The first point to mastering money management is that you have to understand when youre trading on the stock market is that you are playing the odds but unlike many forms of gambling, you can make money. The key to making this money is to respect the risk that is part of the market, and manage it. Money management is a set of rules and guidelines that enables you to turn a profit. By being triumphant with your money management skills, you can keep your risk at a level at which youre comfortable with, keep from making poor trading decisions, and ensure you dont loose your trading capital. This is why it is so important to follow money management rules. Why do these money management rules work? You know, its funny. I once thought I had a fool-proof way of making money on roulette. You see, Id bet on red and black. Id sit at the table. After the ball had landed on black or red five times in a row, I would start betting on the opposite color. Lets say I had five reds in a row. I would then start to bet on black. If I was wrong, I would go ahead and double down, so that if I started my bet at one dollar, the next time I would be able to bet two dollars, then four dollars, then eight, then 16. With this system, eventually Id win and Id come out one dollar ahead. So, here I am at 23 and Ive set up my computer program to test my theory. I made a ridiculous amount of money in the program. I really thought I had the Holy Grail here. But, if its so easy for an 23 year old to figure it out, why arent all the casinos out of business and why arent were all millionaires? Unfortunately, roulette doesnt work this way. You see, if were flipping a coin, heads has a 50 percent chance of turning up on each flip of the coin and so does tails. But, each flip is independent of the last. The last coin toss has nothing to do with the one before it, each flip is a random event. This means its possible to get a hundred heads in a row if you do it long enough, and believe it or not, thats what happened to me. When I first played roulette in a casino, I saw a string of 23 blacks in a row. I went home defeated. Trading is the same. A percentage of your trades will not work out. A certain percentage will not go in your favoured direction, and the next trade has nothing to do with the last one. Even if you have the worlds most accurate method, over time you will go broke if you dont practice good money management. Money management rules include defining your trading float, setting your maximum loss, calculating your stop loss, and most importantly learning how to choose your position size. Once these rules are in place, its important to stay with them. They will keep you from making snap decisions, and playing the odds longer than you should. This is why money management rules are a critical part of any effective trading system. |
