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Author:Investa
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We imagined this year to be our best — achieving our goals, having our breakthroughs, and becoming the best that we can be.
But the opposite happened. Almost every month, something majorly daunting happened. Taal Volcano erupted in which its ash fall covered several regions in Luzon. Because of the pandemic, it seems that we are perpetually in home quarantine. Consequently, the financial markets fell after their almost a decade of bull run.
Our clear vision for the year suddenly became bleak.
But 2020 is not yet over. We can still get up and BOUNCE BACK!
We can still redeem this year and make the best out of it. That’s why Investagrams still pushed and continued its annual tradition of holding the largest Trading Competition in the Philippines.
Despite everything that happened, Investagrams braved the current market condition and put in more effort to make this year’s Trading Cup the best yet. With the base pot money of PHP 300,000 (for Double Up Pass) plus the re-opening of Shorting or Short-position trading in this year’s competition, all the contestants have more chances to grow their portfolio amidst any market condition. And the most exciting part is that the Bonus Pot money grows as more contestants join in!
Aside from the cash prize, the Top 3 winners will get LIFETIME Access to InvestaPrime Elite worth PHP 100,000 each and the coveted Trading Cup Trophy and Champion’s Badge.
“In the midst of this pandemic, every person we know is going through something radically different than anything we have ever experienced and this crisis is actually asking us how fast and how well we can endure and adapt to changes.
Through the Investagrams Trading Cup 2020 competition, we want every investor and trader to see 2020 as a year of new beginning and to prove themselves that they can make their own paths forward. It’s time to prove that all your hard work, perseverance, patience, and dedication to the craft is finally going to pay off,” Joanne Marquez, this year’s Trading Cup project lead, challenges and inspires everyone to keep going and keep conquering despite the hardships brought by this year’s events.
“To everyone who’s joining the competition, I wish you all good luck and may the best trader win,” Marquez added.
It’s time to ask yourself. Are you ready to BOUNCE BACK? Are you ready to conquer 2020? Join the Investagrams Trading Cup. The competition will start on September 28. To know more about the Investagrams Trading Cup 2020, visit www.investagrams.com/tradingcup.
For our featured trader of the week, we have chosen Jun Pasion (@junpasion) for his efforts in engaging within the Investagrams community!
It is common for Investagrams users to see what other people from the community think of a certain stock. And it is uplifting to see people in the platform who share their principles and methods when it comes to trading in the markets.
Mr. Jun Pasion is one of those individuals who share both their insights about a certain stock and share their wisdom in the trading landscape.
In one of his posts, he stated the importance of accumulating experience to build one’s foundation into becoming a seasoned trader. Indeed, nothing beats experience. No book, mentor, or any form of learning material would teach you this. One must accept the long road ahead and continue to improve oneself in this endeavor.
As Larry Hite exclaims, “if you don’t bet, you can’t win, if you lose all your chips, you can’t bet.” An aspiring trader must not give up despite the challenges ahead. Unquestionably, the key to surviving in this field is to cut your losers short and let your winners run.
Lastly, he also shared his insights about trading analytics. With the help of InvestaJournal, he was able to determine his trading analytics to identify his edge. As seen in this post, he shared what he needs to improve on to become a consistent trader.
It is fulfilling to see fellow Filipinos sharing their knowledge with the public. Undeniably, pursuing this type of field may spark your love for the country in a sense that you would realize how important it is to educate our fellow countrymen towards financial freedom.
Kudos to you, Mr. Jun Pasion, for being our featured trader of the week by being a role model towards the community. You will receive FREE 1-Month access to InvestaPRO!
Do not let 2020 defeat you. BOUNCE BACK in #InvestaCup2020 and win over PHP 300,000 in PRIZES! Join now! The competition starts on September 28.
To know more about Investagrams Trading Cup, click on the photo below.
The beauty of Virtual Reality games is to know the promising power it can bring in both the simulated environment and the real world itself. Virtual Reality is defined to be a near reality we experience as human beings. Even the what-ifs can be answered when we are immersed into different perspectives on game actions.
