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Featured News & Features

Our New and Upgraded Investa vTrade: Limit Orders

Let us give you a scenario to think about: You’re at your office desk patiently waiting for stock ABC to breakout and create a new all-time high once it breaches 5 pesos, it reaches 4.50, then 4.70, then 4.85. However, your boss suddenly calls for a meeting. You’re unable to watch the stock and simply hope for it to wait for you. The meeting ends after 30 minutes, but when you get back to your desk and quickly click alt+tab stock ABC is already up 30% from your buypoint. If you’ve experienced this, you know the struggle of being unable to watch the market throughout the day. Countless opportunities are lost due to the simple reason of being unable to execute during the day.

So, is this just how it’s going to be? One of the main reasons why those with full-time jobs chose to pass on the Trading Cup last year was due to the fact that they’re not always able to trade during market hours because of work reasons. Don’t worry, this time we got you covered. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, you can now take advantage of the opportunities in the market. We’re now introducing our new and upgraded Investa VTrade!

You can now input orders and view your VTrade portfolio straight from your charts for much smoother and easier access. Simply choose the stock you want to purchase then click buy on the right side of the chart to place your order. Choose which portfolio you would like to purchase the stock. Then place your order price and the number of shares you would like to buy.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

For those who are really busy, you can now choose and wait for a stock at a price you want to buy it using our new LIMIT ORDER! Simply choose your order expiry if you want it to be at the end of the day or when you cancel it. Once you click buy/sell, your order will be posted and will be executed when your bid/ask price is met. Now you don’t need to worry about being unable to watch the market the entire day!

Given that the Trading Cup is still a virtual trading competition, whenever you want to buy or sell a stock you used to need to do it at the market price in real-time. With our new Limit Orders, you can now set a buy order at a lower price as you wait for a stock to hit the support level or at a higher price as you wait for a stock to breakout. After setting your buy order, all you need to do is simply wait for your entry price to be hit. Not only that, you can also set a target profit so you can sell your position at an intended higher price without watching it the whole day. However, you will not be able to cut your losses automatically, so execution on risk management will still be done manually. To check the status of your limit orders, simply go to the Pending Orders tab.

Here are some examples

We know that every participant in the Trading Cup is going for the top spot, one missed trade can tremendously impact the outcome at the tail end of the competition. We understand the struggle of watching a stock for a long period of time, patiently waiting for it to hit your buy point, just to miss out on it because of a sudden meeting or anything that can make you unavailable to check the market. That’s why our team worked day and night to develop a feature that will allow you to take advantage of the opportunities of the market no matter where you are.


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Featured How to & Advice

Trading Psychology: Why it Pays to Have Discipline in the Stock Market

During the early days, people focused on fundamental factors to make investment decisions. People wanted to see increasing earnings, sales growth, surplus profit margins, and the like. However, there were a few who realized that relying solely on fundamentals was not enough to have superior trading performance. Very few traders used Technical Analysis back in the day, the consensus thought people who make their investment decisions based on the price alone were in some sort of cult.

However, over time, more and more people began to use Technical Analysis as a means to pick and choose their investments. Soon enough, traders all over the world began focusing on price over fundamental factors. Although, there was one more factor that only in the previous three decades has been studied thoroughly; mental analysis, or what we all know as Trading Psychology.

Let us give you an example of a trader who likes knowledge in Trading Psychology. Imagine a newbie trader who’s been having a string of losing trades for the first time. The right way to handle this situation is to scale back and trade smaller as you improve your win rate. However, our newbie trader is angry at the market and decides to increase his size threefold to revenge trade his capital back. You all know what happens next, he blows up his account.

That’s what happens when we deviate from our trading plans and rules and allow our emotions to get the best of us. There are four types of emotions that have blown up countless of trading accounts since the inception of the financial markets, those emotions are: GREED, FEAR, HOPE, and REGRET.

How do you master the psychology of trading?

We’re all unique from one another, so the key to mastering your psychology in trading is to find out your own personal strengths and weaknesses.

