“If only I had…”

Finality produces a certain kind of clarity, of re-evaluating what has gone by.

Trading activity does not allow for much meaningful reflection. The space in which one can reflect has to be muscled around everything else; usually to take care of something — crap! The dog!  

Routine enabled reflection — usually on weekends — is one thing, yet your mind is still labouring over the other day’s mishap or that data print to come on Tuesday. You are still in the game and the minutiae of daily life clouds it over. And these are just the details. We do not care about the details. Why?

Because tomorrow you will never trade again. None of it matters. You are finished. What then?

Blind optimism — perhaps, fanatical faith — in making it in your trading career is not merely a good idea, but a minimum competitive trait. As a certain Alex Haywood once said it — how else will you keep going while you climb the mountain of bones belonging to those who once sat next to you?

You can paper over fanatical optimism and tag it as passion, yet this obscures the most important question to ask: What if I never make it?

To the passionately boisterous this sounds heretical. Watchumean — fail? Get this loser out of my face! To the constant moaners — note: secret optimists — they say this to cope. They may repeat these words but not really believe it. There! I survived saying it!

They all have a second chance, and a third, fourth and a fifth… Hope takes the shape of any container it needs to. The hope that your future self will figure it out; no big deal if the present does not. But if you cannot start figure it out now, how can you do so in the future? By having no finality on your trading, you will never have to cut the bullshit and get real.

Hope, then, will prevent you to ask the most important question, to really consider: What if I never make it? And what if the end comes tomorrow?

To really ask would be a liberating experience; liberating to cut through whatever daily life minutiae and to truly reflect. Because you accepted there really is an end, and it is a beautiful thing. Because you had the courage to ask before you actually die. If I never made it — then why?

Why was I unable to hold a routine… control myself… apply myself … learn from others — why….?

The best positively skewed trade I can take right now is to say: I bet you know exactly why you cannot make it. Why you cannot push past whatever in your trading career — to take home a few dollars; to grow your account or to re-invent yourself and make a comeback. The few that truly do not know are likely too wet behind the ears.

To answer that question is to write your trading obituary, and it is powerful since there is a finale and no further hope. The guy is dead! And to write it like an old-school newspaper obituary, since this should not be an apologist ten-page, essay-ramble. That is disguised hope. Instead, the tiny rectangular newspaper column forces brevity; just one or two main accomplishments, or infamous acts and now…. he’s dead.

And I really mean write. Reflecting while walking around is better than most, but to write is a whole other world. Even better — write with pencil; slow yourself down. Then re-type it via computer.

So, once you really convince yourself that you may never trade again, sit down and write why you failed. Ask — what killed my career? Write 200 words, then immediately scrap the first one hundred words as this will be half-hearted apologetic fluff — the real stuff comes at the end of the word limit.

See? Finality. It is a great bullshit filter.

Keep it to yourself and read it frequently. Or I would love to read your ‘trading obituary’ if you email me at bogdan@axiafutures.com. With your permission I think it would be great to anonymously discuss this in our community.  

***

Axia Futures
4 Endsleigh Street London GB WC1H 0DS
+44 20 3880 8500
https://axiafutures.com/

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Contacts:
Demetris Mavrommatis — Co-Founder, Head of Trading
Alex Haywood — Co-Founder Head of Strategy

Best Trading Tools Introduction

In this blog post, we will explore the best trading tools used by Axia Traders. We will break down for you three videos that explain the tools in a different light than you might be used to. Regular readers are familiar with our in-depth use of tools such as Market Profile, Volume Profile, Price Ladder (DOM), and Footprint. On top of that, we will dive into Bookmap and Cumulative Delta as well. The key objective of this article is to explain WHY and WHEN we use these tools and how combining them can make you a more efficient decision-maker.

Best Trading Tools

Footprint, Bookmap, and Price Ladder – The WHY

Different tools serve different purposes. A good analogy is a football. When you use a tool such as a price ladder, it gives you immediate action, the intention as well as what just happened. Footprint on the other hand gives you information about what actually happened. Where exactly the ball went but not the intention of the player where he wanted to pass it. Your goal is to leverage these tools so they maximize your information processing capabilities.

So when do you use these tools?

• Use the price ladder to understand the real-time playing field.
• Use bookmap and footprint to confirm what you are seeing on the price ladder.

Let’s talk about a great example of combining all three tools of Price Ladder, Footprint, and Bookmap together.

