The mind of a trader
- Thread starter djmartin
- Start date
Sure thing.
Well in the third video, he talks about how he went back to NY in 2013 after the family relative passed away and there was no reason to stay where he was from.
So now you've got him and his wife living in NY, which is expensive, and he's only got his trading income and she works in a low wage industry, so naturally there is pressure.
A few months into this, he went to some "meet and greet", ran into a banker, and although he initially wasn't interested in looking for a job, the guy very much supported his trading and said he could trade while working at the bank.
This of course took the pressure off since he was looking to go up in size, and he mentions taking 30-50, but I doubt this is contracts in futures, and it seems too little to be shares, so I'm not exactly sure what this means in terms of size.
One thing I find interesting is that even though the markets open up at 09:30, which is essentially when the business world starts, that he would be able to sit in front of the computer screen and trade. If I was the bank branch manager, I'm not sure I would let this guy trade his own account while working on my dime! LOL
Now to be completely transparent, I do want to state that I do see some red flags which I hope you don't mind me pointing out. Several times you state that of course you have bad days and good days, but the way you say this makes me think you're not really all that sure of yourself. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with a bad day, but if I made 1K a day 3 out of 4 days, I would say I'm highly consistently profitable. 3k up, 1k down, 3k up, 1k down, 3k up... etc is a beautiful equity curve and months of this would I think allow the size to be increased so that I could expect 6k profit on a good day and 2k loss on a bad day. Now it could just be that you're being humble, but my interpretation of what you say when you talk about how you have good and bad days is that you aren't as consistent as you'd like.
I was also left wondering why given such personal opening, when it came to trading and introducing the next video where you will talk about what you do, you said you will give us "Just a little bit". Given how much you've gone into detail about how you got here, it just seems odd that you would hold back with your technique. If its pure price action, there probably isn't something top secret that you cannot share. Don't get me wrong, you don't have to tell us everything you've learned, but it just seems odd to point this out. (its like a late night commercial where the guys says "for the first 30 minutes its half price because we can't do this amazing sale all day long"
I guess I'm just being a bit cautious because some of this sounds like a pitch. I'm not saying this is what your intentions are, but I'm just saying that after 30 mins of talking, you've given a very heart warming back story, talked about how you can miracolosuly trade while at work and nobody cares, that even your customers don't mind waiting for you to finish your trade, and when it comes to showing us what you do, it will be just a little bit. This is the same technique that sales guys use to sell. (they hook you with a great back story, show you one little thing, and make you pay to see more) LOL... I'm not saying you are going to be selling us anything, just giving you my honest feedback from what my brain thought about your videos so far, but I'm very looking forward to the trade videos.
You've actually inspired me to do the same. I've found a great screen video capture program myself that I will use, "Screen Recorder", and I want to put up some commentary on price action as I'm going to replay some random day I don't remember. I post it in my own journal when I've got it done... maybe tomorrow, and it will be curious what everyone will think of what goes through my brain as the price action unfolds.
I just had a chance to watch the first video on answering questions, but since you spent quite a bit of time talking about my post, I wanted to follow up. I find it interesting that you got two PM's about me telling you to be careful. I find it interesting that people seem to think they need to warn you about me when I assume you're intelligent enough to think whatever you want to about my posts. The fact is that I don't know of any bank or work place that wouldn't mind knowing the employee is doing something else on work time, so I said it. Then when you said you would show us just a little bit, it struck me as a bit odd since you plan to do videos of your trades, which would almost make it seem like you'd be showing everything for that segment (meaning the entries and such as price is unfolding), and yet, the comment made it sound like it was just a tease. I am in no way suggesting that you need to teach anyone, I'm just saying that in that one line, the way it was said was a bit off for me.
In some respects, I guess after watching 3 videos and 30 mins of content, there hasn't been a single discussion about actual trading, so this also made me wonder a bit about what you're getting at, and I was a bit confused between trying to figure out where you are in your process. On the one hand you sound like you're saying your profitable and comfortable, but then you also talk about all the stress of trading size. I assume that a trader who is consistently profitable would already understand what they are doing very well. Not that they know the whole market, but they understand their one trade setup. So I guess in a way, my red flags played a bit off of how you say what you said in your video. The confidence wasn't coming through for me I'm sorry to say, so this then made me question the other things you were saying.
I don't mean to be mean, or negative, or mean any disrespect. I'm simply analyzing the presentation thus far and sharing what I thought. Perhaps it isn't my place, and I shall refrain from this, but I just expected that a trader who is speaking from a level of confidence in their trading would have sounded a bit different. Sorry to judge a book by its cover.
In some respects, I guess after watching 3 videos and 30 mins of content, there hasn't been a single discussion about actual trading, so this also made me wonder a bit about what you're getting at, and I was a bit confused between trying to figure out where you are in your process. On the one hand you sound like you're saying your profitable and comfortable, but then you also talk about all the stress of trading size. I assume that a trader who is consistently profitable would already understand what they are doing very well. Not that they know the whole market, but they understand their one trade setup. So I guess in a way, my red flags played a bit off of how you say what you said in your video. The confidence wasn't coming through for me I'm sorry to say, so this then made me question the other things you were saying.
I don't mean to be mean, or negative, or mean any disrespect. I'm simply analyzing the presentation thus far and sharing what I thought. Perhaps it isn't my place, and I shall refrain from this, but I just expected that a trader who is speaking from a level of confidence in their trading would have sounded a bit different. Sorry to judge a book by its cover.
You've been very active in this journal and I actually appreciate that. Give my journal sometime to develop. I want to learn from you and maybe you can learn something from me. Thats what we're all here for right? I don't want you to stop being you, say whats on your mind just be respectful.