Do most traders even have an edge?

Quote from MarkBrown:

when i got involved in trading i had money - i got involved from a challenge that some friends threw out. they had been trading and it was boom and bust foir them. they knew me and said hey if anyone can do it maybe mark can. so armed with a nothing i set out to do it. it cost me dearly i lost and won and lost and won and come to the conclusion no one i was around or hung out with was a pro and knew really what they were doing.

so when i had a chance to work for a pro trader i jumped and became a systems developer for a professional trading company which had lots of money to spend on just searching formodels. i was not the brightest guy they told me but i had the right combination of passion for the business and some computer skills. that is what got me the job, mostly the passion. had i been money motivated i would never gotten in.

in fact the head trader there told me that it was my refusal of a million dollar account to trade that sealed my future. i told them i would just blow it cause i really didn't have a grasp of what i was doing. they said given the choice 99.9 of all applicants told them they would take the money. my refusal proved i was hungry and passionate for the truth.

i stay focused as i buy all my toys nowdays and live the life i do. i love cars, art, computer hardware, buildings, boats and copters. but i would throw it all away if i needed to in order to keep my passion of discovery and perfecting the edge. i have been broke time and time again but each time i make it back quicker and quicker cause i am perfecting the edge.

i used to despise gambling - i in no way think i can be a gambler like a pro. but i can apply my computer modeling and beat just about any gambler on the planet. i have conducted real life experiments where i hit house limits on several occasions. i know something about having an edge, the first step is that you have to belive one is obtainable. then you have to find it.

mb
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terrific MB.
As I say, if you believe in everything that you have written, then just go with it.

In the meantime, trading will continue to be nothing more nor less than making consistent big money.

Less than 15% of the strikes make up more than 80% of the market.

The traders placing these strikes do so because they want to make consistent big profits.

In the end, we are all so diverse that our opinions and reasons simply do not count.
And so if someone says they have an edge... then knock yourself out, because the only one impressed is them.
The beauty of trading lies in its simplicity.
Either the next trade yields a profit or a loss for the trader.
It is how the game is stung together that makes the difference.

regards
f9
 
Quote from Shagi:

Henry,

You are generalizing what you define as an edge. Can you elucidate what you mean by probability in your favor?

I remain of the opinion that there is no such thing as an edge and its not required to make big money trading. Most guys quote this edge thing just because some market wizard in Jack's books said so.

Forget spending sleepless nights looking for it, it does not exist.

Whats real is human psychology, win/lose probabilities, trading methodology with a positive expectancy, capitalization to trade the methodology and discipline to trade the method ( and this does mean you have be a robot either, you can still make mistakes provided the ultimate goal is to make losses linear and winners exponential. To do this requires no mystical edge or posses information others dont or a technique thats unique. Non required.

But then again maybe Im talking to myself.
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You seem to contradict yourself. You think it is possible to have good win/lose probabilities, trading methodology with a positive expectancy, capitalization to trade the methodology and discipline to trade the method and yet think there is nothing like edge! Well all that constitutes an edge!!
 
Most traders (at least the one's on ET anyways) do not have an edge. It's obvious...

They'd rather waste their time squabbling back and forth about what an edge is, what an edge isn't, who has an edge etc etc etc. If they had an edge they'd be trading it making money.

Either that or the complete reverse. They all have edges and have turned them into automated trading systems which frees them up to go on a chat board and argue about what an edge is...

either way...
lol

- mnx
 
I've never read jack's book , I can't vouch for others definition of edge , but to me it's simply ( as i said before) have the probablity of winning in ones favor , some call it profit factor , that over an infinite amount of trades ( to discount chance) one comes out ahead . In fact the term edge is used in precisely this manner to describe how much the house takes on games such as roulette "the house has the edge "in this instance 5.23%in u.s. and 2.7% on european roulette ( according to wikipedia), it's a very obvious concept!!!
 
Quote from Shagi:

Henry,

You are generalizing what you define as an edge. Can you elucidate what you mean by probability in your favor?

I remain of the opinion that there is no such thing as an edge and its not required to make big money trading. Most guys quote this edge thing just because some market wizard in Jack's books said so.

Forget spending sleepless nights looking for it, it does not exist.

Whats real is human psychology, win/lose probabilities, trading methodology with a positive expectancy, capitalization to trade the methodology and discipline to trade the method ( and this does mean you have be a robot either, you can still make mistakes provided the ultimate goal is to make losses linear and winners exponential. To do this requires no mystical edge or posses information others dont or a technique thats unique. Non required.

But then again maybe Im talking to myself.
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i will not hurt cheat or steal to get an edge but when one drops in my lap like your closed mind i'll take full advantage of it. mb

:D ps i love you man...


http://www.purebytes.com/archives/omega/2001/msg10719.html
 
an edge is something others do not have. like a trading style.

some people like to play successful minute to minute trading, but some people like warren buffet, they have the patience to select the most potential, go for it, they can ride the market up/down for long time.

do not misunderstand edge with trading strategy.
 
Quote from fearless9:

Either the next trade yields a profit or a loss for the trader.
It is how the game is stung together that makes the difference.

regards
f9
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absoltutely beautiful....
 
Quote from ElCubano:
It is how the game is stung together that makes the difference.

absolutely beautiful....
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so can you tell me what is beautiful about being stung together?

i dont speak that language i guess.
 
Quote from trader_david:

an edge is something others do not have. like a trading style.

some people like to play successful minute to minute trading, but some people like warren buffet, they have the patience to select the most potential, go for it, they can ride the market up/down for long time.

do not misunderstand edge with trading strategy.
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Having an edge is of no use at all if one does not know how to use it correctly!
 
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