Is it possible to make consistent profits from trading

trading is about predicting the future....I disagree.

trading is about being profitable. You can predict as much as you want and be unprofitable :)


great mister. I like it.

Trading is about the present moment.

If we keep on thinking about the past and future, very difficult to earn money.
 
"Is it possible to make consistent profits from trading?"

This question implies that there is free lunch in the market, that can be exploited cumulatively by all traders.
Then the answer is no. Since trading is a zero sum game (before cost), counterfactual to this claim is that there are traders are taking consistent losses from trading.
 
Sounds like you're an investor, not a trader. Or perhaps your account is too small to understand liquidity constraints.
A trader will have a situation where he has just a few minutes to enter a position or the price will move away and the trade should be abandoned as the price is unfavorable. Have you tried putting on a $50k position on a stock that does $5-10m a day? Clearly not because showing such size for an immediate fill will dramatically alter the price.
Perhaps you imagine everyone here trades ES/SPY or EURUSD in which case you'd be assuming too much.


My reply that you refer to was to DaveV's suggestion that a successful strategy used by a private retails trader would become the prevalent model in the market, and that other players would be able then to play against it as trader behaviour became so predictable.

Assuming he was talking about the entire market environment, his point is ludicrous. As for the liquidity constraints in the markets you trade in, I've already agreed with you on that, remember?
 
...Since trading is a zero sum game (before cost), counterfactual to this claim is that there are traders are taking consistent losses from trading.

NO NO NO!

Trading is a "zero-sum game" in some closed system with zero entropy. Will people please stop saying this? It has no bearing on the reality enjoyed by the billions of people who inhabit this scrubby little planet. Zero-sum...Oi ferklempt
 
I disagree with your disagreement about your understanding and the use of the word "predict".

Trading is not maths, statistics, physics, chemistry or biology.

There is no rights and wrongs here.

What works for you and what does not work for you as a unique trader is most important question in trading.

If you are successful you are right in your "own" unique way. If you fail it means you are yet to identify what works for you. Right or wrong is a personal thing in the art of market psychology.

(The word "science" has become a synonym to "systematic study". By definition "Psychology is a science of..." does not mean it is literally science. Psychology is an art.)

Trading does not belong to "any" part of science. Trading may use science. That does not qualify trading as science. Playing an electric guitar does not qualify it as science. It is still music.

Is it so hard to apply common sense while trading?
 
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trading is about predicting the future....I disagree.

trading is about being profitable. You can predict as much as you want and be unprofitable :)

Wisdom alias common sense :thumbsup:

Trading is all about personal trading skill and everything else is secondary.
 
My reply that you refer to was to DaveV's suggestion that a successful strategy used by a private retails trader would become the prevalent model in the market, and that other players would be able then to play against it as trader behaviour became so predictable.

Assuming he was talking about the entire market environment, his point is ludicrous. As for the liquidity constraints in the markets you trade in, I've already agreed with you on that, remember?

What he said goes to the same point. What's a "prevalent model in the market"? The market is fragmented and revealing anything will have an effect. If I know a group of small-time traders is trading small/midcaps and where they place stops, it's very easy to to just take the other side for a few cents. Combined, it does alter the whole market.
 
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