Quote from ddog:
The problem is that the only people that are going to come on here and offer friendly advice without an attitude are those that are hoping to charge you for their services. And if they are running a pay service it probably means they can't make a living trading - which makes their advice worthless.
The skilled traders that really do make a living trading are not going to give away their methods after all the hard work they have put into trading, at least not without an attitude.
But then again, who could blame them?
I don't know about this entire post. I have seen very few solicitations for "pay services". Yes, there have been a few, but percentage wise, insignificant.
As for whether guys that run pay services can or cannot offer anything for their fees, I have no idea, since I have never participated in one. And if they can make money trading, and can make even more by selling their services....well I don't see how this makes one thing exclusive from the other. But I do know that there are people who can trade successfully and help others. While there are other traders who can trade successfully, and yet they are unable to convey anything in a manner that would be helpful to anyone else. Some people can teach, and some can't.
The part of the post that says, in essence that "skilled traders" are not going to give away their hard earned skills without an "attitude" makes no sense at all. Is this meant to say that those who have worked hard to develop their ability to make money will not share any knowledge in a friendly manner, yet they will, provided they can do it if they display an "attitude"?
What does this mean? Does this imply that "Mr. Successful Trader" will not give away his secrets and be pleasant about it, but if he can do it with an "attitude" that you may find offensive, that makes it all different? Expressing an "attitude" is like getting compensation?
Then you finish up by saying "who could blame them?" So here again, the implication is it's justifiable to say "OK, I will help you, but only if I can do it without being 'friendly' and only if I can have an 'attitude' while I do help you".
This whole thing makes no sense to me. It also is clearly IMO just not even close to being true.
There are certainly people here that offer advice and are friendly about it. And there are obviously a lot of blowhards that tell you how great they are, but how they will not divulge their "secrets".
Here's some advice for you. Remember this, 'cause I promise you it's true. THERE ARE NO SECRETS! If someone does something that works consistently, and they won't share their "secret" you are not missing out on anything. Whatever they are doing, no matter how unique, and how successful, it will not work that way forever. There is NO SURE FIRE strategy that works all the time in all markets. Except being disciplined. That always works, but is not a "strategy" just a necessary mind set.
Successful traders adapt. They do whatever works until it stops working. Then they step back, try other approaches on a smaller scale, see what works best, do that until it no longer works, and then start the whole process again. The changes may be radical, or they may be subtle. But the point is, changes need to be made. Because the market changes. Everything changes. If not, robots could trade for us. Or we could just program a computer to make our trades, and go on a never ending vacation.
If there was something that always worked, whoever had that "secret" would end up with all the money in the world. Take any amount of money you wish, ($5k should be plenty), compound it at a mere (in the world of the blowhards) only 1% a day, and tell me what you would have in 5 years. Or ten. Ten years is not a long time to complete a career.
If you want to learn, you can certainly add to your knowledge base by reading the posts here on ET. But knowing some of what you hear will be worthless, and some will be worth remembering, it is just a matter of common sense and caution to separate the BS from what is worth noting. Learning anything is like that. Be efficient. Don' t waste time. A shortcut to this is to ignore anyone who claims to have a secret, and anyone who's obvious agenda is to tell you how great they are, and how you don't stand a chance trading "against" them.
Good luck,
RS
