Institutional Equivalent Education?

I ve tried to contact them but via their formualr on website, which always showed unknown error...
Based on the list I ve posted I came to conclusion, that cheapier one has almost all tools and more expensive has two additional tools. No idea how old is this list

I am going to contact em now with the email you ve provided, thank you..

Anyways, are u user of those tools? Maybe u could provide me some informations, screenshots

The 'tools' are useless without the knowledge of how to use them - just like any too, even a hammer or a screwdriver!
But yes even though I don't scalp, I do use some of the Often Order Flow indicators.
However I'm not allowed to explain how to use them to people who aren't students of Ray - so I can't discuss them in a public forum like this.
Showing screenshots without an explanation would be pointless.

Kim from CompassFX said she would try to contact you via email.

Do you both understand (in general) what this tweet means ?
It is from Ray's subscription site for advanced students.



If you don't, then do you you now feel that you don't know enough to make proper use of the indicators he designed without first getting some more education?


For novices I will explain a little. Perhaps it will open up a glimpse to a whole new world of how the big institutions trade.

Beta is something that most stock traders are familiar with. It is price movement which is correlated with that of the overall market.
Alpha in trading terms is Price movement which is uncorrelated to that of the overall market i.e. something which a good investment manager/trader generates by skill rather than hanging on the coattails of the market.

So what does Ray mean when talking about Alpha in this way?
Well what we as smaller retail traders need is to recognise when and where (at which prices) the big institutions are trading so we can trade along with them.
Why we need to do that is obvious, their volume moves markets and ours can't do that, so we would be crazy to trade against them!

But we have a big problem: There are 3 different trading styles that they might use.
1. 'Market Makers' they trade on the other side of the orders we tend to place - Market Orders. They make most money when price continues to trade within a tight range so they can continuously buy and then sell for (or 2) ticks higher; or to sell and then buy for 1 (or 2) ticks lower.
They hate trends, so they will try to minimise/avoid trading too much when the see the signs of one developing. Ray teaches us how to recognise their action and when they are no longer happy to trade.
2. 'Prop Desks' or 'Momo Algos' These look to detect a trend and trade along with it for as far as it runs. Ray teaches us how to use the same criteria that they do so as to be able to execute trades right alongside them.
3.'Commercials' These are the guys that really move the markets. But they are mostly 'Hedgers', they will hedge trades in one market with trades in the opposite direction in a correlated market which has got far enough out of sync so that it provides a worthwhile potential profit if it (or better still both) move back to a comparative 'fair value'.
Worse still, 'Commercials' are big - so getting their customary size on can take hours, days, even weeks. During which time they will usually manipulate price so persuade others that they are accumulating trades on the opposite side to what they are really doing in order to persuade others to enter trades in the wrong direction - so the Commercial can pick up the opposite side of those trades.

This is why Ray talks about seeing Alpha and measuring Alpha - is it enough for the 'Commercials' (or for the 'Momo Algos') to be interested?
We are taught that only then should we watch for signs that they are active and trade alongside them.

Off topic, but how about instead of just making money from it.
Why not help by joining international volunteer group to stop the Covid-19 outbreak?
See this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/sta...67530638282752
They have a group Slack workspace, which I have joined, for organising and sharing ideas.

They are looking for organising skills, technical skills down to people to deliver food to those self isolating and vulnerable, or just people with contacts/influence to find others with skills etc.

OK, back to trading.
Ray like many other mentors teaches that when you take a Sop-Out, if the trade is still valid (usually both Value, Price Action and Volume where Ray is concerned), then you should look for the next valid entry.

Non-Disclosure prevents me showing how Ray teaches this, but here is the same subject being covered by Lance Beggs of Your Trading Coach:

************************************************************************************************
Hi Traders,

You're stopped out. But the trade premise remains valid. I say get back in.

But I know it's hard to do, if you're still learning and not 100% confident with your edge.

The best thing to do in that case is step back. And take some time to actually prove (or disprove) your re-entry edge.

Today, we'll look at how to do that.

Proving Your Edge in Re-entry!

Those who have followed YTC for a while will know that I'm a big fan of re-entry.

It's a personal preference. I much prefer a tight stop and the need for occasional re-entry, over a wider stop that might give a trade a whole lot of room to prove itself.

I typically allow two attempts at a trade. If the first is stopped out and the premise remains valid, I'll often seek a way back in. (NOTE: The premise MUST remain valid. We don't just try to re-enter every stopped out trade!)

I wasn't always comfortable doing this, in the early days.

