Successful traders keep silent because trading is so simple...
- Thread starter ion
- Start date
I didn't mean that NO successful trader shares his/her methods. I've seen many who did exactly that... my hat is off to them whenever I see such cases...
However, I think it is fair to say that there is more secrecy in trading when compared to many other professions, say, the medical profession.
What I am saying is that the root of this secrecy has a lot to do with the simplicity of profitable trading strategies...
That's all...
Thanks for providing further clarification because it seems a few in this thread thought you were implying that all successful traders don't share their methods.
I strongly disagree with this statement only because I've very familiar with both.
I've done the pre-med thing, medical research thing, medical school thing, drop out thing and still have close friends that work in different areas of the medical field.
My point, there are many areas in medicine that's full of secrecy and more than I've seen amongst successful traders for one main reason as explained below.
I think the root of any secrecy is mainly competition and it happens in many professions.
Thus, it has less to do with not wanting to share a simple approach to whatever someone is doing.
I can think of dozens of medical discoveries or techniques that were being performed in secrecy for many years before being revealed to their peers.
The secrecy deepens once they realize millions can be made and must remain a secret until its perfected and patented.
Also, don't overlook that some traders or others in a different profession that the reason they don't share is because they're too busy being successful.
For example, their are some sports stars that give summer camps, write technique books, write articles with step by step instructions mainly because they either have the time for such or are financially compensated very nicely for doing such or do it because they feel like giving back to the community.
However, there are other sports stars that absolutely refuse to do those things for whatever reasons especially if they are not under contract to do so.
There are some sports stars that are being trained/coached/advisor and they pay the trainer/coach/advisor a very nice sum of money to only work with them and not with anyone else and legal binding contracts are agreed upon for such.
Once again...its a competition thing and have very little to do with someone not wanting to share something that's simple.
Yet, I have met a few traders that don't share a simple profitable method at a public discussion forum but they do share with others in the profession that are close friends regardless if the close friend could be competition or not.
Yep, I have close friends that are institution traders et cetera and I'm the step-son of a successful ex-floor trader.
In addition, most of the successful stuff I've seen work in the markets are just common sense stuff that most ignore for whatever reasons or it seems like its boring.
I'm not saying there aren't any complex methods/tools that are successful because I've seen a few of such too or stuff that requires access to stuff not normally available to the retail trader.
Further, I've seen some very simple methods explained in very complex manner not because someone wants to be secretive but mainly because someone is either not good in explaining things or want to impress with fancy words or titanic phrases.
Just the same, I've seen some very complex methods explained in a very simple manner because someone is either intentionally being brief for whatever reasons or want to give a few clues to see what you can do with it prior to any further conversations.
Trading is just like anything else and many people have different motives or agendas for doing something.
However, I strongly feel that once it is broken down...
The submarine that surfaces is competition for most successful traders while the its something else for others.
Thus, there some truth is other things you've said in your opening statement.
Last of all, from my personal experience in trading, medicine and sports...
Even when you share something with someone...in most cases it will be applied differently for whatever reasons.
Mark
This thread just will not be put to bed.
Firstly and of utmost importance, I am a private trader. No more no less.
I trade ES RTH morning session. No more no less.
I have, over various threads, outlined my thoughts on the ES and therefore my trading philosophy.
In broad terms my trading philosophy is complete, the details to it are not.
If Traders PM me with a little detail of their background I will point them in the direction that I would take to get them from their current situation to somewhere approximating mine.
No more no less.
All they need to contribute is steely mental discipline.
I cannot provide that for them and nor do they need me to do so.
On their journey, they will collect the key numbers that are critical to trading the ES whilst under volume pressure in the morning.
I am certainly not going to give them away or sell them for that matter.
These people with the steely discipline and desire to succeed, live and trade in reality to the limit of their knowledge, which is expanding with each day passing.
Then there are those who live through their perceptions. They are strangers to themselves and are drawn into the emotions of the world that surrounds them.
They are mortally wounded when they perceive something that offends them.
They want mentoring for 50 bucks an hour, or better still for free.
They buy books, attend expensive courses, buy expensive software, hoping, just hoping that the coconut of knowledge will fall upon their head and endow them with riches.
So, if you want to know if successful traders remain silent, simply seek out ten such people and ask them.
If they told you that the first 10 years are the toughest, but as the fog clears so the path becomes more defined.
If they told you this, it would not surprise me.
Do you remember the Entertainer who said ' after playing clubs up and down the country for twenty years I suddenly became an overnight success'.
Firstly and of utmost importance, I am a private trader. No more no less.
I trade ES RTH morning session. No more no less.
I have, over various threads, outlined my thoughts on the ES and therefore my trading philosophy.
In broad terms my trading philosophy is complete, the details to it are not.
If Traders PM me with a little detail of their background I will point them in the direction that I would take to get them from their current situation to somewhere approximating mine.
No more no less.
All they need to contribute is steely mental discipline.
I cannot provide that for them and nor do they need me to do so.
On their journey, they will collect the key numbers that are critical to trading the ES whilst under volume pressure in the morning.
I am certainly not going to give them away or sell them for that matter.
These people with the steely discipline and desire to succeed, live and trade in reality to the limit of their knowledge, which is expanding with each day passing.
Then there are those who live through their perceptions. They are strangers to themselves and are drawn into the emotions of the world that surrounds them.
They are mortally wounded when they perceive something that offends them.
They want mentoring for 50 bucks an hour, or better still for free.
They buy books, attend expensive courses, buy expensive software, hoping, just hoping that the coconut of knowledge will fall upon their head and endow them with riches.
So, if you want to know if successful traders remain silent, simply seek out ten such people and ask them.
If they told you that the first 10 years are the toughest, but as the fog clears so the path becomes more defined.
If they told you this, it would not surprise me.
Do you remember the Entertainer who said ' after playing clubs up and down the country for twenty years I suddenly became an overnight success'.
"Do you remember the Entertainer who said ' after playing clubs up and down the country for twenty years I suddenly became an overnight success'."
I love it, right on.
After about 6 years of being in business, I got a great money making contract. Hardly a day passed that I didn't think "Wow, if only I had this contract last year or three years ago" I dwelled upon how much more money I would have made. Ahh, but in honest retrospect, I couldn't have handled it, I hadn't paid my dues, so cliche. The bumps in the road with the new business would have put me out of business when I was first starting out.
I love it, right on.
After about 6 years of being in business, I got a great money making contract. Hardly a day passed that I didn't think "Wow, if only I had this contract last year or three years ago" I dwelled upon how much more money I would have made. Ahh, but in honest retrospect, I couldn't have handled it, I hadn't paid my dues, so cliche. The bumps in the road with the new business would have put me out of business when I was first starting out.