 Hi guys, Anthony here as you can see from home. So still operating fully online at the moment First of all, I hope you and your family and friends are all well in these obviously difficult times But hopefully some tips and advice that we can share from you from a markets perspective and certainly from trading And risk management. We did a really great webinar at the beginning of July and I had some great feedback So I really wanted to just take that private webinar and share it with you guys publicly It goes into things like the actual amplified trading process that we get all of our traders to do is their core kind of foundation of Their strategy development. So hopefully you find it interesting Hopefully as well it is a benefit to your trading performance and your further development going forward any questions Of course, just feel free to leave a comment and remember to like and subscribe to the channel We really love the engagement and the growing of our community online So thank you everyone for that and enjoy the session. Thank you To kick things off We have what we call an amplified process, which is the way of which our guys would approach Any trade of which they take And it would go through basically a sequence starting from the top, which is fundamental analysis And that's in itself a little bit unique, I guess to us. We would be classified as a global macro discretionary multi-asset trading firm I know that's a bit of a mouthful but in layman's terms what that basically means is global macro We are looking at the overall Events that are happening in the world that have influence over markets So whether that's COVID trade war Brexit these types of issues So we are using that as a key component formulating our trade strategies our analysis Fundamentally of what we think about these subjects to create a directional bias We then move that to technical analysis, which is kind of the Probably the most Regular form of how a non-professional or retail trader would trade which is using various different Technical indicators, but again, that's crucial for us to create a framework of how our guys would formulate then an Action basically a fundamental view they have on markets Developing and building their strategy execution of the strategy And this is really those two steps where the risk management side of things will come in of which Sam can go into more detail Exiting the trade and then reviewing the trade is the sequence. So One of the main I Guess regular things as feedback from the retail trading community that we hear is a common mistake is over trading I'm kind of just trading price movement without really Understanding the reasoning behind it and inherently then that leads to lots of false kind of breakouts and price movement And that can lead to over trading mismanagement of trades These types of common mistakes what this process basically enables you to do then is to Have a process in place that keeps you honest Then that you are following a correct procedure Before initiating any trade idea not only that it requires a period of self-reflection both From a data point of view. So this is where Alex does such a great job with our traders is really developing Accumulation of information about your performance, you know, what did you trade? When did you trade it? How did you trade it? What was the technique? What was your what was your execution against its intended? place You know, what was the circumstance all these different things get monitored reviewed and Backtested and then we can refine your performance from there. So if you think about it if you are adopting this type of strategic approach You are in a sense Able to effectively control what it is that you're doing and hopefully make more appropriate actions Moving on then next steps, I'm going to just quickly go through and I'm going to summarize this and then because really I think The quality information is going to come from Sam when he talks about some of these points From the people that he works with closely every day. So from a fundamental perspective to talk through every one of those points just quickly Fundamentals can either be broken down into two distinct sections a scheduled and unscheduled elements So these would be things like your daily economic calendar data Speakers anything that can effectively influence the market unscheduled Would be things There are unplanned But I mean, I'm sure some of the pilots can probably Testify to this is that you can strategically plan for the unexpected With markets, for example, there are certainly a number of hot topics that are very influential at this point in time So rather than kind of clouding your judgment and thinking about every single permutation You can think about what are the most highest probability Scenarios that could effectively materialize and then from that you can start to then extrapolate or what are the potential Strategies that I could need to prepare for and within that then Creating a hierarchy of what would be our kind of base case scenario down to things that would be say Secondary lower probability events all of this though Defining a predetermined course of action that you would take under these situations So with unscheduled news, definitely, I think you can prepare for that And this is really an area where I would work personally with the guys a lot on during our training program because This is an area which is very difficult to learn from a textbook because ultimately the fundamentals are changing All of the time and unlike a fixed technical level in printed on a