses is a wise approach to maintain emotional balance and prevent impulsive decision-making. Emotional responses to losses may tempt you to seek revenge on the market by taking aggressive trades. Taking a break helps prevent revenge trading
71. Avoid Trading at Market Open. The first 5-15 minutes of the trading day can be highly volatile and unpredictable due to various factors, such as overnight news, pending orders, and the market’s response to pre-market developments. That’s why it’s often safer to wait until things settle down.
72. Create objective rules for entering and exiting trades and STICK TO THEM. Following a set of well-defined rules ensures consistency in your trading approach, leading to more reliable results over time.
73. Trading is gambling unless you have an edge. If you’re opening trades and you rely on luck and chance, you seek immediate results and quick wins, you’re not trading correctly. Trading is a disciplined and methodical process that must rely on analysis, strategy, and risk management.
74. Master one strategy at a time: Focus on learning and perfecting one trading strategy. Avoid jumping between different strategies too quickly. Jumping between multiple strategies will lead to confusion and conflicting signals.
75. Beware of “get-rich-quick” schemes. Phrases like “100% win rate”, “never lose strategy” or “6 figures in 1 month”, don’t exist in trading. These unrealistic promises are often red flags indicating potential scams or misleading tactics.
76. Take breaks during significant news events. News events can lead to sharp price movements and increased volatility in the markets. Trading during these times can expose you to higher risk and unpredictable price swings. Spreads may widen, and slippage can occur. Wait for clarity before entering trades.
77. Using wider stop-loss orders with a lower position size can be an effective way to protect your trades and manage risk more efficiently. Wider stop-loss orders allow for more breathing room in your trades, reducing the likelihood of premature stop-outs due to minor price fluctuations.
78. Recognize the different phases of the market (accumulation, mark-up, distribution, mark-down) to adjust your trading approach. These market phases offer distinct entry and exit points. For example, in the accumulation phase, you may look for signs of breakouts, while in the mark-up phase, you may seek pullbacks for entry opportunities.
79. Study GANN Time and Price Analysis and combine time and price factors to forecast future market movements. GANN believed that markets move in cyclical patterns, and that specific time intervals hold importance in determining future price movements. In short, there are certain time cycles that validate potential trading opportunities.
80. Not all brokers are equal. Use one that is reputable and suits your trading needs. Look for brokers that are regulated and licensed by reputable financial authorities. If your trades are not executed promptly and at the best available prices, you definitely must change your broker.
81. Don’t Let Winning Trades Turn Into Losing Trades: It’s better to close a position too early and make a small profit than to hold on too long and end up in the red. Small profits may seem insignificant, but over time, consistent small gains will add up.
82. Consider the other traders taking the same position as you. When you consider taking a trade, let’s say you want to buy, ask yourself why other traders would want to buy after you. What did they see, what makes them enter the market, after you did?
83. Manipulation of the primary trend is not possible. So aligning with the primary trend increases the probability of being on the right side of the market and increases the likelihood of your trades moving in your favor.
84. Market prices rarely stop precisely to specific levels. By using areas of interest, instead of lines, you can accommodate minor price fluctuations and identify broader areas of potential market interest.
85. Fib extensions are one of the best price action tools to identify potential price targets beyond the usual retracement levels. When Fibonacci extensions align with Fibonacci retracement levels, it creates a powerful confluence zone, increasing the significance of that area as a potential turning point.
86. Psychological numbers, also known as round numbers, play a significant role in trading and can influence market behavior. These are price levels that end in multiple zeros and have a strong psychological impact on market participants. These numbers often act as magnets for price action.
87. If you want to use indicators, avoid repainting ones, those that constantly change their past values based on current price data, and are often giving the illusion of accurate predictions. So focus on using non-repainting indicators in conjunction with price action analysis.
88. Changing the color of the candlesticks when you get nervous is an interesting concept that some traders use as a psychological tool to manage their emotions.While it is not a standard practice, it can be a helpful technique in controlling your nerves during trading.
89. Use Kelly criterion formula to grow your trading account. This is a mathematical formula used to determine the optimal position size to maximize the long-term growth of your balance.
90. Avoid Martingale strategies. Martingale strategies involve doubling the position size after each losing trade with the aim of recovering previous losses. While it may seem tempting to recover losses quickly, these strategies are extremely risky and can lead to massive drawdowns.
91. Beware of sharp and aggressive moves near the high or low of the day. Most likely, smart money induce traders to take the wrong direction. Aggressive moves near these areas can result in false breakouts, luring traders into positions that are quickly reversed.
92. Perfect” patterns are seen only in trading manuals. Striving for perfection in trading can be a significant pitfall. The reality is that the markets are inherently unpredictable, and perfect trading setups rarely occur in the same way they are presented in trading manuals or educational materials.
93. Allowing your trades some flexibility and giving them room to “breathe” is an essential aspect of successful trading. It involves avoiding micromanagement and emotional attachment to specific entry prices or immediate results. Understand that not every trade will be a quick winner and give the trade the time it needs to play out.
94. No one knows where the price is going to be tomorrow, or next week. There are thousands of factors that come into play. We cannot know for certain what will happen. Market participants are not always rational, and emotions such as fear, greed, and optimism will drive price movements. These emotional responses can lead to unpredictable and irrational market behavior.
95. A scalping strategy that may not yield consistent results in the short term could potentially be adapted and transformed into a successful swing trading strategy. You may fail on the lower time frames, but maybe you just need more time, to allow your trades to develop more naturally. Before you discard a strategy, try it on another time frame.
96. Manage your leverage – the more you use, the more you risk blowing up your account. Leverage amplifies both potential profits and losses, and using excessive leverage increases the likelihood of rapid and substantial losses.
97. Complex does not mean better. When it comes to trading strategies and analysis, simplicity can often be more effective than complexity. Keep your charts clean and uncluttered. Avoid overcrowding with unnecessary lines, shapes, or indicators that may distract from essential price action.
98. When in doubt, stepping back and waiting for a clear signal helps avoid emotional trading. Trading based on guesses or intuition can be dangerous, especially as a beginner. Waiting for a clear signal allows you to trade with a higher degree of certainty and avoid unnecessary guesswork.
99. Try to get different perspectives, but take everything with a grain of salt. Question everything you learn and trade with the concepts that makes sense to you. Trading is dynamic and subjective, and what works for one trader may not work for another. Always be open to adapting and evolving your approach, but based on your own experiences and observations.
100. Consider trading as a side business and avoid the temptation to quit your job to trade full time. Trading part-time allows you to learn without the stress of solely depending on trading profits to sustain yourself. If done correctly, even part time trading, just a few hours per day, can bring another source of revenue.

