Good poker player = good trader?

I think RM knows a bit about trading, maybe you should check the P&L thread if you want some confirmation :)

Quote from PohPoh:

Trading is not meant to be FUN...
Neither is playing poker, if you are serious about it...
Trading should be boring...
 
Quote from goldenarm:

The poker/trading analogy is mostly suited to stock traders who follow a select number of stocks and know them intimately. The rules for poker are fairly simple, but what makes excellent poker players is the ability to learn betting patterns and "tells" of his fellow players to swing the odds in his favor.

In trading a few stocks, traders learn who really moves the stocks, whether it's a major market maker/specialist or ECNs (often a disguise used by market makers). Market makers and specialists are people with their own distinct trading personalities and tendencies. Good traders can learn these "clues" after careful study.

After watching a stock for several months, a good trader can see how market makers accumulate stocks at certain levels, or jump from the bid to the offer (disguising himself as an ECN), etc. Then the trader keeps track of how the prices are affected or which other market makers follow the "axe". This can lead to high probability trades.

This type of price action study for specific stocks and how you subsequently trade them is the main analogy between poker and trading. It's all about the "tells" and betting patterns of the other participants in the stock.

This is a very astute perception. Perhaps the best post in the first 7 pages of this thread (which are all the pages that are here so far). I would add money management (especially in No Limit) to the skills that are applicable to both.
 
Quote from PohPoh:

Trading is not meant to be FUN...
Neither is playing poker, if you are serious about it...
Trading should be boring...


Both should be fun. And both often are for the experts in each.

Although live poker is more often considered fun than the much less intricate online poker. As a matter of fact, live and online poker are much different games, online being considerably less complex and far drier. The main advantages of online play are that it's possible to get in many more hands per unit time, there is no commute, and if you are prone to giving tells or not especially good at picking them up you are better off. The main disadvantages are that your edge is much smaller, it's far more boring once you've played it enough, and that you can't make use of a tremendous amount of information you have available to you in live play.
 
Quote from FaderTrader:

Perfection.

In fact, I'd argue it applies to poker and trading.

Hi Cheese/FaderTrader

Got yourself an alias huh?

Does this post have anything to do with the subject of the thread?
 
Quote from trader3:

This is a very astute perception. Perhaps the best post in the first 7 pages of this thread (which are all the pages that are here so far). I would add money management (especially in No Limit) to the skills that are applicable to both.
In both games, success is always dependent on good Money and Risk Management. Everything else is fluff.

Poker players will all average the same types of starting hands over long periods of time. The difference between Winners and Losers is that Winners choose the correct hands to play at the correct times, Losers do not. Winners choose the appropriate amount of money to bet at the appropriate times, Losers do not. Winners regularly recognize the appropriate times to fold their hands, Losers do not. Winners constantly search for an edge and routinely recognize other players tells, Losers do not.

Seems to me like neither game has anything at all in common whatsoever.
 
i don't think the edges are necessarily smaller online, just different

the online tels are betting patterns, sometimes the speed of the instacall, etc.

but more importantly, in online pker you can monitor a table for an hour or two and/or compile detailed stats on your opponents that is not so easy to do live

you press the edges u have
 
Quote from traderNik:
And I see Cheese is still here - every post completely lacking in content or relevance.
You need to get over your problem, pal.

Analysis algorithms! Sweet.
Tell us all when you've retired with your trading fortune .. or is it your poker made fortune? And poker, you say, mirrors life. LOL.
:)
 
Obviously if you only study poker or only study trading, you aren't going to automatically be good at the other. I would say that the psychological make-up needed to be good at either is similar, that's about it.

I've been playing poker online for a living for about 18 months, and played part time for a year before that. I make in the high 5 figures, but only play about 2-3 hours per day. I can't stand to play much more than that - it is a total grind and very mind numbing. I play 4 to 6 simultaneous tables of limit hold-em (from as low as 3/6 up to 20/40), and get about 500 hands per hour.

When I started playing poker, I put trading aside. I sucked at it anyway. Now I hope to approach it in a whole different way, applying the risk management and discipline learned from poker to my trading. Plus it allows me to make a decent living with just a few hours of work each night, while being free to study and trade all day during market hours.
 
SicilianTM, read trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas {2000} the psych skills taught in that book will help you sharpen both your poker and trading techniques.

One good thing about internet poker is that you can just go and start watching low limit tables, identifying suckers by name.... you start adding them to you buddy list, and keep detailed notes on their playing style... You do this for a few hours every day, and you´ll get yourself a nice list of call stations. Now all you have to do is pick the tables where several of them are playing and things are going to get bloody.

I used to go into tables where I knew something about all the players. I entered with the minimun every time... in a couple of hours I was the biggest fish in the pond... time to look for a new table. ;)

Ohh yeah, and I only reloaded chips 1 time, never more... I think of the minimun entry as a tick, I never want to lose more than 3 ticks to be proven wrong.
If you get at least 6 times the amount of the minimun entry on your winning tables... then you only need to be succesfull 30% of the time.3:1 ratio... and trust me, if you´ve done your homework well, and keep detailed notes, your ratio is going to go a lot higher than that...
 
Quote from trader3:

Both should be fun. And both often are for the experts in each.

Although live poker is more often considered fun than the much less intricate online poker. As a matter of fact, live and online poker are much different games, online being considerably less complex and far drier. The main advantages of online play are that it's possible to get in many more hands per unit time, there is no commute, and if you are prone to giving tells or not especially good at picking them up you are better off. The main disadvantages are that your edge is much smaller, it's far more boring once you've played it enough, and that you can't make use of a tremendous amount of information you have available to you in live play.

I agree...both are fun, and as in all things, people tend to succeed with things they enjoy. Your career should not be boring or upsetting in any way (sure we get upset at for a short time once in a while, but not often).

Right now I'm killing some time waiting for my "Super Satellite" at the World Poker Tour in Paris...9PM tonight, local time. And, yes, I hope to be placing my opening only orders before the opening tomorrow morning.

Don
 
Back
Top