Of course. This is what I meant by understanding the fundamentals. But once you’ve got that down, you have to take it to the market for the real test.
how did successful traders learn how to trade?
- Thread starter cole_
- Start date
Couldn’t agree more!!
This is to respond, and add to, posts where you suggest spending less time in simulation.
When a person is threatened financially or physically, the body's response is to enter fight-or-flight mode. In it, one prepares to confront enemies; blood flow to the brain and extremities is reduced; thinking, planning and decision-making are impaired. This is the reason for deer-in-the-headlights syndrome: failure to act appropriately, for no apparent reason, under stress.
One wants to avoid thinking, planning and taking action in the fight-or-flight stressed state.
I read your suggestion to avoid simulation to be: "Experience and learn to deal with the fight-or-flight mindset, because it's not part of your training. You need to be more effective there." You're right!
The simulator can help grow the envelope of experience, moving thinking away from the trading moment into pre-planning, and committing behaviors to mental and muscle memory. That is one of the best uses and purposes of the simulator.
Whether the simulator is useful may depend on what you do in a trading day. If your actions are mostly predefined -- when the signal triggers, trade or exit -- maybe it's not important. If one is constantly in an observe-analyze-think-plan-execute cycle, then reducing mental workload is important and the simulator has a role. Just my 2 cents.
Some people make trading sound like it was so easy starting. LX21 has made great calls even on twitter seconds before they happened so he obviously knows how to trade. In his interviews he never spills too much information but he makes it sound like he started and was automatically successful, he says it was partially due to the market conditions of the 90s.
No, you have either misunderstood or are being argumentative. Either way, ASSUMING you actually have a long-run profitable system, it is vital to FEEL nothing when your losers come through, but equally important to analyse what happened.
If you do have a long-run profitable system, which has say an 80% win rate, and in 100 trades you get 20 losers, why feel disappointed? You did nothing wrong. In fact, you executed 100% right. You built the strategy so what would you expect?
If you don't have a long-run profitable system, why are you trading for real money?
You're the 17 year old kid that keeps asking dumb questions aren't you? Here's a piece of advice. You're not gonna find "successful" trader on here.
First define success. 10% a year or 100% a year?
The reason being that successful people do not hang out with loser because their negativity will eventually rub off on them. And they do not want to have any of that loser negativity taint on themselves. Even if it's positive negativity.
A wise old ET member used to tell me that ET was just for entertainment. I don't see it like that. It's more sad then entertaining. I rather be watching TV.
making a living definitely counts as being successful.
And you’re here on ET because...?
Small traders have a median trading volume of 20 contracts or less per day on e-mini, which is about 1 million per day. 25 basis points per day is considered top of class. Thus, the top of class of the median would make around 600K at best with 256 trading days. Those who dream about billions are then probably way far off the mark. Making just 300K every year would be a truly outstanding performance.
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I'm "top of class"
I find it kind of weird how you basically, more or less, capped earnings potential.
There are approx. 240 business trading days in the year, not 256.
$1,000/day....given time and compounding, and with right skillset and wisdom and tactics and strategy...can easily be surpassed,
2K/day on average...why not 5K...10K/day on average...and you are King. $2,400,000 a year.
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