Case study of trading tools:

• Price Ladder – if you think somebody absorbs at the price ladder, you can go and check the footprint if a large number of orders is being accumulated at a given price
• Footprint – seeing this absorption on its own on the footprint, does not give you information on how the orders got accumulated. Was it one large order or a series of smaller orders? That is what bookmap is gonna help you with …
• Bookmap will tell you if there was a large resting order or if the orders started to build after a certain period of time

Use the tools in combination. Let them confirm what you are seeing on a price ladder. Combine them.

There are two important tools we at Axia Futures find valuable. Market Profile for a contextual understanding of where we are, where are we trying to get, and how good of a job the market is doing getting there. Market Profile gives us the superpower of seeing inside the price action movements for what they really are.

We have talked about Footprint and what it can tell you. It is the harmony with Market Profile that can create an interesting opportunity.

Case study of trading tools:

• Footprint offers and creates a b shaped profile on a lower timeframe
• The Market Profile confirms that the location where this b shape profile was created is a good location to get a reversal from

Understanding the landscape using the market profile is one way to gain an edge and then you can use the Footprint to pinpoint the exact location for the trade.

Footprint, Delta, Market Profile, and Price Ladder – The HOW

When it comes to your charts and indicators, a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself: What value will this bring to my decision-making process? Where will it improve my process? If you can’t answer these types of questions with a clear one-sentence answer, then there’s a good chance that you are wasting some of your mental capacity. Cut the fat and notice if there is any impact on your decision-making process.

In this video, Richard breaks down every indicator he uses and what value each one brings to his decision-making process.

Here is the breakdown of trading tools:

• 60-minute candlestick chart – how far the market can go
• Market Profile chart – for the contextual layer, the landscape of the market
• 1 or 5 min charts – for managing risk
• Short-term moving average – for fast momentum trades
• VWAP – for directionality of the day
• Relative volume – is the move being built on a strong foundation or weak foundation
• Cumulative delta – who is controlling the aggression, is there a divergence between price and delta

Given all of the above, we have sat down with one of our traders and designed a masterclass exactly for that purpose. For the purpose of finding the best trading tools. If you want to learn in-depth, how we combine all of the above, don’t forget to check out the masterclass here.

If you liked this type of content, you might check these videos as well:

• Junior Funded Trader 2020 Performance Review
• Lessons From My Biggest Trading Loss
• Trader Training: How Long Does it Take a Trader to Become Consistent and Profitable | Axia Futures

If you like our content and would like to improve your game, definitely check one of our courses that teach you all the techniques presented by AXIA traders from a market profile, footprint, or order-flow. If you are someone who likes to trade the news, we have a great central bank course. And if you are really serious about your future trading career, consider taking AXIA’s 6-Week Intensive High-Performance Trading Course.

Thanks for reading again and until next time, trade well.

JK

How Not To Lose Money Day Trading Introduction

In this article, we will explore three tips on how not to lose money day trading. We will start off by introducing the concept of high conviction setups, where professional traders usually size up. Combine that with the understanding that the pattern is not a trade setup and how the sequencing of clues leading to that pattern is very important. And last but not least we will cover the law of diminishing marginal returns and what role it plays in your trading progress. We take three concepts and distill three lessons out of them that you can start following to limit your losses in day trading. If you are into day trading and particularly enjoy scalping, don’t forget to check our previous article 2 Ways To Scalp The Exhaustion Move.

Three Tips On How Not To Lose Money Day Trading

High Conviction Setups

If you look at professional traders in Axia Futures, many of the 8-figure traders don’t have a winning percentage greater than 50/50. So how do they make money? By maximizing their high-probability trades. By pushing their size when the odds are highly stacked in their favor. Now how do you do that? Time! Time and deliberate practice.

Many traders have an assumption that after 6 or 12 months of trading, they know their high conviction setups. For some, this might be true, but there is a great danger in this thinking: maximizing your size in the under-developed setup will lead to greater losses. This damages your confidence and your account. So what is the “LESSON” and what is the “BUT”?

Lesson:

• You win in trading by maximizing size in your high-conviction setups

But:

• Don’t forget that sizing up too early in your career might lead to outsized losses and damages your confidence, therefore …
• Be patient and build very detail depth of your best trades before you start scaling up.
• If you feel you are starting to have a grasp on high probability setup, increase size for this particular setup by 2-3x and test it

Pattern Is Not A Trade Setup

One mistake new traders make is that they come to trading trying to trade just the pattern such as a flag or triangle. And there is nothing wrong with that, but it hugely limits your ability to maximize your profit. In Axia, all our Junior and Senior traders build a sequence of clues and triggers so that when the simple flag break comes, for example, they are aiming for a much larger directional move because their understanding of the wider structure gives them greater ability to maximize their profit.

