If you could go back in time to when you were a new trader

[foozler]

Quote from NoDoji:

By the beginning of the 2nd quarter 2009 I was indeed so "damaged" that I realized I needed to actually learn how to trade, specifically with an edge that doesn't disappear. I was still green and fairly clueless. I was distraught because I thought I knew all there was to know and I realized I knew very little and for the first time since starting to trade I had serious doubts about my ability to succeed.

As I mentioned in my first post in this thread, I've been at this for nine years. I am fortunate in that I never thought I knew very much at all. Frankly, I was both amused and bemused by how "green and fairly clueless" I still was (and am) after all this time.

Quote from dbphoenix:

There's so much of value here that cherry-picking quotes would be a wasted effort. I can only hope that those whose interest is in any way piqued will print it out and read it again and again, preferably alongside a review of past trades.

Since deciding to make the transition from "recreational trader who sucks" to "more serious trader with an edge and a plan" I have accumulated nearly 40 pages of ET posts that I have found supportive of my quest. Most of these are from nodoji's day trading journal, geez's journal, and your straight line and trading journal threads. I do not simply "cut and paste" and drop new entries at the end. I have maintained the resulting collection as an organized whole, and I study and re-read it often. I consider it the instructional manual to my own trading journal and development as a serious trader. I can attest to the value of repeated review of posts such as nodoji's above (a post which is being added to my "instructional manual" today).

 

[Lights]

Quote from dbphoenix:

Rather than start all over again, I suggest that those who are interested -- if anyone -- go back to page three and work their way forward.

you are basically arguing that flared jeans is always in style from the beginning to the end of time.

 

[dbphoenix]

Quote from Lights:

you are basically arguing that flared jeans is always in style from the beginning to the end of time.

I'm not arguing anything, except perhaps in the legal sense. What I have said is that trading by price cannot fail because price is self-correcting. But, again, those who care can start over at page three.

 

[mastacoli71]

If I knew back then what I know now. Do more of what is working and less of what is not. Edges come and go, let the numbers talk and the ego walk. In otherwords learn to accept.

There is no holy grail. Mindset going into a trade should be focused on how much you can lose and the winners will take care of themselves. If trade does not work out right away gtf out. All about risk management.

 

[TheGreatGorilla]

Quote from Lights:

It morphed into another Turtle Trader trend following is the grail thread.

This always happens, it always morphs into strategy and, "so what's yours man?"

 

[TheGreatGorilla]

Quote from mastacoli71:

If I knew back then what I know now. Do more of what is working and less of what is not. Edges come and go, let the numbers talk and the ego walk. In otherwords learn to accept.

There is no holy grail. Mindset going into a trade should be focused on how much you can lose and the winners will take care of themselves. If trade does not work out right away gtf out. All about risk management.

+infinite

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from Lights:

In other words, your system worked until VIX90 and full blown market volatility in 2008 into 2009 and your system didn't work anymore. and now you trade a new methodology and it's working..

sounds like you're still in the game because of a willingness to change.

every methodology works at some point and will work again in the future. every methodology fails at some point and will fail again in the future. the markets simply churn it's participants and rotate the finite permutation of strategies.

Until summer of 2010 I never had a real system. I traded ideas which worked until they didn't. I lacked risk management and I lacked a real edge. I didn't realize this until I learned about price action trading.

A price action edge cannot fail because it adapts itself to the current market environment. In other words,

Quote from dbphoenix:

What I have said is that trading by price cannot fail because price is self-correcting.

This.

 

[R. Raskolnikov]

In your 2 days here, you've already come to this conclusion?

Quote from TheGreatGorilla:

This always happens, it always morphs into strategy and, "so what's yours man?"

 

[austinp]

Quote from Lights:

Every methodology has worked at some point in the past and will in the future. Every methodology has failed at some point in the past and will fail in the future.

no, what you describe are all methodologies that are breakeven at best, long term. More likely net-loss long term but the hapless traders following such failed plans cannot recognize such until looking back with hindsight later on.

nor is everything known to man out there in public view, or use. that too is a wrong but oft-regurgitated falsehood. there are many things discovered by individuals not shared in public for free.

what nodoji said hits the nail squarely: trading price patterns or formations or sequences or whatever labeled is self-correcting to the ebbs & flows of volatility.

price action contracts in sideways fashion and expands in directional fashion. those are constants. traders who figure out how to catch directional rides in that endless cycle enjoy steady progress over time. smaller, infrequent losses against larger, more frequent wins

 

[bankroll]

Quote from TheGreatGorilla:

With all that you know now, what would you tell yourself?

Skip stupid forex.