Looking for Advice

padutrader said:
i lost money for 14 years.
I had studied everything....... over 40 books...until i found Al Brooks......

it took me 14 years to understand him: i stuck with him trough all the losses because i instinctly felt he was special and i was right.
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Let me get this right... you have to look at all the different trading "gurus" out there, pick one that you "instinctly feel" is "special", and then keep losing money for 14 years to figure out if you guessed right or not?

Yeah. That sounds like great advice that will help any new trader.

If you set out to knock down brick walls with your forehead and kept working at it for 14 years, you'd probably have ended up with a pretty good demolition business (or a circus act) - with, most likely, a much better overall return than your trading. Also: if you started out based on the advice of some insane head-banger, your "success" won't have been due to him.
 
BlueWaterSailor said:
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Yeah. That sounds like great advice that will help any new trader...
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I tried to tell padu to try not to give any trading advice to anyone, because he was bad at trading, and bad at giving advice. He proceeded to tell me he was not giving advice. He then went on to spew that after reading all the trading books in the world, nobody else should read books, because HE could not understand them. BWS, you are wasting .02 KCals with every letter you type on your keyboard to that lad.
 
Overnight said:
I tried to tell padu to try not to give any trading advice to anyone, because he was bad at trading, and bad at giving advice. He proceeded to tell me he was not giving advice. He then went on to spew that after reading all the trading books in the world, nobody else should read books, because HE could not understand them. BWS, you are wasting .02 KCals with every letter you type on your keyboard to that lad.
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Ah, you've caught on to my weight loss strategy! Well done.

I don't usually read what padu writes - it didn't take more than a post or two way back when to figure out what his opinions are worth - but I wanted to denote his premise so that newbies don't confuse it with the actual good advice in this thread. I'm certainly not expecting him to change.
 
kmiklas said:
Honestly it looks like you're gambling.

Nothing in your description gives you any real edge over the next trader.

It's one big 50/50. Flip a coin.
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Agree, i was going to post similar in the fact that you shouldnt have explosive gains and massive losses. That screams no risk management. Its not duplicatable and not measurable which trading has to be
 
rarefarefroghorn said:
Background:
I have traded on and off for four years. This October makes it literally the 4th year. I am a losing trader. Was always in the phase of break even in 3.5 years but this past 0.5 years I made explosive gains followed a significant loss in capital putting me in the red. I have never recovered financially from this loss.

Trading Style:
The way I trade is based on price. My theory is self taught although bits and pieces may have been taken by different information I have taken. I trade naked charts except for price levels, this means no trend lines or volume. I just trade price, the only variable I assumed to be significant. I will step you through my daily process.
I trade only SPY options. Meaning I buy calls/puts.
Premarket:
  • I go from Daily -> 1 Hour -> 5m looking for areas of importance. Essentially making a price ladder of certain spots to trade.
  • Already in the back of my head because I have been consistently trading I am aware of the phase of the markets. I learned to trade the V of the spy drops. Essentially on the way down and on the way up but intraday(From writing this I can see sometimes I made bad trades now that I look back by trading periods that are not within the V).
Market:
  • When market opens price should be between two important levels. If not in the case of a gapup, I fail to understand where to trade.
  • Let us assume the market is in the phase of dropping. Signs of this are attempts to go higher failing multiple times. Someone wants out, and this in effect causes others who ware wanted to sell to test the limits of the other sellers. They will essentially wait if price can go higher, if someone is selling at a certain price and I also need to sell, I do not know his size, therefore I wait to see how much he is willing to sell. If he keeps selling and starts dropping the price, which he does not want because it will lose him profits. This shows he knows someone else is willing to sell, or that from my perspective someone else not just the guy is selling. Meaning there are 3 sellers in total. Me, the guy I was testing, and a third. The more people who want to sell the more dramatic the drops will be, essentially leading to a inflection point where selling besets selling. This is the way I trade. I will get in on a range betting on breaking out or breaking down and trying to get the best price to ride the wave. In so getting the best price I also reduce my risk of losses if price breaks against my bet.
But I fail to do so. I do not follow my plan. Reducing risk is well but overtrading leads to losses, and losses lead to more losses for me. Maybe it is the environment, maybe it is that I need to prove myself. I don't know but I always seem to destroy my gains and some more. I increase my size, I hope instead of selling for a small loss.

All these actions seem to point to me wanting to be right. I know to be a trader one has to be willing to accept his losses. I think, I have all my hopes riding on trading. I am still in university and I am not doing well mentally. I trade for my ego not for profits, and I think that is what is killing me. I feel frustrated because in a lot of my trades I make good calls on tops and bottoms and it feels great. I just can't seem to stay disciplined. My environment has changed, I have also changed in doing so. Maybe I just need a break. I started trading 1k in my college apartments, over the past 4 weeks I made $270 on trading on only a size of 1 options contract. Then I made a mistake. I was up $60 on one contract, and I never sold. I watched the gains disappear and I lost and extra $30. This began the journey of me losing my capital throughout the next few days. Eventually leading to me being down 300 from my initial 1k.

I would appreciate any advice. I do want to be a trader and I know it is possible, I have no doubts. But I feel like I have been in this cycle for way to long. Maybe it is my system it might have never had a positive expected value I don't know how to test this. The fact is I know I make mistakes and I can't keep myself from doing so. I try to prevent it, but I am human. I have thought of ways to prevent this. I take breaks after exiting 1 trade. I read my plan before the market open. I always make mistakes.

I just can't seem to grasp onto this dream.

Best,
rarefarefroghorn

P.S. I currently do not trade. I am focusing on school.
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Start from the scratch
Psychology
Risk management
Trade Plan

do a inadept study on this whilst testing it live, work on these and you'll see the difference
 
padutrader said:
you have to persist with your trading.

i did not hear you giving any great ideas

it is easy to criticize. all traders lose money for a least 10 years...except you i suppose
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1) Persisting when you're an obvious loser, for years - which you are - is a serious mental/emotional defect that requires professional help. The OP here is much wiser than you are, because he's asking for help in order to avoid exactly that problem - which is what normal people do. Your addiction is anything but normal.

2) There are no "great ideas" to be given here. MrMuppet and longandshort already provided all the sensible warnings and direction that are needed before you decided to stick your generic, senseless, irrelevant nonsense in, and there's not much to add to what they wrote.

3) As it happens, I've made money from the very beginning - and I've only had one losing month in the entire time since then. But the fact that you can repeat insane statements like "all traders lose money for a least 10 years" is just a symptom of your disease.
 
BlueWaterSailor said:
Persisting when you're an obvious loser, for years - which you are - is a serious mental/emotional defect that requires professional help.
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fuck off you bastart

so BROOKS NEEDED PRO HELP IS IT...he lost for ten years
what the fuck are you you atshole?

a donkey or ass
 
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