I am back from the Moving Average workshop held by ChartNexus and delivered by core trainer, Jay Chia. Yes, he is also my remisier. As a friend, I am very proud to say that he has improved a whole lot over the past half year. His delivery is consistent, there is flow from one segment to another, and most importantly, clear and concise. There are one or two areas which I feel there’s room for improvement. There is always room for improvement mind you, even though you have done it many times. And I am gonna comment based on how I have seen others delivered. I will convey this to him privately but in a gist, yes, Moving Averages. Certainly very powerful even within my own trading system. The whole topic on MA all summarised in layman’s term in 1 hour. And that is key to a trainer. It is not hard to find someone who knows the topic. But to find someone who can deliver it to an audience of various backgrounds and ensure they understand what you have delivered, that is success. And Jay has certainly been able to do that. Practice makes perfect isn’t it? With a little help here and there with comments from critics. I like to learn this way too. Positive critics are extremely useful to improve.
There are loads of stuff shared in the workshop which I will not describe here as it is proprietary to ChartNexus. But if you have been following my blog, you will see a lot of stuff being explained here and there. It is all random indeed as this blog is intended to share picks and all, and not to educate.
I come to you not as a former student from CN. I come to you as someone who has no vested interest in CN’s affairs, and one who’s very anal retentive (my friends will agree with me), has very high standards and is not easy to please. It is not often that I give out recommendation too, be it food, or courses, or anything at all.
But I am putting my own reputation, guaranteed plus chop, when I give a two thumbs up to the training delivered by CN. We came across an interesting question. It doesn’t compare CN’s method with another trading system (I shan’t say which one but those in the field will know) but rather the participant has been through that course and didn’t feel it suited him. So it was more of a discussion and comments thrown out than a question. I see neither being better, or worse than the other really. It is somewhat like, Democrats vs Republicans. I will run through some difference-
- ChartNexus doesn’t give you a trading system. They teach you the basics, up to intermediate levels, the formations, candlesticks, chart patterns, indicators and most importantly, the psychology to trade. They teach you how to fish basically.
- And the above is important, cause when you know TA, you can trade with any chart. Be it crude oil, forex.. etc. Basically, ANYTHING that is traded by humans, it will work. The concept is the same. But I don’t see anyone hardworking enough to plot data for magic cards trading per se. Even fine wines, you see that a correction in prices is happening. People used to say fine wines investment only has 1 direction, and that is up. No longer. And if you think bout it, how can anything head up without any correction. I cannot comprehend. Nothing heads up (or down) in 1 direction constantly.
- To reinforce, do you need to take Forex trading courses? They are overpriced, over rated, and there is no single tool that guarantees success. Regardless what they all tell you. Hello? Wake up and smell the roses. If there is one such perfect strategy, no one is gonna teach you. Not even for 10 million bucks.
- There is some marketing involved, but there is no bullshit. Personally, I like that. Unfortunately I find, audiences actually like to be ‘conned’. You package something so nicely, they will bite. I saw that happen at a recent free TA seminar. You see jaws drop, and a totally speechless crowd. As if someone who was paralysed from birth, just stood up to walk. I kid you not. The CN instructors will teach you the technique, explain the limitations, and with their experience, suggest a way to look at charts and indicators in a certain way you never thought you could. By the end of it, you will feel enlightened. I promise.
- Some trading systems play on breakout rules. I am not a day trader and neither are people around me. In any case, the STI is not ideal for day trading due to the liquidity and volatility (or rather, the lack of it). All of us have our day jobs which makes day trading impossible too. CN’s strategies allows one to trade as a ’side income’. It is ideal for people who have day jobs. Like me. In any case, if you can’t swing trade properly, forget day trading. When you do not have a day job with an income, it is very hard to control one’s emotions properly during trading, believe me. Learn to walk, before you start to run, and then turn pro and ‘compete on international ground’. The stock market IS an international ground, and if you do not wanna be crushed, you better know what you are doing.
- The cost of the training, is very reasonable to me. I will elaborate more later.
- You do not follow anyone’s style or rule. You learn the stuff, create your own style and trade accordingly. When I was taught DJing by my mentor, he made it quite clear that all of us are different and unique. I will have my style, as he has his. The basics and fundamentals are the same though. The ABCs will always be ABCs and only when you know the alphabets, can you begin to write essays, books etc, in your own style. Every trader is different. Unless you are exactly like me and we think identical thoughts, you should not trade the way I do either. I teach you how Moving Averages are used. You decide the parameters and you decide if there is a buy/sell signal. And if you want to enter that trade.