Lesson:

• Don’t trade just patterns, understand when the pattern has the highest probability of success. For example, if there is a nice scalp, but opportunity can unlock swing move, don’t limit your trade to the scalp.

Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns.

A different period in your trading career brings a different level of satisfaction. When we start on our trading journey, we can see the leap jumps in our market understanding and get frequent dopamine spikes. As we acquire more knowledge, it might start to feel that our learning curve starts to stall. We should not get discouraged by that. It is called a law of diminishing marginal returns.

We only need to understand that the snowball effect might come with more distanced milestones. For that reason, we need to be patient and focus on our skill acquisition.

Lesson:

One of the most reasonable ways how you can judge your progress is by following metrics that improve your trading. Not P&L but, how good you are in:

• a) eliminating inconsistencies
• b) sticking to a process that is helping your trading

Use weekly and monthly score card system and track your trading like it would be a business. Meaning, what are the numbers, what is the hard evidence of things not working. What do you do to change those things. Stick to the process of doing things like that long enough and you will become a profitable trader.

If you want to learn how Axia Traders eliminate their mistakes in day trading, visit the free workshop we are running at: https://go.elitetraderworkshop.com/Free

If you liked this type of content, you might check these videos as well:

• Junior Funded Trader 2020 Performance Review
• Lessons From My Biggest Trading Loss
• Trader Training: How Long Does it Take a Trader to Become Consistent and Profitable | Axia Futures

If you like our content and would like to improve your game, definitely check one of our courses that teach you all the techniques presented by AXIA traders from a market profile, footprint, or order-flow. If you are someone who likes to trade the news, we have a great central bank course. And if you are really serious about your future trading career, consider taking AXIA’s 6-Week Intensive High-Performance Trading Course.

Thanks for reading again and until next time, trade well.

JK

How To Scalp When Trade Goes Wrong Introduction

When you are scalping futures, you most likely will be using the order flow as your guiding light. This means, that you are adjusting to what you see. You are much more flexible yet responsible for managing your risk well. Many times, you won’t have a fixed stop. You will have a stop range in which you operate and you will adjust based on the incoming data.

In this blog post, we will break down the EMINI S&P500 trade that went wrong. When this trade idea develops differently than expected, we use new information to trade around what we see. The goal of scalping is to stay flexible and open-minded, not rigid and closed-minded. If you are into scalping, don’t forget to check our previous post 2 Ways To Scalp The Exhaustion Move.

This article is based on the video down below.

The Scalping Trade Idea

Introduction

This trade idea is about what to do when a trade goes wrong. We are not aiming for high ticks, but a nice quick scalp. It is all about the order-flow. Given that we are in the uptrend, we want to use that trend in our favor. There is a nice little flag forming at the top extreme of the trend. The idea is to observe the order-flow first and spot the opportunity to access the trade.

We understand the bigger picture:

• trending day
• flag forming
• order-flow absorbing

Now it is all about the location. Where is the best place to enter?

Accessing The Scalp Idea

The moment we understand the direction, we are looking for absorption. We are trying to understand the reference points. The absorption level is not necessarily the place to access the trade, because many times, there will be probes both up and down beneath and above the absorption just to test the strength of buyers and sellers.

If you observe the price action starting at 9:09, you can understand that

• absorption happens around 70
• the good location to get long is at 67 (in direction of the trending day)
• possibly if you want to add into the flag short, the fade starts at 71

You enter at 67 and you know that the probe might get you offsite a bit. But given the structure, you don’t expect a bigger drop. This is the location where you are considering entering long. But, the second you enter, the market immediately drops two points. So what do you do?

When Scalp Goes Wrong

Your trade dropped from 67 to 65 very quickly. You have two options:

• Observe the 65-67 action – if 67 cannot be traded over multiple attempts – cover your long trade and call it a trade

or

• observe 65, this is your new reference point – the same applies like in the example above. Observe attempts at 65. If multiple attempts fail, get long to cover some at 67 and hold the rest at least to 71 and beyond.

Key Takeaway

The goal of scalping is to stay flexible and open-minded, not rigid and closed-minded. Do not average down. Have pre-set order-flow rules that can work with new information quickly. Scalping is a game of absolutely straightforward decision-making. No, what if, should have, would have. Stay focused, don’t average, and constantly check if you are sticking to your scalping rules. Those rules will differ from your swing rules. Be aware of the difference. If you can’t make the rules as clear as possible, stop scalping and make some time for defining the rules.