Just like any other games, the Virtual Stock Market Trading is also created for almost the same purpose. You get to be a billionaire and buy all of the things you never had, just like Travie McCoy!
With just a few clicks, you can have your own 7-figure cash on your virtual trading account. Yes, that’s right. Remember, everything is virtual and temporary, just like your money in the game. You can also play with your own money and apply several strategies on how to buy and sell stocks. You can both gain and lose. However, whatever you gain, stays in the game. Everything is unreal.
Apart from enjoying your gains, you get the educational benefit from the game itself! Here’s the reality of how Virtual Stock Market Tradingcan help you become a better trader.
Reading while training
Every experienced and well-skilled investor started as a beginner. And one thing to learn about Virtual Stock Market trading is that you can start to learn on two sides, while reading and being involved with a practical training on the virtual platform. It is not necessary to start off with a real portfolio unless your heart is ready for the risks you are willing to take. With this way, it will also let you assess the areas in learning on which you need to learn more.
Strategic application
Aside from attending webinars, watching educational videos on Investagrams’ Youtube Channel, or even reading the financial journey of Warren Buffett, you can apply every strategy you have learned in Virtual Trading.
Where’s the fun in this? You can buy any and every stock you want to try and play with. While you’re at it, you can slowly understand the movement and the dynamics of the market. Apply both your knowledge in strategies and analysis, get to meet and understand every possible challenge you may encounter.
Identifying your risks and improving your risk management
Most of all, in the Virtual Trading Game, you can identify the risk and possibly avoid them once you trade in the real market. Remember that when you lose, you lose nothing. While carefully exploring the world of risks, you can build up and create a better and healthy psychological environment for your emotions. In handling money, you do not only think of the risks and rewards, you must strengthen yourself to be able to fight without being dependent on your emotions.
Preparing for the real world
Post-Evaluation is always important in your trading. Just like how you track your income and expenses, you should always treat both your gains and losses as a ground for your educational growth. Keep in mind that everything is a simulation which serves as a preparation for you, but always expect beyond your immersive experiences. Always remember to journalize and track down the reasons why you gain and you lose.
The best part of Virtual Trading is that you have no costs at all, even your mistakes and losses. Think of this as playing in the real game! Are you ready for this, player one?
Join the Philippines’ Biggest Virtual Trading Competition —
The Investa Trading Cup 2020: Bounce Back Challenge!
Get the chance to win over PHP 300,000 in PRIZES and the coveted Trading Cup Trophy and Champion’s Badge. Competition starts on September 28.
Click on the photo to know more about Trading Cup 2020.
Trading the financial markets is an endeavor that can bring you one step closer to prosperity. If you want to know yourself better, then you should try trading. How is that the case you ask? It is because the act of trading itself exposes the trader to an environment where adverse psychological circumstances exist.
A seasoned trader may seem lax in terms of his emotions, for professional trading requires the right state of mind to produce consistent results. Also, trading teaches us valuable life skills such as practicing patience and caution that ultimately enables us to accept the fact that outside the realm of the financial markets, anything can happen. A trader understands that this business is a long-term process before achieving financial freedom.
Participating in various financial markets also teaches the individual the essence of time. Professional trading also requires hard work from the individual. It is often mistaken that traders only work during market hours; however, the said market participant also bears the responsibility of journaling, screening, and assessing their trade prospects during cold state hours. In a nutshell, traders are adept at managing their time wisely.
Despite that trading is an endeavor that involves 80% psychology and 20% methodology, it is still ideal to adhere to be a student of the markets. Continuous learning is imperative in order to succeed in this game. Being exposed to the uncertainty involved in the markets, the trader then puts a conscious effort to learn new things every day.
The trader also values being responsible for each of their actions towards their trading account. Given that it is solely the trader who executes the orders. Therefore, he is accountable for his performance as a market participant.
Lastly, this does not occur to everyone, but a trader that is exposed in the markets may develop their love for the country. In a sense that this individual realizes that his duty is to help people in the form of teaching what they know to the public.
