Lessons from a failed trader

[zghorner]

Dot you guys ever get tired of beating on padutrader? the dude is just offering up his opinion like all of us and

Value is Boring???
Burry was in the eye of the Subprime and GME hurricanes..

You an adrenaline junkie??

not an adrenaline junkie, I have worked my entire adult life on my ability to remain calm. I enjoy building up a position over time and sitting tight...but I do so in anticipation of the big swings...I like volatility.

 

[taowave]

For some odd reason I thought you were a day trader....

 

[zghorner]

For some odd reason I thought you were a day trader....

I don’t close my positions at the end of each day, so no I am not a day trader. I don’t have what it takes to be a day trader. Please don’t take my posts as arrogance, I am still a complete novice and very much respect your knowledge.

 

[murray t turtle]

Trouble with value investing / pure fundamentals type approach, most often the stock price returns are mediocre, every now and again something might be a standout success, but others in your portfolio will be laggards.
I spent years on the biased fundamental routine trading side, the best returns for me come from a smattering of fundamentals, along with TA, but sorta unconventional TA. (Homebrew TA).
I found alot of my success comes from eliminating stocks, look to dump from watchlist in preference than adding to watchlist, ie begin with a wide universe then cull it to the bone like, eg eliminate 90% of all doubtfuls.

%%
Good points.
Warren Buffet has pulled it off nicely.
BUT Wall Street has never been mainstreet + never will.
One local silver dealer paid up for silver quarters;
another paid a lot less............................................................................
Of course it can pay well to include fundamentals/funds. Tech tends to trend much better than most, since 1999. On the upside or downside.
BUT there are good fundamental reasons why QQQ tends to do better than DOW+ a low PE in Dow stocks tend to keep it lower + an underperformer/mostly\LOL

 

[taowave]

Hey,you are one of the good guys!!!

I don’t close my positions at the end of each day, so no I am not a day trader. I don’t have what it takes to be a day trader. Please don’t take my posts as arrogance, I am still a complete novice and very much respect your knowledge.

 

[ironchef]

Dot you guys ever get tired of beating on padutrader? the dude is just offering up his opinion like all of us and

I like @padutrader.

He is actually very smart. Anyone who understands Al Brooks and trades like Al is no dummy.

 

[themickey]

I like @padutrader.

He is actually very smart. Anyone who understands Al Brooks and trades like Al is no dummy.

That's debateable. Padu is yet to be a consistent large profitable trader imo.
After gawd knows how many years being a Brooks follower, still pecking away at crumbs under the table.

 

[savoir]

There is no trading edge in reading financial statements prepared by others unless you have access to information prior to their public release. I know a few people who don’t know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet whose stock portfolios grew by millions in the past 10 years. One of them topped out at 40 million buying mostly Boeing. This prolonged bull has created a lot of stock market geniuses.

What’s that old adage? Don’t confuse brains with a bull market!

 

[taowave]

True,but shouldnt the same be said about price data??

Let's face it,there are a handful of James Simons and everyone else...

Imho,great trading is as much an art as a science...

There is no trading edge in reading financial statements prepared by others unless you have access to information prior to their public release. I know a few people who don’t know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet whose stock portfolios grew by millions in the past 10 years. One of them topped out at 40 million buying mostly Boeing. This prolonged bull has created a lot of stock market geniuses.

What’s that old adage? Don’t confuse brains with a bull market!

 

[CharlesS]

IMO the 2 critical factors in finding a profitable approach are:

1. Having a model that resonates w/ how markets work; NB: there are all kinds of good models, though many/most are probably not intuitive -- you have to work to arrive at good models
   
   
2. Giving priority to longer-term market biases over shorter-term market biases, where the 2 terms are entirely relative, eg giving priority to DAY over MIN10 charts, or to MONTH over DAY charts

It doesn't matter whether you're

• purely technical, purely fundamental, or a hybrid;
• dip-buyer or momentum chaser/trend follower;
• value or growth-oriented;
• "trader" or "investor"

If you can embed both 1) & 2) into any of the above variations, you have a good chance to do well, assuming you can manage risk and implement a plan.

Most value investors are longer-term in their outlook, so they start out w/ 2) already in the bag. But a long-term purely chart based trader who has a technical model that resonates with the market should be able to do as well.