As usual, thanks, Aksel. I use logarithmic charting for things like the crypto market or very long-term stock market. In futures, I use log scale to measure downside targets, but numeric scale to measure upside targets.

Our trading firm, Factor LLC, is a self-funded trading operation -- has been for decades now We do not attempt to pick tops and bottoms. We leave that to retail traders We only trade with the movement of the market and are very happy just to catch junks in the mid-section of moves We believe that is where the biggest chunks of profits are for us If we can catch even a third of a move we are happy

Last Monday members of TheFactorReport service were alerted to a pending up-thrust in the price of Brent North Sea Crude. Would this have been useful to you? See report here Become a member here

🇵🇱🇫🇷🇬🇧 MUST WATCH: Polish MEP @D_Tarczynski on Piers Morgan last night: Morgan: "You would not allow any Muslim immigrants?" Tarczyński: "Of course not. Islam is not compatible with Western values." Morgan: "So basically you would like Muslims banned from every European country?" Tarczyński: "Well I don't care about any other European country; I don't want them in Poland." Morgan: "What about France?" Tarczyński: "France is done. It's fallen. It's too late." Morgan: "Do you think England's fallen?" Tarczyński: "Yes." @piersmorgan / Writer: Michael

If you are interested in understanding the way I write my posts, please continue reading. If not... well, too bad for you! So, I remember very well how my start in the trading world began. I was a young professional with some surplus income. I Googled how to invest and lucky me, landed on some penny stock forums (sarcasm)! All I read was how great the idea was and that the company could only go up. I bought into the idea being sold to me. I had no knowledge of risk and money management or charts. I had no idea how stretched the price was from the moving averages. I just believed in the idea behind the company and put a lot of my savings into it. After some time, the price went up a little, and I felt like I was right, that the story was right. But then the price started falling, back to my entry price. I bought even more, reading the comments on the forums saying the price was about to go back up. But then, one night, I felt wrong. I could not sleep. My subconscious, for some reason, was telling me something was wrong. I was playing a game where I did not know all the rules. The next morning, I sold everything for a loss. Can't remember how much, but enough to scare me... Did I learn from this? Not immediately. After a while, I read about another can't miss idea, so I dumped a bunch of cash into it, totally having forgotten the ill feelings I had that one night while playing the other stock, buying too much of it. The price started going down below my entry, and I dumped it once again for a loss. From that point, my cousin recommended I read Stan Weinstein's Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets. Game changer! I learned that the fundamentals were meaningless, that the stories meant nothing if the price was not exhibiting characteristics of a big base breaking out. What helped me most were the stern words from @StanWeinstein13 and other traders like @PeterLBrandt. Rigid words, which could sound harsh to some. But these were words of experience. They had learned the hard way, and lucky for me, they decided to share their knowledge. All the permabulls are dangerous. If somebody never says the words "stay safe," "sell," or "wait this out on the sidelines," then they are dangerous. Any professional trader with longevity will tell you that defense wins the game. That is what I specialise in. I never enter at lows (which are only known with hindsight). I refined techniques to help me spot the lower-risk, higher-reward entry points. Where the odds of having the fastest gains, for the most sustained periods of time, are more likely. If the trade fails, I bail. Live to fight another day. The stock I trade will not get upset at me if I dump it. Only ego can hurt me. Do I come off as harsh sometimes? Sure, depends on the day, depends on whether I read stuff that starts to grind my gears! But the ones who had the sternest and most stubborn outlooks on objective and unbiased chart trading are actually the ones who helped me out the most. Not the cheerleaders who tell you to double down in a downtrend. Well, that is my journey, and hopefully this resonates with you. If you are reading this early in your trading journey, you can avoid the mistakes I made and spot the tourist traps! Patrick