Let’s take a look at the Four (4) deadliest emotions in trading. We’ll discuss in a separate article in more detail these four emotions, but for now we’ll enumerate them for you:

Greed

This kicks in when you gain a significant amount of profits in a position. Greed is when you tell yourself that you will not follow your exit plan as the trade exceeds your set target price and you believe that your stock will go “to the moon”.

Fear

There are four types of Fear:

    • Fear of being wrong
    • Fear of losing money
    • Fear of missing out
    • Fear of leaving money on the table

Regret

When a loss or a missed opportunity happens that results to a feeling of disappointment and sadness, a feeling of regret occurs.

Hope

As human beings, it’s in our nature to hope when things get rough. However, hoping for a stock to recover after going below your stops has been and always will be one of the main reasons traders lose a majority of their capital.

Here are some basic points you should consider to improve your Trading Psychology:

Embrace uncertainty

There’s only one thing that’s certain in the markets: uncertainty. You have the engrain in your mind that there’s no sure-win investment. Everything that happens in the market is due to probabilities. We can’t control how the market moves, there are countless factors that are not under our control. That’s why it’s important to embrace uncertainty and focus only on the things we can control. So what are your options? If you want to be guided and get an advanced strategy in your trading, you may check out  InvestaPrime and see how our features help you to make efficient smarter decisions.

Visualize your execution process

One of the practices that will benefit you as a trader is mental preparation. If you ever feel the difficulty in pulling the trigger on an opportunity or cutting your losses on a losing position, it’s due to the fact that you are not mentally prepared for the execution. Before the market opens, visualize yourself executing on your trading plans. If you do this consistently, you’ll find it easier to execute during market hours.

Treat losses as the cost of doing business

Losing money in the market can really affect your psyche. One moment a stock goes accordingly to your initial bias only to reverse and hit your stops. That hurts. But only in the beginning. You need to understand that losses are the natural consequence of trading. Even the best hedge fund managers around the world are wrong on their trading decisions 50% of the time. Treat your trading losses as if they’re expenses in your business.

Try to virtual trade

Paper trading is a good way to get a grasp of the market, especially if you’re still starting out. Most traders make the most costly mistakes in the beginning of their journeys, so it’s best you make and learn from those mistakes while trading virtually. You can always use our VTrade app to trade the Stock Market risk-free (Click here for iOS or here for Android mobile phones).

Conclusion

Mastering your trading psychology will help you seamlessly enter and exit trades without certain attachments and emotions. You will be able to execute relentlessly without hesitation or reservation on your trading plan in order to take advantage of the countless opportunities in the markets. Without the right mindset coming into the trading day, you will not be able to perform at the highest level consistently.

The topic of Trading Psychology is very broad, so it’s entire scope can’t be discussed in one or two articles. However, the basic points we’ve mentioned above are a good start to master the psychology of trading. If you want to read more about this, we would recommend the books of Mark Douglas: The Disciplined Trader and Trading in the Zone.

For those are looking for an in-depth topics on Trading Psychology, we highly recommend you to join the upcoming Trading Cup 2019 competition whereby our CEO, JC Bisnar a.k.a. Imbang Klase will provide an mentoring sessions about this via Exclusive Webinars available only for participants. Join here: http://invs.st/TradingCup2019


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Featured How to & Advice

What Happens Once You Joined The Trading Cup 2019?

Welcome to the Trading Cup 2019 Competition!

To be considered as an official participant, you must be able to go through the registration process including payment and ID verification as mentioned in this article.

After completion of the above requirements, here are some information that you may need to know once you officially joined the Trading Cup:

Step 1: Premium InvestaGroups

Once you have paid for your competition pass and have been verified by our team, you will automatically be added to a premium InvestaGroup.

For Prime and Regular Passes: Trading Cup Prime and Regular

For Student Passes: Trading Cup Students

You will receive the learning modules and webinar updates, news, tasks and many others via accessing the TOPICS tabs(Regular and Prime InvestaGroup is a separate link from the Student InvestaGroup), and you may also interact with fellow participants along with our mentors.

