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#097: WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM SURVEYING HUNDREDS OF TRADERS

  • Writer: Tomáš Nesnídal
    Tomáš Nesnídal
  • May 21, 2018
  • 2 min read

Just a few months ago, I had a great opportunity to participate in conducting a big survey among breakout traders from all around the world to realize what their biggest struggle was.

To me, it was a pretty exciting project, because breakout trading has been my full-time job for many years (since 2017 I am also running a private breakout hedge fund) and I am always curious to learn more, not just about the breakout trading itself, but also about what other breakout traders are doing or what they might be struggling with.

To be honest, my expectations about the results of the survey were not high.

I kind of expected some “general”, common answers, like:

“My biggest breakout trading challenge is...

...technology…

...my broker…

...lack of strategies...

...robustness…

…etc….”

Just things you would normally expect.

But, to my surprise, all of the above even barely appeared in the survey answers.

Instead of that, the absolute #1 challenge of the majority of breakout traders came out to be…

FALSE BREAKOUTS!

It really made me start thinking and got me kind of smiling at the same time.

How foolish I was not even thinking that there could possibly be any worse challenge for breakout traders than THIS!

It immediately started reminding me of all my past struggles with false breakouts.

Yes, I went through them in the same way any other breakout traders would - and I can fully confirm that - simply said - false breakouts really SUCK.

Their ability to take all your accumulated profits away in literally a few days is almost “magical”. All you need is an unfortunate streak of false breakouts that, unfortunately, can happen quite often.

The frustration and pain they can “reward” a trader with make you sometimes wonder if you should just laugh hysterically, or rather cry shamelessly. Just imagine: for a whole month you have been building your trading equity curve up, to start enjoying the feeling of having a great, profitable month.

Then, on the last day of the month, a streak of false breakouts comes - and all your profit is gone (yes, this happened to me several times, too).

Well, if you have been trading for a while already - I think you get the idea.

So, it’s no surprise that reading all the responses in the survey and realizing how much of a pain false breakouts are to other traders too, I decided to address this serious hurdle a bit and assembled a simple, quick guide on ‘How To Fix False Breakouts Fast’. Besides other stuff, I covered topics like:

  • How false breakouts are the biggest leak of money for breakout traders, including Futures, Stocks, FX, and ETFs;

  • How much money false breakouts could actually be costing you - without you even realizing it;

  • A comprehensive deconstruction of timing - enter breakout trades at the right time and stop costly breakout trading mistakes;

  • 4 proven approaches for slashing false breakouts today - stop them from stealing your money and eating all your profits!

Now - if false breakouts bother you as well, you need to read this. Seriously.

Happy trading!

Tomas

 
 
 

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"Tomas is one of the most creative traders I know. He is able to generate unique trading ideas and elegant solutions to system development challenges."

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MFRM, CAIA 

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United Kingdom 

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DISCLAIMER:  Futures trading systems and commodity trading bear a high degree of risk. People can and do lose money.
Hypothetical results have many inherent limitations. Past performance does not guarantee future results. 

 

ACTUAL RESULTS SHOULD BE VIEWED WITH CAUTION, BECAUSE PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE MANY INHERENT LIMITATIONS, SOME OF WHICH ARE DESCRIBED BELOW. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFITS OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN. IN FACT, THERE ARE FREQUENTLY SHARP DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS AND THE ACTUAL RESULTS SUBSEQUENTLY ACHIEVED BY ANY PARTICULAR TRADING PROGRAM. ONE OF THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS IS THAT THEY ARE GENERALLY PREPARED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. IN ADDITION, HYPOTHETICAL TRADING DOES NOT INVOLVE FINANCIAL RISK, AND NO HYPOTHETICAL TRADING RECORD CAN COMPLETELY ACCOUNT FOR THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL RISK IN ACTUAL TRADING. FOR EXAMPLE, THE ABILITY TO WITHSTAND LOSSES OR ADHERE TO A PARTICULAR TRADING PROGRAM IN SPITE OF TRADING LOSSES ARE MATERIAL POINTS WHICH CAN ALSO ADVERSELY AFFECT ACTUAL TRADING RESULTS. THERE ARE NUMEROUS OTHER FACTORS RELATED TO THE MARKETS IN GENERAL OR TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ANY SPECIFIC TRADING PROGRAM WHICH CANNOT BE FULLY ACCOUNTED FOR IN THE PREPARATION OF HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS AND ALL OF WHICH CAN ADVERSELY AFFECT ACTUAL TRADING RESULTS.

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