If you want to learn how Axia Traders trade other volume-derived patterns, visit the free workshop we are running at: https://go.elitetraderworkshop.com/Free

If you liked this type of content, you might check these videos as well:

• How To Manage & Exit A Failed Breakout Trade
• Sign Of A Breakout About To Fail – Price Ladder Trading
• Market Profile Trading: Better Breakouts with Context and Volume Profiling

Do you like what you have been reading? If you would like to improve your game, definitely check one of our courses that teach you all the techniques presented by AXIA traders from a market profile, footprint, or order-flow. If you are someone who likes to trade the news, we have a great central bank course. And if you are really serious about your future trading career, consider taking AXIA’s 6-Week Intensive High-Performance Trading Course.

Thanks for reading again and until next time, trade well.

JK

Trade Journaling On Steroids Introduction

How could this possibly go wrong? This is a question we ask much less frequently than we should before taking the trade. Trading is about understanding the variance of your trade setups. But variance manifests itself at many stages of the trade. We have a variance in the trading setup, access to the trade, trade development, exit, risk we take, etc. Understanding the permutations of your trade setup from bottom to top is the best way to get better in your own trading. Let’s discuss how we can take your current debriefing method and put it on steroids using the scenario-based approach. If you want to see good examples of basic journaling methods, read our Bund and Gold articles.

This article is based on the video down below.

Trade Journaling Basics

Let’s start with a simple truth. If you are not journaling at all, you are running your trading business at least suboptimally. Imagine a business that buys and sells stuff but has no idea what its accounts look like, what its margins look like, where the business can push new products and what product it should probably stop selling. It wouldn’t be a business for long. This applies to trading as well. So goal number one is.

Bookkeeping, Bookkeeping, Bookkeeping

Once you pass this checkpoint, it is all about the quality of your journaling, or the quality of debriefing after each trade. This is a minimum standard you should set for yourself if you are in the early stage of your career:

Now, let’s discuss how we can take your journaling from here to the next level.

Taking Your Journaling To The Next Level

Introduction

So how can you take your journaling to the next level? By adding a different view towards the trade you have taken. Simply put, by asking:

How can I get skrewed in this trade?

It is all about building different scenarios of how trade can develop. Understanding the different variations of the same trade is the bread and butter of a better understanding of the market. So if the trade goes wrong, you simply don’t put it into the category “trade went wrong” and walk away. On the contrary, now the trade should have much more of your attention.

Another way to think about the trade is in form of:

Expectation -> Reality -> Observation -> Improvement

What did you expect, what actually happened, what was the delta (difference) between these two and how can you improve your setup going forward? What have you observed that did not match the expectation vs reality framework? What can you learn from that observation?

Let’s have a look at one trading pattern, that developed differently and what can we learn from this pattern.

Journaling Different Trade Examples

Down below we have three examples of the volume ledge break. In the first example, we can see a ledge break. Once broken, the market rallied strongly. The ledge highlighted by the red line got broken and the market run away.

Down below we have a similar variation of the same pattern. The volume ledge again got broken and the next day we opened with a gap up and market run away. Again, time to think, how could you play the similar pattern, but in a different setup.

Now coming to the third variation we can see that the break was not so straightforward. Now we can zoom in on variation a) and variation b)

Within the first variation a), we have broken strongly by the Jump Trade pattern but immediately failed. You can watch the order-flow pattern directly from the replay here, at 15:07.

Within the second variation b), we have broken strongly again the Jump Trade pattern rejection high and accelerated again. You can watch the order-flow pattern directly from the replay here, at 19:18.

What do these three patterns have in common? They are similar in the way how you identify them but different in the way how you execute them. How different? That is homework for you. Apply the principles we have described and let us know what you have found out.

Key Journaling Takeaway

Debrief your trades. That is where you start, no question about that. Then on top of your trades, add narrative/correlation and volatility observations. Once you have the routine going build that permutation muscle by asking the Expectation vs Reality type of questions. It is in the detail, in the deep understanding of your setup that comes from the familiarity you have built over many many variations of the same pattern. That is how you improve.

If you liked this type of content, you might check these videos as well:

• AXIA Junior Funded Trader Remains Composed After Missing Vaccine comment Live Trading
• AXIA Elite Trader trades Gilts & GBP On Bank of England Rate Decision
• AXIA Elite Trader Attacks 4 Markets On July 19 FOMC Rate Decision And Presser

If you like our content and would like to improve your game, definitely check one of our courses that teach you all the techniques presented by AXIA traders from a market profile, footprint, or order-flow. If you are someone who likes to trade the news, we have a great central bank course. And if you are really serious about your future trading career, consider taking AXIA’s 6-Week Intensive High-Performance Trading Course.