And I know for a fact that many readers find it difficult as well.

From a mindset perspective, it asks that you put aside the fact that you just lost money on this very same trade idea, and place more money at risk.

And your thought process is probably fixated on the idea of "what if it loses again?"

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Continued in next post.

re-entries continued from previous post ...








Consider this - I could lose on my next four to five re-entry trades and I'd still be in front.

Edge doesn't require that you win on every trade.

There will be winners and losers. Both are fine. As long as your stats prove edge over a larger series of trades.

So if you struggle with re-entry, with thoughts of "what if it loses again" leading far too often to hesitation and doubt, maybe consider the following plan.

For the next twenty re-entry trades, let's try to prove once and for all whether they do provide you with edge.

Like this:

(1) Create a new copy of your Trading Journal Spreadsheet with one setup - "RE-ENTRY". The aim is to initially keep the stats separate from other setups and from other trading.
(2) Do NOT take re-entry trades live. There should no longer be any thoughts of "what if it loses again" because... who cares if it loses... you're not really in the trade.
(3) Take the trade either on sim (if your platform allows switching execution between live and sim) or else just on paper.
(4) Track the results in your separate Trading Journal Spreadsheet.
(5) And prove, over that sample of twenty trades, that you do have edge.

Or prove that you don't. At least then you know for sure. And you can either abandon the idea or use the data you just gathered to find a way to improve and build edge where there currently is none.

Nothing improves trade decision making and confidence like actually SEEING proven edge over a series of trades.

And if you want to continue to monitor this going forward, as you start taking them live, maybe you could continue to track re-entry trades separate from other setups. Make "RE-ENTRY" its own setup. This allows you to continue to monitor the edge over further samples of data. And hopefully, if the edge is proven, continue to build confidence in this highly valuable trading skill.

If you lack confidence in your re-entry edge, the best way forward is to test that edge. Commit to a full series of re-entry trades on sim, alongside your normal trading. Record results. And review.

Twenty re-entries minimum.

Go for it.

Lance Beggs


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Now of course Ray and his Sharp Edge students would have made an earlier initial entry than Lance uses, so worst case that first trade (the loser for Lance) would have been a win for Sharp Edge students on the first unit and either a Break Even or a +1 on the second (or more) unit(s).

One Sharp Edge re-entry possibility would have been similar to what Lance took - so he isn't a bad trader!

Today I've been alerted to an unfortunate situation.
In energyexch.com which is a FF associated site, a Sharp Edge student has been complaining about the posts of another Sharp Edge Student.
The complainor has PM'd me to request that I prevent (not sure exactly how) the other student from posting things which the first student believes breach the Sharp Edge Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

Worse still the complainor has been taking extreme measures to 'protect their investment':
They have been attacking and trying to rubbish the other's posts.
In other words they have been lying by saying that the Sharp Edge course material doesn't work.
In the full knowledge that it does and that they are making money using it!

This is not the way to do things guys!

If anybody feels that some other student of a course (any course not just Sharp Edge) feels that another student is breaching the course NDA, they should A).Contact the person involved and share their feelings.
B). Contact the course provider about it.
C). Post saying that they feel that the course NDA is being breached and that reading the other person's posts is not the equivalent of actually taking the course!

A good email from Lance Beggs (of Your Trading Coach) because no matter how good our analysis, sometimes we are bamboozled by the markets due to being unaware of the bigger players current game-plan:
********************************************************************************
When Obvious Expectations Are Wrong

There is market opportunity available when "obvious" expectations turn out to be WRONG.

You've no doubt experienced this. Those times when the market provides almost certain evidence that it IS going somewhere... but then it doesn't.

I can promise you - if you sense these "obvious" expectations then you're not the only one. Others will sense it too.

And the stronger the feeling, the better. Because more people will act on it.

And then when it fails... there's your opportunity.






Continued in the next post....

When 'Obvious' expectations are wrong continued from previous post...






Opportunity exists at the places where a lot of people get it WRONG.

So when you sense a sudden shift in the market sentiment... that surely must lead to obvious movement (through a key level or in a new direction), take a pause for a second.

Maybe it will follow through with these obvious expectations. Project ahead and plan how you will react.

But also - keep in the mind the fact that obvious expectations also fail.

And that can provide exceptional opportunity.

Project that forward as well. Visualise where and how that might provide opportunity. And focus. Hopefully you will be ready to act, a little quicker than I was with this one.

