THE OPEN | TRADER TV
1990 will forever be remembered as the decade when, whether we liked it or not, the internet arrived on the scene and immediately demanded to play a bigger part in our lives. This in turn resulted in an opening of the gates for savvy new products such as CFDs and Financial Spread Betting to rival traditional stocks and shares trading. The product was revitalized and introduced to retail investors and traders in the late 90’s, with companies such as City Index, Finspreads and IG Index being amongst the first to launch online trading platforms with a range of new products that had never previously only been offered by brokers. With the launch of online trading markets had become free and accessible to all whom desired to dabble in them. But despite the growth in access and popularity, little has been done to educate traders in strategy, technical analysis or trading psychology, especially in the visual media. Financial news is readily available via Bloomberg of CNBC, but what about the essentials, like knowing when to get in and out of a trade? All that is set to change with the introduction of Trader TV - a dedicated new channel launching for traders and investors alike. Whether you’re new to the world of financial spread betting, CFDs, FX trading or see yourself as a seasoned veteran, Trader TV will provide all you need to know about financial matters and global economics. As well as daily financial news updates from specialist producers such as Reuters & ITN Trader TV also promises to deliver daily market round ups from key analysts and commentators on FX, commodities, stocks and indices and specialist analysis on medium-term market trends with top economists and strategists and technical analysis and strategy guides from the experts. This is a huge and exciting launch for Europe’s largest dedicated gaming TV network ‘Gaming Media Group’ who successfully launched The Poker Channel back in 2010, conquering online global audiences and more than 30 million cable and satellite homes in Europe and Latin America in the process.
Now the gaming TV network will be launching their newest trading channel to a further 30 million TV subscribers in 30 different countries including the UK on Sky and Freesat. The TV network sensed the need for a dedicated outlet for traders, and a certain gap in the market which needed filling, much like The Poker Channel, being that the two activities are known to draw so many similarities. Whilst you might not immediately think of playing poker and trading as being similar, the two actually share a fair bit in common. And these similarities aren’t just theoretical; there have in fact been many examples of traders giving up the world of pips for poker, and vice versa. Both endeavors offer many of the same rewards (including working from home and potentially making well over $100,000 per year) and reward the same basic skills. Successful traders and winning poker players come from a dynamic range of backgrounds, and there’s no one single indicator that determines whether or not you’ll make money in the long run trading Forex, any of the other underlying markets or playing poker. At the end of the day it really comes down to personal choice. As part of the venture into this previously unchartered trading water, Trader TV will be launching a 5 part weekly series entitled ‘Trading Aces’ which will follow a group of six poker players. The lucky chosen will swap the card rooms for the trading floor to see if their poker skills can cut it in the fast-paced world of finance. Tensions will rise as they will all attempt to harness the risk and control to bet on the markets and pull in the profits. Trader TV will be exposing the reality of trading, that reality being the psychology behind a successful trade. Totally unique in its offering, as the gaming network stirs away from the fundamentalist approach of news updates, Trader TV will be offering a range of programs to develop the skill set of a novice trader or that of an advanced trader. Trader TV kicks off at the end of this month, and we cant wait to see what’s in store.
Sandy Jadeja – Chief Market Analyst at City Index, one of the leading FSB, CFD and FX trading companies, highlights how good trading is only made up of a mere 30% of Technical Analysis knowledge and knowhow, and emphasizes this is something we can all learn. The other 70% however, is down to ‘Trading Psychology’ and this is always a lot tougher for people to grasp. “These are decisions based on uncertainty, it is essential that as a trader, you learn to separate the emotion from the action”. It would seem the poker world has been viewed in a similar way to the world of trading, with a lot of writers who focus on the tactical side of poker, and a few more who focus on poker strategy. Few write about the psychology of poker -- the mental side of the game, much like the world of Financial Trading. Poker players and traders alike are their own greatest allies, be it at the poker table or on the trading floor, but too often they can end up their own greatest enemy for a variety of personal, "inner" reasons. In both pursuits, the ability to control your emotions and deal with the losses is incredibly important, if not crucial and detrimental to the outcome of the trade. The Achilles heel of many traders is the inability to let go of their losses. Either hanging on to a losing trade for too long, or continuing to trade in a certain currency that was a big looser in the past, irrationally trying to get back lost money.
September 2011 | THE EXCHANGE | 25