Thanks for reading and until next time, trade well.

JK

2 Ways To Scalp The Exhaustion Move Introduction

In this blog post, we will discuss two ways to scalp the exhaustion move. In trading, exhaustion moves are usually characterized as short-term extensive runs that have a one-time-framing character. The end of the exhaustion move can provide a short-term scalping opportunity that can be spotted by using the price ladder and order-flow reading skills. The idea behind profit-taking in the exhaustion move is its’s nature to mean revert. Simply, the move has traveled “too far” and participants have lost the energy to push the move forward. If you like scalping patterns, don’t forget to check our previous article about the Jump Orderflow Pattern. Let’s get to it.

Exhaustion Move Trading Examples

Trading Exhaustion Move In British Pound

As described in the introduction, the exhaustion move is a move that is one-directional, is one-time-framing (has a sequence of higher lows for an up move or a sequence of lower highs for a down move), and has usually increased volatility.

In this exhaustion move, we are looking for the order-flow pattern that can signal the short-term end of the move. We must be aware that this is a short-term scalp and quite a dangerous one if we forget the rules about the nature of this move. What are those rules:

• short-term scalp – you are going for a quick profit, not a big distance target
• one clip type of trade – this is not your full-size type of trade, you go with your Tier 1 size
• try once and move away type of trade – if by any chance the move keeps on going higher (or lower), let it go, don’t try the trade over and over. You might be facing a trending day, a day where you can do big damage to your account if you are trying to pick the top or bottom
• you are essentially fading the high or low of the day, therefore the previous rule is very important
• you only trade when the order-flow pattern appears

Down below you can see all the criteria we have described in a trade.

Zooming in on the order-flow pattern, watch as the pattern starts here. Now if you watch carefully the video, you can see the last flick up. That last move signals that people are forced to buy, not choose to buy. It is that sudden change in the rotation when the price drops quicker down and can’t lift the offer anymore. That struggle to lift the offer to take the last high is our order-flow pattern and our moment to initiate the scalp short.

Trading Exhaustion Move In Bund

Now let’s have a look at a different example. In this case, we can see an over-extended move as well. In this case, the market stretched itself without moving value.

Order-flow starts here. Again watch the order-flow and observe the pattern. This time it is different. This time, there is no flick up (excess), but an absorption. Every time we are trying to lift the offer, someone is happy to sit there and absorb. Given we are over-extended, and the location of value, we can target this trade further down. This is not a scalp like in our previous example but a trade we can hold for bit longer. The idea is still the same, reversion to the mean.

Watch both examples. Try to understand the difference. Understand the risk profile of this trade. When do you scalp and when you are holding short-term swing? Use the clues we have discussed and never fight the trend. If you are wrong once, there is a chance you will get it wrong a few more times before the market turns. Don’t fight it, move on to another trading idea.

If you want to learn how Axia Traders trade other volume-derived patterns, visit the free workshop we are running at: https://go.elitetraderworkshop.com/Free

If you liked this type of content, you might check these videos as well:

• How To Trade Using CUMULATIVE DELTA | Axia Futures
• 2 Ways Of Using Volume Delta | Axia Futures
• Cumulative Delta Explained [CONTINUATION vs REVERSAL] | Axia Futures

If you like our content and would like to improve your game, definitely check one of our courses that teach you all the techniques presented by AXIA traders from a market profile, footprint, or order-flow. If you are someone who likes to trade the news, we have a great central bank course. And if you are really serious about your future trading career, consider taking AXIA’s 6-Week Intensive High-Performance Trading Course.

Thanks for reading and until next time, trade well.

JK

How To Improve Your Trading Edge Introduction

In this blog post, we will discuss how to improve your trading edge. Every trader seeks the edge. Trading edge is what gives you the ability to make money in the market. On the surface, we all understand the idea of edge, but we consider the edge to be something static. We consider the edge to be a particular setup but if it were so easy everybody would be making money. There is a distinction between market setup and edge and that difference lies in the deeper understanding of all contextual nuances. That’s why trading as a discipline is closer to art rather than flying a plane for example. Also, a great way to improve your edge in the market is to understand your strengths and weaknesses.

This post is based on the video down below.