Happy trading,

Lance Beggs

*********************************************************************************************************************

I really like this email because Lance is giving an example of
A). The we don't always get it right - even the very best.
B). You should never 'marry' an analysis or a trade.
c). There can be good profits to be made even when your analysis is wrong - provided you can recognise the opportunity.

SInce I have previously given Lance a hard time about his entries, this time I want to say that as a non-scalper, there is no way I could have achieved a better entry than he did.

Hi there, I have made a list of videos from Ray that I have interest.

I got this PDF "Ray_Catalogue" that has hundres of videos listed, I am attaching here on this post.

I am also attaching a .txt file with the list of videos I want from that PDF, how can I get them?

Thanks

Hi Gauer,
If you are a current Sharp Edge student or subscriber then you can find the majority of Ray's videos in the CompassFx Sharp Edge Members area.
But not all of the thousands of videos have been preserved - many of the early ones were of a poor quality of recording plus Ray's teaching style has improved as have the resources available for retail traders which he shows us how to use. If you can't find something that you feel you should have access to, then just ask Kim.

If you are a past Sharp Edge or Prop Time subscriber, then you can regain access to all the preserved videos by taking out a 1 month 'recordings only' subscription if you are only interested in the recordings and not the live room.

However for some reason I suspect that you are looking for unprotected copies of Ray's educational video, in which case I can't help you. If you think they are valuable enough then subscribe for Ray's course.

Boredom is a bigger problem these days with various Covid-19 'lockdowns' going on, so this email from Boris Sclossberg of BKForex is quite timely:
As usual, my comments are in BLUE
*****************************************************************************************
Dear Ian

3 Hardest Things to do in Trading


One.
The hardest thing to do in trading is not to trade

More money has been wasted on dumb, random trades in my life caused by boredom or impatience than anything else I’ve ever done in the markets. Markets are an auction and the very essence of the auction process is to tilt you into making a false decision in the heat of the moment. We’ve all been to auctions. We’ve all made dumb buys. The difference with day trading is that we put ourselves into an auction environment 10-20 times per day. This, and not anything else we do, is responsible for 95% of all mistakes we make. There is no easy solution to that problem, but step number one is to recognize that this is the problem.
* I agree 100%. One way around this for me a while back was to specialise in trades that only take place at certain times e.g News trading, Oil Inventories release trading, trading the Open of a major Session.

Two.
The second hardest thing to do in trading is to buy higher and sell lower.

We all pay lip service to trading trend, but everybody wants to be smarter than the crowd so we all try to pick tops and pick bottoms. The most popular YouTube video I ever made wasn’t called chase price because that is where the profits are. It was called picking tops and bottoms. Yet while selling weakness and buying strength may be painful at the start of the trade, its almost always the right thing to do in the end.
*For many people this is true, trading the MOMO is a style used by lots of Prop Desk traders. But although the majority of most people's trades should be with the trend, there are good techniques for determining when it is safe to Fade with the Commercials.
Each trader needs to evaluate which style(s) best suit their own personality, skills and resources - which is why i find educators like Boris are of no use to me because my personality, skills and resources are very different from his (or from any trading educator I have come across).

Three.

The third hardest thing to do in trading is to consistently maintain your original trade size.

You make a trade. It stops you out. What do you do? You get pissed. You double or triple up on the next trade hitting the buy/sell button in rage and now you are not only trading out of control but also way out of your risk zone. Even if you have a stop on - you don’t have risk control. That’s because risk control isn't determined by your stop (stops can be blown) but by your trade size. So there are only two ways to combat that problem. One way is only to trade with only 20% of your trading capital in the brokerage account while keeping the rest in the bank. This way when you blow up you won’t lose all your capital and you can work on improving your bad habits while still having enough money to trade. The other way is to never risk more than 30-50 basis points on any initial position you make being fully cognizant that when you start revenge trading with the larger size the drama will likely end up in a 5%-10% loss which will hurt but won’t kill you. Either way, assume there is 100% you will break your discipline and plan accordingly to stay alive in the markets despite your errors.
* I think that the vast majority of us have experienced this problem. The methods that Boris describes can work, as can limits on positions size, max loss per day, min account size required to trade etc. if these can be pre-set with your Broker on your account.

Happy Trading.
B
******************************************************************************************************************************************

I have been asked about how the various Institutional players manipulate the market. I have now completed my answer (as much as I can without breaking the NDAs I have signed).
Here is a link to that answer which comprises of 9 posts starting with this one:
https://www.forexfactory.com/showthr...12870250#reply

Five years later... Does anyone graduate from "The School of Ray?"

