Quote from marketsurfer:
...Let's keep ELITE TRADER for ELITE TRADERS who TRADE REAL MARKETS ON REAL EXCHANGES LIKE STOCKS, COMMODITIES AND FUTURES.
I was drinking a cup of hot Phoenix Mountain Oolong tea, when I read this and it ended up flying across my keyboard and onto my 27 inch LG screen. Now, I've got a serious clean-up job on my hands.
Real markets, like Stocks and Futures - oh, and Commodities? Should I wait to pick myself up off the floor, after falling out of my task chair, or should I reply now?
I left the good ole Stock Market, when I dumped the data from Forex into my early signal engine prototype, and saw that Forex data was superior to U.S. Stock Market data in many different ways.
Forex data - according to my engine - has better overall predictive quality than does the traditional stock market. In Forex, you know what market moving news is coming down the pipe-line, well in advance, about 90+% of the time, if not better. The "Decision Tree" timeline is longer in Forex, as you have a full 24hrs (as an intra-day trader) to "get it right" an make a more reasoned decision. If you know what you are doing and you know what to look for, you can see trade set-ups from a mile away, because the market offers expansion of price behavior across the world's time-zones.
If you get really good and learn which Economic Indicators & Reports are responsible for moving the fundamentals of the market, you can do quite well as a Fundamental Trader and have plenty of time to prepare for the days trading sequences. If you get really good at knowing which technical configurations have the highest probability for price behavior in a particular direction, then you can do quite well as a Technical Trader in FX.
The ONLY thing that FX lacks (at the Retail level) is genuine depth, breath and scope of Vanilla FX Options, but in the not so distant future, that has a very good chance of changing.
My point is that the data quality in FX, is simply unmatched by traditional equity markets. Once you learn FX data and develop the tools necessary to measure its pulse, you will never want to go back to Equity Stocks, Commodities or the illiquid Futures.
As far as FX liquidity is concerned, when I used to trade Equity Options, there were clear problems with Open Interest. With FX, given its deeper liquidity, you can scale up or down our positions to maximize daily revenues and truly grow your capitally
geometrically.
True, geometric growth in the Stock market is tough, because you can eventually derive too much exposure in either one stock, or in one sector - else, you will need to take on the headache of managing multiple stocks in multiple sectors and unless you are a Quant Hedge Fund Manager
with the proper tools, you can lay that pipe dream to rest. The average Retail Stock, Commodity or Futures trader, does not have the tools to properly manage that many stocks, across that many sectors, including the proper hedging technique included in a well run portfolio.
From a pure intra-day trading, money management, access to liquidity, economic focus (including adverse economic factors) and stability, predictability and reliability of data standpoint (I'm NOT talking about platforms that freeze or hang), FX simply has no equal. The only way for you to realize this fact, is to study it thoroughly.
Once you taste the combination of liquidity, inherently predictability of data, leverage and the benefits of having researched a good trading system that works; you will never want to go back - nor will you have the need to go back.
I can't possibly imagine going back to trading Equity Options. Not at my current cost basis per trade. It would be a management nightmare. Yet, I can select a single currency (thought I use 6 total on each trade) and trade it to a level of profitability that is unheard of in the Equity Markets, for a singular stock, without becoming that market.
I'd say, that FX attracts smart people.