Understanding Your Trading Edge

As we have laid out in the introduction, trading edge is not as straightforward concept as it seems. We should be aware that all chart/orderflow/market profile patterns just formalise market behaviour. They provide abstraction into composable clues. That abstraction is great on one hand, because it gives our brain ability to quickly recognise patterns. On the other hand every abstraction introduces compression a simplification of a very dynamic system. Just because you are able to highlight pattern that form a setup, it does not mean you have an edge. Here is the list that Richard has wrote on the topic of edge vs setup:

• Edge comes from your implementation of strategies in specific environments
• Edge differentiates you from others
• A setup can be learned and follows specific rules – it can have a statistical edge if taken every time it’s available
• Edge comes from a deep understanding of context and how your market is moving – this gives conviction in direction of a market and a greater probability of certain setup working
• A setup occurs and gives an opportunity to execute your trade in line with your conviction

Great analogy Richard used was the one from tennis. Imagine you are great at hitting forehand down the line. Just because you are good at hitting that specific stroke, it does not mean you can hit it every time and expect a winning point (red X down below in the image). Position of your oponent matters a lot, therefore that forehand down the line should be used only when odds are in your favor (blue X). The same applies to trading.

Now, lets have a look at specific examples in Euro and Bund.

Improving Your Trading Edge

Euro And Trading Edge

Down below we can see on the right side the blue zone. That zone is a key reversal zone. We have a crucial location in which we want to observe orderflow and price action.

We can see that market breaks strongly through, but closes below. This can be considered a double top with strong exhaustion move. Our edge is in the execution the move down towards first support. If trader recognises the lack of buying and increased selling back below 73 level, you can enter the trade with the favorable risk-reward.

The point of this double top trade is to show you that the crucial location we have chosen, the excess it has created and orderflow all came together and created a trade with edge. The setup in Euro was the double-top, but other contextual nuances effectively created the edge of the trade.

Bund And Trading Edge

Now if we compare it to the Bund trade, where market reached important location, the context is different. Yes, market produced double top but the bullish structure from last two sessions clearly suggest that the point at which we want to initiate our short (see below line “confirmation point”) might become difficult for shorts to push through.

If you compare both Euro and Bund, they tend to share double top setup, but contextually both are very different. It is the nuances that essentialy create the edge, not just a pure abstracted pattern. Think about this concept in trades you usually take and ask yourself what can elevate the setup to a trade with edge.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this type of content, you might check these videos as well:

• Junior Funded Trader 2020 Performance Review
• Lessons From My Biggest Trading Loss
• Trader Training: How Long Does it Take a Trader to Become Consistent and Profitable | Axia Futures

If you like our content and would like to improve your game, definitely check one of our courses that teach you all the techniques presented by AXIA traders from a market profile, footprint, or order-flow. If you are someone who likes to trade the news, we have a great central bank course. And if you are really serious about your future trading career, consider taking AXIA’s 6-Week Intensive High-Performance Trading Course.

Trade well.

JK

How To Trade To Your Strengths Introduction

In this blog post, we will discuss how to trade to your strengths. How one can learn to identify and work on his strengths. How some weaknesses can become future strengths and what a trader needs to do to improve his trading. Trading is a game of observation. It is so hard to master because you have to combine a lot of moving parts and be patient with their integration. Sometimes our progress is limited by the way we work with our strengths. Many times we try to fix weaknesses completely missing the point that if we would have focused on our strengths, we could have 10X our progress. If you like this type of article, check our previous post The Fishermen where we explore learning via negativa à la Nassim Taleb.

This article is based on the video down below.

Why To Trade To Your Strengths

Focusing on your strengths is crucial. It is encoded in the statement already. You want to start from the position of strength, not weakness. Not just in trading, but in anything you do in life.

Imagine you are about to fight an amazing fighter. You are great at submission grappling techniques and have terrible kicking techniques. How would you feel in a fight against a fighter whose kicking technique is amazing and rules of the game dictate that only legs are allowed? No submission grappling allowed. Would you still compete? Yet we do this every day in our trading.

Part of the discovery as a trader is to explore all our strengths and weaknesses. Let’s say that is the period of the first 12 months of intensive training. In those 12 months, you should get exposed to as many things as possible. Those 12 months are all about observation. It is the time when you practice your art of observation, so in the next 12 months you can narrow down your focus.

This trader summarised why he wants to play to his strengths by the following:

1. Improve performance -> become a better trader
2. Learn more about ourselves
3. Develop our skillset -> don’t be the jack of all trades
4. Achieve potential

Questions To Ask To Trade Towards Your Strengths

Here is the list of questions you can constantly ask yourself to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses.