Summary
Discover essential trading tips and secrets from experts to accelerate your journey towards trading mastery.
Highlights
📈 Supply and demand zones are crucial for identifying price reactions.
📊 Volume analysis confirms price movements, revealing market sentiment.
🔑 Use VWAP for gauging price fairness and planning trades.
📅 Monitor different timeframes for a comprehensive market view.
⚖️ Prioritize risk management over chasing returns for long-term success.
💡 Understand market psychology to avoid emotional trading mistakes.
🕒 Trade during active market hours for better liquidity.
Key Insights
📉 Supply and Demand Zones: These zones indicate where significant buying or selling pressure exists, leading to stronger price reactions than traditional support and resistance levels. Recognizing these zones can provide traders with a more dynamic trading perspective.
📊 Volume Analysis: Understanding volume patterns is crucial for confirming price movements and market sentiment. Analyzing volume helps traders gauge the strength or weakness of a price movement, potentially leading to better trading decisions.
🔄 Risk Management: Focusing on managing risk rather than chasing returns is vital for long-term trading success. This approach helps maintain consistency during market volatility and protects trading capital from significant losses.
🌐 Market Psychology: Studying investor behavior, including emotional biases and herd mentality, allows traders to anticipate price movements and avoid impulsive decisions driven by fear or greed.
🔄 Timeframe Alignment: Using different timeframes helps in understanding the broader market context. Higher timeframes can reveal the overall trend, while shorter timeframes are useful for precise entry and exit points.
🔍 Avoiding Overcomplication: Simplicity in trading strategies often yields better results than complexity. Traders should avoid overcrowding their charts with excessive indicators or patterns that can obscure essential market information.
⏳ Trade with Clarity: Waiting for clear signals before entering a trade helps in reducing emotional decisions and enhances the potential for successful trades. Taking a step back can provide a clearer perspective on market conditions.

Author: Simeon Bala

An Information technology (IT) professional who is passionate about technology and building Inspiring the company’s people to love development, innovations, and client support through technology. With expertise in Quality/Process improvement and management, Risk Management. An outstanding customer service and management skills in resolving technical issues and educating end-users. An excellent team player making significant contributions to the team, and individual success, and mentoring. Background also includes experience with Virtualization, Cyber security and vulnerability assessment, Business intelligence, Search Engine Optimization, brand promotion, copywriting, strategic digital and social media marketing, computer networking, and software testing. Also keen about the financial, stock, and crypto market. With knowledge of technical analysis, value investing, and keep improving myself in all finance market spaces. Pioneer of the following platforms were I research and write on relevant topics. 1. https://publicopinion.org.ng 2. https://getdeals.com.ng 3. https://tradea.com.ng 4. https://9jaoncloud.com.ng Simeon Bala is an excellent problem solver with strong communication and interpersonal skills.