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Hello Elite (and not so elite) Traders, I appreciate this interesting thread. A few days ago, I tried posting to it, but for some reason it wouldn't take. So let's try again... In my blog I've reviewed patterns in Market Delta that I have traded successfully. Here's a sample...

Hello all. I'm a psychologist and a trader, and I can tell you that psychology can help you implement your edge in the marketplace, but it is not your edge. In other words, once you have found a trading methodology that works for you, psychological methods (not necessarily course material) can...

Thanks for the many comments on my article. The purpose of the article was merely a piece of reporting. I was wanting to describe "the differences between the highly successful traders I recently talked with and their less successful counterparts". I did not mean to imply that people cannot...

Hello All, I appreciate the thread. Perhaps I can offer a small example. Hot weather in the midwest is threatening the corn crop. The U.S. is the world's largest exporter of corn, making up 70% of the world's exports. At the same time that we might have a diminished corn crop, the...

Absolutely correct! That is what made my trip to the successful trading group so eye-opening, and that is what led me to write the initial post: They were trading *very* differently from me (and from most traders I know), and they were much more successful! Because of that, I am rethinking...

I'm happy to explain what I meant by, "The less successful traders are anticipating market movement and trading accordingly. The highly successful traders are identifying asset class mispricings and trading off those." The very successful traders I observed had a keen sense for value: what...

There's a fair amount of skepticism on this board, and I find that healthy. I'm on record in a number of my articles as stressing that the majority of traders have psychological problems because they don't know how to trade; it's not that they have deeply seated psychological issues. That is...

Hello to all, and thanks for the thread. I'm sorry to see that my posting on professional and amateur traders came across as condescending. That was not my intention. I was simply trying to compare the professional trader who has sustained success with "the average independent trader who is...

Yes, I'd say this has been a constant, although it might be an artifact of the kinds of traders I tend to work with: market makers/scalpers/very short-term traders. And it is certainly a possibility that my sensitivity to changing markets reflects shifts that have occurred at the DOM level as...

Thanks; you're one step ahead of me. My topic for this weekend's article is precisely what you're writing about: how researching the market is not only a way for gaining an intuitive feel for trading patterns, but is also a way of adapting that feel to changing market conditions. Discretionary...

I'm afraid those changing market cycles affect systems as well as discretionary traders, so successful system traders end up remodeling the markets just as successful discretionary traders end up changing their game. I have to say that I've only worked with two traders (out of perhaps 200; both...

Very interesting post, Maverick. I agree that microstructure is only understood by a few, but I'm curious about your assertion that microstructure is unchanging and can be traded in perpetuity. That is not at all my experience. Those market makers trading microstructure (the market's basic...

Great question. It really varies by trader. I'd say, as a whole, it's a function of the number of ticks they're willing to lose (Note: these are generally very short-term traders), but it's not a formal exit technique or formula. I would also say that the reference points for stops (when they...

Yes, thanks, perhaps I need to clarify my use of terms. When I say that their trading is discretionary, I mean that they are not employing any formal rules or research to arrive at their trading decisions. That doesn't mean that their trading is random. Far from it. Some, for example, look...

I appreciate this thread regarding my articles and hope to make a few clarifications. As the quote from the initial posting indicated, I am not questioning that traders can trade successfully in a discretionary manner. In my work as a director of trading at a large Chicago proprietary firm I...

I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this interesting thread. A few observations: 1) Do your homework; the Merc's fine education department has materials on proprietary trading houses and arcades. These embody different business models, and it is in your interest to understand the...