Trading in the european markets

Hi,

as for the European Market, I'm mostly trading the DAX (GER40) and its constituents. You should know that trading the opening hour(s) is usually considered somewhat difficult, proven by the fact that the trading course has an extra section for trading the open and it is mentioned, that beginners should stay away from the open (not calling you a beginner, just repeating what the course has to say).

As for myself, I think it helps to remain open-minded at the open. If I'm stuck in a suddenly reversing trade, I'd rather quickly cut the loss and reverse (see Video 2C on the pain trade).

However, sometimes there are beautiful trends starting directly at the open and lasting all the way to lunch or even longer (for example, take a look at the DAX on this Friday).

Regarding the shares, I can recommend the members of the DAX. Amongst high liquidity, you'll find suitable sectors like Financials, Technology etc., depending on your personal preferences.

Since I'm based in Germany, you probably can't use the Broker that I use mostly (Comdirect). However, IB should have plenty coverage in Germany and the EU as well.

I could also suggest to you (if the time fits) the closing hour of the Australian ASX. The mining stocks sometimes behave in somewhat predictable ways. For example, a morning breakout is followed by a TR and only in the last hour does the real interest come in leading to a large really(at least for the stocks I'm trading on the ASX, mostly smallcap miners). I've also found that breakouts and flags work really well on a daily timeframe.

Hopefully this helps. It's a bit unspecific since the question was very broad, but feel free to ask more details. I'm always happy to help!

Look up Trader Tom on Youtube. He's also a PA trader who trades the European markets. I'm dutch, my dream is to start trading the DAX in the morning and the ES in the afternoon. For now my dayjob prevents me from doing that, so I'm only trading the ES for now.

Personally I would not recommend Trader Tom.  Watch his latest YouTube video for his style of high-stakes bottom picking. He is a successful trader, but I don't know anyone who makes money from his telegram groups (and I know several people who use it).

You will learn a lot about psychology from him.  He has no fear of the markets. I reckon his nuts are twice the size of mine.  But I don't rate him at all as a technical trader and I think his "bet big to win big" approach will kill a beginner.

I would never recommend anyone to join any telegram group regarding trading, that was not my intent. If you're trying to make money by following telegram signals, you're a long way of becoming a profitable trader, no matter how good the signals are. So I'm not surprised none of those people make money.

I recommend Trader Tom because he's inspiring to me, I'm not saying you should copy his every move. Al says Tom is a very good trader.

Tom himself thinks that his technical analysis knowledge and his ability to read charts is average. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idv66xbNkok&t=437s

....and what sets him apart is his psychology.  I would agree with him.  Yes I find him inspiring too because he shows how much he's winning, and its inspiring to see big profits. Its rare for successful traders to share this.  But Tom has also had some pretty epic 5 figure losing days. 

And I'm not sure what Tom has to offer aside from his telegram group.  Its not like he has a course or anything. I do have his upcoming book on pre-order.  Its about psychology.

Posted by: @reach4thelasers

Personally I would not recommend Trader Tom.  Watch his latest YouTube video for his style of high-stakes bottom picking. He is a successful trader, but I don't know anyone who makes money from his telegram groups (and I know several people who use it).

You will learn a lot about psychology from him.  He has no fear of the markets. I reckon his nuts are twice the size of mine.  But I don't rate him at all as a technical trader and I think his "bet big to win big" approach will kill a beginner.

Hi, I am a bit familiar with Trader Tom and his Telegram channels. I haven't tired to copy trade his signals but have found his approach to psychology useful and his style of adding to winners, not to losers , has encouraged me to do the same. While he does occasionally lose big, overall his equity curve is consistently rising. I'm curious : why is that you or the others you know have not been able to profit from following his signals ? Is it because they are too fast to follow and the scalps are so brief ?  

Pereonally I've never followed his Telegram Channels. I’m consistently successful trader with Al Brooks methods, still getting better all the time but most days I either win or break evening. I did attend the London Price Action Symposium which was run by Tom. I met many traders who were associated with him through his Telegram group, I'm still in touch with some of them. I don't know anyone who makes money through his Telegram Channels.

Personally I've never learned anything from Tom; either at the symposium or watching his YouTube that has made me a better trader on a technical level. I believe I’m a better trader than he is but he’s braver and has more capital than me.

Just watch his latest YouTube video on trading Nasdaq at the start of the US Session. Taking a position 2 mins before market open is a terrible call - calling it a double bottom when the bar hadn't even closed and was a bear trend bar - so clearly NOT a double bottom.  On a technical level he's just clearly wrong in his interpretation of the market.... He takes a couple of big losses before getting back in and the market goes his way eventually. So he makes a video about it.

I'm also quite cynical about his claims around the time of the symposium that his Telegram group was run by another person who was responsible for all the losses. I also heard he went totally AWOL from telegram earlier this month a month after a string of losses saying he was injured again I’m cynical. Trading is desk work lol. I think 'trends from the open' are Tom’s speciality and they've been rare most of May. 

Agree with you I do look to him for inspiration around being a bit braver in my approach to trading and piling into winning trades. Tom’s psychology is rock solid and we can all learn something from him in that regard.

I've certainly got nothing against him in fact I actually like him. But when someone recommends to a beginner that he should follow him. I have to jump in and contradict it.... Because I don't think Tom has much to offer a beginner. I believe that chart reading is 80% of the game we play. Psychology is important but I think good psychology comes from in part from having confidence in your technical skill and your ability to read the market; and I don’t think that’s something you can learn from Tom. Or even something that he tries to teach.

Recently his style has changed to mainly scalping and his old way of riding a trend from opening has not been seen for a while. For example, during yesterday's CPI news rout, the NQ dropped 700 points, and he tried to pick bottoms scalping twice and lost 15 points. 

I agree that his technical skills for chart reading are subpar. He does recommend Al Brooks courses on his website and probably tried to learn himself too, as I have seen him trading use the same chart (plain b/w candle and EMA20, in his old charts he used EMA89).

However, his psychological strength and supreme process-oriented approach has more than made up whatever shortcomings he has in chart reading. As Al always says, you don't have to be perfect and just consistently good to make it.

I don’t think Toms technical skills are subpar (they may or may not be). I think he chooses to strip them down to the very bare minimum so he can focus on the process and execute flawlessly. His assertion is that it’s not ‘technical analysis skill’ that makes successful traders. I’m pretty convinced he’s correct about that. Unlearning all that ‘expertise’ is kinda hard until you accept it’s not necessary unless you want to be an analyst rather than a trader. I’d argue too much analysis/looking at too much data is going to be far more detrimental to most than not enough.  My 2c.