Reblog: How To Use The Reward Risk Ratio Like A Professional


The reward to risk ratio (RRR, or reward:risk ratio) is maybe the most important metric in trading and a trader who understands the RRR can improve his chances of becoming profitable.

A trader who uses the RRR incorrectly will never become profitable on the other hand. In this article, I will show you what you need to know about the RRR.

Busting myths around the reward:risk ratio

Let’s first tackle some of the common misconceptions about the RRR to help you understand what most people get wrong before then diving into the specifics of the RRR.

Myth 1: The reward:risk ratio is useless

You often read that traders say the reward-risk ratio is useless which couldn’t be further from the truth. When you use the RRR in combination with other trading metrics (such as winrate), it quickly becomes one of the most powerful trading tools.

Without knowing the reward:risk ratio of a single trade, it is literally impossible to trade profitably and you’ll soon learn why.

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Reblog: The Illusion Of Risk


When we find an attractive stock to invest in, we outlay money, aka invest, to earn an attractive return and the investment will involve a degree of risk.

One of the most dangerous, commonly accepted and ill thought out concepts in investing is the risk / return trade off.

That is: high returns equals high risk.

Unfortunately, Investopedia continues to spread this type dogma, as you can see by the graph below.

Illusion Of Risk

Volatility (standard deviation) is not risk!

The appropriate definition of risk is from the Oxford dictionary (or any other branded non-financial dictionary) as: Exposure (someone or something valued) to danger, harm, or loss.

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Reblog: Why You Should Take the Profits and Run!


This article is for those traders (new or experienced) who have trouble booking profits. Do you often see large profits evaporate as the market reverses against you, leaving you feeling powerless and confused? If so, you know how frustrating it can be and you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Poor target placement, lack of experience, greed, arrogance and stubbornness are all issues that can cause traders to not take profits off the table.

I appreciate this article may conflict with some of my core beliefs and teachings on taking profits since typically I encourage people to aim for a 2 to 1 risk reward or greater and to set and forget stops and targets. In theory, this makes sense, but in the real world, as you likely already know, there are still a great number of trades that almost hit your profit target or where a trade has moved quickly in the right direction and you’re staring at a giant profit… and then the next day or week, the market goes the other way and your once giant profit has become a much smaller profit or even a loss.

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