1. Am I annotating my trading well enough so I can learn about my strengths and weaknesses?
2. What are my strengths as a trader and how can I master them?
3. What are my weaknesses that I wish to develop into future strengths?
4. What are the weaknesses that are holding me back and should be phased out?
5. What is one limited behavior holding me back and how can I change it?

You need to log and observe a lot first before you can identify what needs to be phased out. Be patient, and change techniques, but document what you see, feel, expect and do to the best of your abilities.

List Of Trading Strengths And Weaknesses

Here is an example from Prinesh about his trading strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths

• Cash opens
• Entering near the high or low of the session
• Entering at the start of bursts
• Positional (over hours)
• Strategic

Weaknesses (I wish to develop)

• Macro Trading Events
• Build up a position as conviction grows
• Adding on rotations

Weaknesses to phase out

• Pre-emptive breakouts near extremes
• Trading pullbacks inside the range
• Trading 11:00-13:00 and after 16:00 (London time)

Now go back to your charts, your trades, and your journals, and annotate categories of strengths and weaknesses. Stare into it until you distill 5 examples for each category.

How To Trade To Your Strengths Examples

Let’s have a look at the strengths that Prinesh identified in the Eurostoxx example.

You can clearly see, that in this example, he was able to execute around cash open, near the high of the session, and took a positional trade. He has combined three of his strengths.

Now let’s zoom in on the opposite. This is the weakness that this trader is working on developing.

The biggest weakness Prinesh has identified is his current inability to act quickly and early. He needs to work on his preparation and understanding of these events so he can be confident and not hesitant when the news comes out.

Last but not least, a weakness to phase out. This specific weakness is about pre-emptive entries into a breakout near the low of the day and entering near the high of the day into a supposed trend move.

If you are seeing similar behavior in your own trading, now you have a blueprint for what to do next.

Key Trading Takeaway

Remember

• strengths evolve over time
• market conditions can impact strengths
• easy to be obsessed with weakness at the expense of underplaying your strengths

Action points

• raise performance by focusing on strengths
• identify and develop certain weaknesses into strengths
• phase out other weaknesses that do not serve you

Thanks for reading. If you liked this type of content, you might check these videos as well:

• Junior Funded Trader 2020 Performance Review
• Lessons From My Biggest Trading Loss
• Trader Training: How Long Does it Take a Trader to Become Consistent and Profitable | Axia Futures

If you like our content and would like to improve your game, definitely check one of our courses that teach you all the techniques presented by AXIA traders from a market profile, footprint, or order-flow. If you are someone who likes to trade the news, we have a great central bank course. And if you are really serious about your future trading career, consider taking AXIA’s 6-Week Intensive High-Performance Trading Course.

Trade well.

JK

Using Tradovate To Trade Axia Futures Strategies Introduction

In this blog post, we will discuss how you can use Tradovate to trade Axia Futures strategies. The Tradovate platform has been developed ground up to offer low-latency execution and order-flow tools that go hand in hand with the approach Axia Futures preaches. At Axia Futures, our core focus is on leveraging tools such as DOM (Price Ladder), Market Profile, Volume Profile, and Footprint charts. All of those are essential parts of the Tradovate platform and we will have a look at the features that enable you to trade many Axia Futures strategies. Let’s get started.

Tradovate Trading Platform Overview

Introduction Into Tradovate

When you start with the Tradovate platform, you will notice that Tradovate built its platform on the principle of flexibility utilizing a grid system. Each block in the grid is called a module. You can add and adjust any module and customize your trading experience based on the information that is important to you.

In the module system, you have the ability to choose from many features that the Tradovate platform offers. A bread-and-butter tool used by every Axia Trader is the DOM aka Price Ladder. Additional tools such as Footprint, TPO, and Volume Profile charts can be found in the Chart section of the platform.

For code geeks, Tradovate also lets you build your own indicators. Head over to Code Explorer to create and modify hundreds of indicators.

When ready, you can save your module layout using the workspace template on the right.

Tradovate Using Footprint

Every order-flow trader must be familiar with the depth of the market. Given the speed of the DOM, many market activities are somewhat hidden from the human eye. For that reason, Tradovate added extra functionalities such as the Footprint Chart. To set up a Footprint Chart, head over to Chart, then click on the Chart Type icon and select Bid-Ask Volume.

The Tradovate Bid-Ask Volume chart is essentially a Footprint Chart. Given the variability that you get from bid-ask interaction, the Tradovate platform offers extensive settings on the Bid-Ask Volume charting.

