Full Year 2016 from BarclayHedge:

• Barclay CTA Index: -0.90%

• Barclay Discretionary Traders Index: -0.83%

• Barclay Currency Traders Index: 1.74%

• Barclay Systematic Traders Index: -1.40%

• Barclay UCITS CTA Index Index: 6.80%

• Barclay UCITS Global Macro Index: -4.02%

• Barclay Hedge Fund Index: 6.15%

• Barclay Global Macro Index: 1.49%

• Barclay BTOP50 Index: -4.88%

Talk about a year full of surprises… markets kept on forcing participants to stay focused, manage risk and continuously work on their game. The first thing that comes to mind is one of our favorite Jesse Livermore quotes:

“The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the man of inferior emotional balance, nor for the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor.”

Despite the fact that many will find the quote harsh, it’s very hard to argue with. Remember that this is a very hard game and that no one that is actually trading and actively managing money is consistently hitting it out of the park. Like everything in life, it has its ups and down; the important thing is to try to keep things on a steady path by minimizing extremes and constantly focusing on continuous improvement.

I would like to thank everyone for their continued support and look forward to keep on trying to take things to the next level, not only with 50Scouts and our live daily sessions but also with all of the free content.

Please note that the blog will be on holiday mode for the following week as we get ready for the New Year. Don’t forget that the best way to stay up-to-date is to simply sign up for email alerts.

Health and Wealth to all for 2017!

Thank you once again,

50

Updates will be posted on LinkedIn too:

• Available through > www.linkedin.com/in/50pips

I will not be sending out any invitations to connect but will be more than happy to accept any requests.

Hope this helps.

50

 

 

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their continued support in 2015. It has been a year characterized by a lot of choppy trading but that still offered plenty on interesting opportunities for humble students of the markets. Furthermore, we have also seen the whole 50Scouts/Darwinex Movement keeping up a great pace, so all in all, we really can’t complain. We are confident that we can keep the momentum going in 2016.

If you are still looking for the right path in your trading journey remember that, as far as we are concerned, it’s all about the basics, being realistic with your expectations, putting yourself in a condition to succeed and staying focused on the right track. Very simple really but not always easy to put into practice, as most of you know. I really can’t stress enough how important it is to stay grounded, realistic and focused on the task at hand. Stay away from distracting/negative influences, construct your own positive ecosystem and remember to treat others the way you would like them to treat you. We detailed a list of key points/thoughts to keep in mind in one of our most read posts this year, you might want to check it out: Friday Musings.

As we have discussed before, it is very difficult to come up with new content/concepts simply because most of the things you need to know and focus on are quite basic. Many traders fall into the trap of not sticking with something long enough to give it a chance of working or dismiss their own shortcomings and prefer to blame something/someone else for sub-par performance. Again, the mechanics or trading are fairly simple but the implementation is the hard part; not due to the physical implementation itself but due to self-sabotage. The latter usually shows up in the form of trading too big, breaking set rules, deviating from the plan and so on… rest assured, these are issues everyone is confronted with, the difference is that some manage to keep them in check and continue to work on tackling them instead of turning a blind eye and continuing to repeat them; operating in complete denial. Remember that it doesn’t have to be that way, you and only you have the power make the decision to change.

For all of the new followers, don’t hesitate to explore all of the free content on the blog. The interviews could be a very interesting place to start to help put the business of  trading into context and to give you an idea of what to look for in terms of realistic expectations. There is a lot of content there for those that are willing to take the time to explore.

Keep in mind that the current geo-political environment and the shifting interest rate cycle should give us plenty to focus on next year with yet another set of dynamics in an ever-changing context. We are really looking forwards to it and are fired up, ready to try and take advantage of as many opportunities as we are presented with.

Health and Wealth to all for 2016!

Thank you once again,

50

 

Just a quick note to wish everyone all the best for this holiday season.

I will try to hold a live webinar session over the next week so remember to sign up for updates on the homepage if you want to make sure that you get an email in case you are in and out over this period.

I will no doubt do some kind of a year-end post but for now, thank you for all of your support this year, enjoy the holidays, get rested/refreshed  and ready to come back strong in 2016!