- CN’s course content is structured properly. It is not SILO, where they just teach you everything as a standalone. They teach you how to combine everything you have learnt, into 1 big picture. And trade, using everything you have learnt working together. I may use MA and Fibo now, but that is not all I use. When conditions are right, I may switch to using Bollinger bands for example. You need to know what to use, to see the big picture. You will be taught that, and more importantly, have the confidence to put it all together. If I can do it, why can’t you? You just need heart, dedication, and the desire to profit!
There are loads more but these are a few key points that I feel is important. I have been there, and I see the passion and enthusiasm in the staff and I personally endorse the training.
There are 3 main courses in all, and if taken on its own, it would cost nearly 3k. But CN has packaged them into 1 package, and it includes a free tutorial, hand holding sessions, workshop on warrants trading, trading with CFD, stuff like that over the course of the whole package. You will also get free XpertTrader subscription (13 months and up) and exclusive access into their forums and their newly formed Traders’ Club where past students gather to discuss and practice. Talk about after course support! If I had to name one huge selling point, I will say, these folks are really passionate. Sure, they want your money and business, but the primary goal is to nurture their students such that they will become profitable and confident traders. And at this price, I think it is a bargain. Oh yes, the total price is $1688, with over 57 hours of instruction and tutorial classes.
I am someone who absorbs good and bad sentiments around me. I feel very fortunate to have been taught and guided through my trades even till today. I have a remisier that I can absolutely trust. And I have found an investment strategy that I am very comfortable with. And that is key. There are many things out there that will work, but will you be comfortable using it? If you are not comfortable, then it is not for you. A system should work for you, and not the other way round and I feel strongly about this.
So what’s the catch? The catch is, you have to really wanna learn to do TA. If you want a system to just work for you without you using your brains and all, then I believe there could be a better system out there. Do you wanna learn how to fish, or be given a fish a day at a premium price. The idea is, you will be taught the techniques. Then, YOU decide what to do with it. You do not follow someone else’s rule. You have your own rules, and you trade to your own comfort level. In other words, you formulate your own strategy just like how I did for myself. I am still a noob you know, with barely a year’s experience. But I think through constant learning and practice, I am doing pretty okay. I am not dumb money, that I am convinced.
So think about it. The classes are all full for the rest of the year. I will be joining them for the CTA course this weekend and help mentor, as a former student. What do I gain financially for my time? Nothing. But when I am passionate bout something, I gain through volunteer work and when people actually understand the stuff and succeed, I will be very happy. I am glad folks I know are gonna be attending this weekend’s course and I chose that to make my debut too. I think if we can all learn together and be successful, there is nothing more I can ask for for people I know. Just remember, we still need dumb money out there. The 90% said to be losing money in the stock market, someday it will no longer be 90. Maybe 80, or 70%, and the whole market will shift accordingly. I can roughly anticipate what will happen, but such personal opinions will remain personal and proprietary. There are many out there who will teach you stuff, but only teach you half of it. It is true. And there is good reason for it. Like in the olden days the master will teach say 80%, but never 100% of what he knows. I suppose it is our natural instinct. The trainers at CN (I don’t speak for them but I will simply assume) know that no matter what, there will STILL be dumb money out there. It has been so, it is today and 10 years from now it will still be the same.
People will ask, if things work, why teach it and make money from it if one can earn more from the market. The truth is, the amount of information given is worth a lot, hell more than what is being charged. To be frank, 2K is nothing. You want an investment, then this is it! Not stocks, not gold, nothing anything else. Knowledge, is the BEST investment. Once you have knowledge and work on it, you’ll build confidence. And when you have confidence, you trade with controlled emotions. See how it all gels together? So what has this got to do with the above stated question? Do you wanna learn from someone who is passionate, or someone who is just doing it for the money? Venues have to be booked, lunch has to beo ordered. This is education, not charity. I trust people can tell the difference between a gimmick, and the real deal. Will I ever become a trainer? I don’t know. At this point I have no intention to. It is the commitment that I am trying to avoid. As a DJ, my peers asked me if I wanna try out gigs at the clubs and all. I declined due to commitment issues. I am someone who wanna do something cause I want to, not cause I gain huge financial benefits from it. The trainers are full time trainers so that’s a different thing. They actually have to sacrifice trading cause they have to prepare materials, think of events, plan them.. etc. they still have to eat. Do they have a secret formula? No they don’t. What’s the next best thing? Experience. If this whole thing costs 10K, I would be wary. It would be $2k ‘the real deal’ and 8k marketing mark-ups. As a personal trader, I can tell you straight in the face. The price of the course, is nothing. The price of the XpertTrader, is nothing. But if you don’t know how to use the system, and you don’t know how to trade, and you lose money, even $200 is nonsensical.
