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How to Manage Risks and Take Profits Like a PRO

What is the hallmark of great traders? Professionals and legendary traders alike don’t win all the time, and neither are they immune to losses. What sets the good traders from the rest are the abilities to know the probabilities of a trade and to skillfully manage risks and rewards. 

Being able to take in the information the market gives and know what scenarios are more likely to happen is a skill that can only be obtained through hard work and experience. You need to put in the productive hours to be able to gauge the markets at a higher level. The same goes for risk management, as you work towards becoming a better trader, you start to learn how to more effectively minimize your losses and maximize your gains. 

We understand that different skill levels have different tools needed when it comes to risk management, which is why we came up with the InvestaCalculator to help traders of all levels. With this tool, you can calculate and manage your risks no matter your current skill level as a trader!

Let’s take a look at how the InvestaCalculator can be used.

  1. The Smart calculator that helps those starting out

As was mentioned, risk management and knowing the probabilities of a trade are skills that are obtained and honed through experience. However, to help newer traders, the InvestaCalculator offers a tool called the Investa Smart Calculator so that newbie traders can have a guide on where they can set their cutloss and target prices. 

For example, if you wanted to trade SCC as a new trader, you would just need to input the stock and the price you want to enter at. The Investa Smart Calculator will determine some cutloss and take profit targets based on the stock’s current trend, volatility, and sentiment. Keep in mind, however, that this should not be taken as financial advice as the values calculated are only based on an algorithm that provides estimates. Furthermore, you would still need to know if it is a good trade to take and if you are entering at a good price. Make sure to only use it as a crutch if you are new to trading and you are still learning how to set exit prices.

  1. Seamlessly manage your risk while charting

For new and veteran traders alike, the InvestaCalculator’s Risk Management Calculator will surely come in handy. Accessible even while you chart, you can use some of our pre-made risk tolerance settings or input your custom amounts to calculate how many shares you need to buy to adhere to your risk management rules. 

On top of being accessible even with your charts up, it’s really easy to use. If you’re newer to trading and have yet to determine your own risk management rules, you can use some of the pre-made risk tolerance settings. If you’re a more seasoned trader, this tool still comes in handy as you can customize the setup and input your risk management protocols. Once everything is set up, just input your portfolio amount and the different prices you want to buy, cutloss, and take profits at to know how many shares you should buy. 

  1. Bottomline calculations

Should you want to know what the end results will be for your transactions, you can also use the InvestaCalculator’s Buy & Sell Calculator to know certain information such as what your break even price will be and how much you will earn or lose should you buy or sell at a different amount from your pre-determined targets. 

If you used the RIsk Management Calculator, this will be easy as you would just click

the “Copy to Buy & Sell Calculator” and you won’t need to input any other information. You can also change the values should you want to know the different results if you were to execute buys and sells at different prices. 

As you can see, using the InvestaCalculator will let you have a more seamless trading experience as you can make the calculations needed to manage your risks on the same page as your charts. With the different tools available, you’ll surely find this useful whether you just started trading or if you’re already a professional!

Aside from the InvestaCalculator, having an InvestaPrime subscription lets you gain access to a lot of other powerful tools and educational material that can help you progress no matter your current skill level. Want to know more about what we offer? Head on over to the InvestaPrime landing page to look at all the features that we provide to our subscribers!

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Featured Trader of the Week: HULYO

Let’s give a round of applause to HULYO for being this week’s Featured Trader! 

HULYO has been a member of the Investagrams community since 2020 and has been an active member of our community. Along with being an IT automation engineer, HULYO also actively trades and is very interactive with other traders.

A few days ago, our featured trader posted his thoughts for PSE:SCC. One of the stronger stocks in the local markets recently, SCC mainly operates through the production and sale of coal. 

Amidst the poor market conditions, HULYO still looks for opportunities, and one of the opportunities spotted was PSE:SCC. As PSE:SCC rose from its bottom, it wasn’t safe from market drawdowns as shareholders experienced sell-offs. However, it is still noticeable that the uptrend is still intact, and the stock appears to have formed a continuation pattern. 

TECHNICAL STANDPOINT

In terms of price action, PSE:SCC is in a clear uptrend despite the rough market conditions. Without making anything too complex, higher highs and higher lows are continually being established. It isn’t in the strongest of uptrends as drawdowns from the tops are wide, but the fact that it still is in an upward general direction while others are falling isn’t something to take lightly. As with what HULYO mentions in his post, the recent breakout could signal that it is receiving enough demand to boost it towards higher targets. One of the biggest supply areas that it needs to take out would be around the 40 area, with the next one being its ATH level of 50.