Trading Cup InvestaGroups | TOPICS TAB

FREE LEARNING MODULES via InvestaLearn

Step 2: Webinars | Mentorship Sessions

We don’t want this year’s competition to only be for high level traders looking to be in a competitive environment. We also want this year’s Trading Cup to be an avenue to learn; especially those who are in the early stages of their investing journey.

Here’s everything you need to know about our mentorship sessions:

The mentorship sessions will be done through a series of webinars via InvestaLearn where our in-house traders here in Investagrams along with invited Stock Trading Champions and Multi-Million Fund Managers will help you guys take your trading to the next level.

Once your payment has been verified by our team, you will automatically gain access to the 400 page learning modules along with the exclusive webinar videos. Just go to InvestaLearn and click MY CLASSES to find them.

ACCESS InvestaLearn

Proceed to MY CLASSES

Webinars | Topics

The following are the topics that will be taught to Regular and Prime pass holders:

  • Stock Market 101
  • Understanding the Dynamics of Price Movement and Human Behavior
  • Having a Risk-First Mentality
  • How to Use Trading Tools to Your Advantage
  • Inside the Minds of Stock Trading Champions and Multi-Million Fund Managers
The following are the topics that will be taught to Student pass holders:

  • Stock Market 101
  • Basic Technical Analysis
  • Being a Student Trader
  • Special Learning Sessions with Former Student Traders

Webinars | Release Dates

There will be a webinar released every Sunday starting Sunday, August 25, 2019.

BONUS: Exclusive Q & A Sessions with Investa Mentors

There will be an exclusive Q&A Sessions with your Investa Mentors (Jc Bisnar, Airwyn Tin, Bearyoholic, and TomaTrader) via InvestaGroups every Sunday from 9:00pm to 10:00pm.

All Trading Cup participants will be free to ask anything about the topics and lectures covered in the FREE 400 Page Learning Modules covering Technical Analysis, Fundamental Analysis, Risk Management, and Trading Psychology.

Only questions that were commented on the pinned post under “Q and A Sessions” tab in the premium InvestaGroup will be answered.

Questions from participants will be answered starting 9:00pm and ends at 10:00pm every Sunday starting August 25, 2019.

See sample conversation during the first Q&A Session last August 25:



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Featured News & Features

Davinsoy Trader: How He Traded His Way To Becoming A Full-Time Father

In one of our previous articles we interviewed Diolito Igloria Jr., or commonly known as Davinsoy Trader on Investagrams, to share more about himself to the community. As our team prepares for the upcoming Investagrams Trading Cup 2019, we took a look back at last year’s competition and who were some of the participants who stood out among the rest. Almost everyone on our team mentioned Davinsoy Trader, a super trader from Cebu. If anyone’s unfamiliar with Diolito, let us remind you of his achievements:

  • Investagrams Trading League 2019 Round 1 2nd Runner Up
  • Investagrams Trading League 2019 Round 2 Champion
  • Investagrams Trading Cup 2018 4th Runner Up

However, the greatest achievement we believe Davinsoy Trader got from the market was an opportunity to not only become a full time trader, but most importantly the opportunity to become a full time father. Sir Diolito’s story is tremendously heart-warming, especially for those of us who also want to take trading full time. He is a registered Electrical Engineer and former Accounts Manager, two very stable and good paying professions. He decided to go full time into trading during the tail end of the bull market last 2018.

Diolito’s first two years in the market resulted in him losing is entire capital twice without his wife knowing. Even after she found out, she still continued to deposit funds and support Diolito’s trading journey. Despite losing hard earned money to the market, he never gave up. Diolito continued to persevere despite wiping out twice in the market. With continuous learning, hard work, and dedication he was eventually able to recover all of his losses and more during the 2017 bull market.

From that point on, he decided to resign from his job and trade full time. Diolito now has the time to take care of his child while his wife goes to work. He treats his trading a business, not a game. After a few months, he joined the Investagrams Trading Cup 2018. We all know what happened after, Diolito ranked 4th during the Investagrams Trading Cup 2018 out of thousands of competitors who were all looking to grab a spot in the coveted Top 10.

