Raposa

Four Reasons Why Retail Traders Lose Money in the Markets

It's your money, don't do anything stupid with it

Jan. 17, 2022 • Raposa

“Retail traders don’t make money in the markets!” If you have ever been interested in trading, you probably have heard this sentiment before. And, to a large extent, it’s true . There have be...

Better to be Rich than to be Right

Have the freedom to go where the markets take you

Jan. 10, 2022 • Raposa

In 2006, the housing bubble was still on the upswing. Interest rates were at all time lows and banks offered NINJA (no income no job applications) to borrowers to get them into a house, no questi...

Trading Algos Aren't as Scary as You Think

What is Algorithmic Trading?

Jan. 3, 2022 • Raposa

Algorithmic trading. The image likely conjures groups of bespectacled nerds (we are a certain type) staring at screens of code and convoluted charts as their systems make trades at lightning spe...

Your Professors are Still Wrong: The Market isn’t Random

Putting the Random Walk Hypothesis to the Test

Sept. 27, 2021 • Raposa

A mainstay of academic research into the market is the Random Walk Hypothesis (RWH). This is the idea that market moves are random and follow a normal distribution that can be easily described ...

Your Professors are Wrong: You Can Beat the Market

But we're not saying it's easy!

Sept. 21, 2021 • Raposa

“I have noticed that everyone who ever told me that the markets are efficient is poor.” Larry Hite If you’ve had any academic training in economics, you h...

How You Can Trade Better Than The Wall Street Pros

Use your small size to your advantage

Oct. 11, 2021 • Raposa

I had a good idea. It was going to make my company millions of dollars per year. It was different, but certainly doable. “How much do you think it will bring in?” our finance executive asked me....

ATR and How Top Traders Size their Positions

Two methods for using ATR to control your risk

Oct. 18, 2021 • Raposa

The most important aspect of trading is managing your risk. It’s not sexy or exciting, but it’s absolutely critical to staying in the game. Read one of Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards books w...

How to Trade like a Turtle without $1,000,000

Constructing a Diversified Trend Following Portfolio from ETFs

Oct. 4, 2021 • Raposa

A simple job ad was placed in a handful of major newspapers calling for participants to be trained as traders. Of the applicants, a total of 23 individuals were chosen to become Turtle Traders: s...

These 3 Simple Techniques can Save you from a Devastating Loss while Trading

How to control your trading algorithm's risk

Dec. 6, 2021 • Raposa

Rule Number 1: Never lose money. Rule Number 2: Never forget Rule Number 1. Warren Buffett Unfortunately, losing money as a trader is inevitable. It’s par...

4 Ways to Trade the Trend Intensity Indicator

Measure the strength of your trend with step-by-step code in Python

Aug. 26, 2021 • Raposa

Determining the strength of a trend can provide a valuable edge to your trading strategy and help you determine when to go long and let it ride, or not. This is what the Trend Intensity Indicato...

Why You Need more Data than You Think in Your Backtest

How much time does a backtest need to be statistically significant?

Sept. 7, 2021 • Raposa

How many years does it take before you can be confident in a trading strategy? Does one great year mean you have a tremendous strategy? Does one bad year mean you should pack it up and try somet...

How to Build a Better Trading System

Six steps to building a potentially profitable trading strategy

Sept. 2, 2021 • Raposa

Most trading strategies you find online are of questionable value. So if you’re going to put your money into it, we suggest you build and test it yourself. Thankfully, building your own strategy...

4 Simple Bollinger Band Trading Strategies

Learn to trade this indicator with backtests in Python

July 19, 2021 • Raposa

Bollinger Bands have been a popular indicator by traders since they were invented in the early 1980’s. They’re calculated in four, easy steps and are intended to provide traders an idea of th...

How to use Bollinger Bands in your Trading System

Step-by-step guide to this popular indicator for algorithmic trading in Python

July 12, 2021 • Raposa

Bollinger Bands — first developed by John Bollinger in the early 1980’s — measure the volatility range of a security over time. They provide an envelop around the price and can be leveraged in ...

How To Improve Your Trading System With The Kelly Criterion

Using the optimal position sizing formula for your risk management

Aug. 9, 2021 • Raposa

How much should you invest in a given trade? Should you put in 1-2% of your trading capital or YOLO your way to the moon by putting everything you've got into it (and maybe some leverage fo...

Size Really Does Matter: How to Size Trades and Control your Risk

Kelly Criterion, Martingale, and other methods of position sizing

July 8, 2021 • Raposa

Social media is replete with examples of people showing how much money they made going all-in on Bitcoin, Tesla, Gamestop, Dogecoin or whatever new fad is out there. These are the lucky ones. Mos...

2 Ways To Trade The Stochastic RSI In Python

Stochastic RSI applied to mean reverting and momentum strategies

July 5, 2021 • Raposa

The stochastic RSI (StochRSI) is regularly used to spot areas where a security’s price has extended too far one way or the other. This makes it ripe for use in a mean-reversion strategy where y...

See How Easily You Can Trade the Stochastic RSI

Add this fast moving indicator to your arsenal for mean reversion or trend following systems

June 7, 2021 • Raposa

The stochastic RSI — often abbreviated StochRSI — is much less intimidating than it sounds. This oscillator is simply the stochastic oscillator applied to an RSI signal . It’s used in a ver...

4 Simple RSI Trading Strategies You Can Use Today

With complete backtests and code in Python

June 24, 2021 • Raposa

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has long been one of the most popular indicators due to its versatility. It is most commonly used as an oscillator to find reversals in prices, but can also ...

When to Sell is More Important than When You Buy

Every trader needs an exit strategy

June 14, 2021 • Raposa

As I write this, I’m sitting on a stock that is up over 300% in the past 8 months. It has ballooned significantly as a percentage of my portfolio and is now creating a bit of a conundrum: do I se...

How 23 Average People Traded their Way to $175 Million

The Turtle experiment showed anyone can learn to be a trader

June 10, 2021 • Raposa

In 1983 a successful Chicago trader, Richard Dennis, made a bet with his partner, William Eckhardt. Dennis believed that anyone could be a successful trader, all they needed was the proper traini...

The Most Damaging Cognitive Bias for New Traders

Not every good decision has a good outcome

Dec. 27, 2021 • Raposa

Walking up to a roulette table, a visibly nervous Englishman lays down a pile of chips worth over $135,000. This sum was the culmination of the man’s life savings and included the proceeds from s...

Beginner’s Guide to Trading with the Stochastic Oscillator Indicator

July 27, 2021 • Raposa

While the name stochastic oscillator may sound intimidating, this powerful trading indicator provides a simple way to identify momentum, trend reversals, or overbought and oversold positions. I...

5 Important Risk Metrics You Should Know Before Trading

How much risk is your system really taking?

May 24, 2021 • Raposa

Risk is a challenging subject in the trading and investment world. Depending on who you ask, it can mean a variety of different things. Some consider risk synonymous with volatility, i.e. the mor...

How to Trade with the MACD Indicator

Learn to build your own Bot Trading Strategy with the MACD in Python

May 20, 2021 • Raposa

The Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD, sometimes pronounced “Mac-Dee”) is a very popular indicator that is frequently used in momentum and trend following systems. In short, the MACD is...