Quote from LongShot:
rs7, will you ever post about trading again? are you trading? these days seems all your considerable efforts are confined to chit-chat. what gives??
Very true...I have confined myself to the "chit chat" threads pretty exclusively.
Reason......here anything and everything can be discussed. And is. You can agree, disagree, etc. and no one really cares.
Trading has been my profession for 14+ years. I did several threads (started them and wrote a lot of posts) and pretty much said what I had to say. I got an amazing amount of private messages. Most of them were written to thank me for my efforts. However, I also got quite a few slams (mostly on the public forums).
It is my belief that everyone has to develop a style of their own. In my "keeping it simple" and "successful trading" threads (and others that elude me at the moment), I gave the "advice" that I felt could be used pretty universally. I never believed that anyone could teach a specific way to trade. And I did not try. I only tried to give general advice that would work for any style.
I don't know what else to say about trading. I would never presume to know how to teach or even recommend a style that would be exactly suitable to anyone but me. I think trading is pretty much self-learned. That is not to say that basic principals can't be taught. That was what I attempted to do.
I think anyone that takes the time to read those threads will know whatever I know that I can actually spell out. All basic stuff about discipline, accountability, etc. I never once even attempted to give advice on what to trade, how to trade, how to time exits and entries, what kinds of TA to use, none of that.
I will always be happy to share whatever I think would be universally useful. But I don't know that I haven't already said it all. Any questions, I will try to answer. But first, I would suggest reading those threads. I did a lot of work and spent a lot of time on them. I would hate to just repeat myself.
Also, I have been trading much less for the past several months. This is just a matter of waiting for the market to "come to me", which I talked about extensively already. I KNOW I cannot force trades. I said very clearly that sometimes the hardest part of trading is knowing when NOT to trade. So in this environment, I have spent much less time trading. And much more time trying to improve my golf game. Hopefully we will start to see more of a trend in the market. For the past few months, it seems like it's one day up and one day down. Days like today....I went out of the office for an hour...the Dow was up 90 when I left and down 90 when I returned. volatility is good for trading, for me. But recognizing the difference between volatility and "choppiness" is important, and I just see a lot of "chop" lately. I am a "simple" guy. I like a "simple" market. I like to buy dips in an up market and sell run- ups in a down market. I don't trade into fed announcements or big numbers (or earnings these days). I am waiting for it to get easier.
Aphie asked recently something about the market not "doing what it should". Well the market does whatever the participants make it do. Sometimes traders (and ALL the public) think the "market" does things. The "market" doesn't do anything. We ARE the market. When stocks went up every day, bad news was ignored. When stocks went down every day, good news was ignored. It's all about psychology. When the market (meaning traders, and investors when there used to be such a thing) are confused, the reactions are confusing. So until things "clear up" for me, I am better off trading less, chit-chatting more, and working on my short game.
One other thing has halted my amount of contribution to the trading forums. That is the pervasive attitude that successful traders "don't share". I have addressed this too many times. I think it's such a completely false assumption. I think virtually all successful traders are secure enough to KNOW that no matter what they "divulge" will never come back and adversely affect their trading. But I am tired of defending this position. So rather than come off as a "blowhard" as I have been called by some, because I have been so adamant about my feelings on this subject, and since I feel there is no upside to defending it, what is the sense of posting my thoughts about trading? Those who agree with me agree, and already know what I know, and those who are looking for "secrets" will never get them from me. Because I don't know any.
Peace,

Rs7