Davinsoy Trader’s story is truly one for the books. He served as an inspiration for those of us who want to take trading full time in order to spend more time with our loved ones. Despite ranking 4th during last year’s competition, he continues to remain a simple and humble person. There is no doubt in our minds that Diolito is on his way to not only becoming one of the best traders in the country, but also one of the best fathers.


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Featured How to & Advice

Becoming a Full–Time Trader

The concept of taking control of your financial destiny and supporting yourself by trading the financial markets is a dream almost all retail traders have. However, many don’t understand the risks involved in trading the markets full-time. If you wish to be part of the 10% who make money in the markets, the very first thing you must do to have a good foundation is to commit to mastery. Without that commitment, no matter how much you study about trading, you will not succeed.

No matter how many books you’ve read, videos you’ve watched, or markets you’ve traded; if you don’t commit to master, you will not be able to make a living out of the markets. Trading the markets full-time is very attractive, but everyone must understand that it is a tremendous challenge that requires one to adapt and overcome insurmountable hurdles along the way.

In this article, we will provide you some important points that you have to remember before you choose full-time trading as a means to support your lifestyle.

1. Make sure you are financially stable

This is the most important thing you must remember. If you decide to trade the markets full-time, you should be prepared with whatever that’s coming. The market is volatile, it can make erratic swings in a short period of time, make sure you have the money to pay for all the necessary expenses. It is best to save up money that is equivalent to your annual income before you start trading full-time.

2. Have significant experience in the market

You can’t just jump into full-time trading after three or few months of experience. You should especially reconsider if you’ve only experienced trading in a bull market because once the bears arrive, and they always do, you might get slaughtered. There’s no benchmark to how long you need to be in the market before you can go full-time, but we would suggest that you must have at least experienced different market environments several times.

3. Have a well-tested trading methodology

You can’t go to war without having the right weapons, you also can’t make a living out of the markets without having an effective trading methodology. Whatever strategy you choose to apply, a sufficient amount of backtesting will need to be done in order to prove its effectivity. Most importantly, you will need to have a methodology that can adapt to different kinds of market environments.

4. Do not let your emotions control you

There have been and always will be four types of emotions that have lead to financial destruction for traders: Fear, Greed, Hope, and Regret. There’s so much to tackle about these four emotions that it will require a separate article in the future. Just take note of these emotions and make sure you learn all there is to about them. Reminiscence of a Stock Operator and Trading in the Zone are two great books that talk about these emotions.

5. Never stop learning

Once you feel like you already know everything about trading the financial markets, you’ve already lost. To become a successful trader, you will need to become a perpetual learner. The markets do not remain static, they’re always dynamic and change over time. This means a methodology or framework you may be applying now might not work in the next 5 to 10 years. If you always think of yourself as a student of the market, the process of continuous learning with impact you greatly.

Full-time trading also comes with several advantages and disadvantages that you will need to take into consideration. Let’s take a look.

Advantages

Freedom

This is the main benefit of trading the markets full-time that everyone is after. Once you go trading full-time, you will have the freedom to do and accomplish other things in life. If you are a family man, you will have more time to spend with your loved ones. However, don’t take this freedom for granted. You will still need to put in early mornings and late nights in order to continuously improve as a trader.

A means to maximize wealth

If you’re doing it correctly, and with a sufficient amount of capital, trading the markets can be a way for you to maximize your wealth. The profits you generate can also be more than enough to supply for your living expenses, but it won’t be easy. The financial markets are the ultimate equalizer of wealth, but it can also take back every single cent you’ve made.

You can be your own boss

You don’t have to work with managers or supervisors. When trading the markets full-time, you’re only accountable to yourself. However, there is still one entity you will need to respect to the highest level; the market herself.

Disadvantages

Huge amount of risk involved

When you choose to go full-time trading one mistake will not only wipe out your account, it will also wipe out your means of living. That’s why choosing to resign from a stable job to trade full-time is not always recommended. As mentioned earlier, only take the leap once you have a well tested and defined trading methodology.

