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The ones who train traders and deliver food are on my ignore list. I don't see the value in posting how much you make on your good days. I agree that commodity stocks are hard to trade. For the most part I missed a hell of a run a couple years back.

I trade equities. The strategy is simple, I buy stocks that are going up and hold them until they stop going up. I cut losses very quickly and don't hold losers in my portfolio.

I'm quite happy with a paltry 20%. I'm well capitalized and taking a paltry 20% is how I got there. High on my list of why traders fail is unrealistic expectations.

Do you have a written plan?

Key word here is should. keep in mind trading has a 95% failure rate.

It's a decent benchmark to compare to. If you can't outperform a buy & hold startegy, why are you trading? Granted it is an interesting hobby if your goal is to keep busy, but like all hobbys it will probably cost you money. If trading is how you entertain yourself instead of say golfing...

To me discretionary trading means that I don't believe what the market is telling me so I'll ignore my plan and hope I'm right. The problem with that is when things don't work out, you are never quite sure if the problem is with the trader or the system. Back testing is fine up to a point...

Got to thinking after I posted, I believe parabolic is always up. We use crash to define a down move. Good luck!!

Up or down?

OK. There is no edge :).

Well take ten minutes and do that and see how it works out. Might have to add a few filters to icrease your odds.

Not working for you? What's the problem?

How else are you going to define it? You study the market and find something that you can exploit for a probable profit. If you can find a coin flip that comes up heads 55% of the time you have an edge. If you could find a black jack game where you got to see both of the dealers cards you have...

I record every trade with the info I need at tax time. I can use that data to come up with statistics I or others might find interesting. I journal whether I followed my plan and if not why not. I'm trying to take the emotions out of the process. Not much to journal now as I'm pretty good at...

I believe it varies from broker to broker.

Second question is it profitable every year? Outperforming the SPY on a down year might result in a downyear for the strategy. Does it require leverage to attain those kind of results?

Does the system outperform a buy and hold the SPY strategy? Most Money managers don't.

Every cent spent takes away from the bottom line. Maybe a decent ad campaign will help. You've heard of selling ice to eskimos, it's amazing what a good salesman can do.

When I started trading I had discipline issues. Once I took the time to write out a trading plan and focused on following the plan, things got better. Watching the total portfolio value rather than each trade also helped.

Can you day trade?