Knowledge Centre

What is the best way to start trading?

Like most journeys, there’s no right or correct place where everyone must begin, but if you wanted to take up boxing, I wouldn’t recommend you start by challenging Floyd Mayweather to a fight. At The Chartist, it is not unusual to receive an email along the lines of the following: I have never traded before, […]

Current market conditions

As many of our portfolios enter Portfolio Protect mode, we wanted to take a minute to address the current market conditions (September 2023) and the ongoing performance of The Chartist portfolios. At The Chartist, we make no attempts to hide the inevitability of drawdowns or lacklustre performance. These situations are fundamental parts of markets and trading. Understanding they can and will happen is an important factor […]

Can Successful Trading Be Taught?

Can Successful Trading Be Taught? It’s been approximately 18 months since my last update on Zach’s trading journey. Back then, I penned an article posing the question, “Can Trading Success Be Learned?” If you haven’t had a chance to read that article yet, I highly recommend checking it out HERE to grasp the context. In […]

Consistency

Winning Lotto would be amazing. Shooting a hole in one would be amazing. Having a bank account like Warren Buffett would be amazing. But, unless you believe the Twitter bots, all are grossly unrealistic. Having a job is useful. Just staying on the fairway is useful (note to self). However, there’s a profound lesson in […]

6 Steps to Build Confidence and Success

We all start somewhere – from learning the ropes to taking action. But here’s the kicker: there’s a jungle of options out there, and a bunch of armchair experts waiting to pounce on eager, unsuspecting new traders. Flashback to 1985, when I started – nada no books, no websites, no self-proclaimed gurus. I was drawing […]

Escape The Volatility

Escape The Volatility. Have you ever felt punch drunk on your investing journey? You know, that sensation of being emotionally drained, bewildered, or disoriented, like the aftermath of taking repeated hits to the head from Mr. Market. Uncomfortable feelings often arise in investing, and they usually come in two forms. The first is a dip […]

Decision Fatigue in Trading

You may have heard of decision fatigue. The idea that the quality of decisions made by a person deteriorates as they make consecutive decisions. This is often described as a “mental battery” that is slowly drained throughout the day. Leading to impaired decision-making or self-control. Famously, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are said to have […]

Mean Reversion Questions Answered

Let us help you answer some mean reversion questions. At The Chartist, we preach strategy diversification. That is, using a variety of trading strategies to smooth or accelerate the overall performance of portfolios. Most people understand momentum-based systems. Today I wanted to address a few points of confusion around our mean reversion-based strategies. First of […]

Probability Trading

Today we are going to look at my least favorite branch of mathematics… Probability…. Probability has a way of turning a seemingly simple problem into a downright confusing mess. But its importance in trading is both crucial and obvious. An important part of trading is keeping your expectations in check, and a misunderstanding of probability […]

Tips for Reducing Commission Drag

When starting to trade, one crucial element often overlooked is the effect of commission drag. For a strategy to break even, it must have returns in excess of the total commissions; this can make or break a system. Commission drag is the cost of trading, and while it is unavoidable, it can be managed or […]