ENGTMK Verified Portfolio ↗

THE ENGTMK LEARNING LIBRARY

A considered approach
to the markets.

Start with the principles. Build your understanding one lesson at a time.

Begin with lesson one →29 lessons · 6 series

SERIES 01 · LESSONS 01–05

Build the process

Risk, patience, cash and survival before any chart.

  1. 01

    Why sitting in cash is also a position

    The most underrated skill in trading is doing nothing on purpose. Cash isn't the absence of a decision — it is the decision.

  2. 02

    Why prediction is not a trading strategy

    Everyone wants to know where the market is going. After fifteen years, I can tell you the secret: I don't know, and I stopped needing to.

  3. 03

    The only question that matters before any trade: where am I wrong?

    Amateurs plan the profit. Professionals plan the exit. The invalidation point isn't part of the trade — it is the trade.

  4. 04

    Why no single trade should matter

    If one position can ruin your month, your sizing is wrong. The goal is to make every individual trade boring.

  5. 05

    Trading is not about being right — it's about surviving long enough to be right

    Every long track record is built on the same boring foundation: never taking the loss that ends the game.

SERIES 02 · LESSONS 06–10

Learn the zones

Supply and demand structure without pretending it is magic.

  1. 06

    What is a demand zone?

    A demand zone is where buyers proved they were willing to step in. The zone is not magic — it is evidence of prior imbalance.

  2. 07

    What is a supply zone?

    A supply zone is where sellers previously took control. It is where I expect resistance until price proves otherwise.

  3. 08

    Fresh zones vs tested zones: why first touch matters

    The first return to a clean zone is often the most important test. Every later touch changes the odds.

  4. 09

    Why zones fail

    A failed zone is not a betrayal. It is information. The job is not to defend the zone — it is to respect invalidation.

  5. 10

    How I use zones without pretending they are magic

    Zones are useful because they organize risk. They are not predictions, signals, or guarantees.

SERIES 03 · LESSONS 11–16

Judge the record

Drawdowns, risk scores and evidence over marketing.

  1. 11

    How to read a track record without being fooled

    One great year means nothing. Here's how to tell the difference between a lucky streak and a durable process — including when you're looking at mine.

  2. 12

    Drawdowns: what's normal, what's a red flag

    Every real track record contains pain. The skill isn't avoiding drawdowns — it's telling the survivable kind from the fatal kind.

  3. 13

    The red flags of hype traders

    The traders most eager to be copied are often the ones you should copy least. A field guide to the warning signs.

  4. 14

    Risk score is not a vibe

    A platform risk score is useful, but incomplete. Learn what the number measures — and what you still need to inspect in the portfolio behind it.

  5. 15

    What copying really means

    Copying a trader isn't buying a product — it's adopting a process, including the parts that hurt. Much of the outcome is decided on the copier's side.

  6. 16

    Why I show the ugly years

    The manifesto: a track record with the pain deleted isn't a track record. What fifteen years in public actually means, and why I'd never trade any other way.

SERIES 04 · LESSONS 17–22

The trader's mind

Psychology as decision architecture: mechanisms, failure modes and structural fixes.

  1. 17

    Why we sell winners and hold losers

    Closing a winner removes uncertainty. Closing a loser makes the mistake final. That emotional asymmetry produces bad exits—and it needs a structural fix.

  2. 18

    Revenge trading: what actually happens after the loss

    Revenge trading is not one emotional mistake. It is a feedback loop in which a normal loss changes the urgency, size and quality of the next decision.

  3. 19

    FOMO is information—just not about the stock

    FOMO tells you that urgency has entered your decision process. It may identify something worth studying, but it cannot qualify an entry.

  4. 20

    Why the best trades often feel uncomfortable

    A planned entry can feel uncomfortable because uncertainty created the price. But discomfort is not evidence of opportunity—the thesis, level and invalidation still decide.

  5. 21

    A winning trade does not prove the decision was good

    Profit and decision quality are related only across a meaningful sample. One winner can reward a bad process, and one loser can come from a disciplined decision.

  6. 22

    Boredom is not a reason to trade

    When the system has no valid action, activity does not create one. The solution is not more willpower—it is a defined no-trade state with permitted work and explicit exit conditions.

SERIES 05 · LESSONS 23–28

Portfolio Architecture

How strategies, cash, diversification and risk fit together inside one account.

  1. 23

    One portfolio, two engines

    Momentum and quality/value solve different portfolio problems. Running both is not a promise of smooth returns—it is a way to avoid making one market regime responsible for the entire account.

  2. 24

    Diversification is not a position count

    Five tickers can still be one economic bet. Real diversification comes from understanding shared drivers, stress behaviour and aggregate portfolio risk—not counting company names.

  3. 25

    What cash, gold and insurance actually do

    Cash, gold and hedges can all look defensive, but they solve different portfolio problems. Cash preserves capacity, gold adds a distinct macro exposure, and insurance buys a defined payoff at a cost.

  4. 26

    Adding to winners without chasing them

    Adding to strength can improve a position when the rule existed before the excitement. Chasing begins when price movement creates the desire and the trader invents the criteria afterward.

  5. 27

    The earnings calendar is a risk tool, not a prediction tool

    An earnings date does not tell us whether a stock will rise or fall. It tells us when the distribution of outcomes may widen—and when position size, entry timing and portfolio exposure must be reviewed.

  6. 28

    How much is enough? The mathematics of financial independence

    Financial independence is not a magic portfolio number. It is a range built from spending, reliable income, withdrawal assumptions, taxes, inflation and sequence risk.

SERIES 06 · LESSON 29

Read the financial statements

Separate sustainable earnings from unusual items, then examine the cash behind the result.

  1. 29

    Why headline profit is often the wrong number

    Separate sustainable earnings from unusual gains, wherever they appear on the income statement. Four worked examples show why operating profit, reported EPS and cash received need different checks.