Finding an Edge

[digitalnomad]

Here I would disagree, though -- the goal is not to get out of the white box, to make the white box produce. The 'jumping around from one idea to the next' is part-and-parcel: "Always be learning”

For sure. A garbage white box can’t be morphed into a solid grey box.

You can polish a terd from 100 angles, but......

 

[SimpleMeLike]

concentrate on the simple stuff....not esoteric theories like demark elliot gann or complicated algorithms

I agree with you paul.

What is your comment on just not read anything. Just open chart and time frame, stare at it and make some money. Then close the chart.

I belive the ability to make money month to month or year to year is the edge. If a trader can do this, they have an edge, if they cant, they don't have an edge.

 

[SimpleMeLike]

I getcha now.



Agreed.



Completely understand. And, "Agreed."



Here I would disagree, though -- the goal is not to get out of the white box, but to make the white box produce. The 'jumping around from one idea to the next' is part-and-parcel: "Always be learning." --- which I think, brings us back to Spectre2007s post.

(( This would all be so much simpler with a beer and a white board, no? ))

Another I agree with. Just take the broken strategy and make it make money.

 

[Handle123]

Actually, it's the only solution in trading. There is no other. --Doesn't matter whether entries are random or not. To say differently, shows that you don't have a full grasp on prudent risk management. - - - It's not just about cutting losses.

Nine years ago I would have disagreed, year later-I saw the light but for me was for long term trading. Now, with hedging, have same back tests outcomes regardless of perfect entry or horrible entry providing I hedge correctly.

Many see risk management as protective stops, that is very small part. It is looking at a chart and seeing reasons of not taking otherwise good signal, and based on back testing to develop probabilities of recurring patterns. I could just throw away systems for entry being I hedge, just randomly pick a price, but there is what I call "rental", by staying in the market one takes funds from one area to another. Being in a trade where exiting produces nothing is a loss of opportunity of getting into another symbol with much better entry.

Risk management is also anticipating based on patterns of what might be coming to a retracement or an end and either hedge open profits or terminate trade.

To a lesser degree intraday trading-you don't adhere to 2% rule, you can't continue, or bypassing signals based on recent past or longer term trendlines, but we know people trading their last quarter "hoping" for a miracle. And the miracle comes and they have no account, back to whiteboard and many beers.

 

[qxr1011]

What are some important steps and stages in finding an edge? If you have an edge, what advice would you give those who are still looking?

edge lies in the ability to find signs, portents, omens that will allow you to make prediction at the current moment... then at the next moment,... then at the next one... each moment is defined by time-frame and the combination thereof

if your portents are the real ones, and your ability to read them also real, then that will translate into "positive expectation" smalfill talks about...

 

[qxr1011]

Many are saying that finding an edge is crucial in becoming a profitable trader. What are some important steps and stages in finding an edge? If you have an edge, what advice would you give those who are still looking?

where in Russia actually?

 

[qxr1011]

edge lies in the ability to find signs, portents, omens that will allow you to make prediction at the current moment... then at the next moment,... then at the next one... each moment is defined by time-frame and the combination thereof

if your portents are the real ones, and your ability to read them also real, then that will translate into "positive expectation" smalfill talks about...

by the way, like with the folks omens(say about the weather), the trader usually unable to explain why the portents about the market he found work, but nevertheless like the folks omens about the weather they work most of the time

 

[smallfil]

Nine years ago I would have disagreed, year later-I saw the light but for me was for long term trading. Now, with hedging, have same back tests outcomes regardless of perfect entry or horrible entry providing I hedge correctly.

Many see risk management as protective stops, that is very small part. It is looking at a chart and seeing reasons of not taking otherwise good signal, and based on back testing to develop probabilities of recurring patterns. I could just throw away systems for entry being I hedge, just randomly pick a price, but there is what I call "rental", by staying in the market one takes funds from one area to another. Being in a trade where exiting produces nothing is a loss of opportunity of getting into another symbol with much better entry.

Risk management is also anticipating based on patterns of what might be coming to a retracement or an end and either hedge open profits or terminate trade.

To a lesser degree intraday trading-you don't adhere to 2% rule, you can't continue, or bypassing signals based on recent past or longer term trendlines, but we know people trading their last quarter "hoping" for a miracle. And the miracle comes and they have no account, back to whiteboard and many beers.

Always insightful and I always believed risk management should be job no. 1. How you win or lose on any trade matters more than people realize.

 

[cafeole]

LUCKY FELLOW I WASTED 10 YEARS ON THAT BS

Now come on! Whose fault was that? 10 years? I have taken a lot of good stuff from Brooks. Things I would not have thought of myself. I do not follow ANYONE religiously, just take the stuff that makes sense to me and move on.

 

[El OchoCinco]

Brooks has good stuff but it requires an analytical mind to sift through the immense verbal diarrhea as he writes long winded. My personal skill set is tkaing something complicated and simplifying it down to something more workable. Seriously...40-50 pages of his stuff can be written in one paragrpah. But I can sift through it and find out the core and then go work on my own. If you have little patience or inability to cut through the noise to the crux of the issues then you cannot read Brooks or be a good trader in many ways.

Market all day is filled with noise and diarrhea all day.