So that is all I am gonna add today. I do think I am falling over the edge with a ‘sales pitch’ tone. To round things up, here is what the books teach you bout Moving Averages. 100 pages later you still do not understand what the F they are talking about. In a nutshell, MAs tell you the price people are willing to buy/sell. A 20MA is the average price derived from the last 20 trading sessions. That is all. If 20MA is above, it is resistance, because that is the price that people will be waiting to sell. Similarly, 20MA is often a good support, as it is the price people will be willing to buy. Is it an automatic buy and sell signal? No. How do you use it properly? Join the course.. 
. I can only teach so much. People should have a holistic package, from kindergarden, to primary school, all the way to uni where you graduate.
Swinging over to the US markets before I head to bed, pretty see-saw in nature. DJIA formed a double top, and is in slight negative territory along with the Nasdaq, with the S&P just above water. Today is a very important day. If the US market cracks, the downside is more or less confirmed. If it rebounds, chances are if it recaptures a resistance level, that will require confirmation still. I am more interested in the STI where I trade. And I will be looking to see if it is still an untradable period, or has the clouds cleared enough for me to tikam a little.
Good nite all and thanks for reading and supporting the blog! 
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11 users responded in this post
another super long post, less quack quack then the previous super long post.
see you on sat and thanks as always for your blog post, teaching and even volunteering this sat. looking forward to some learning from the course that i signed up quite impromptu and unusually fast.
haha.. to be frank, once upon a time I joined those mailing groups that give out good trading stocks. they tell u what stock, which range to enter, where the TP is and what the cut loss point is. I made here and there but mostly loss. it was 50 bucks a month. not a lot. But months later when i set out to learn on my own i realised why i kept losing. and i began to see why i needed to learn on my own, and i wanted to. so the idea is, u really have to wanna learn. if u do, i can almost promise u, u’ll pick things up quick. Knowing TA doesnt mean u must be a trader. But at least it helps u avoid entering the market on FA and subsequently catch a falling knife, or sell too soon and lose opportunity cost. as i personally said before, no amount of FA can beat market sentiment. If the market sentiment is so bad, even though the stock is cheap, cheap can get cheaper.
i cannot dollar average unlike warren buffett. I assume, most people do not have the kind of cash reserve he has too. So we cannot follow someone blindly. we gotta have our own strategies. If im a day trader, make hell lotta money, can u do the same? maybe not cuz u got your day job to take care of. So things are very different.
truth be hold, after the TA’s way of understanding market psychology, i actually understand what warren buffett has been saying all along. eg when he says buy when people are selling, sell when people are buying, people take that at face value which is incorrect. the market has been selling so many times but he doesnt go in every time. right? he comes in at crucial points. why? he wont tell you why. all he will say is ‘it is dirt cheap now’. People will only teach u half la… the other half u gotta interpret yourself.
chor kang time!
you write well and are willing to teach. it is a joy to read your blog
am seriously considering to take up the course in the future
hey koori hehe… yeh well, choose a period where u can focus on learning and not get too distracted. i am happy that it helped. sometimes i am a bit half hearted to teach too much, cause it is hard to teach via a blog and people may understand things wrongly.it is hard to re-learn something that u understood in an incorrect way. my motivation comes from seeing people who are eager to learn and succeed eventually. i take what i learn out of trading (the psychological bit) into my personal life and i think it has been rather fun to see the change. in the very least, i dont feel this last year i lived in vain.
I add oil for you. Translate that into Chinese. hehehe…
This crisis has beaten the laziness out of me and my evenings are now spent reading company reports and charting their stocks’ price movements. I hope to quintruple my wealth in a few years from now.
