Paris-primarily based Horizon Platform has added three without difficulty Trading modified algorithmic buying and selling method templates to its platform: Quote Reply Market Making, Hedge Volatility Order, and Options Arbitrage.
All three will supply cease-users the capacity to apply Horizon’s scripting framework, which can be changed completely, depending on the person’s desires.
The Horizon says users will now not handiest have managed over the source code to create their buying and selling techniques; they may also own the highbrow assets rights for the modified template they invent, without having
The 7-Point Trading Plan Template
One of the first things beginning traders are told to do to create a trading plan that will spell out a trading strategy and a list of rules to follow in implementing that strategy. The only problem with that advice is that beginning traders don’t really have any trading experience and thus are lost when attempting to craft a trading plan for their trading.
Another problem with trading plans is that beginners are instructed to treat their plans as gospel and not to deviate from them. This prevents traders from adapting their strategies and rules to improve their performance, an essential step in every trader’s learning curve.
Instead of a rigid document to be created early on in your trading career and never changed, you should instead view your trading plan as a living and breathing set of guidelines, capable of being modified as you gain trading experience. This article will teach you how to create a trading plan to guide your trading efforts without stunting your progress.
The 7-Point Trading Plan Template
In creating your trading plan, here are the items you should include:
1. Markets – What markets will you focus on? Be as specific as possible – if you’re trading stocks, what types of stores will you concentrate on?
2. Timeframe – How long will you hold your positions? Will you be a day trader focusing on trades lasting a few minutes or a swing trader having exchanges for a few days?
3. Period – What times of the day will you trade? You may have outside responsibilities that prevent you from selling an entire trading day. Pick which times of the day best suit your style.
4. Trading Style – How would you characterize your trading style? Perhaps you are a momentum trader focusing on trending stocks? Or maybe you specialize in a particular sector? Again, this can and will change as you gain experience and learn from your results.
5. Risk Management Rules – This is an essential and often overlooked component of your trading plan. How will you manage your risk, both on a per-trade basis and overall? You should have a “stop trading” point, a fixed dollar amount that will force you to stop trading if you’re down by that much.
6. Mentor – Who do you follow and learn from as a teacher? Attempting to learn to trade all by yourself is not only lonely but foolish as it ignores the hard-earned wisdom of other traders. You can either repeat the mistakes of other professionals and hope to learn the lessons and techniques that they’ve learned eventually, or you can learn from successful traders and bypass those initial frustrations.
7. Learning Process – How will you structure your learning process as a trader? What steps will you take to ensure you’re always getting better? How will you structure your trading journal?
Trading Plan Example
To show you this trading plan template in action, I’m going to fill it out according to my trading style:
1. I trade the U.S. stock markets, focusing on volatile stocks with sufficient volume. These stocks are typically the focus of news items and are thus “in play.”
2. I am a day trader and hold my positions anywhere from seconds to a few hours. I’m primarily a scalper and am looking to take advantage of short-term imbalances between supply and demand. I will stay in a trade as long as I can identify a supply/demand imbalance.
3. I trade throughout the trading day, although I focus most of my activity at the open and close of the trading day.
4. While I have multiple styles, I would characterize myself primarily as a momentum trader who relies on tape reading to identify favorable risk/reward situations to enter a trend’s direction.
5. I’m passionate about managing my risk, both on a per-trade basis and overall. Every trade I enter has a predefined stop-loss, and I have a daily stop-loss to stop trading when I’m having a rough day.
6. I’ve had a variety of mentors throughout my career, and now I talk with a select group of traders at my firm with similar trading styles.
7. I review every trade I make, always looking for ways to improve. This may be as simple as cutting down my risk when trading certain stocks or altering my execution patterns.
Your trading plan can be as simple as that, just a series of statements answering those seven questions. You shouldn’t spend too much time creating your trading plan as it will frequently change throughout your career.
Summary
Your trading plan will crystallize exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, but don’t view it as set in stone. Instead, your project will grow and change as you gain experience and develop your trading style.
Your trading plan also doesn’t need to be a complicated document spanning multiple pages. You need to define what markets you’re going to trade, how you’re going to sell them (how long you’ll hold positions, what times of day you’re going to change, and your trading style), how you’re going to manage your risk, and how you’re going to continue developing as a trader. Your trading plan will serve and support you in your trading career by clarifying and explicitly stating those seven key points.
Cyber-Storms on the Horizon
There’s an ongoing escalation cyber-war between nations, unseen and unheard by the world’s general public who blithely go about their everyday business, not realizing their vulnerability to a prolonged breakdown.
One factor rarely mentioned is the ever-increasing risk of a “Fail-Safe” incident in which a military-grade cyber-virus goes ‘rogue’, out of control, escapes its electronic cage, and spreads to key infrastructure sectors forcing shutdowns. Back-ups fail under the strain, and a major western city or region plunges into the Dark Ages in which power cannot be restored for days even weeks. I’m referring to a cyber-beast of a virus that almost has a mindset of his own – borderline A.I. – obliterating and vaporizing firewalls and their operating systems everywhere as a nasty cyber-pandemic.
We’re dependent and even coddled by modern technology. For this reason, even prolonged cut-off such as a lack of access to food, water, money – could lead to civil unrest prompting the dispatch of militarized law enforcement with authorization to apply draconian laws. Worse yet, if the situation is so overwhelming then there will be no help at all. The food, water, and sanitation will be compromised. Think of the horrors New Orleans suffered. Now imagine that impacting the entire West or East coast.
