Are you a successful at home day trader with no other source of income who began with modest means?

dbphoenix · Feb 12, 2015

marketsurfer said:
I found it, thanks. Looks hodgepodge and confusing to me, I googled "gorilla game trading" to find something called silicon investor. surf

So you don't know how to use Google, either. Maybe cornix will help you.

marketsurfer · Feb 12, 2015

dbphoenix said:
So you don't know how to use Google, either. Maybe cornix will help you.

Thanks.. I am certainly no google expert.

Michael.jstocks · Feb 12, 2015

clearstation was a pretty cool site. A few traders made consistently excellent real time calls. I liked the layout of it all, too

lucysparabola · Feb 12, 2015

rofl. a career media man in finance has never heard of Motley Fool. I'm not sure if I should like that fact or laugh about it. I think I'll go with both.

dbphoenix · Feb 12, 2015

Michael.jstocks said:
clearstation was a pretty cool site. A few traders made consistently excellent real time calls. I liked the layout of it all, too

Yes, it was. The guy who ran it was smart. I was disappointed when it was sold.

dbphoenix · Feb 12, 2015

lucysparabola said:
rofl. a career media man in finance has never heard of Motley Fool. I'm not sure if I should like that fact or laugh about it. I think I'll go with both.

Especially as it's been around since before AOL.

clacy · Feb 12, 2015

marketsurfer said:
Yeah, that wasn't common but it happened more than you would expect back then. What's the word on the guy now? Living off of book proceeds, broke, or still making money from the markets?

I follow Gary on another site. He's a really great guy. I've conversed with him briefly over the years on that forum.

He still trades a low seven-figure amount ($2-4m IIRC). He mostly trades bond funds (junk, high yield munis, etc) due to their low volatility and propensity to trend. Not a bad idea if you have a couple of million dollars and only need $100-200k/yr to live on.

He's always maintained that he made almost no money on his books, and that he despises the trading education racket.

marketsurfer · Feb 12, 2015

clacy said:
I follow Gary on another site. He's a really great guy. I've conversed with him briefly over the years on that forum.

He still trades a low seven-figure amount ($2-4m IIRC). He mostly trades bond funds (junk, high yield munis, etc) due to their low volatility and propensity to trend. Not a bad idea if you have a couple of million dollars and only need $100-200k/yr to live on.

He's always maintained that he made almost no money on his books, and that he despises the trading education racket.

Thanks for the intel. Yeah, i think I have conversed with the guy on elite. his current strategy makes sense to me. surf

DHOHHI · Feb 12, 2015

marketsurfer said:
LOL, it is a cute name. Back in the day, i posted some material on a site called "clearstation" and was almost immediately hired by e*trade ( back when e*trade was a power player) hence this career started. I am really unfamiliar with any other message boards except elite and the old clearstation. surf

Silicon Investor was a good site back in the 90's into the 2000's .. but lots of posters disappeared over time as the market pulled back. Probably people who chased all the dot com stocks and felt the market was a one way ride (higher).

I still recall some of the euphoria with certain tech stocks ... I shorted VTSS at $96 in early 2000 and the next day it was $120 (yes, 25% move in a day). I eventually got out of it with a small profit. And today ... VTSS trades for $3.91 and apparently had a 1:10 reverse split. Looking back at 15 years it shows a peak of $2070 in late 1999 so that was probably $207.

VPhantom · Feb 12, 2015

marketsurfer said:
At one time-- no question about it. but I don't think very much at all--- prop firm risk management doesn't allow it any longer, as don't hedge funds, etc--- sure it CAN exist at times, but the majority of the times it does not.

Then let's turn this around. If algos represent 50%+ of the volume these days, distorting price action beyond recognition (since they don't take their decisions "humanly") making 2005-2008 as roughly the line in the sand when tape reading died, where might there be safe heavens?

I'm not personally looking into Wyckoff's pure tick-by-tick, which dates back to when there were 100 ticks in a day for Steel and plenty of time to think, but I am interested its equivalent in more manageable timeframes. But back on topic, I'd be curious to witness a decent real-time human tape if it still exists anywhere. Maybe some lower volume NYSE stocks might still be significantly influenced by its specialist?