Search results

=> Indeed, makes a great Trading Expo breakfast, both across the street from the Mandalay Bay in Vegas, and across the street from Marriott Marquis in Times Square! Although I'd have to admit that 90% of my trips to McDonalds in the past year have been at Expos, so I'm not exactly a...

I can only speculate for people like Sam Walton, but I assume he was happy with his life. To me, that's the goal for a 'successful life', to be happy. Another thought regarding spending... You've probably heard a quote (Market Wizards?) that for the most successful traders, money is merely...

For most such traders I know, their friends/neighbors/family would be shocked to find out that they even earned even 20% of their current income. For what it's worth, my neighbors include elementary school teachers, plumbers, policemen, real estate agents, etc. I seem to recall Sam Walton...

Regarding humble: The most important concept about being humble is what humble is NOT. Humble traders do not "know it all". They realize that anything can happen, and it's outside of their control. They are not overconfident. The moment you lose this, and think you've "got it all figured...

Excellent quote. That the kind of mindset that seems common among consistently profitable traders, IMO.

Very good point, vikana. I like to say that the toughest thing about trading is to get to the point where you can consistently break even with your live trading. Your survival is at stake while you are consistently bleeding, but once you reach breakeven, you have turned the corner. At that...

Yes, exactly. You have your own strategy for making trade decisions, but it's not based upon a MACD cross (using your own secret set of MACD parameter values) along with the proper RSI, stochastic, Dual moving average crossover, with a parabolic stop loss, etc, etc... Those sorts of...

Not sure if that was a serious question, but the ones I know think indicators are extremely overrated.

Good Trades, Bad Trades. Winning Trades, Losing Trades. Many people think that a winning trade is a good trade, and a losing trade is a bad trade. This can be a very unprofitable and naive view. A more successful way to look at your trades (IMHO) is to view a good trade as <i>any</i> trade...

ChkItOut, Good questions and comments. I'll do my best to address them. My purpose in creating this thread was to help describe what I believe is the mindset of the generic successful trader. How do they think? The characteristics I described were things like logical, humble...

Exactly. I just don't think ET is a good forum to have these kinds of serious discussions for the benefit of the developing traders. It's too easy for an immature 'know it all' type, to jump in and throw the thread off course, making it frustrating for those hoping to put serious effort into...

Maybe for some forums, but certainly not all. The leading financial forum in the late 90's and early 00's was Silicon Investor, and they offer the ability to self-moderate your own threads. My skin is pretty thick, but I suspect you seem to misunderstand the purpose of the "Feedback" forum...

Excellent comments about taking unbounded risks. Many of the successful traders I know, for example, have read the LTCM book many, many times as a reminder. Paranoid is an excellent adjective to describe their fear of accepting even very small risks of a blow out. Regarding the tightwad...

TSGannGalt, You have added three (worthless, immature and insulting) posts to this thread. In the future, please choose to contribute (what do <b>you</b> think are the characteristics of a successful trader?), or refrain from posting on this thread. Try to add some value for a change (even...

Unfortunately, this simply does not work consistently or timely enough to be useful, IMO. For example, an hour after I created the thread linked above, I realized that it was in the "Career Trader" forum and not the "Journals" forum as I had intended. I immediately sent a PM to the moderator...

Good point. Then maybe the default could be that no one is banished from a thread upon creation. That way, the thread starter would have control to enable, or disable, thread wars at their choosing. Although, I would certainly favor an option (at thread creation), to immediately from the...

I think ET would be a far more useful place if the OP of a thread had the ability to moderate their own thread. This moderating power would include two things: the ability to delete posts (not change them), and the ability to banish specific ET members from posting on their thread. This would...

Good point. Discipline is a word you'll often hear in connection with successful trading, and with good reason. The need for discipline probable fits well with the discussion of being logical, not emotional. If you can't follow your trading plan, then you're just blowing in the wind, and your...

Excellent post, Lescor. That is certainly part of 'growing' as a successful trader. I call it becoming 'acclimated to greater risk', and it's a critical (and natural) part of a traders path to increased profits. We can almost all remember when a $100 loss may have seemed almost...

Very well written. I agree 100%.