FUNDAMENTAL STANDPOINT

PSE:SCC focuses mainly on coal production. With coal prices rising rapidly in the commodities market due to supply disruptions, PSE:SCC stands to benefit from increased margins as they will be able to sell their inventories at higher prices. Although the shift toward renewable energy has started, coal is expected to remain one of the sources of energy production for the next few years. It is forecasted that coal prices will stay elevated for a foreseeable future. 

What should be my next step?

As we have constantly been mentioning, the current market environment is not suitable for newbie traders. Even though PSE:SCC has been strong thus far, shareholders will still most likely experience a lot of volatility. There will be a lot more opportunities later on not just in this stock, but in others as well. However, should you want to trade PSE:SCC it would be more advisable to wait for retracements and to keep your positions light. Risk management becomes even more essential during bad market conditions like the one we are experiencing now. 

Once again, KUDOS to HULYO for being this week’s Featured Trader! Enjoy your 14-day InvestaPrime Access and continue to be an inspiration to the trading community.

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Featured Trader of the Week: @paacharon3

Let’s give a round of applause to TwoFiveNine for being this week’s Featured Trader! 

TwoFiveNine has been a member of the Investagrams community since 2018 and has been very active as he has already posted more than a thousand times, always sharing his thoughts on views on some of his trades.

A few days ago, our featured trader posted his trade idea for PSE:SPNEC. A new addition to the PSE, PSE:SPNEC debuted strongly during its first month of trading. However, even this stock wasn’t safe from the sell-down that occurred across the whole market. 

As PSE:SPNEC opened at a price of 0.95 per share, it easily gained momentum and rose by over 146%. From its peak, the stock fell by as much as 37% as bad market sentiment took over. Finding support around the 1.5 area, TwoFiveNine saw an opportunity to do a bounce play. As PSE:SPNEC retested the 1.5 support level, he saw an opportunity to play the bounce as prices broke out of their most recent daily highs. 

TECHNICAL STANDPOINT

In terms of price action, PSE:SPNEC looks to be consolidating gains from its previously strong rally. Although it is uncertain whether this will be a reset for an uptrend continuation, its big trading range offers opportunities for traders to do some swing trades. 

TwoFiveNine recognized that the bounce could only be a swing trade opportunity, so he made sure to lock in gains whenever price reached different resistance levels. As prices reached his first target, he made sure to lock in some gains already. 

As prices continued higher, he already sold all of his shares as prices reached a bigger resistance level. TwoFiveNine played it smartly as during times where bearish sentiment is rampant in the market, it is highly advisable for traders to lock in gains as early as they can. Although it isn’t impossible that strong breakouts can emerge, the chances of one happening are low while most of the market is strongly moving lower.

FUNDAMENTAL STANDPOINT

PSE:SPNEC is a renewable energy power generation company that mainly constructs and operates solar power plants. The company produces electricity from its plants and sells it to customers or on the market. As demand for renewable energy keeps on increasing due to global warming, the company is in a good position to benefit from the likely global shift towards more sustainable forms of energy. 

What should be my next step?

As was mentioned, most traders should have already locked in gains as prices are already at resistance levels. Should you want to look for a breakout play, it would be advisable to wait for market conditions to stabilize and for bulls to regain some control. If you are looking for a swing trade, it would be best to wait for prices to come back again to support levels. However, keep in mind that the risk to reward for the play will most likely be lower the next time a bounce from support occurs. 

Once again, KUDOS to TwoFiveNine for being this week’s Featured Trader! Enjoy your 14-day InvestaPrime Access and continue to be an inspiration to the trading community.

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How to Turn Back the Clock and Backtest Your Strategies

Whenever we close our trades, we will often think to ourselves – could I have taken more profits? Would there be a way for me to have a better entry? If I did this or that more consistently, would it have been better for my portfolio? 

There will always be things we can improve on, and asking these questions is a good first step. In order to really hone our edge and become traders, we have to take the next step and that is to backtest our system. Whether it be for missed trades or testing different approaches to your past trades, backtesting lets us test changes to our strategies. With the InvestaBacktest, we can simulate going back in time before any moves could have happened. 

Let’s take a look at how we can effectively use the InvestaBacktest to hone our trading systems.

  1. Choose a stock and date to go back to

There are two ways we can look for a stock and time period to test. The first way is to go back to trades we missed and see if our strategy is suited for catching those kinds of plays. 

Here we will just input the stock and the date before the move we missed so that we can simulate what the chart would look like before the move itself. Since we know how things will unfold, we have to be as objective as possible and really stick to the strategy we want to test. 

Another method could be selecting random stocks and picking specific market environments to trade in. Whenever we stress test our strategies, we should always be aware of what is happening to the market index as our strategies should naturally change whenever broad market conditions change. Even if, for example, we have a solid system for breakouts, it will most likely crumble if trades are forced during bear markets. Of course, there is merit in seeing how systems fail in bad environments, but we won’t be able to get any insights if we’re just randomly backtesting in an unknown environment. 

