Let me see if I can help you out.
I'm the Junior Principal of a Closed Equities Trading Firm.
Most of what you are reading here? Is by people who can't trade well, and have no idea what they are talking about.
For instance? Options are perfectly viable. In fact? I'm so sick of hearing "Never go near options" and "Options don't work" and "Options are a suckers bet" ... as well as statements like this I just ran across: "I'm a coder and data scientist. I have been working on trading for over 2 years. Spent lots of money. Every trainer i have paid lies. Because, there's no profitable system. If there's, nobody will teach you what it's."
Bull***.
In fact, I'm so sick of it, I'm going to start another thread, and journal a process that my Partner and I have agreed to demonstrate to aspiring traders. And I'm purposely going to use options, just to demonstrate that the above is complete bullcrap. To demonstrate ... that for your first tip?
1) YOU REALLY need to start ignoring people on trading forums. And what the heck, that can include myself. You need to start learning to weigh data objectively, for yourself, as to what works (mathematically, so as to remove people's opinions). It'll help if you have some training in rhetoric. But there are as many strategies to trade profitably, as there are profitable trading firms on this Planet. Good god, our library of strategies has about 35 strategies in it, and God knows there are more. Strategy? Is actually simple. More on that in a bit. Its not a matter of finding the right strategy. It's a matter of deciding what you want to do. Which leads me to my next point ...
2) How you want to trade? Is dependent on you. What you need, is not the "strategy", but principles to develop your own way. Those principles include that you cannot look at a SINGLE trade, as proof that you did anything right or wrong. But that groups of 30 and 40 trades, will tell you the story. You need to grind out an iteration of trades. You need to decide the accuracy rate, not to figure out how how hot you are at picks? But to determine your math advantage (You can be 99% accurate? But then when you lose, you'll HAVE to accept you'll get hit hard on your risk reward ratio. Conversely, there are plenty of traders who are only 35% accuate? But when they win? They win BIG, and thus, print money over the long haul while the endure many small losers. Your Accuracy Rate only matters, to determine your math advantage you need to be aiming for).
3) Don't get stuck on strategy. Just don't. Look through these forums. These forums are FILLED with people arguing strategy. What works. What doesn't. I'm going to give you a little bit of advice.
It all works.
And none of it works.
In other words? If you ignore the aspects in point #2? Then nothing you do will work. That's what is imporant. Entrances? Are not that important. But for some reason, new and aspiring retail traders get HUNG UP on entrances. This is something my senior partner at our Closed Firm says all the time about new retail traders. They are so hung up on patterns, and entrances? They have no idea what to do, once they are in a trade
Strategy? Is actually easy. IF ... you accept the principles in point #2
4) You will have to endure discomfort. Trading, is about learning to endure discomfort. That's why most fail. In fact, my partner has a term for the endless cycle that most aspiring traders get hung up on. He coined the term: "Method Hunting".
The find a process. They work it.
The win for a while.
Then they have a few losses.
The take this as proof that "the system doesn't work" (Instead, what we know in the Quant world as ... statistically normal Drawdown that you must undergo). And then?
Then they go and hunt up another "method" to find that works.
Rinse.
Repeat.
They do that 1,000 times.
And thus, his term: "Method Hunting".
Don't get caught up in that trap. Know that all trading, by definition? Is knowing that you'll have periods of Drawdown. And the "Indicator" trap, is almost the worst one of all.
Buffett is arguably one of the single greatest traders to ever exist, with one of the best track records. And completely, what we call (obviously) ... scaleable. He has had years, where he didn't make any money. Therefore?
He had to endure discomfort.
Thankfully, it's easier to be a small trader, and you can be more nimble, and do different things with risk. But at the same time? You WILL have to endure periods of discomfort. That's just the way it is.
