Master one single technique?

[Handle123]

"those techniques have to be discovered by you first (unlike all other games where required techniques are public knowledge)"

Yes. true. This is the rub.

Speaking of daytrading futures:

• To make consistent profits you need a consistent edge.
• To get a consistent edge you must do something that is not "known". This means you must discover or invent something new (or new application of something known).
  
• To invent something new you must think differently from others

This isn't to say there aren't rules of thumb that are useful and should be learned. Really you must learn all the key elements and THEN go beyond the established knowledge and generate something new.

I agree with some of your post we have to go beyond to become beyond.

I don't believe in discovering something that is not known unless you can push huge size, it actually will be doing worse and not better imho. I think we can discover much from retail's emotional matchups and thinking in ways of trades that make them feel good, and due to each trading one lots but like guppies there are many of them, big fish eats them up. I have studied years of books of what most do, where their entries should be coming and watching time and sales, then watch time and sales of where their stops were placed, so where they are being stopped out, I will gladly take other side and market naturally goes my way to first target more likely and hopefully runners make much more. If you want to call this a new approach, it been done for decades. I really doubt anything can be brand new any more, but I keep trying to find areas I have not considered before. Much less on technical and more on other people's failures are my opportunities.

I think the only things are new are they are new to me.
Have a fun day.

 

[digitalnomad]

Unfortunately for those that believe otherwise, money is not an answer to all of life’s questions or it’s perceived problems.

Give me all your money, and keep everything else. PM me for name and address to send check to. Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

[Sprout]

Give me all your money, and keep everything else. PM me for name and address to send check to. Looking forward to hearing from you.

What value do you offer for the trade, besides high school humor and snarky comments?

Go get some real life experience. Money comes and goes. If your measure of success is solely how much money you've accumulated throughout your life, that's certainly your choice. You'll probably end up marrying a trophy wife that will just use you up for your resources and you'll never understand what you've quoted me about.

 

[novicetrader69]

• To get a consistent edge you must do something that is not "known". This means you must discover or invent something new (or new application of something known).
  
• To invent something new you must think differently from others

This, in part, does not make sense. Everyone is saying you need to trade with the trend. Trend means going where others are also going, no?

But then I've also read a book with this author stating that since most traders lose money you need to do something different from what others do, something that may even seem counterintuitive. Does this mean embracing contrarian trading?

Anyhow these two statements are contradicting each other and I'm confused.

nt

 

[novicetrader69]

Taken from a pdf I'm reading.....

On Buying Low and Selling High

When I first started trading on the floor, an older, veteran
trader asked me what I was doing. I cleverly told him
I was buying low and selling high. He looked at me in
amusement and said, “the real money in trading is buying
high and selling higher”. It was much later that I understood
what the veteran trader was revealing. Successful
trading is not about buying the bottom and selling the
top. It is about finding a high-probability point to enter a
trade in the direction of the trend and, in so doing, make
a reasonable profit. The goal of your trading should be to
capture meaningful profits from the middle of the move.

Each trade is just a small probability

New traders often think that successful trading is all
about accuracy. They think that as they become a better
trader, they will become better at picking the right spot
to enter trades and, in so doing, will have a higher and
higher accuracy percentage. This places too much importance
on the outcome for each trade. I tell traders in my
Electronic Trader Mentoring Program that each trade is
just a small probability. Some will work and some will
not. The object is not to always be right. The object is to
get out of trades that are not rewarding you and stay with
trades that do reward you.

Comments?

nt

 

[digitalnomad]

What value do you offer for the trade, besides high school humor and snarky comments?

I value your money more than you. Just send me the check, and enjoy your non-monetary assets

 

[Sprout]

I value your money more than you. Just send me the check, and enjoy your non-monetary assets

You’ll attract quite the gold digger. Good luck with experiencing authentic love. That’s quite out-of-reach for your current state of thinking and feeling. Prolly more accurate to say lack of feeling.

Some folks never grow beyond their reptilian brain, oh well. Besides your conditioned reaction for oneupmanship doesn’t even make JV.

Your avatar is funny. I was doing that before it ever became a ‘thing’ and prolly before you were even born. Compaq luggables gave way to the first ‘386 laptops and shoebox sat phones came long before your vacuous zombie stare into the latest cellphones.

But hey, why don’t you educate me and countless others whom are responsible for actually building the infrastructure that your smug arrogance can opine with one-trick pony one-liners.

 

[themickey]

This, in part, does not make sense. Everyone is saying you need to trade with the trend. Trend means going where others are also going, no?
But then I've also read a book with this author stating that since most traders lose money you need to do something different from what others do, something that may even seem counterintuitive. Does this mean embracing contrarian trading?
Anyhow these two statements are contradicting each other and I'm confused.
nt

Not every profitable trader trades with the trend, and doing something different means not following the masses of (losing) traders. Now obviously knowing who is a loser and who is a winner is difficult, but by and large a trader who attempts to trade by following gurus or following typical text book indicators will probably be a loser. A successful trader is one who devotes a high level of dedication and uses their own head to work out the road less travelled to the peak.

 

[MotiveWave]

Ok, I hear you. What I wanted to get across is that you do not need some magic formula to make money. You can do it using very simple tools, provided you have discipline. Newbies often think the key is figuring out some magic number for Stochastics or whatever. Do some backtesting and prove to yourself it isn't. Don't take my word for it, and I'm not even trying to sell you anything.

Very well said @AAAintheBeltway. I completely agree with your entire post. Each trader has to do their research and testing to find out what type of strategy resonates for them personally and then just focus on that. It doesn't matter if it's trendlines, a specific study or indicator, or combination of them, or a more advanced strategy like Elliott Wave, Fibonacci, Gartley/Harmonics, etc. Become an expert on the one that fits your style of trading, use the rules and guidelines for that particular one to keep you focused, be smart with your trading, and tweak your strategy and your trading as you go. Learn from your mistakes, because they're going to happen.