chart and fixed in History fundamentals can have different implications for prices depending on What's been priced into markets essentially? So that's fundamentals by going through your your process Ultimately are trying to define whether or not you want to be long-sure or not in that market Which is a perfectly adequate assumption to make Upon going through your kind of due diligence So directional bias long or short the tentacle analysis situation Charting time periods and again, I'm going through this very quickly. So the guys who do Train with us. We will go through this in a lot more detail, but to give you a top level Start with higher time frames. What is the bigger picture? Don't get too absorbed with you know tick-for-tick price action where the world looks like it's changing rapidly minute-by-minute Always best to start big and then come in in that regard. So looking at the weekly daily picture Then looking at the more defined Kind of one hour price action half an hour price action 15 minute price action and so on Different technical tools. There's obviously lots of them We are amplifier not here to say this is the best tool Thou must use this tool. That's not how we operate. We we essentially equip our guys with knowledge about how each one is best used and in what conditions and then it's about the trader really Utilizing these as and when they see fit, but naturally given that Self-reflection period Traders will tend to gravitate towards liking a certain type of setup that they'll probably deploy more often than not So that's the technicals different time periods combining different tools obviously from a conviction point of view the more Flags you get from a technical point of view if you have multiple signals all firing at the same time indicative of the same course of action Then that's when you've got a high conviction rate and you can trade with bigger size for example Building the strategy. This is when it comes then down to the more of the nitty-gritty and I guess this is when a lot of this starts to play into then The psychology but also the risk managing that is the entry price The accuracy is key Identifying your most optimal point of getting into a trade You'll stop Quantifying your risk. These are all the things that Sam's going to talk about in a moment Managing that trade Whether proactively depending on market conditions depending on whether you're intraday or swing trading We'll all have different repercussions about how you would want to handle the execution and management of that trade So that's your framework Your execution the placement of the orders. I Guess the one I like best about this top box is this idea very simplistic about Do not hesitate And this is a very important point with trading, you know You go through this process to try and eliminate Irrationality that if you've done a structural process of fundamentally and technically assessing a situation Then there is no need to hesitate and that's easier said than done and will come with practice and Repetition but the idea here is that markets are currently always in flux and moving and you need to be in a position Where you've got to hit the button With with absolute conviction in order then to facilitate that trade in its most optimum Point which is then getting the fill of where you want now Sometimes there's different ways to exercise a trade whether at market price or whether limit orders and so on but the idea here is you know Fundamentally you have to take risk in order to trade and then it's about managing that and that's obviously where the management The trade comes in patience It's kind of them that Resonating word that you hear again and again with successful trading is patience I was just talking to a group of interns not that long ago and we were talking about this idea of one good trade And that's all it takes you know less is more almost in this sense of the practicality of actually putting a trade on You know, it's about having that one good opportunity And exercising it executing it in the correct fashion is all it takes You know more effort doesn't equate to more profit in this sense So having the patience as well to just Have the confidence in letting the market play out Obviously common mistakes would be having too tight a stop loss changing your mind moving the trade around as it's developing perhaps in an inappropriate way so Again, these are all common things and Sam's going to develop that conversation in the moment And that's that's really the the overall Situation I mean the rest here that is exiting the trade Tiding up your order book and then reviewing and repeating And this hopefully is a is a good overview of generally The very top level about the approach of which our guys follow And a discipline to this approach in order that then they're making a Selective decision to trade the most high quality opportunities that present themselves day to day All right, Sam. Do you want to come on and talk about the these sections and from here forward? Yeah, absolutely Yeah, I could do the slides from here if that makes life easier or yeah Let's do it. Um, yeah, if you want to get all of these these up I don't think well would go from one by one and so Yeah, like Anthony said, I started out my trading career If you like with Amplify over five years ago now and and then went away Traded myself traded in a small fund and then came back to to Amplify as a sort of junior mentor and Progress through then so I've worked with well, I guess Thousands maybe of of traders over the years and and seeing obviously