It can be emotionally stressful

Trading is not for weak-hearted people, there will be days where you will feel like the market is coming to get you. There is added stress and anxiety involved knowing that you will need to perform at the highest level in order to sustain the lifestyle you are living.

Conclusion

Trading the markets full-time is definitely possible, but it’s not easy. There have been countless of traders around the world who have been humbled by the market throughout the previous decades. If you want to be part of the 10% who make money trading the financial markets, you must be willing to put in tremendous amounts of hard work. Always remember: if you want the things you’ve never had, you got to do the things you’ve never done.

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Featured News & Features

Investagrams Featured Trader of the Week: Gagamba Trader

This week’s featured trader is not someone who was able to successfully spot a specific stock before making a significant advance, but rather someone who shared his execution with the intention of helping others. A huge shout out to Gagamba Trader a.k.a. @enzo_gagamba for sharing his execution on his $IDC trade.

Gagamba Trader was able to buy $IDC (Italpinas Development Corporation) when it broke out of its psychological and structural resistance at 6 pesos, his trade idea was confirmed when the volume spiked significantly above the average. His mindset was to nail down a decent swing profit with half of the position, which is why he sold half at 7 pesos, and keep the remaining half for a potential further advance.

One of the details that stood out to us is that he had a CONTINGENCY PLAN ready in case his original plan didn’t pan out as he expected. You don’t hear a lot of traders talk about having a contingency plan, but this is something Mark Minervini taught in his first book. Along with his basic trade plan for a specific position, he also has contingency plans in place for anything that may happen. As for the case of $IDC, Gagamba Trader initially wanted to trail the remaining 50% of his position using the 20 day, but he also had a backstop at 6.50 in case of a sudden sell down.

As we all know, $IDC was sold down significantly in a matter of days which prompted the need follow the 6.50 emergency backstop. He was able to strictly follow his plan and secure his profits. Gagamba Trader also reminds everyone to plan your trade and trade your plan. Kudos to Gagamba Trader for his successful $IDC trade, and for sharing your execution to the Investagrams Community!

On Technicals:

The reason why $IDC was able to make a 40% move in a matter of two weeks is because it was able to breakout of it’s downtrend channel with significant volume.

If you check the hourly chart, you’ll also notice that $IDC gave several continuation patterns. The stock gave four continuation patterns before temporarily topping at 7.35, which was also it’s previous resistance. As of the moment, $IDC will need to break above its previous high at 7.35 to continue the up move.

For the daily chart, you’ll see that $IDC was supported by the 20-day moving average. This is a good sign showing that there’s obvious demand for the stock which supported it during the sudden sell down.

Congratulations to everyone who was able to ride to 40% move of $IDC, and to those who were able to pickup the stock when it dipped towards the 20-day moving average. Lastly, kudos again to Gagamba Trader for sharing his execution, your FREE one-month InvestaJournal is on it’s way!

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Featured News & Features

Tale of Trades: Traders’ Success Stories with D-League and $IDC

Strike when the odds are in your favor.

When you are able to find a good coaching, it’s a huge multiplier in your trading journey.

Here are some success stories that we gathered from D-League, one of the leading premium InvestaGroups in our platform. Javi, Ken, and Matt held a sample “Town Hall” gathering last July 20 and discussed trading techniques with their fellow traders including an $IDC stock where some of the attendees were able to ride the trend and benefited from the discussion.

We have interviewed three D-League members and here are their stories where they have met the team including the breakdown of their $IDC stock trade. The recommendation includes details about their own strategy objectives and set-ups, results analysis, position sizing, risk management, and most importantly — execution in a live market.

D-League Members’ Success Stories

CHRISLER
@chrisler18

I’ve been trading for 2 1/2 years (part-time) and comfortable in swing trades and momentum set-ups. I wanted to look for a kind of support group where you can share your trades and strategies and luckily, I was invited by @anima to join their group.