A few do, but mainly because they start trading for Institutions and so can't keep being in his room. The others see no reason to 'graduate from the post grad school of Ray'

For me it is 6 years, and I'm still learning plus even if he stopped doing new markets, techniques, correlations etc. I would still have several years of learning for markets that I deliberately ignored in order to focus and become good at my niches - Bonds Options, individual stocks, Gamma Scalping, legging into Hedged Trades etc.

The ongoing monthly cost of the room and of SmartAlpha is small compared with even the daily profit, so why not keep learning from the best educator in the business?
The only possible reasons for not doing so are:- 1. Being employed by an institution.
2. Getting bored with trading.
3. Serious physical or mental ill health such as dementia making it impossible or inadvisable to trade.

I came across more in answer to hostwey's question about graduating as a trader:

On the face of it this podcast by Dr Rangan Chatterjee with Tom Bilyeu is more about weight loss and using dietary means to 'cure' medical conditions than about trading. However it's applicable to all parts of our lives: adopt a 'growth mindset', take personal responsibility, always be open to learning.
It is over 1hr 30min long but I found it fascinating.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...333552422?mt=2
There are some other ones which are also useful for traders.

Over 2 posts, the latest from Lance Beggs:
************************************************************************************
YTC Trading Newsletter - 1st May 2020

 

1. The Day After a Bad Performance Day
2. YTC Price Action Trader - Feedback
3. Intra-Session Mindset

Hi Traders,

Last week we looked at a session that caused me some troubles.

This week, let's continue by seeing how I managed my mindset to ensure any negativity was not carried into the next session.

Happy trading,

Lance Beggs.

The Day After a Bad Performance Day

Last week we looked at a session that caused me some troubles. See here if you missed it - Good Trading Isn't Just About Winning Trades.

It wasn't a losing day. A "bad" day isn't necessarily a losing day. This one profited. Cycling from negative to positive and back again to negative and then to positive, before I finally called it a day.

What makes it a "bad" day was my poor performance.

My poor decision making. My poor execution.

It happens. I just wasn't with it that day.

Sometimes I can brush it off easily. Especially when it didn't lose.

Laugh at myself. Get over it. And move on.

But other times... like this time... that's not so easy.

Perhaps it's the ongoing COVID-19 isolation fatigue? Who knows?

All I know is that I can't let it infect the next session.

So here's the plan for "The Day After a Bad Performance Day":

I can't do anything to influence the market, obviously. So the focus needs to be on me and on my interaction with the market. The things that I can control.

Fixing your Mindset

The problem here is simply that the mind is "stuck". It's anchored to the negative outcome from one single session.

We can fix this with two steps:

(1) Let's shift the mind from its current negative feelings to something more positive.

I recommend you keep a folder containing printouts (charts, trades, stats, whatever) that show examples of you at your absolute best. A "highlights" folder. Best trades. Best sessions. Equity curves overcoming drawdown.

And most importantly for our current situation, include at least one example covering two sessions where poor performance in the first session was followed by good performance in the second.

Keep this in your trading room. It will become your GO-TO tool for shifting focus quickly.

A reminder that the performance yesterday was an aberration. And that you are capable of so much more - because you've done it before.

And if you haven't done it before, then make it up. Because you WILL in time. You just haven't done it yet. Perhaps two printouts of yesterday's performance, one showing actual results and one showing ideal performance. It's something you may not have achieved yet but you know you damn well can next time.

A "highlights" folder. Create one if you don't have one.

And then use it.

(2) Let's shift the mind away from its single-session focus.

Yesterday was one day. If all goes well, I'll be trading a few thousand more days over coming decades. Yesterday is insignificant.

Take a calendar or diary covering at least a year into the future. And skim forward in time and have a look at a whole lot of days to come. And ask yourself, given all those days available to improve on your recent performance, does yesterday really matter?

And then turn today's page. This is the only day that matters now. And it's a blank sheet. And it offers a perfect opportunity to create a new entry in your "highlights" folder, as you follow up yesterday's poor performance with an example of you trading at your best.

Planning your Interaction with The Market

The aim here is to simply ensure you get the session off to a good start. That doesn't necessarily mean a winning trade. The outcome is somewhat out of our control. But it means A GOOD TRADE.

However you define them. An A+ Trade.

One that you would be happy to print and put on your wall. One that you would be happy to screenshot and send to me.

Even if it loses. A trade that you know that you HAD to take. It had edge. It was the right thing to do at that time and that place.