some good good habits and bad habits So this this will be sort of on risk management going over some common mistakes That I see and then I've also made myself So, you know on the the talk of risk management will be and I've seen there's some good questions in the Q&A so Alex can can answer those as and when by typing and also I can address those at the end as well No problem, but one of the main things I see Happen and we're all guilty of this early on it's trading with with no real plan I mean sometimes you've got to go through the pain to realize, you know, it's not the right thing to do but I do a study with with the traders and on our career program where I give them You know after they trade in the morning to tell me their best idea and We then review it at the end of the day and if they had stuck to that, you know I did where they stuck to their process the trade results would be a lot better than maybe All this is when they sort of trade on a whim having no real plan Reacting to no for five-minute candle that goes up. Okay. I'm gonna buy and so on so yeah I think it's I always say if people ask me what the most important things for the trading I say discipline and routine and if you've got no real plan Then you don't have the other two other two either having no maximum loss limit portrayed or day This is important. It really is if you're not in tune with the market So you've got to know when to stop now your max loss limit per trade Or day is up to you, you know, there is no it has to be this it has to be that From a personal point of view, I don't risk more than 1% on a trade Some people will say 2 or 5% again up to you Some people will do it as just a straight monetary value, but it's keeping that consistent It's not allowing yourself to go over having that routine before you get in a trade is key But also after good trade. I've gone for a walk bad trade I've gone for a walk free losing trades on a product That means I'm way out of touch with the market and I don't want to be in it anymore So having a it's very important to set that loss limit knowing when to stop Before you then decide to go all sorts of crazy Emotions are out of control and it can really lead to the blowing up of accounts Next one adding to a losing position We've all heard about the the intraday trade that turns into a swing trade where you buy a position This is say there, you know nice area of support. You really like it You've got maybe a bit of a fundamental bias that it goes higher. It goes lower, but you still think you're right Okay, well, let me just add a bit here Let me add a bit more. I'm so confident. This is going to go higher. Well, hang on next thing You know headline comes out. We pushed lower. Well, I still believe it You know what I'm gonna leave this on for a couple of days. We're all guilty of it at the beginning I've done exactly the same thing And it can be painful you keep the worst thing that can happen with this as you get away with it early on You have this false. So you're better than the market You know, you saw that with with with traders at the beginning of the year sort of February March time We have long equity positions that have got away a bit so long when then suddenly we drop fake percent and people's accounts get blown up So, you know start with that stop-loss, which will come on too later on You're wrong and just accept that Next one to go through on the list You just press next and sneak me Moving a stop during a trade. Yeah Yeah, one of the key things is, you know, you're you're in a losing trade It's coming towards your stop and people don't want to accept that they're wrong and a lot of this comes because they got into a trade But they didn't really think about it If you can get into every single trade where you have already decided Where the trade is no longer valid, you can kind of already get into the habit of accepting The defeat you've accepted the loss if that happens fine. I knew that I knew that if the trade If the market price went to this level one wrong anyway However, when people start moving the stop is suddenly that risk reward gets skewed suddenly you're putting more strain on the wind percentage And it gets bigger losses that plays with the emotions and then you drive straight back into a trade and it can really You know spiral out of control Next one next common mistake To to go through here is not knowing when to stop you know, I see this with new traders that a Common thing they'll do is get in and losing have a losing trade which might even been of a nice trade to get in And then they get in again and then again and it's you feel like the market owes you something and really you've just Paid for the information you paid for the lesson now stick to your routine and go from there But not knowing when to stop is is one of the most important things that a trader needs to realize and decide that What is your loss limit for the day? What is the loss limit for the week? This is it's a long game trading as we all know. It's not about five trades. It's not about ten trades It's over the course of the year at tight You're gonna have days where you're absolutely not in tune with the market your edge doesn't work decide when that happens and move on And trading over news volatile periods, you know, if you're already in a trade and you decide all this is have a little gamble here and hold it over Over, you know, this is something I see happen a lot and again The worst possible thing that can happen is that it works because then you size up Then the losses will be get bigger when you