I Quit

What a great thread....some very interesting replies --- don't take them personally, GT.


Quote from GolfTrader:...I wake up every morning now and dread trading and am afraid to pull the trigger many times...
More...
Time to stop the bleeding.

S.W.A.T. negotiator on megaphone, "We have you surrounded. Move away from the mouse, put your hands behind your head, and step back and out of the trading room..."

I feel for you, brother. Trading for a living is difficult. When you get gun-shy, when you emotions get involved, when your self worth rises and falls with your daily P&L---it will devastate you and your bank account.

It's great you have your law degree to fall back on---you can certainly make a living practicing law.

Best wishes to you, thanks for baring your soul, and remember next year's motto: Life is great in 2008!....it's certainly better than the alternative. :cool:
 
Interesting to say the least. I've been mostly a day trader my entire career as that's how I learned the biz (1987 till now).

Its interesting cause I refuse to gamble other than an annual College Bowl pool which I lose every year ($25). I visit Vegas semi annually with college buds and quit after I lose $50 in blackjack. Why, odds are against me.

Point is: day trading isn't inherently more risky than position trading. You just need to know what you are doing and be very disciplined. It has advantages of low risk entry and little long term analysis needed.

Yep, noise can kill ya, and you have to be glued to the screen with the ability to do NADA for hours at a time (pure scalpers excepted). Nothing wrong with day trading in general however. Just its own specialized beast.

Jayford
 
Isaiah 52:12 "The Messiah of Israel will be your reward."

SECURITY from YESTERDAY: "God requires that which is past."
At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that Christ has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from
remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of Christ's grace is apt to be checked by the memory of
yesterday's sins and blunders. But Christ is the Lord of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order
to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. Christ reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow
security in the present.

SECURITY for TOMORROW: "For the LORD will go before you." This is a gracious revelation, that Christ will
garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would
do if He were not our rereward. Christ's nailed-pierced hands reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-
house for conscience.

SECURITY for TODAY: "For you shall not go out with haste." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in
the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient
power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true
that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but Christ can transform this destructive anxiety into a
constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.

Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him

May all at Elite Trader have a successful and prosperous new year

Grace101
 
Hey Golf Trader:

Thanks for baring your soul. I hope this doesn't sound too trite, but I don't think you are in a bad place.

You have become aware of your limitations and you are acting upon this knowledge. It doesn't really matter when you came to the realization, although from a capital standpoint sooner would have been more comfortable to be sure.

You have a wife that supports you and is there for you.

You have your health and your children are well and through college.

You have a home. You have a degree that you can use to create new opportunities.

I hope you find happiness and satisfaction wherever you end up. It's very possible that your very best years are ahead of you.

I really would be interested in hearing about wherever you end up.

Shalom.
 
Hey Compulsive:

I have had a copy of Phantom's Gift for 10 years now, and I continually reread it. It's one of the top 3 most beneficial things I've ever read about trading, and if I could have just 3 trading wishes, one would be to get a chance to sit down with Art and POP for an entire evening.
 
Quote from GolfTrader:
I have been a lurker here for several years and only made one reply, but I have a confession. I quit.
More...
Your good years sound like luck mainly. Quit.This part of your life is done. And forget it.
 
"Alan Newman of Longboat Advisors has commented for the last few years about how the market has changed. Mostly, the players use larger and larger positions for ever shorter time frames in an attempt to capture ever smaller percentage moves. He mentioned one instance where a player moved a $20Million position to lock in an $8,000 gain. "

This is very true for stocks.Trading in the mid 90s was relatively easy and much more bang for the buck.I would position trade-buy 2000 shares of psft,alsc,csco,atml,tlab etc. after they would slowly pullback from their new highs and then i would bail when they would pop2-3 pts in a single day or over 2 days.

"For years I've said, "Keep doing what was successful for you in the past, and the market will knock you off". That is, it will periodically morph in such a way that it needs to be approached differently"
"
Yup.....

Golf trader,did you call yourself addicted when you were successful?
You are correct that the market did change.I think it will always change.For you it was in 2001 for me it was around 1997(the timeframes got shorter,the volatility went too crazy and i had personal stuff that was pre-occupying my mind).I lost most of my money by 2000.I stayed out from 2002 til this year when i started daytrading.Daytrading is a lot harder and less rewarding to me than position trading.I am under no illusions that i should expect tosee 1990s type of income.Instead i look at day trading as making an income on a smaller scale and not to expect too much.Just trade the best i can and reduce my size when i have a bad trade.

I am however looking at getting back into position trading with the stocks i have been daytrading with and that is the dow30.
They pretty much have regular ranges without the drama of nasdaq stocks so you can hold them overnight without freaking out.However the frequency that these stocks complete a bottom to top back to bottom of range can take quite some time so you will not be making the same kind of money or as fast as in the 90s.
Forget the 90s they are the past.You made a lot of money,it seems like you spent it well and you have some change left.Pretty damn good.
I know people who lost millions in the dot bomb and had their homes repo'd and the irs after them(you know,making tons one year only to lose it all the next and not having any cash to pay the irs for the previous years gains!!!).

Dont trade.Take a nice break.Then paper trade.Get back in by only trading 100-300 shares of t,ko,ge,pg....boring dow stocks that move even intraday.
 
I've seen a few great posts here. The whole thread is enlightening and littered with posts by addicts telling the OP that he is not addicted.

Of course most of the posters are not qualified or experienced enough to give the OP advice - including myself.

I didn't read all of the posts so forgive me if Livermore has already been mentioned. Look at what happened to him.

Considered one of the greatest traders of all time - he ends up bankrupt and commits suicide.

Rather than being critical of the OP I would think that any smart trader would realize that it could happen to anyone.
 
I think it happens to most of the successful traders....Also most successful millionaires have made it,lost it and made it all back again....Just part of the learning curve....I
 
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