When the local index found support at the 5700 levels in confluence with the 100-day moving average, several names emerged along with the rise of the $PSEi. One of those names is $AXLM. It is a low-profile stock that showed promise once it hit its structural support.
For our featured trader for the week, we will be showing how he was able identify the potential of $AXLM. Marvin TheMartian a.k.a. @kmaa, is an active member of the Investa Community who continuously spreads his insights regarding stocks revolving around the Philippine market. He used a modest yet powerful way to trade, merely using lines to determine critical Support and Resistance Levels.
Based on the price structure of $AXLM, a double bottom pattern was formed at around the 1.85-1.9 price levels. It is a low-risk, high-reward trade, as the downside could be a cut below 1.8 (-3% to -4%) and potential take profit areas near the 2.5 peso resistance levels (30% to 35%).
Moreover, it is seen that the RSI (14) broke out of the channel in confluence with the 2 peso levels, which further strengthens the up move.
In the long-term perspective, it is a must for $AXLM to break above and find support above the channel line to further solidify its dominance.
It is difficult for some to execute trades like this. The key is to not be fueled by emotions. An individual must trust their system. Risk management comes to play, most especially when the trade idea goes against our bias. As Bernard Baruch exclaims, in trading the financial markets, it is not about how much money you make, but rather how much money you do not lose.
Congratulations to those who were able to maximize the up move of $AXLM. Lastly, kudos again to Marvin TheMartian for sharing his execution. Your FREE 1-month InvestaPRO is on its way!
Presenting the Investagrams Trading Cup 2020: Time to remember 2020 as the year that we rise against ALL odds
This competition is OPEN TO ALL and will run for three months from September 28 to December 30, 2020.
1. Registration. The competition officially begins on September 28, 2020 (Monday), however, due to the high demand of requests asking for another chance to register, we have decided to extend the registration until October 4, 2020 (Sunday) at 11:59 PM. Don’t worry, you will receive a notification once you have been automatically added to the Competition Room and the Trading Cup is about to begin. Click here to join the competition.
Important notes:
– Verification of ID is required to join the competition room and the exclusive InvestaGroup for participants.
– Only one (1) entry and account per person is allowed.
– If you have more than 1 account to join the competition, you will be immediately DISQUALIFIED.
– You can change your Display Name, Username, and Profile Picture until THE DAY BEFORE the competition starts. Once the Trading Cup begins, the system will not allow you to change the above mentioned anymore.
2. Platform. The participants of Trading Cup 2020: Bounce Back Challenge will use the Virtual Trading Platform of Investagrams which tracks the real-time stock price movements in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). The system automatically calculates transaction fees to make it more realistic.
3. Goal. The goal of the game is simple — trade your account for the whole competition period and aim for the highest profits. The participants with the highest rankings while playing within the rules will be recognized as winners.
4. Starting Capital. Each participants will start with PHP 100,000 virtual money to trade.
5. Trading Hours. Weekdays from 9:30AM – 1:00PM. This is the current PH trading hours and will be changed once the enhanced community quarantine is lifted. Meaning, you can’t trade during off-hours and on weekends.
6. Tradable Stocks. Participants can only trade the listed tradable stocks for this competition. The tradable stocks are filtered by our system and qualify as liquid and actively traded stocks. The initial tradable stocks list will be posted over the weekend before the competition begins.
You will be able to access the whole stock list once you are added to the Competition Room.
7. Diversification. To promote diversification and risk management, maximum exposure in a single stock can only be 1/3 or 33.33% of the portfolio. This requires the participants to buy at least 3 different stocks should they want to fully invest their portfolio. The system won’t allow you to allocate more than 33.33% in a single stock.
8. Buying and Selling Conditions (For LONG positions). Participants now have two options when transacting. The first option is to transact using the current price of the stock and use market orders to buy and sell specific stocks at their real-time prices. The second option is to transact using our CONDITIONAL ORDERS. By using Conditional Orders, you won’t need to watch the market the whole day in order to transact in the market, you can now set AUTO CUT LOSS, AUTO TAKE PROFIT, and AUTO BUY ON BREAKOUT. You can also set these orders to GOOD TILL CANCELLED so that you order will remain active until your buy/sell price is hit. Watch this tutorial.
