Retail Trading | Smart Money

Keep cool!

This document comprises my personal notes and is intended for educational purposes only. It does not offer any financial advice. The primary aim is to share knowledge freely, and none of the content within should be construed as investment guidance.

Many new traders are misled by "Introducer Brokers," popular influencers on YouTube and other social platforms. These influencers have hidden motives, often due to profit-sharing deals with brokers ("market makers"), leading them to give biased advice. Biased advice, conflicts of interests… this creates what investment bankers call “dumb money”. If you take a look at the start page of EU-regulated CFD (Contract for Difference) brokers, you will see what I mean: 70-80% of all retail traders lose their money.

This isn’t necessary.

My standpoint and my definitions for this Wiki here:

• Day-trading (< 5d) isn’t necessarily profitable - volatility matters

  • in the EU, CFDs (Contract for Difference) are a valid financial instrument. In the USA, this is different. Also US options differ btw.. Keep that mind mind. This Wiki is based on EU rules.
    CFD brokers (in the EU) are regulated differently:
    a) they need to reserve liability
    b) auditable differences (no fake CFDs)

  • Scalping (second intervals with high levers) is for pro traders (years of profit, advanced systems)
    
    

• Swing-trading (20-120d) is 80% fundamentals (meso / macro-economics) and 20% technical

  • Quantitative Finance grows at the expense of these 20%, not at the expense of trend analysis

  • in the EU, Knockout and Lever Certificates are valid financial instruments

  • Technical Analysis tell you how others think, not how you should think
    
    

• Investment (120 - 1250d) (in stocks) imho makes sense if
  a) you have preferred stock options (“golden parachute”)
  b) or around 50,000 EUR in capital that you can invest for more than 6 months
  
  

• Options-trading in the EU is a valid financial instrument (as well as CFDs) if
  a) you want to invest more than 50,000 EUR
  b) you want to actively track the investment
  
  

• Hedging can be useful for larger positions and depots
  
  

• Crypto is just another asset class.

• Trading takes years to learn, and there are many instruments.

• Any tools, code : don’t use them, unless you know what you are doing.