Tradovate Using Volume and Market Profile

Now zooming in on a second powerful tool used by Axia Traders, we look at the volume and market profile. Again, head over to the TPO Chart type and start using the power of volume and market profile. Tradovate also added functionalities that go beyond the standard market profile package (more on that in the video down below).

If you want to dive right in and start building strategies using the Tradovate market profile and volume profile tool, head over to the webinar that was recorded with Traver Harnett. Traver was previously the CEO of MarketDelta, the company behind the original Footprint charting package.

Last but not least, what is also great about Tradovate is that it offers a unique Market Profile, Volume Profile, and Footprint experience directly from the Tradovate mobile app. We find that this a nice add-on because not a lot of futures trading platforms offer this functionality via mobile app.

Tradovate is a powerful trading platform and for that reason has been acquired by NinjaTrader. For more trading lessons and tutorials, check out our next free webinar here!

Thanks for reading and trade well.

***

Axia Futures
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+44 20 3880 8500
https://axiafutures.com/

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Contacts:
Demetris Mavrommatis — Co-Founder, Head of Trading
Alex Haywood — Co-Founder Head of Strategy

How To Cut And Reverse Your Trade Introduction

In this blog post, we will look at how to cut and reverse your trade. Specifically, we will look at the Elite trader and his ability to reverse a loss from being down 100 lots to getting long up to 300 lots. This price ladder and order flow trading article looks at how an Elite trader on the Axia Futures desk executed trades during the ECB Press conference and after taking a sizable loss, was able to keep a cool head, reverse his position and turn things around.

This article is based on the video down below.

Elite Trader Execution

Price Ladder – Initial Entry Into Short

The trader entered the German 10-Year Bund and 5-Year Bobl after assuming that his hawkish trading plan scenario was in play. He shorted 150 lots in the Bund and a sizable position in the Bobl, but soon after entering, extra information was heard over the Squawk. What was the information?

Clues

• get short on the back of the hawkish comment
• new information from Squawk coming in: “although they tapered QE, they pushed out when rate rises will come in.”

Down below is the situation where the trader is currently in. Recording of this particular point in time can be found here.

Price Ladder – New Piece Of Information Hitting The Wires

Soon after the trader shorted both Bund and Bobl, extra information was heard over the squawk news service about rate rises being pushed further out into the future.

A buyer with over 3000 lots then appeared on the bid in the Bobl, holding the market up. The trader started scaling and averaging out of his position but continued going further offside in all of his trades. After being more than £20K down, the trader then noticed the Euro’s correlation supporting a dovish trade scenario and was quick to cut and reverse his position, being long bonds.

What you can see here, is the blip and hold to the upside. The moment market blipped and those 3800-ish lots appeared on the bid, the trader had two options.

• A) market will hit into the bid and continue moving down (primary scenario)
• B) market will hold that bid and continue moving higher which would signal a change in the expectation of the market (alternative scenario)

What is important here is the correlation with Euro. Since there is an inverse correlation between Euro and Bonds, this trader spots how Euro starts to move aggressively lower. This adds additional information to the puzzle. Now he is faced with these clues.

Clues

• new information coming from Squawk
• blip and hold
• over 3000 lots now holding the bid not being traded into
• Euro starts to offer aggressively

With all this information adding up, this creates the opportunity to cut and reverse the trade. Now being down 20k, it is all about being on the right side of the trade given the new information this trader has.

Price Ladder – The Cut And Reverse Trade

Now leaning on correlations, as long as the Euro is making new lows and that large bid in Bobl holds, he becomes comfortable increasing the size and going for that increase of the momentum, that final flush, constantly laying down the small offers to scale down his trade.

While the trader ultimately ended up bringing his day back well into the positive, it also goes to show that no matter how experienced you might be, there is always room to reflect, improve your execution and grow as a trading professional.

If you want to learn more about price ladder trade management techniques, join us at the free webinar we are running at: https://www.elitetraderworkshop.com.

Thanks for reading.

Don’t forget to check out articles you might also like:

• AXIA Elite Trader Executes a Smash & Grab Trade on ECB Minutes | Axia Futures
• AXIA Elite Trader Trades a Trump Tweet | Axia Futures
• AXIA Elite Trader Trades the ECB Press Conference | Axia Futures

If you like our content and would like to improve your game, definitely check one of our courses that teach you all the techniques presented by AXIA traders from a market profile, footprint, or order-flow. If you are someone who likes to trade the news, we have a great central bank course. And if you are really serious about your future trading career, consider taking AXIA’s 6-Week Intensive High-Performance Trading Course.

Trade well.

JK