Buy – You can buy the same stock multiple times within a day. Sell – YOU CAN SELL THE SAME STOCK SIX (6) TIMES PER DAY.
In one stock per day you can sell TWO TIMES (2) at a PROFIT.
In one stock per day you can sell FOUR TIMES (4) at a LOSS. (cutloss)
9. Buying and Selling Conditions (For SHORT positions). SHORTING is now available for this competition. The same thing applies if you want to short a stock, you can transact using the current price or set conditional orders if you can’t keep an eye on the market. We understand that many may not know the concept of shorting which is why we created a video tutorial you can watch here: LINK TO VIDEO
Sell – You can open a short position on the same stock multiple times within a day.
Buy – YOU CAN COVER YOUR SHORT POSITION ON THE SAME STOCK SIX (6) TIMES PER DAY.In one stock per day you can cover your short position TWO TIMES (2) at a PROFIT.
In one stock per day you can cover your short position FOUR TIMES (4) at a LOSS. (cutloss)
FEES / COMMISSIONS: Same as long positions. COMPUTATION OF PROFITS: (Sell price – cover price)*shares – fees
For those who are not familiar on how to trade SHORT POSITIONS, here’s a STEP-BY-STEP guide to short selling stocks for this competition:
1. Choose your position from the market order type (long or short).
2. Upon choosing the short position, input the initial number of shares you want to sell.
Note: To short a stock, you have to SELL it first. Then to cover your position, you will need to BUY the shares back. To learn more please watch the tutorial: LINK
3. For closing the short position, select the short option in the market order type and input the number of shares you want to buy to close your short position.
10. Holding period for all stocks (For both LONG and SHORT positions).
We will be applying the twenty (20) minute time lock for taking profits to ALL STOCKS to avoid widespread and rinse-repeat trades.
There will be no time lock or restrictions when selling at a loss.
11. Revision of Tradable Stocks. Investagrams has the right to remove any stock from the list should it suddenly become too illiquid, abusable and/or delisted. Furthermore, Investagrams may also add new stocks on the tradable list as new stocks become more active and tradable in the market. All changes will be announced before implementation.
In such cases that a stock is to be removed, we will follow this process:
Investagrams shall notify all the participants via the Investagrams Platform before the market opens.
If you still have the stock in your portfolio, you can sell it at any point in time at your discretion.
12. Initial Public Offering (IPO). All upcoming IPOs that will happen while the Investagrams Trading Cup 2020 is on-going will be added on its SECOND (2nd) trading day.
13. On Dividends that will be given during the Trading Cup 2020.
Stock Dividends that will be released by a company will be credited at the END OF THE DAY of the ex-date. Please note that stock dividends will cause price adjustments, so be aware if a stock you’re holding will release stock dividends.
Cash Dividends that will be released by a company will NOT be credited to your total equity as the current system is still not able to credit cash divs.
14. On SRO that may happen during the Trading Cup 2020.
Stock Rights Offerings (or SRO) is offered to existing shareholders of a specific stock to purchase additional shares at a price lower than the current market price in addition to their current shares at hand.
SRO’s can be deemed good for longer-term investors. However, in the short term, may POTENTIALLY lead to a possible decline or gap down in the stock. So it’s important to always be aware of this.
Participants in the Trading Cup 2020 will not have an option to purchase additional shares from the SRO.
15. For stocks that will be detected by our WIDE-SPREAD DETECTION SYSTEM (WSDS). The Wide-Spread Detection System’s main condition is that the first (1st) best bid and ask should never be more than 2% at any moment during open market session.
Fig 1. Real-time Market Depth / Orderbook showing the first (1st) best bid-ask data.
Example: $ATN (Refer to Fig. 1)
Given:
1st best bid = 1.11
1st best ask = 1.14
Formula:
X = (1st best ask – 1st best bid) / 1st best bid
Condition:
If X is greater than 2% then WSDS detects that the stock is wide-spread and can be abused.
