Trading Q&A with TraderMerlin – 10/05/26

he mailbag is full, so today YOU get to set the agenda! On today's TraderMerlin, we're stepping away from the usual headline-driven show and diving into your questions about trading, technical analysis, risk management, cryptocurrency and market strategy. No single theme. No predetermined market narrative. Just your questions—and hopefully some useful answers! One of today's topics is NEAR Protocol, a digital-asset project that's undergone a significant evolution. NEAR isn't positioning itself as simply another Layer-1 blockchain anymore. Its focus increasingly revolves around AI agents, chain abstraction and cross-chain execution, attempting to make the underlying blockchain infrastructure almost invisible to the end user. Interesting technology. But does interesting technology automatically make NEAR a good investment? Not necessarily—and we'll talk about why. We're also getting into one of my favorite subjects: stop losses. Everyone loves talking about where to enter a trade. Far fewer traders spend enough time thinking about the point at which the market proves their idea wrong. Should your stop be determined by how much money you're willing to lose—or by the structure of the market itself? That's a critical distinction. We'll discuss: NEAR Protocol – What exactly is NEAR today, what problem is it trying to solve, and where does the NEAR token fit into the ecosystem? Stop Losses – Where should a stop actually go, and why arbitrary percentage stops can get traders into trouble Position Sizing – Why your stop location and position size should work together Trend Determination – What actually defines an uptrend, downtrend or sideways market? Higher Highs & Higher Lows – Why sometimes the simplest definition of trend is still the best Moving Averages – Useful trend tool or lagging distraction? Support & Resistance – How price structure can help identify where supply and demand may be changing Multiple Time Frames – How can something be bullish on one chart and bearish on another? Trade Management – When should you move your stop, take profits or simply leave the trade alone? Trading Psychology – Why knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things And there's an important theme connecting many of these questions. Trading isn't about knowing what happens next. Nobody knows. It's about building a process that tells you what you're going to do if you're right—and what you're going to do if you're wrong. That's where trend analysis, stop losses, position sizing and risk management all come together. If I'm bullish and price confirms my thesis, great. If price proves me wrong, I need to know where I'm getting out before emotion enters the equation. That's not pessimism. That's trading. Listen now:👉 Trading Q&A with TraderMerlin We've got crypto, charts, stop losses, trends, risk management and plenty more from the TraderMerlin mailbag. Have a question I didn't get to? Drop it in the comments! It might become part of the next Trading Q&A. Hit Like, Subscribe, and let's get into it! 🔖 Tags #TraderMerlin #TradingQA #TradingQuestions #TradingEducation #NEAR #NEARProtocol #Crypto #Cryptocurrency #DigitalAssets #StopLoss #StopLossOrders #RiskManagement #PositionSizing #TechnicalAnalysis #TrendTrading #MarketTrends #SupportAndResistance #MovingAverages #TradingPsychology #PriceAction #StockMarket #Stocks #Futures #Forex #Bitcoin #Trading #Investing #MarketAnalysis #FinancialEducation Email – TraderMerlin@gmail.com Follow TraderMerlin: Twitter: TraderMerlin - https://twitter.com/TraderMerlin IG: TraderMerlin - https://www.instagram.com/tradermerlin/ FB: TraderMerlin - https://www.facebook.com/TraderMerlin Live Daily Show: - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCczw6L9MSllTvWDK1fNlLrg Trading Applications used: - Tradingview