Is Trading Just Guessing?

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Quote from xiaodre:

Guessing is not a great choice when you try to describe trading. A trade does not consist of an entry only. Are you guessing if and when you enter, guessing again if you move your stop to breakeven, and guessing again if you don't increase your target and let the trade hit your target (ie. you don't do anything)?
Entry, trade management, money management: are these guesses that put together equal one bigger guess, or a series of guesses?
The point is all of this is superfluous; it doesn't matter. What really happens is that you have a theory that you use to trade your market. And the market is a complex system whose moving parts you cannot calculate completely. Most of scientific thought is guesswork. It doesn't matter.
If you break trading down to it's prerequiste parts, then you have a few aspects of trading that are in your control, and many aspects that are out of your control.
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you have posted the process for obtaining the solution.

reading the sentences at the bottom is very close to the solution.

By having all the parts in hand all you have to do is the proper assembly using Science as you recommend. The parts only fall into one category: fully defined parts.

The solution is without flaws, anomalies or any missing parts.

As a consequence, as you say, you can plan on a perfect relationship between the entry and its exit.

This is also an unfolding process.

Some of the posts here have very high conviction. But they still do not express reality.

Somewhere in the series of posts there is a statement that this topic has been addressed before.

A nice topic is "Putting the Pieces Together". A system of how the market works, results. Trading to take the full offer is a lot of fun.
 
Quote from PHOENIX TRADING:

Unless your definition of accuracy is wildly different than my concept of accuracy.

I'd have to say that's one silliest things I've seen proposed on ET.

I myself must be a heretic and believe set-ups are at best a guess and a required psychological crutch bordering on superstition and OCD at worst.
Of course having that belief individually may be adaptive for you as a trader.
Belief in "control" of future market behavior is very appealing.



Whereas the real control a trader has is in risk mgmt and exits.

I believe the real control a trader has is to obey what his partner tells him to do.

It is not a quick rapid anything or other; it is a smooth flawless process whithout anomalies. Emotions are always there and they are comfortable supportive and confidence building.

You posts seem to have a theme that is subjunctive for some reason. Care to explain your troubles of problems?

No one trades or participates in the future, all that is available is the present.
 
And specifically what the hell is so bad about being wrong

I count myself as one of those who is wrong regularly

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Being wrong isn’t the issue

Being wrong and not willing to admit…, and then change it – is

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ppfffftttt

RN



Quote from wildchild:

Yes, and most folks on ET guess wrong.
 
Quote from macattack:

Isn’t the decision to enter a trade nothing more than a guess?

Guess: To predict (a result or an event) without sufficient information.

No matter if you’re using an automated fancy system, 10 monitors, your gut, the moon, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, breakouts, support/resistance, Fibonacci levels,
trendlines, Bollinger bands, oscillators, the moon………….everybody is just guessing aren’t they?

Some genius from MIT can spend 10 years developing some extremely complex system at a cost of a million dollars, & it would still probably do no better than some guy with a high school diploma who Has 20 years of experience & the ability to make calm, logical “guesses”.

It reminds me of sports betting. Even the sportscasters on tv who should know way more than anyone else can’t even predict half the games right each week. You would think they could, but like the markets, there are so many variables you just don’t know.

It seems like the keys in trading have more to do with experience, risk control, bet size, having a strong mind, etc. As far as entering a trade everyone, from the little guy to the
multi-million dollar corporation, seem to have about the same winning %’s when successful……….because for everybody it’s the same……….it’s just a Guess !

It's pretty much guessing on a crude level. Yes, it's just a guess and I just busted another rhyme. So what? What's your point? Are you going to point out that trading is gambling next?
 
Quote from macattack:

Isn’t the decision to enter a trade nothing more than a guess?

Guess: To predict (a result or an event) without sufficient information.

No matter if you’re using an automated fancy system, 10 monitors, your gut, the moon, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, breakouts, support/resistance, Fibonacci levels,
trendlines, Bollinger bands, oscillators, the moon………….everybody is just guessing aren’t they?

Some genius from MIT can spend 10 years developing some extremely complex system at a cost of a million dollars, & it would still probably do no better than some guy with a high school diploma who Has 20 years of experience & the ability to make calm, logical “guesses”.

It reminds me of sports betting. Even the sportscasters on tv who should know way more than anyone else can’t even predict half the games right each week. You would think they could, but like the markets, there are so many variables you just don’t know.

It seems like the keys in trading have more to do with experience, risk control, bet size, having a strong mind, etc. As far as entering a trade everyone, from the little guy to the
multi-million dollar corporation, seem to have about the same winning %’s when successful……….because for everybody it’s the same……….it’s just a Guess !

Good Guess, I guess.
 
Betting on a roulette is a guess .

But if you calculate the time every number has won and you calculate the statistical odds that a specific number will win its not guessing but a prediction based on mathematics and statistics .

to make the long story long it all depend on HOW you are trading .

If you are betting based on gut feeling its guessing alright , if you rely on fundamentals and charts its a prediction.

Trading is not investing but its not JUST guessing.
 
Is Trading Just Guessing?
If you bet on a lotto you pick X amount of numbers and your numbers come up you will win. You are guessing.
If you bet on trading you pick a price level to enter the market and if the price moves in your favor you will win. You are guessing.
What is the main difference between the two ways of guessing?
 
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