Originally posted by qwiktrade
limit..
you forgot two things..
1) - education.. a chat room is a great place to look over the shoulder of an experienced trader.. also, we become like the people we associate with.. and so being around people who have a proper mental approach to the market allows us to duplicate that approach ourselves..
2.) - more eyes see more things.. its not possible to watch every stock that might be in play during the day, especially at the open.. and so its nice to be in an environment where trading ideas that you might not otherwise see in time to take advantage of are presented and discussed.. today was a good example for me.. i was long chkp and issx at the open and had just shorted atvi when Allen called a long on the Q's.. so i pulled up the chart to see what he was talking about.. it looked good and it turned out to be a nice trade.. my point is that i had 3 open positions and though i had time to enter another one if the opportunity arose, i didnt have time to flip through a bunch of charts fishing for something..
that said.. i recognize that there are rooms out there that dont teach anything of value and have moderators that couldnt trade their way out of a wet paper bag.. i was a member of one of those for a couple months.. but that doesnt mean every chat room has no value.. the key is to take the trial and ask yourself a few questions..
1) does this person trade himself/herself? if no, ditch it..
2) can this person explain to me in simple terms exactly what they do and how they do it? if the answer is no, ditch it..
3) what are the results of the trading ideas presented in the room? it shouldnt be too hard to figure out after a week.. if they suck, ditch it..
4) does this style of trading fit my personality and my business plan?.. if no, ditch it..
5) did i gain enough in trading opportunity and market education during the trial to justify the expense of the room?.. if the answer is no, ditch it..
its really just not that hard..
-qwik
very good comments, however, what I will also agree to forgetting is:
if the cost of participation is obviously geared towards enrichment of the host, then ditch it....
these excessive fees, no matter what the technology supporting them (like Pristine.com, which has an extensive support technical network, and others) costs over a reasonable $100 - $125 monthly, then ditch it ....
.. in these markets, you don't get what you pay for because the subscription agreement has so many disclaimers that void any responsibility of the hosts to their paid subscriber base
.. in these markets, the hosts don't care whether your computer system, ISP, Broker and their network can keep up with their pseudo-professional setup, hence, they are expecting that their trades, once called, will hit the floor and be filled, fractions of a second and sometimes -- seconds, before yours gets filled. In another context, that's called "front running", or "trading off order flow". If you can get a sufficient number of investors to "Agree" to those terms, although they are not properly disclosed as such, then, the SEC support for Retail protections are whittled down to "uselessness". Cavet Investor...
.. in these markets, supporting the habit of these chat trading rooms at $285 monthly, $300 monthly, $700 monthly, becomes as adictive as ..., well you can substitute whatever you're comfortable with. Balance that with the fact that should you cancel on the renewal date, there's no refund for present day, partial days or 2 days before renewal date. Hence the decks are so totally stacked against Profitable Trading revenues sufficient to support these expensive "time wasters" that it makes the argument regarding a "fool and his money are soon ...."
Simply put, what we're doing is raising the performance standards and the awareness quotient high enough to make these services look exactly what they are...., and the vast majority of them, virtually none of them, look good.
If they serve the purpose of education, then compare their 3 month cost against attending a seminar or
www.tradingmarkets.com seminars or Textbooks....
If they serve the purpose of "sitting over the shoulders of an experienced trader" then consider joining a professional prop firm after getting licensed and doing it in a fuller manner. The last time that most of us looked, doing things half stepped usually never produced a full step result.
If they serve as "more eyes, more opportunities", then consider the fact that as soon as you enter, load and view charts and Level2 or T&S windows on a "called stock", these guys systems have already committed and executed and confirmation issued, even before you type in LMT price or MKT order execution. Hence, your system and bandwidth are up against a very steep incline that can't be scaled short of using a professional computer setup and environment, that is usually available at the more reputable DayTrading shops. For the vast majority of "traders from home" this excludes them and their systems. Perhaps, having a reasonably accurate assesment of the actual trading environment and the participants gave rise to the SEC suggesting that "pattern day traders" need more protection, hence the raising of the "funds on account" requirement.
Gee, who would have ever thought that they actually ate the goose that made golden eggs?
Cheers
