Reality for an Individual Trader

BONECRUSHER said:
Trade small, trade small, trade small...for a long time. I've said this so many times to help noobies save a lot of money! You will go through a learning curve and many market condition changes...lose the least amount of money you can until you get this down. If you need to make a good income from trading now, this will screw you up more than anything by causing self destructive behavior...gambling mentality and revenge trading. I've been trading over 20+ years and make my income off of treasuries, gold, and natural gas (a little ES). I lost +140k my first few years! Don't be the old me! Good Luck!!!!:)
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That's awesome you were able to able to come back from losing 140k to make a living trading. What books/information did you find most helpful in your education as a trader?
 
Overnight said:
Do some sim. Make believe your sim account is your live account.
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I don't believe in sim trading to get a feel for trading... it completely misses your own judgement. I probably works better for algo/auto trading, not for discretionary IMO.

When I trained guys for options trading, I never put them on the simulator (which was pretty good) just because they would not get the real feel of losing/making money. Off course I got a little bit of a shit storm from the CEO when they screwed up, but at least they learned a valuable lesson that you would not learn on a sim. You always remember REAL fuckups, not the sim ones....
 
drader77 said:
I am interested in trading commodity futures, but I question whether it is realistic for an individual investor to compete with pro traders who have decades of experience. I have a genuine interest in this investment vehicle and not interested in a get rich quick scheme. I am willing to put in the time and hard work to educate myself. However, I don't want to be naive when it comes to thinking I or anyone who hasn't worked as a professional trader on the inside can be profitable in the long run.

Any feedback would be appreciated.
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Long term the way to go, the amount of knowledge you need to learn for day trading is huge, the so call "edge" is knowledge of knowing more than next guy and programming, there are too many twists and turns in day trading if I was to do again that you have to learn. You should read, buy or steal how other traders enter the market for day trading so you know what fails the most often and take advantage of their losses. Where they who mostly are weak financed traders, areas they take loses are good areas to take other side. Many day traders have to make 50-150% on smaller accounts just for fees.

Long term really best way for much larger profits that trend, there are many Commodity funds or hedge funds that only trade long term, learn spreading as most of those who worked pits traded for themselves and learn about future options for hedging or for profit. Trading commodities is no different long term than trading stocks, BUT you better be able to program to back test many years to understand different trends and markets that either grow or raised, seasons, like never sell coffee in July or never sell OJ in January, South America is in winter in July and same with OJ, weather is chief with crops, but here is the thing, much is factored in the charts. And long term the fees greatly reduced.

Good luck.
 
JackRab said:
...You always remember REAL fuckups, not the sim ones....
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I know, I know. This has been argued until the cows came home, and they never came home so it is still argued. Blah blah. I do think there is a place for sim. But everything in moderation. Just don't do it too long before going live. Don't consume sim like a sieve for years. Know when to go live. But to go live RIGHT FROM THE START AS A NEW TRADER is also very bad. Unless you gots lots of money to keep kicking your trading account's can down the road, not trying some sim bits would be foolhardy IMO.
 
Overnight said:
I know, I know. This has been argued until the cows came home, and they never came home so it is still argued. Blah blah. I do think there is a place for sim. But everything in moderation. Just don't do it too long before going live. Don't consume sim like a sieve for years. Know when to go live. But to go live RIGHT FROM THE START AS A NEW TRADER is also very bad. Unless you gots lots of money to keep kicking your trading account's can down the road, not trying some sim bits would be foolhardy IMO.
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What did you do with the cows?
 
drader77 said:
That's awesome you were able to able to come back from losing 140k to make a living trading. What books/information did you find most helpful in your education as a trader?
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Something I've also said before...I read every damn thing I could get my hands on for years, but in the end I closed my mind off to any outside information and focused on pure price action and the natural dynamics of the markets...a deep intuitive type of observation with an open mind to any crazy concept I could find. In other words...get crazy and expect conventional wisdom to not be the answer. Read everything you can to give your brain a base, but expect to create your own original masterpiece.;)
 
BONECRUSHER said:
Something I've also said before...I read every damn thing I could get my hands on for years, but in the end I closed my mind off to any outside information and focused on pure price action and the natural dynamics of the markets...a deep intuitive type of observation with an open mind to any crazy concept I could find. In other words...get crazy and expect conventional wisdom to not be the answer. Read everything you can to give your brain a base, but expect to create your own original masterpiece.;)
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Well said. Thank you. ; )
 
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