Last fall Markus came back from Spain (yes, I was jealous), and had nothing but great things to say about the International Traders Conference he had just attended as a keynote speaker. For those of you that are not familiar with the ITC, this is an annual conference sponsored by FXstreet, featuring recognized traders and educators from around the world.

The thing that really impressed me, and set this conference apart from your “usual” trader's conference, was the personal attention and focus on LIVE market education. We were so impressed, that we decided to work with FXstreet.com to bring this event to traders around the world with ITC Online!

For those of you on our Weekend Update mailing list, you've probably noticed a nice change to the weekend update. In order to take full advantage of the technology we have available to us, we are now offering video Weekend Updates to recap the trading week in our Home Study Course and Rockwell Student trading rooms.

We've received nothing but great feedback since introducing the video reviews, and I wanted to share a few tips for those of you that just can't wait to see the most recent videos.

Having worked with traders all over the world, I typically find that MOST traders fall into one of the following categories:

A)    The “newbie” – Someone new to the wonderful world of trading that is mesmerized by the thought of trading electronic markets from his or her home, but has no idea how to get started or where to begin. 

B)     “Mr. Dangerous” - The trader that knows JUST enough to be a danger to his or her trading account, but doesn’t have enough experience, education, or discipline to trade with consistency.

C)    The “Pro” – Although most traders fall into the first two categories, “The Pro” is a trader that has seen success and consistency during their trading career but often search for coaching and guidance when market conditions are difficult, or as they transition from one trading arena to other (example: trading floor to trading screen, or hedge fund trader to independent trader).

I've had traders ask what markets we trade, and what we decide to focus on going into the trading day. If you're a coaching student, you already know the answers because we share this in coaching and every day in our trading rooms. There are other traders out there that still have questions and I thought it would be fun to create a video series on YouTube, to show you exactly how to trade the strategies we discuss in coaching, and what I pay attention to when trading the E-Mini S&P 500 for the next trading day.

Check out today's video:

I have the strategies. I have the plan. I have the education. I have the experience. Now what type of computer should I have for trading? This is a question I get from time to time when students complete their fourth coaching session. The best answer? It depends! Every trader's situation and plan is unique, but there are a few good rules of thumb.

The first question should be, what do you really need? What are your software requirements, and how active will you be as a trader? Stock or options traders making trading decisions using end of day data have very simple requirements. As long as the computer meets the minimum requirements of your charting software, and can connect to the internet, you're set.

Oh the wonderful world of trading, filled with eye popping profits and neck wringing losses. As a trader and trading coach, I’ve had the opportunity to work with traders from all over the world and experience some significant profits and losses first hand. Now you’re probably not a trader until you’ve had a few good losses under your belt, but many of these losses can be kept to a minimum or avoided altogether.
 
Please don’t get mad at me if you wish you had read this a long time ago!

• Never, NEVER cancel a stop loss. I know, I know, every time you have a stop loss in the market, the market moves just enough to stop you out, right? Well it might mean that you should evaluate where you place your stops (this is where good trading journals come in handy), but once you’ve done your analysis and placed the trade, you need to be committed to the trade and your plan. The only adjusting you should do is to lock in your profits.