eventually do get stopped out and your luck runs out As well now next one taking on multiple Correlated trades at the same time My my personal opinion is Certainly on the intraday basis. I don't want to be in more than two markets at one time I also don't really want to be in say two dollar related positions at one time because effectively you are doubling down Especially if the dollar is is the main driver for that day and those markets are correlated So this could be an issue I see with traders where they end up getting five ideas Enter them all at the same time too much is going on and one comment can change that all when you get stopped out And suddenly you've lost five trades if you then risk in two percent suddenly you lost ten percent of your capital And that can really then lead to these emotions again and psychology takes over all of this is summarized by not really having any rules or any guidelines and I really encourage and we really encourage traders here to Make sure they have their own routine the process that Anthony went through is our way of going through you know each trade from the beginning taking our time and Obviously to trade it can you know tweak things here and there as well But yeah having no rules no guidelines thinking you can just sort of come in and click buy click sale based on what can happen Eventually it's going to catch up with you Moving on to Sort of how to rip this risk manage these trades good bits of advice Ask yourself how much am I risking on this trade? Is it going to be a percentage from now on? Is it going to be an art that are amount that monetary value that people talk about if you always decide in your trades? I'm never going to lose more than it's to say a hundred pound you've controlled your risk Then all you've got to work on now is how much am I looking to make what is my win percentage? What are my stats telling me? What is my best market if you control that risk every single time? Happy days, and you can start accepting these losses are part and parcel. They're part of the process The moment you start moving stops the moment you think you know what I'm gonna risk 4% on this trade Because I've had two losers is when it goes out of control Next one Start with a stop loss one of the best pieces of advice I got I got told is start with your stop decide when this trade is wrong and Then where you decide then to enter can you afford this trade? That is it more than 2% is it more than a hundred pound a hundred dollars a thousand Whatever you decide that monetary value at the stop to be because if it is You can't take that trade Next one am I near risk limits for the day for the week that you've set yourself If you are if this losing trade would take you over that again, you can't take that trade discipline and routine and You should what my advice would be always have a checklist eventually that becomes Autonomous of course with experience, but if you're taking your time every single trade To review it follow the process. You're gonna stand yourself in better stead going forward Have I stuck to my plan whether that be the act by trading process and routine or your own one that you follow And this is you know, this is based on intraday trading, but I follow my Same process for medium term swing trading or if I were to look at a stock as well the moment I decide to differ from that Effectively, I'm gambling. I'm going away from what I know works and why enough would I do that? So you've got to keep reminding yourself be in control of what you do and you know We're the losing trade if I've sucked to the process like I've said, I've already accepted that that could happen Where will I be coming out this trade for a win? You know a lot of this we're talking about controlling the losses, but you want to be thinking about you know, where the Winning part of this trade comes from where are my targets? Are they realistic? Reviewing your trade journal can help so much with risk management. You know, what is the optimal amount? Am I coming out too early? Am I leaving a lot on the trade each time? When I interfere, is it the wrong thing to do? Understanding this is very key going forward Also, you know, just sort of carrying on that point to look at the stats when reviewing is Is incredibly useful You definitely do get people that are of the view that a trade journal isn't really that helpful anymore But certainly at the beginning of a trading career, it really really can be Helpful, I think it's imperative personally, you know, you want to look at things like if you just click next, you know What is my best product to trade? You know people will will a lot of the time think I'm wicked in this market I last year I could have you know sworn I'd be really good at trading euro pound or pound against the dollar just because you know I have this this view that pounds to keep going higher into the election and and while it did a lot of the time I was trying to get in too early and that turned out to be one of my worst markets So the stats can tell you what your best that stick to what you're best at Also, what's the best time of the day for you to trade your edge that you've developed that when you stick to your Process has the best chance of working. Is it a certain day? Is it when there is no central bank meetings? Is it after a cash open this information will help with the risk management? Also, do I trade news better or worse? These things are important. Do I trade momentum strategies better? Do I trade better when I have more than one or two technical studies? These things the stats