Solution:
X = (1.14 – 1.11) / 1.11 = 0.02700 x 100% = 2.70%
Verdict:
Since X is greater than 2% then the stock is wide-spread as computed by the system.
The participant will be given a prompt that the detected stock is not tradable upon executing a buy or sell transaction.
The stock will again be tradable once the system detects that the spread of the 1st best bids/asks are below 2%.
16. On Trading Abuses.
Day trading opportunities on natural market moves are normal, but please take note that Investagrams will be on full-guard against participants that abuse illiquid opportunities. We want our winners to show real trading skills that are applicable in the PSE. Abuse of intraday spread trades will NOT BE TOLERATED. These rules are set to protect against the usual ‘rinse-and-repeat’ abuses that are mostly used in virtual trading competitions like this.
Any participants that has more than 10% of their profits from rinse-and-repeat wide spread, illiquid and other abusive trades will be penalized or DISQUALIFIED depending on the severity of their offenses. We will be able to validate this through our data and algorithms that verify the historical transactions of each participant.
Any form of hacks, cheats, and abuses shall not be tolerated and will have corresponding repercussions. Suspicious behavior that may not be specified in the rules may also be flagged as ‘abusive’ trading behavior. Warning shall be sent after Investagrams has reviewed and confirmed that the actions are against the integrity of the competition. All trade records shall be verified and those who fail to follow the rules will be disqualified.
Participants will only be given ONE (1) warning, any participant who has constantly repeated any abusive trading behaviors (whether illiquid stocks, system abuses, loophole abuses) will instantly be DISQUALIFIED. Investagrams has the right to review any suspicious activity, and if the behavior is deemed inconsistent with real life trading then the said participant shall be disqualified.
Questionable Transactions. Questionable transactions will be cross-checked through the buy and sell transaction time and the traded stock. Stocks that have more than 2% consistent gaps in the one (1) minute timeframe within the transaction period shall be deemed invalid and Investagrams has the right to deduct the profits from the said transactions. It is normal to trade natural intraday moves and gaps can really happen, but if a participant is constantly trading stocks that have gaps within one (1) minute timeframe and their profits from these kinds of scenarios make up more than 10% of their total profits, then he/she will be automatically disqualified.
Fig 2. Example 1 for one (1) minute time frame gaps with buy (green arrow) and sell (red arrow) transactions
Fig 3. Example 2 for one (1) min. time frame abusable 2% gaps
Fig 4. Example 3 for one (1) min. time frame abusable 2% gaps
Investagrams will warn the participant that is proven to be constantly transacting with illiquid stocks with 2% one (1) minute gaps. Basically, any stock that has 2% spreads and do not really have a trend is included in this definition. After the first warning, any participant that is proven to repeat this kind of behavior shall be disqualified.
17. Trading halt. Stocks that are on a trading halt will not be tradable during the halt and will be tradable again during the announced lifting time.
18. Participant rankings. This is constantly updated every 10-minutes and automatically ranked by Investagrams system according to net profit gain/loss.
19. Deliberation period and the announcement of winners. At the end of the competition, at least one (1) week deliberation period shall be given to Investagrams’ team of moderators to verify trades and the confirmation of winners. The participants with the highest net profits will win. The resulting Top 1 to 100 participants after deliberation will be announced as the official winners.
20. Top 10 Winners. Those who make it to the Top 10 will be REQUIRED to do a defense of their trading strategies used during the competition. This is basically a presentation where you will share your biggest winners, losses, and learnings during the Trading Cup. This has been the tradition of the Trading Cup for the past three years where the winners will share with the community how they made it to the top.
NO DEFENSE = NO CASH PRIZE.
21. Prize Pool. In the event that there is a winner from the Top 100 that is not registered using a Double Up Pass, the pot prize associated with his/her ranking will not be distributed to the other winners. To see further details and full list of prizes, please see the landing page.