  1. Set the indicators for the strategy to be tested

Once we have the set of data we want to backtest, we then input the indicators that we would be using for the strategy to be tested. No extra fuss whatsoever, it will be exactly as if we went back in time when we see the chart.

  1. Trade as if we don’t know what will happen

When everything is all set and ready to go, we now just have to trade and see how we perform. The execution is simple, we can just click the “NEXT DAY” (shortcut: Q) button to go one candlestick forward, and click the “BUY/SELL” (shortcut: E) button to buy or sell. 

Although it might seem like a small thing, the InvestaBacktest’s feature of not knowing what will exactly happen with the next candle really helps us be more objective. Compare the above picture to the one below.

Again, we might already know what will happen, but being able to not see the exact movements lets us better fight biases, where we would trade more perfectly just because we already know what the next candle looks like

  1. Check how the strategy performs

Lastly, once we have backtested as much as we want, it’s now time to check our results. By clicking the “End Backtest” button, the test will be stopped and our trade history along with some statistics will be shown.

We can see how long our trades lasted, how much we gained per trade, what our total win rate is, and how much our total gain is.

One last thing that you should be wary about when backtesting is that there is such a thing called the optimization bias. Many traders want to have the perfect trading system, so while they build and backtest their system they keep on adding more and more complex rules or indicators to have the perfect entries and exits. Having an incredible system is good, but it is important to know that there is no holy grail in trading. All systems will be subject to losses, and if a system seems too perfect, it will likely have been subjected to lots of optimizations that make it unrealistic to trade with in real-time. The rule of thumb to remember is to keep things as simple as possible.

As you can see, it is really simple to use the InvestaBacktest as we wouldn’t need to know anything about coding as with what other programs use. We would only need an InvestaPrime+ subscription at the least along with our trading system to test. 

Want to know more about what we offer? Head on over to the InvestaPrime landing page to look at all the features that we provide to our subscribers!

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Welcome to the Trading Grounds

Bored of waiting to execute your trades? Come over and prove yourself in the Investa Trading Grounds, where you can compete with other players to determine how well your charting skills match up against others. The rules of the game are simple: Get as much profit as you can. The player who gets the highest profit by the end of the challenge will win. Below are some of the things you would need to know to get more profits.

Finding a game

There are three game modes you can choose from: Practice Mode, Casual Game, and Rank Game. In Practice Mode, you would just be playing with yourself if you feel like you need the extra practice. For Casual and Rank, you would need to fight another person by either selecting the mode to find someone random to go against, or by challenging/accepting challenges.

Duration

Choose how many days you want the chart to last. Would you rather play through a simulation of 60 or 120 trading days? There will be no bonuses or deductions for this choice – only preference will matter.

Setting up your chart

As with actual trading, you can set-up your charts in Trading Grounds to fit your system. From Moving Averages to Trendlines, you can use all of the free tools available. Keep in mind, however, that all charts in Trading Grounds are restricted to only the Daily timeframe.

Buying and Selling

When playing, you have two options – you can either skip to the next day or buy/sell. Everytime you buy and sell, your trade will be recorded under your Trade History where you can see how you have been performing so far. Whenever you buy, you can look over the data under “Position” to see how your trade is doing so far. 

Results

After the duration is up, the total results will automatically pop-up where you can see how well you did for the game. If you challenged an opponent, you would have to wait for him or her to finish the game. Meanwhile, if you were challenged, you would see who won based on your respective profits. 

Easy right? Now go and prove yourself in Investa’s Trading Grounds! If you keep on grinding and winning in ranked games, you could get a chance to win PRIZES as we currently have a daily ITG Blitz Tournament. No need to do any extra registrations, just be part of the top 10 for the day and you will qualify for our rewards.

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Featured Trader of the Week: @uigie

Let’s give a round of applause to AlMar for being this week’s Featured Trader! 

AlMar has been a member of the Investagrams community since 2020, and he is consistent poster who shares his thoughts and chart studies to the community. Something unique about what he shares versus other members is that he often shares bigger picture views of stocks. While others tend to share daily timeframe charts, he often shares weekly timeframe charts

Months ago, our featured trader posted his trade ideas for PSE:WEB. A widely known gaming company, its stock price has been in a downtrend for quite a while.

PSE:WEB has actually fallen by as much as roughly 96% from its peak a few years ago. With a lot of headwinds and sour earnings, a lot of investors have become pessimistic with the stock. After many months of poor returns, it seems that stock may have gotten some life back. In his post, AlMar mentions that the stock could breakout from its long-term downtrend line. As seen in recent trading sessions, PSE:WEB has just taken its first step should it look to perform a reversal. 