can tell you are just so so influential on your trading and have you back tested your idea Alex Here, you know, he absolutely loves back testing and it's so important And why would you take on a strategy with real money without knowing as it worked previously? While you can build up your stats, you can have an ideas journal and stuff like that Go back and see does it work? When does it work best? And then you can obviously pick and choose little bits of that information as well Moving on to sort of real real time examples You know if I was to to be looking at a chart now, you know, one of the things I've always want to be be thinking is Is there anything that is coming out? So obviously right now there's no Big data that's left in the day. But is there anyone speaking? Is Donald Trump about to come on the wires? Is there, you know, any further comments after Rishi Sunak's talk earlier today? These are the type of things that I'd be thinking right now The cases in America, for example, what are the percentages like day day on day week on week? These would be the questions I'd be asking right now I'd also think is the time of day appropriate for my expectations of where the trade could go Is there enough time left in the day for there to be a big move? Or or not, you know, if it was earlier on in the day midday, yes Maybe my trade idea could come in now. It's coming towards the well We've had the European close we're into the evening Is there much left or am I starting to wind down as the rest of the trading world does? as well If like I said it was early, I'd be choosing my area of interest thinking where could I get into the trade? Where's the Appropriate point that the market agrees with me where I've thought about my risk I can afford the entry to stop my targets are realistic and there's no headlines coming out Find this level for me. If we come here, I'm interested if not Fine lots of opportunity is better than lots of capital And other things to think about Where does my stock have to go to give me the best chance of winning the trade? You know protect your stock give yourself an area of support resistance Where you're giving yourself the best opportunity of getting in, you know, and then ask can you afford that? Can I afford having my entry where I want or actually to have my stop in the best place? Am I actually now risking more? Where should my targets go? What's my risk award? Is that consistent with the way that I trade? Um, am I putting more pressure on this wind percentage? Am I risking more than I would have to? Uh, does this look good risk awards similar to my profile? That kind of question is what I'd be asking right now And to be honest if any of those are no or unsure There's no trade the moment one of these you get flagged up fine move on Where is an area that suits the trades that I like to take stick to your edge? I think is the most important thing when people trade on a whim or combine too many strategies That's when it can get out of control. Um, so hopefully guys that uh, that helped a bit, uh there Um, and uh, I'll be having a look in the chat for for any questions And to Alex, I don't know if you guys want to want to say anything, but uh, yeah It's one of the most important things along with, you know, psychology once you can trade the courses the bill and end up But controlling that routine discipline risk management can really take trading to to the next level Before I just wrap up though and show you a few other useful resources that I can share with you guys, um peers Curran who is our head of trading and co-founder of the firm is with us on the call And so the topic has been risk management peers. I don't know whether from a very top level From your experience that you could um, just give a few words on that subject. Yeah, great Yeah, I'm sorry for late joining so I won't um, take up much time but other than to say the obvious which is You know, I definitely think ultimately If you don't master the management of risk then You're guaranteed to fail Um, there's lots of sayings in in trading, you know stuff like, you know, you gotta you gotta learn how to lose before you can learn how to To win from a profit point of view You know discipline I think the the hardest thing about trading certainly my experience and look, I've been been trading for 20 years and It's obviously very difficult to say the least from a sort of Consistency point of view and I've been involved and I've traded for different companies and I've been on You know on the professional side of the industry, you know, I've sat on big trading floors, you know, we're like 150 Traders and even on the professional side Um, you know, certainly on the prop trading side You know most fail Even though you're set up with professional systems, you've got professional risk managers monitoring you um Even in that environment, you obviously provided some training. I mean Back in the day when I started that trading was very limited But at least you got some guidance and you had some experienced traders in the room that you could kind of bounce ideas off and stuff But even in that environment actually most people didn't make it and And so if you don't have all of that support and you're kind of Don't try this on your own if you're on the retail side of the industry and you're You know, therefore most likely sat at home on your own trading Then of course the odds Are even more stacked against you and there's definitely one common theme every single person that fails There's one big common theme and that is they can't manage risk and that