I am up 19.77% YTD and still don't know what my edge is!

[easymon1]

I replied that I thought my edge was simply being very disciplined.

How would you define the word discipline?

 

[wmwmw]

Those who call discipline an edge never understand what an edge is.

A losing trader can be more disciplined than a winning trader. He just needs to stick his losing plan strictly. Then he is perfectly disciplined.

 

[schizo]

In my opinion, individual traders don't need a quantifiable edge because 95% of individual trading success is their own personality. You develop a thesis, run a few tests to validate it, and then start trading it.

Well, you need more than just a few tests of validation to become successful although that might be a start. Moreover, instead of relying on personality, you need a set of rules to fall back on. Trading should be a rule-based system. Whether you're discretionary or algo, rules should be rigidly followed.

 

[nooby_mcnoob]

Well, you need more than just a few tests of validation to become successful although that might be a start. Moreover, instead of relying on personality, you need a set of rules to fall back on. Trading should be a rule-based system. Whether you're discretionary or algo, rules should be rigidly followed.

Why do I hear this kind of stuff from people who don't acutally trade

 

[tonyf]

I think you can point to your research capabilities and your niche if you wanted to describe why someone should entrust you. But I wouldn’t call those edge’s.

I wouldn't neither.

 

[tonyf]

If you are consistently profitable, you must have something that you are doing over and over again that’s worked for a long time.

I read SEC fillings voraciously.

 

[deaddog]

I read SEC fillings voraciously.

Don't discount hard work as being part of your edge.

 

[MacBookProHo]

Don't discount hard work as being part of your edge.

The market doesn't care how hard a trader is working...to solve that magical puzzle of generating money from the market.

There are a ton of old fools in this business with decades of so-called experience, but have nothing to show for it.
Intelligence is more important than some guy who is beating his head against a wall getting nowhere, while doing the same thing over and over again.

99.2% of people in this trading game are failures, that's a given.
What makes the .8% winners....ask yourself this,

 

[easymon1]

25 Rules of Trading Discipline
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/25-rules-of-trading-discipline.128027/

 

[tonyf]

I think

The market doesn't care how hard a trader is working...to solve that magical puzzle of generating money from the market.

There are a ton of old fools in this business with decades of so-called experience, but have nothing to show for it.
Intelligence is more important than some guy who is beating his head against a wall getting nowhere, while doing the same thing over and over again.

99.2% of people in this trading game are failures, that's a given.
What makes the .8% winners....ask yourself this,

I

The market doesn't care how hard a trader is working...to solve that magical puzzle of generating money from the market.

There are a ton of old fools in this business with decades of so-called experience, but have nothing to show for it.
Intelligence is more important than some guy who is beating his head against a wall getting nowhere, while doing the same thing over and over again.

99.2% of people in this trading game are failures, that's a given.
What makes the .8% winners....ask yourself this,

The honest truth is that success is deterministic. You cant really learn it however hard you try. Some are lucky for short period of times, but successful armchair traders had a long career as pros making money for other people. So a back ground on Wall Street or at a successful hedge fund is very important in my view. You get the odd exception but they are statistically a fart in a storm: small impact.

I learned discipline by being "disciplined" for 8 years by pros.