Our first meet-up was on Sat, July 20 and it was worth it because the learnings gathered that time was already on a different kind of level, you can already ask questions right away. They share to us a technique called “The Rule of 3” which have a success probability of 70-80%. The basics of Elliott Wave Theory was also discussed briefly. And then they shared their technical analysis on our most requested stocks with the application of their technique and wave counts.

One fellow trader asked what can we buy on Monday? And sir Javi said $IDC without hesitation. They show us the chart, and at one glance I saw that it has my momentum set-up. That gave me conviction to buy early in the morning (with a tight cut). Here’s my entries and exits as well as position size when I completed the trade:

I used 1.5% VAR on this $IDC trade. Bought 60% position at 5.68 average and 25% at 5.56 during intra-day re-test. Then 15% at 6.05 the following day. Sold 45% at 6.34 on July 24 expecting it to re-test at 5.8 and make a base there. Bought 30% again at 6.09 on July 25 and sold all shares at average of 7.02 on July 30 during the rallies.

Reason for buying:
Mini consolidation near its break-out point (5.6)
Break-out of 5.6 and RSI (30) 60 confirms its break-out

Reason for selling:
Top of trend line and whole number resistance
No base formed, expecting a steep drop

With this trade I was able to boost my overall portfolio by 8% and generated a profit for the annual payment of the Open Journal Premium Group Subscription.

RAYMOND

@Dnomyar10

I’ve been trading for 1 year and 8 months full-time. I’m a trend follower and a momentum trader. I decided to join D-League so I could learn more trading skills from Ken, Matt, and Javi and to see if I’ve made an improvement throughout my trading journey by way of comparing my strategies and set ups with theirs. So far, it’s been a really good experience as they’ve been helpful specially when reading and analyzing charts.

I got in to trade the $IDC because of Javi’s recommendation. When I checked it, the patterns are in line with my system so I decided to buy in the trade. My first entry was from the break of the mini darvas, and then I added my second entry through a momentum entry. I noticed that the price movement is quite fast so I trailed using 5ema.

Here’s the screen shot of my portfolio with the $IDC stock. I was able subcribe to the Open Journal Premium Group Annual Subscription as I gained enough profits from the $IDC trade.

We hope these success stories inspire traders to be more patient in waiting for the right trading set-up, the courage to do what it takes to follow their biases, find good coaches to help you on your trading, and be more focused on their road to consistency.

BERTO
@kepler

I opened my stock account way back 2013 and have been on and off trading since then. I only became more serious with it 2 years ago and now an active trader. I am a trend follower. Since I have a day job, I only focus on the daily and weekly time frame.

I am thankful and fortunate enough to have been invited to join D-League. Learning how to effectively trade is exciting yet daunting. Learning is oftentimes in isolation thus a community like D-League is a breather. It’s nice to have a community where you can ask about some techniques that I could not fully grasp or validate some experiences that I’ve had. I think those were the main reasons why I joined D-League.

The first D-League training session was held last July 20, 2019 however, even prior to that, the team, headed by @taylor, @anima, and @meflores, has been generously sharing their knowledge. I highly appreciate those Sunday online sessions that I have attended. I think the session last July 20 was just a continuation of what they have started with D-League, to share their trading style with the public. The discussion was very casual with topics that circulated around what came from the individual stock chart analysis but the emphasis was in the Rule of 3 and some topics on Elliott wave theory.

$IDC was one of the stocks that was analyzed during session. Convinced by the principle of the Rule of 3 and the Elliott Wave Theory, I followed the recommendation and bought the said stock last July 22. I bought the said stock with a trading plan in mind because the team reiterated that the price is king, which means that the current bias may also be wrong. I was preparing to cut my position the following day yet the price soared which gave me the impression that the bias was right. The following day, July 24, the price retraced to a level that has been previously discussed in the community and I was able to add to my position through an O-H order. With bewilderment, when I checked the price after the close of the market, I knew that the price had already bounced and I held unto it. Last August 2, I already sold my positions. Just in time for the Open Journal Premium Group launching, I gained a substantial amount of money to pay for the 1-year subscription. It was a good trade to start my journey with Elliott Wave.

Find out more about the Open Journal here: www.investagrams.com/p/openjournal


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