PRIZE POOL BREAKDOWN (Applicable for Double Up Pass Holders):
Total Prize Pool: 1,015,857
Raffle: 110,000
RCBC Securities Account: 200,000 (20k acc each for Top 10)
Top 21-50: 30,000 (1k each)
Top 51-100: 30,000 (600 each)
Base cash prize: 300,000 Additional prize pool: 345,857
22. TOTAL PRIZES FOR THE DOUBLE UP PASS HOLDERS (Top 20)
CHAMPION: PHP 258,342.8
TOP 2: PHP 129,171.4
TOP 3: PHP 64,585.7
TOP 4-5: PHP 32,292.85
TOP 6-10: PHP 12,917.14
TOP 11-20: PHP 6,458.57
23. Unexpected events. In the case of an unexpected event that interrupts the operations of PSE or the system of Investagrams, the competition shall be frozen and paused. Further notice shall be given and trading will resume once everything is back to normal.
24. Modification and adding of rules. Investagrams has the right to modify the rules of the competition and add protective measures against any future abuses that may arise to ensure the integrity of the Investagrams Trading Cup 2020: Bounce Back Challenge. Announcements shall be made if there are any changes. Rest assured, we prioritize keeping the competition as FAIR as possible to all participants.
25. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. All participants are expected to have read and understood the rules and mechanics of Investagrams Trading Cup 2020: Bounce Back Challenge. These are published for the participants’ information and protection. Ignorance of these rules and mechanics is not an acceptable excuse for violation.
26. If you are part of the Top 100 winners, the FINAL DEADLINE to claim your cash prize is on JANUARY 31, 2021. The cash prize will not be given anymore past this date.
27. Sponsors. Apple is not involved in any way in this competition. The sponsor(s) is/are solely responsible for providing the prize(s) listed herein. The prize(s) won are not apple products, nor are they related to apple in any way. The responsibility of organizing this competition and distributing the prize(s) are the sponsors’ responsibilities. Apple does not sponsor this competition in any way.
28. Prizes from Partners. Some of our partners will be giving out prizes (in cash or in kind) which may be distributed on a different timeline or date depending on the partner. But rest assured that we will make sure that they will be provided.
29. PRIZE FROM RCBC. The Top 10 DOUBLE UP PASS HOLDERS will win an account with RCBC Securities, Inc. with PHP20,000 (withdrawable). Again, please note that this prize is only applicable for DOUBLE UP PASS HOLDERS.
30. Joining theInvestagrams Trading Cup 2020: Bounce Back Challenge means that you agree with all the clauses mentioned above.
You could say that you have been in the financial markets for as long as you could remember when you think about the missed opportunities that could have made a difference in your trading account. Indeed, it is common to miss such opportunities given that the financial markets are awake 24/7.
As traders, we are in an environment where an endless stream of opportunities displays itself. There may be various reasons for not taking the said leading name.
1.) The price structure seems unattractive.
2.) Failure to screen such names.
3.) The trader is busy with other activities.
4.) Mentally unprepared to take the trade.
Missed opportunities happen all the time. The best way to move on from such is to prepare a buyback criteria if the opportunity represents itself.
It is conventional wisdom that doing things right leads to the correct outcomes. No doubt, it’s natural for us to think that way. However, that is not always the case for us market participants. There would be times that you have analyzed the stock through fundamentals or technicals and it could still move against your bias. The best way to conquer this is to accept the fact that anything can happen (we cannot control the movement of these assets).
While the financial markets are an arena of endless opportunities, potential prospects expose the trader with inimical psychological conditions. It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance for a trader to indicate when such opportunities exist. However, learning how to pinpoint a potential leader does not mean that you have learned to think like a professional trader. Without possessing the right state of mind, a trader would not be able to produce consistent results. Indeed, consistency is a mindset that has at its core certain fundamental thinking strategies that are unique to trading (Douglas, 2000).
It is ideal to see the market from an objective perspective, wherein you must learn and accept the risks with no internal conflict. You must infuse a mentality that is unique to traders. A mentality that enables you to repudiate hesitation and to eradicate overconfidence. That is relatively the epitome of professional trading.
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