@Redneck, have to agree 100% with you. There are a million ways to make money in whatever markets you choose. What profitability comes down to is the mental fortitude and knowledge of thyself that an individual trader has.
Just think about all of the strategies there are in stocks, Forex, futures, etc. and how many different individuals you may know or know about who have made a profit using a strategy specific to their respective market. Then think about all of the people who attempt to replicate or follow the profitable traders strategy only to have it blow up in their face time and time again.
It is obvious those traders have yet to discover that this business of trading, just as I believe any other business really is at the end of the day, is one of psychology and personal awareness. Of course, as you stated there is a need for a reasonable strategy, but that is really the least of an individual's trading worries.
What profitability comes down to is having a good system. I doubt there are a million ways to make money by the markets.
Most of the strategies don't work. It's like they used to say in martial arts, it's not the art, it's the person. Except it is the art, and mixed martial arts competitions determined which ones were best. Brazilian jujitsu and muay thai consistently won. Kung fu? Lost. Tae Kwon Do? Lost. Aikido? Lost. Kung fu? Lost. Savate? Lost. Hapkido? Lost. Then, applying your concept, it must be that the right people happened to train BJJ and MT because there are so many martial arts out there and every one can win. Those same people would not have been victorious if they had studied karate, or kung fu, or tae kwon do, or aikido, or savate, or hapkido, because the techniques are different. They were battling the best people in the world. They need the best techniques.
For someone who is trading, they are struggling against the best people in the world. You need a profitable system. Saying any system can be profitable when you are competing against the best in the field is just as much nonsense as saying any style can be victorious when you are battling elite opponents. I'm sure MACD would work if everyone trading was a fool and you didn't have people with better skills and tools spoofing everything. Clearly, it takes the right kind of person studying the right art, like with trading it takes the right kind of person, and that person needs the right system. I am amused by these threads that so casually suggest that it's easy to make money with any system. The concern must be that all the traders out there don't have the right psychology for it.
Not making money has very little to do with any business aspect of trading. It has to do with not having a useful method. Business is like, don't spend more than you make, be focused, stick to your plan (which has to make money), buy a good computer, make sure you have a way to start orders if your internet goes down. These threads are like the kind of mood lifting nonsense you read in making money books. It's full of stuff suggesting that it's easy but you're never given a method that works and if you are given a method, it doesn't work, but that's never mentioned and you are given a big list of reasons to keep you occupied rather than looking at the system.
Here let me state it plainly.
The most important factor in trading is having a good system. Not having this, it does not matter what else you do because you will not make money.
Second is being able to follow the system.
Third is all the other stuff, like being focused on your work, having the right technology, continually learning, etc.
It constantly amazes me how people don't understand this.