is not It's not necessarily their own fault. They can't manage risk because It's just the fact that human beings That they can't manage risk and I think if you haven't had any training in stuff like The psychology of decision-making under pressure if you haven't had any training around decision-making and And how that decision-making process changes depending on your emotional state So depending on whether you're you're in a trade that's losing money or if you're in a trade that's making money Actually your decision-making can be the exact opposite. The problem is we don't realize it because it's all driven by our kind of emotional Subconscious so most people fail because they can't manage risk Most people fail because they have no consistency in their performance and so you know, I would definitely say You've got to become you know dedicate yourself to understanding the importance Of discipline when it comes to managing risk. The thing is us human beings, unfortunately often Because risk management it's like rule setting and then it's sticking to the rules and unfortunately us humans We don't really like rules much and Rules are there to be broken, right? Well So, you know, it's kind of one thing To set rules for yourself because you know and you set these rules when you're not in a trade So you kind of sit at the start of the day and you go right or the start of the week or the start of the month or the start Of the year and you go right Okay, here are my rules here are my risk rules, right? I'm going to give myself I don't know a daily loss limit or I'm going to give myself A loss limit on any one trade or and these are rules you're setting for yourself, right? That's fine crucial that you do that. Unfortunately Most human beings then go break those rules And that's why you might set the rules in place, but in the end you still fall over So it's about the discipline Of implementing those rules and the problem is often we need a really negative personal experience That was very painful. So let's say we break a rule and we lose a lot of money All right, that is now an event that's in our brain. That is a painful moment and when it comes to The following day the following week the following month whatever and you're You're down to your stop loss limit for the day and you're thinking right. Shall I continue trading? I'm sure I can make this back God if I could just get back to break even then I'll stop You know if those thoughts start going to your brain you'll know that that's That's irrational emotional And you'll know that you need to stop book the last turn your computer off go away You you know you need to do that and you'll do it because of you can draw on the negative experience of the pain Of what happened when you broke that rule. So unfortunately for us humans you often need to Set the rules. Yes, but that's the easy part. It's actually sticking to them where That's where people make it or don't So that's what I would say Well, thank you very much Piers, um Quite a few comments here about your red t-shirt. Yeah. Well, it's actually Some people don't confuse that for arsenal, by the way It's amplified amplified Yeah All right, just uh, just to wrap things up then because we've now hit our finish time So just quickly for anyone who is new to amplify and isn't already doing so um You know, I'm pleased to say at this point we can we continue to put out a kind of regular content Which is freely available and and hopefully it serves as a good piece of education And there's a variety of different content So just search amphi training on youtube hit the subscribe button If you click that bell icon, you'll get notified whenever we post something I post daily content on a macro fundamental outlook Sam does a weekly technical look ahead for the week. It's particularly useful for anyone Who's working full-time perhaps and just wants to know the bigger levels and picture Eddie does a great series of videos where he explains kind of Quite a lot of popular topics. So he did have he actually someone asked a question about wire card He did a video about that and it's got 50 000 views for example So he's got some really great insight into some of these things. He did one the other yesterday about tiktok um, and also Uh, you heard it here first one of the tech team Milan is going to be dropping some uh tech related videos On the channel. So for anyone who's interested in algorithmic trading, what is it? You know dispelling dispelling some of the myths around say these types of concepts He's also going to be adding some content as well. So Hit subscribe follow us on youtube leave a comment on the videos the guys and I will always respond Other ways and means that are quite useful if you use twitter for following news and information Every morning I tweet out only the most important articles from bloomberg and reuters And I do that at 6 a.m. In the morning every morning So that can be an easy way to just Get accessible information that's very useful for trading and obviously you can look me up You can look Sam up the other guys. We're all on twitter Feel free to follow us so you can always reach out to us on there as well But hopefully the session was useful. Um for any of the pilots that joined us Thank you for joining if you didn't make Our final five selection I hope that our path to do cross and obviously if we can help in any way Please do get in contact, but that goes out to everyone who's joined us tonight So yeah other than that Thank you very much guys for giving up your time sam alex pierce liam Always a pleasure