When the good times return, I hope I will be just as disciplined and not plonk money in stocks based purely on recommendations.
I still use FA to choose good companies and use TA to pick possible entry points (and exit points) and some gut feeling as well. Again, thanks for introducin TA to me.
now in cta course stealing their netowrk. been at this on sat and whole of today, sunday. it is really a good mix of theory and hands on with own laptop. everyone of the 43 of us in the class has their own laptop. it is important to have own laptop to practise practise practise.
i think this is a very good course and well structured. helps with PCM around to help. thanks again.
I think i will end up like alvin, use mixed of fa and ta eventually. how exactly the split will be i dun know and does not matter. practise first.
and yes i agree with PCM, it is sometimes hard to explain via blog. I intend to read this blog again from the start to see if there is less quack quack quack after today’s lesson. it will be my homework during my month end holiday. :p
hehe yes FA and TA is fine. cause u must have ur own strategy to suit your own preference. dont follow someone else’s. regardless of how profitable it is. no point one. some of the best traders i know in singapore are intraday traders. they make thousands a month without a single cent used. it works for them but it doesnt mean it works for me. and it doesnt. so thats a fact.
the FA n TA combi is very strong. i personally feel once u realise, the market doesnt work on fundamentals, it works on human emotion, chances are u wont end up as a victim.
in the class i came across someone looking at allgreen. i remember i said something to the line of ‘i wont be buying this stock yet’. i think there are some bearish signs and i will be looking at a better time for it.
a key difference in FA and TA is not time. unlike what a lot feel. the key difference is, the price is important for FA. u wanna buy cheap. for TA it doesnt not matter. Whether capland is 4 bucks or 7 bucks makes no difference. at 4 bucks and trendless, it is not a good stock. at 7 bucks and the trend and momentum is good, its a good stock. so that is a key difference, which u guys may realise will cause a conflict when u r a hybrid investor. so u need to tweak it to your own preference level. dollar averaging is okay, but to me, dollar averaging is not keep on buying n buying. it is to wait for the right place to enter. and u can use TA for that. this is one way to mitigate the conflict caused by being a hybrid.
I basically use FA to identify companies with good fundamentals which can weather this storm (and not do a Ferrochina). Then, I use TA to identify entry points.
The thing about using FA first is that if my TA is a bit off, I don’t mind holding on to the stock at the current levels because I don’t wanna go through the pain of having to cut loss again. Don’t like the feeling.
I am an investor first and a trader second. If I can make some money in rangebound trading, I will. If things go awry and I have to hold on to the stocks, I can. So, this is perfect for me.
So, you are right about us having to develop a style we are comfortable with. It depends on what we want out of the market.
wah lao i was watching fantastic 4 at 8pm while eating dinner. i dozed off all the way till this morning. kaoz!
ok buying on TA for FA, also can. 2 suggestions. Ideally, u only go long on an uptrend. An uptrend can occur during a bear market still and it can form a higher high and a lower low. Anything before this, there is a good chance where the market will turn back down prematurely as we have been seeing since mid this year. So this gives limited upside and u really need to hit and run. Therefore, i dont see the point. If u read what I wrote u will see what I think the market here will react in the mid term.
The only problem is too many people think the same, it can fail quite easily. One reason why even tech analysts will give u half the story only. If everyone says it will go up, it could, for a lil, before it u turns back down double quick time and double the amount of blood. I kena many times earlier this year when i started out so I had to regroup and analyze why main street behave this way and make sure if it does happen i wont be donating blood. hopefully.
Yah, any long position I’ve made in the past 2 weeks is definitely for the very short term. You know me lah. I’m good at this. hahaha… Thanks for the reminder though.
Hey, bro, 8pm until this morning? I think maybe someone mixed piriton in your dinner?? Sleeping in front of the TV till the next morning is something my father would do!!!
i think be patient ba. if im right, something nice is brewing. i also hope before the end of the yr i can one more last good trade.
i was totally exhausted ba… anyway i complain enuff this morning to someone le. so thats ok.
cant imagine if i was the trainer instead. ZZZzzzz. not an easy job. last time the class also not so big one. i think. no choice… for the rest of the year the classes are all full also already. too bad i cannot help for the course end of this month. i got my bestie’s wedding…
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