TECHNICAL STANDPOINT

In terms of price action, PSE:WEB came from its lows and formed a pocket near it’s weekly EMA100. Once volatility contracted, a strong breakout was imminent as buyers rushed in on the day of its breakout. The stock’s recent move makes it a prospect for a big picture reversal play. Although high volatility is still present in the markets, strongly breaking out from the EMA100 is a big first step along with breaking out of its long-term downtrend line. 

FUNDAMENTAL STANDPOINT

PSE:WEB is a company that mainly revolves around gaming, with it’s primary business being e-Games Stations, or internet cafes exclusively dedicated to casino games. Through the company’s technology, users gain access to hundreds of casino games and even sports betting. Although they are in a lucrative industry, they haven’t had that much success in recent years as they struggle to become profitable. 

What should be my next step?

As the stock has just recently broken out strongly from key levels, prices need to at least hold above the 3 to 3.2 area in order to retain its momentum. The next major resistances would be the 4.5 and 5 levels, with volume by price indicating that 4.5 could be the heaviest level it would need to break. Breaking out of 4.5 should cause the stock to experience less selling pressure, but we need to keep in mind that we are currently in a bear market, and even though the set-up looks good, most traders and investors might look to sell earlier than usual to lock in gains in a tough market. 

Once again, KUDOS to AlMar for being this week’s Featured Trader! Enjoy your 14-day InvestaPrime Access and continue to be an inspiration to the trading community.

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CHART your way to PROFITS

Physicians have x-rays and clinical tests. Sailors have their maps and compasses. Us traders have our charts. Especially for short-term traders, charts are essential as they will be present from planning to execution. As part of our mission to aid everyone in their financial journey, our InvestaCharts have always been a core part of our offerings. Our charts offer everything that a beginner, or even an expert, would need to map their way to profits. However, we don’t want to stop at just helping our users to be profitable. We want to provide users with charts that will help them become phenomenal traders. This is why we came up with a premium version of the InvestaCharts that can be used by our InvestaPrime members.

Want to take a glimpse into what new features you can use to chart out your trades? Scroll down below to see the features and examples of how they can be used

  • Delay-free experience

Having delayed data can be a hassle, especially for traders who need to execute quickly. Even a few seconds can become crucial when executing trades during an explosive breakout, what more 15 minutes? Unless you avail of the level 1 PSE data plan or an InvestaPrime subscription, you would be subject to delayed market data by up to 15 minutes.

For example, on the day PSE:EMP rallied, prices quickly soared within a matter of minutes. For Prime users and those who availed of a PSE data package, they wouldn’t have had a problem. However, users with a 15-minute delay, they would see a stock price of 14.04 whereas the price had already risen up to 16.50. 

  • Premium indicators that automate charting for you

As traders grow and gain more experience, simple charting becomes easier. However, who wouldn’t want to have someone else do repetitive tasks for them? As an InvestaPrime member, you will be able to unlock premium features on InvestaCharts that help you automate your charting process.

As a premium user of the InvestaCharts, you will have access to Auto 52-Week Highs and Lows as well as an Auto Support and Resistance that will help you plot important price levels faster.

There is even an Auto Fibonacci feature that will help you save time when plotting your Fibonacci Retracement levels. 

  • Premium indicators that give you a strong edge

Saving the best for last, we have developed premium InvestaChart features that will greatly help your trading decisions. Support and resistances are foundational concepts for every trader. Even as we get better, determining which levels hold the most importance will always be the challenge that we will face. Let’s look at how our features can help you with that challenge.

With the Bull-Bear Meter, we can help you determine if the Bid and Ask board is showing signs of demand and supply. A good example of how this can help would be for buy-on support strategies. In essence, buying on support is done because you expect that support area to be an area of demand. It would then make sense that when prices reach near that level, the bids and asks should show more eager buyers. Even if a level looks like a solid support, it wouldn’t mean anything if buyers don’t show up. With the Bull-Bear Meter, you wouldn’t need to check the board manually as the meter will weigh in all the bids and asks for you, telling you if buyers have shown up or not.

Another very useful premium tool that will help traders is the Volume Profile Visible Range. Basically, this tool plots out how much volume was traded per price point. A deeper understanding of supports and resistances would tell you that more volume on a support level signifies that the market deems that area a very cheap place to buy, whereas more volume on a resistance level would signify that there are participants there who have lost money and would most likely want to break even at the least. Thus, you can use the Volume Profile Visible Range to better understand what price levels hold the most psychological impact on the market and its participants. 

They say that the only indicators needed for a trader to be great are price and volume. By being an InvestaPrime subscriber, the premium features of InvestaCharts will no doubt make it easier for you to study price action and will help you take a deeper look into the volume traded behind the prices. 

Want to know more about what we offer? Head on over to the InvestaPrime landing page to look at all the features that we provide to our subscribers!

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