# Stage 1: Money Management Money management is the first step to becoming a consistently profitable investor. It’s all about working wisely and moving the odds in your favor. Succinctly put, it’s about: knowing what you’ve got, knowing how to protect it, knowing how to grow it, writing it out in a personalized investment plan. *** ## Money Management [Tensile Trading: Stage #1 is Money Management ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2013/07/tensile-trading-stage-1-is-money-management.html)\ Money management is the first step to becoming a consistently profitable investor. It’s all about working... [Definition of Money Management ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2014/10/definition-of-money-management.html)\ Google “money management” and you’ll get back a quagmire of non-sequiturs, disjointed, inconsistent and incomplete... [Money Management: Why Market Wizards Claim It's the Secret Sauce ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2013/01/money-management-why-market-wizards-claim-its-the-secret-sauce.html)\ In his Market Wizards books, Jack Swagger interviews an outstanding collection of renowned investors, traders and... ## Asset Allocation [My Methodology Allocation Beats Asset Allocation ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2015/01/my-methodology-allocation-beats-asset-allocation.html)\ From what I’ve seen of most investors’ asset allocations, it’s a maze. My personal asset allocation is better... [My Methodology Allocation Beats Asset Allocation: Part II - Questions Answered ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2015/04/my-methodology-allocation-beats-asset-allocation-part-ii--questions-answered.html)\ There’s nothing like teaching a seminar to fifty sharp investors on this topic and having them demand more clarity... [My Methodology Allocation Beats Asset Allocation: Part III - Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Profits ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2015/04/my-methodology-allocation-beats-asset-allocation-part-iii--eternal-vigilance-is-the-price-of-profits.html)Thomas Jefferson opined that “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” For modern investors, I’d say... [How I Improved My Asset Allocation Profile by Using a Correlation Calculator ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2015/07/how-i-improved-my-asset-allocation-profile--by-using-a-correlation-calculator.html)\ Many investors would be shocked to learn that what they thought was their prudent well-diversified portfolio of five... [Asset Allocation: The Most Important Truth About Correlations](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2015/09/asset-allocation--the-most-important-truth-about-correlations.html)\ Far too many investors assume (wrongly) that if two equities – such as the S\&P 500 (SPY) and the Vanguard Total... [Here's How You Build a Super Bowl Champion Portfolio (Hint: Pick Your Correlations Carefully) ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2017/10/heres-how-you-build-a-super-bowl-champion-portfolio-hint--pick-your-correlations-carefully.html)\ Imagine a football coach who has the best eleven quarterbacks in the NFL altogether on the same team and puts them... [Asset Allocation: Why Strategic Versus Tactical Choices Matter ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2015/10/asset-allocation-why-strategic-versus-tactical-choices-matter.html)\ How can I be energized after teaching a six-hour workshop? When investors appreciate the message, their... [Academics Agree: Asset Allocation is the Only Free Lunch in the Investing Arena ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2017/09/academics-agree-asset-allocation-is-the-only-free-lunch-in-the-investing-arena.html)\ Upfront, it’s important to note that unlike most investors who hear asset allocation and conjure up three asset... ## Beliefs, Principles, Rules [Your Canary In the Trading Room](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2012/05/your-canary-in-the-trading-room.html)\ In the sports world, parties debate whether a premiere defense defeats a premier offense or whether great hitters... [The 4 Crucial Beliefs Of Successful Investors ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2012/09/the-4-crucial-beliefs-of-successful-investors-deleted.html)\ If you don’t believe in yourself as an investor and have absolute faith in your methodology, trading the markets... [Essential Rules to Share with Your Friends: The Financial Simpletons ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2017/06/essential-rules-to-share-with-your-friends-the-financial-simpletons.html)\ I had a shock recently. I met a couple who was in the midst of what I considered to be a personal financial... [The Four Crucial Beliefs Necessary to Achieve Stock Market Mastery ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2016/06/the-four-crucial-beliefs-necessary-to-achieve-stock-market-mastery.html)\ Galloping through the markets without recognizing the impact of your essential beliefs is an investing tragedy of... [Four Timeless Investing Principles ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2015/06/four-timeless-investing-principles.html)\ I’ve spent many years of digging into my own trading journal, looking for lessons, rules, principles and insights to... [The Albert Einstein Approach to Stock Market Investing ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2013/04/the-albert-einstein-approach-to-stock-market-investing-old.html)\ Albert Einstein famously said, “If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem... [Wall Street's Complexity versus Investors' Profits & Simplicity ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2014/09/wall-streets-complexity-versus-investors-profits--simplicity.html)\ “Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple.” -- Pete Seeger As a... ## Reduce Risk and Increase Rewards [The Two Pillars of Probability Enhancement: How To Systematically Reduce Risk and Increase Rewards ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2018/04/the-two-pillars-of-probability-enhancement-how-to-systematically-reduce-risk-and-increase-rewards.html)\ If you didn't catch my interview on Wednesday morning, I joined Tom Bowley and Erin Swenlin on their StockCharts TV... [Two-for-One: How to Live Longer and Pass the Financial Baton to Future Generations ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2019/02/two-for-one-how-to-live-longer-and-pass-the-financial-baton-to-future-generations.html)\ “Yes, the fountain of youth really does exist, and academic research is increasingly proving it to be found amidst... [All Successful Investors Need an EDGE: Here's Mine ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2016/08/all-successful-investors-need-an-edge---heres-mine.html)\ All successful investors must have some type of “edge”. If you don’t know what yours is, odds are you don’t... [My 3-Prong Recipe for the Safe Growth & Outperformance of Your Portfolio ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2017/05/my-3-prong-recipe-for-the--safe-growth--outperformance-of-your-portfolio.html)\ There is a seismic generational displacement happening in the investment landscape. Many investors are shifting... [Powerful and Profitable Pairings: 1 + 1 = 3 ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2016/01/powerful-and-profitable-pairings-1--1--3.html)\ For myself, one of the most momentous insights into life and investing happened over 25 years ago when Sir John... [Investing Is To Trading Just As Style Is To Design ](https://stockcharts.com/articles/journal/2016/03/investing-is-to-trading-just-as-style-is-to-design.html)\ In the automotive industry, a car designer begins his or her career as a automotive stylist. Over time, as...