First, nobody is going to do the work for you. Most important thing to do is to learn to do the work yourself. This means using your own grey matter, not trying to copy out of a book, website, course, forum, etc. Develop your own understanding, do your own research. If you start trying to apply "price action" methods, indicators, "technical analysis" learned in a book you're going to wind up wasting time and perhaps ultimately your capital.
If you want to listen to others, make sure they are the right people. Practitioners. Those who work for or run investment banks, broker dealers, hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, or successful own accounters with years or decades of experience. These people will decide whether you are worth trying to help, if you should cross their path. Be honest, humble, diligent, and grateful. There are many people who will give a young aspirant some guidance. (caveat: many of the employees in this industry also know very little outside of the niche or edge used by their employer, most couldn't make it on their own)
I'm not suggesting that you contact these people, but I'm going to list 3 traders at ET who have given me very helpful advice and guidance off forum. Each are seasoned professionals with minimum 7 figure career P&L. The purpose of posting these traders is so that you can compare their style and substance to "Monday morning quarterbacks" who aren't successful but have thousands of posts where they tell others their trading strategy and create guru personas. Regrettably, these people do not post regularly, simply because of the environment created by the majority of (unsuccessful) posters who hate to think for themselves and attack what they perceive as threatening.
nokomisjeff - own account trader for 30 years, owns multiple exchange seats. If you ever get to speak to someone with decades as an exchange member, listen to what they say.
garachen - runs a manual trading team and HFT firm. Institutional background, owns multiple exchange seats, very bright and helpful man.
Rearden Metal - one of the biggest equities traders at Schonfeld Securities back in the boom, used to post six figure P&L blotters here fairly regularly (which were confirmed as genuine by COO of EchoTrade for those wondering). Naturally gifted and a good guy. Check out his calls thread for an idea of what is possible.
There are a few other interesting posters who I do not know personally, but it is clear that they know very well their own specialism. I would mention hft for everything hft related - contributed a great thread here - and bone who has an interesting approach with futures spreads.
Read all the posts by the above 5 names, and then contrast with any 5 posts picked at random written by either DBPhoenix or NoDoji. If you are in the least bit perceptive, you now know the type of people to listen to and the type to avoid. This simple exercise should tell you the majority of what you need to know about how to approach your trading business, should you decide to start one. Suggestion: build an edge around systematically exploiting the ignorance of others.
Here is hoping you use ET for what it could and should be used for - learning from experts with an open mind. Not some sort of democracy where each point of view is equally valid. This isn't how markets work. If the popular approach worked, everyone would be profitable.
Ultimately your own level of savvy and self honesty is going to determine more than anything else if and when you progress. This business isn't for everyone. Happy hunting!
If you want to listen to others, make sure they are the right people. Practitioners. Those who work for or run investment banks, broker dealers, hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, or successful own accounters with years or decades of experience. These people will decide whether you are worth trying to help, if you should cross their path. Be honest, humble, diligent, and grateful. There are many people who will give a young aspirant some guidance. (caveat: many of the employees in this industry also know very little outside of the niche or edge used by their employer, most couldn't make it on their own)
I'm not suggesting that you contact these people, but I'm going to list 3 traders at ET who have given me very helpful advice and guidance off forum. Each are seasoned professionals with minimum 7 figure career P&L. The purpose of posting these traders is so that you can compare their style and substance to "Monday morning quarterbacks" who aren't successful but have thousands of posts where they tell others their trading strategy and create guru personas. Regrettably, these people do not post regularly, simply because of the environment created by the majority of (unsuccessful) posters who hate to think for themselves and attack what they perceive as threatening.
nokomisjeff - own account trader for 30 years, owns multiple exchange seats. If you ever get to speak to someone with decades as an exchange member, listen to what they say.
garachen - runs a manual trading team and HFT firm. Institutional background, owns multiple exchange seats, very bright and helpful man.
Rearden Metal - one of the biggest equities traders at Schonfeld Securities back in the boom, used to post six figure P&L blotters here fairly regularly (which were confirmed as genuine by COO of EchoTrade for those wondering). Naturally gifted and a good guy. Check out his calls thread for an idea of what is possible.
There are a few other interesting posters who I do not know personally, but it is clear that they know very well their own specialism. I would mention hft for everything hft related - contributed a great thread here - and bone who has an interesting approach with futures spreads.
Read all the posts by the above 5 names, and then contrast with any 5 posts picked at random written by either DBPhoenix or NoDoji. If you are in the least bit perceptive, you now know the type of people to listen to and the type to avoid. This simple exercise should tell you the majority of what you need to know about how to approach your trading business, should you decide to start one. Suggestion: build an edge around systematically exploiting the ignorance of others.
Here is hoping you use ET for what it could and should be used for - learning from experts with an open mind. Not some sort of democracy where each point of view is equally valid. This isn't how markets work. If the popular approach worked, everyone would be profitable.
Ultimately your own level of savvy and self honesty is going to determine more than anything else if and when you progress. This business isn't for everyone. Happy hunting!
