What Are Other Traders Doing?
2008 Survey

The recent survey I did was one of the most fascinating ever. It was even more fascinating because I only sent the survey to traders who have been with me for a few months or longer. Have a look at some of the results!

currency trading

As you can see, 93% of traders on my mailing list consider themselves either beginners or intermediate traders. The results were slightly surprising because a lot of the traders who completed the survey have been with me for more than a year. There is a good lesson for me here always to remember to explain the basics when writing a lesson.

day trading

Whenever I send out an email with a lesson I am always slightly worried that I am sending too many emails. In every study I have done I get the opposite result from what I expect. Traders would like more lessons more often. 94.8% of my readers would like their lessons once a week or more.

forex

The results of this question didn't surprise me at all. Even though I have traded many markets I have been concentrating on the Forex market for the last few years. Because of this I attract a lot of Forex traders.

stocks

I actually had a long talk with some of my subscribers about this one.

Even though a high percentage of traders wanted their lessons in video format the winner was "a downloadable printable" version.

Initially this confused me but then it dawned on me. You can't print a video.

Obviously traders want the printable version so they can study the lesson at their leisure or perhaps keep as a reference.

technical analysis

This was the one I was personally waiting for. I could have predicted the answer for the most popular on this one. Making lessons on "Trading Techniques" and "How to analyze a chart" was clearly the winner.

Because of this I will be concentrating most of my future lessons in these two areas. It doesn't mean I will ignore the other indicators but I will make sure they are incorporated in a technique or analysis.

fibonacci

This one is a great reminder to me that even though most traders who read my newsletter trade intraday (62.4%). There is a huge chunk that can for one reason or another only trade the daily charts.

The main reason for this is probably because a lot of traders still have fill-time jobs.

trading techniques

This bears out my previous assumption of why a lot of traders can only look at daily charts. 73% of those surveyed could only trade part-time whenever they had time.

trendlines

I put this question in because I was worried that I was recommending too many products. The results indicate that I have this just right.

trading plan

In retrospect I should have broken this question into two parts:

1. What part of a trade do you find the most difficult?
2. What's your biggest challenge as a trader?

This is a very revealing question. Think about the three parts of a trade. The entry, exit and stop loss. Traders are most worried about the entry but I think the exit and stop loss placement are more important.

Here's why! Most traders have a good sense of direction and often they lose money not because they traded the wrong way. They lose because they placed their stop in the wrong place or they exited in the wrong place. A good topic for me in future lessons.

The second part of the question was slightly loaded now I think about it. I would have been surprised if
the leading answer was not "Can't find a decent system or method to use."

trading system

The last question was:

"What one thing do you need help with or would most like to learn?"

Because everyone who replied to the survey had the chance to write what they needed help with, this proved to be the most intriguing part of the survey for me. Some answers were short and some long but all of them great answers.

Here's a little sample of the answers to question number ten.

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  • How to forecast market direction
  • Assistance to perfect my trading system
  • When to take profit and prevent winning trades becoming losing trades.
  • Recognizing trade set-ups
  • How to tell when the market is in an uptrend or downtrend and the best time frame.
  • Develop a decent trading system
  • How to get control of the psychological aspect of trading
  • Fundamental analysis and news interpretation
  • A good system for 20 pips a day
  • Specific set ups and entry triggers.
  • Money management
  • The whole aspect of the trade. The different views of the trade.

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I am still going through the last of the 1354 answers and trying to classify them so it is easier to find the common themes. The information I gleamed from the short survey has helped me better understand who is reading my newsletter and lessons.

Thanks to everyone who took part.

Good trading

Mark McRae
Information, charts or examples contained in this lesson are for illustration and educational purposes only. It should not be considered as advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or financial instrument. We do not and cannot offer investment advice. For further information please read our disclaimer.