GM Lark Traders. This is Lark Digest, the trading newsletter that’ll give you the TMZ rundown on the trading world.

Like TMZ, we’ve got a juicy one for you today:

• ICT just got into a bunch of drama 🥵 

• Why XAUUSD destroyed traders this week ❌ 

IS THE ICT CULT DYING? 📉 

The Inner Circle Trader (known as ICT) is the most popular trading “influencer” out there.

Everybody knows that he doesn’t have followers. He has a cult.

And we’ve got to give it to him: People don’t just trade ICT. They are obsessed with ICT. It basically becomes their lives.

But personally (cue the hate), I’m not a big fan.

I admit I don’t know a lot about him or his trading concepts. But from an outsider’s perspective, his strategy looks overly complicated, and many say his three-hour lectures really only have 15 minutes worth of value in them.

But with ICT recently livestreaming to 15,000 traders, it looks like I’m not the only one in this camp.

Apparently most, if not all, of his trades hit his stop-loss.

But rather than saying it’s all a part of trading, he blamed it on institutions hunting his stop loss (yes, I’m sure Larry Fink of Blackrock was watching his livestream).

And I’m not the only one that thought it was insane.

This isn’t to say traders can’t make money with his concepts.

But thinking that institutions are hunting $100 stop losses is one of the biggest lies in the industry.

The takeaway?

• As Steve Jobs said, simplicity truly is the ultimate sophistication.

• Blackrock is not hunting your stops.

• Beware of cults.

And if you totally disagree with all of the above, that’s okay, too.

This should at least give you a great laugh.

FEBRUARY TRADING COMPETITION 🚀 

We interrupt this program to let you know that registration for our free February Trading Competition is now live!

Tons of Evaluations are available to win.

Click HERE to register.

GOLD DESTROYED TRADERS 😡

A few nights ago, I was dreaming about the upcoming Lark Meetup Tour when I woke up to a whole bunch of breach notifications.

Now, some breaches overnight are common. But this was way more than usual.

So I jumped on to Tradingview to see what was going on, and I quickly saw the culprit:

XAUUSD.

Now, this isn’t really shocking. Gold is one of the most popular assets to trade, and boy, can she be bipolar.

In fact, that’s actually why so many traders got killed, and I think it’s worth looking into more closely.

1/ CONSOLIDATION

The first and most obvious reason why so many traders breached their accounts from trying to trade gold was because it was consolidating.

You see, how can you possibly expect to predict where the price is going to go when it’s just bouncing around in a box?

You can’t!

And trading in the middle of that box is like asking your cat for trading advice:

It’s fun but not profitable (I’ve tried).

2/ LOTS OF UNCERTAINTY

Consolidation always equals uncertainty.

The question is, what’s the market uncertain about?

The answer is simple: Fed policy.

Next week is huge for the markets, with a Fed policy decision coming in hot.

And the more you read, the easier it is to understand the market’s uncertainty.

• Interest rate cuts are coming. And that means a weaker Dollar and gold prices going up.

• But the US economy is still strong. And that means a stronger dollar and gold prices dropping.

Do you see the market’s predicament?

So it’s times like these that we like to stay on the sidelines and play bridge like Buffett.

DIGESTIBLE MEMES 🍪 

We’ll see you on Monday, where we’ll break down all of the big economic events that are on the calendar.

Have a great weekend,
Mr.Lark

PS: Why haven’t you yet registered for our February Competition? It’s completely free!

Click HERE to register.