To give yourself the best chance of achieving this, you need to slow down. Be comfortable with no trades at all, until sufficient structure is in place such that you have a GOOD READ on the market and are completely in sync with the price movement. No trades at all, until you find one that you'd be happy to take if you were only allowed to take one trade this day.

That's all you need:

1. Focus on the positives by skimming through your "highlights" folder.
2. Recognise yesterday as insignificant in the context of a multiple-decade career. And see today as an opportunity to add to your "highlights" folder.
3. And then slow yourself down. Commit to no trades, until the market is screaming out to be traded with an A+ trade opportunity.

So let's trade...

Lance Beggs YTC email continued ...

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There were no real secrets here in managing my performance, on the day after a bad performance day. Just a short process to get my mindset right. And to take my time, happy with no trades at all if conditions were poor. Waiting and watching until a trade set up that I knew I could look back upon in the post-session and say with 100% certainty that it's a good trade. Win or lose, it wouldn't matter.

I guess the obvious comment is: "Shouldn't all trades be like that? And shouldn't all sessions be traded with this patience?"

Yeah, sure!

But let's be real.

They're not all like that. There are always going to be some that are a bit questionable.

The aim on a day after a bad performance day, is to just slow down a little and make sure that the first trades today are NOT questionable at all.

Three simple steps:

1. Focus on the positives by skimming through your "highlights" folder.
2. Recognise yesterday as insignificant in the context of a multiple-decade career. And see today as an opportunity to add to your "highlights" folder.
3. And then slow yourself down. Commit to no trades, until the market is screaming out to be traded with an A+ trade opportunity.

Happy trading,

Lance Beggs
*****************************************************************************************************************************

Ray and others who have a military background often talk about taking ownership and of being aggressive in the context of trading. But what is aggression?
Here are 2 videos of Jocko Willink talking about Extreme Ownership and How To Be Aggressive When It's NOT Natural.

First Taking Ownership:

Inserted Video

Note that he doesn't make excuses or try to shift blame.
Like one US president said about people passing the buck: 'The buck stops HERE!'

Much in trading depends upon a certain amount of Luck - but knowing that a good trader plans for what to do when things to go wrong!


Secondly about being Aggressive:

Inserted Video

Note that here Jocko is talking about aggression as Taking Action, and the value of having a Default Aggressive mode.
Being aggressive in trading doesn't just mean being Greedy!

Do you want to learn how to scalp PriceAction and Orderflow? -'Read the Tape' ?
Or just get a low cost 'taster' to see if Ray's full Sharp Edge course is worthwhile for you?
Compass are offering another Ray mini-course through out June. The 'Early Bird' offer is just $99.

What you get is Money Mondays live with Ray at 11am Eastern Time. That is for all 5 Mondays in June starting with June 1st.

I will be taking it, because even after all these years I'm still no scalper. Until now I have been happy with my value swings and News-trading styles alone.

What CompassFx say:
********************************************************************************************************************************
Why Signup Today...It's Ray!
Get 24/7 Access to start your training now with Valuable Bonus Classes.

Exclusive EARLY BIRD VIP ACCESS with Fast Action Bonuses Expires Monday

1. Institutional Bank Trade Exercise and Market Maker Game Process On-Demand
2. Prepare to roll up your sleeves and get on your charts and do the work...yes, work.
3. Buy/Sell Bank Trade Programs
4. The Auction Process
5. Level 1 and Level 2 Liquidity
6. Volume
7. Price

(Learn to Trade Successful and Failed Auctions, Identifying Liquidity and Understanding Volume and Price with Institutional Tactics and Strategies)

You’re probably wondering what this will cost...
You will be blown away...we want to start a trade movement and Ray wants to bring the “Lost Art of Reading the Tape” to all traders and we’ve made this offer super valuable and really, really special...In fact, all of this for ONLY $99
Sign Up before Ray realizes he's lost his mind with such a crazy offer!
Ray will show you “how to grow a small account bar by bar”...know when you are getting a good price, value, price discount, premium and volume to lean against with price action and order flow.
Let’s do this traders, “Reading the Tape” Live with Ray is Brand New, we’ve never offered exclusive access to trade with Ray and we’re excited to bring this valuable skill to traders...this truly is the cornerstone to all trading regardless of the market you trade or your trade plan, this skill is not exclusive for scalping.
Let’s do this traders, let’s trade together...join the Trade Movement, do the Challenge.
****************************************************************************************************************

Links:
Video:
https://compassfx.com/master-trading-training/

Signup and Details:
https://compassfx.com/master-trading-training/reading-the-tape/

Tweet from Ray about the mini course :

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