To Trade or Not to Trade?

Remember too that paper trading is not trading. It is useless to analyse your paper trade or be happy with your 90% success rate. You need to analyse you when you trade with real money. And your success rate in reality is closer to zero than 90%

CM
 
chiquita said:
I've been options trading with real money for about two years now and have done nothing but loose money.
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can you tell us what kind of option trading have you done in the last two years ?

Did you Buy Options or Sell ?
ATM or OTM ?
Naked or spreads ?

Shay
 
Those who can do, and those who can't, teach.

So am I surprised that you've traded 2 years based on what you've "learned" in option courses and are losing money? Not even a little bit. The vast majority of option courses and online guru's will only teach you things you could learn for free with the help of Google.

The one thing that is a little telling though if I can be honest is, 2 years is plenty of time to make certain realizations on your own and find your own unique style of trading that does work.

Since you haven't, perhaps option trading isn't for you. As has been mentioned, most people who trade options lose money. Your experience seems to suggest that you're one of them.

No harm in trying, but if you haven't abandoned the crap advice you got from the so called guru's and found your own way, chances are pretty good another 2 years won't help much either.


I'd say focus your time elsewhere. If you do want to proceed with trading, you really do need to start finding your own way. Following others almost never works out...
 
Cswim63 said:
I agree, having been at this a long time and blown up several accounts. The one thing these guys never tell you is how much they are risking. They will suggest that they are doing everything right, and cannot understand why they keep failing. I'm betting a small sum that he's overtrading and risking too much, but doesn't acknowledge it even to himself.
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I'm only risking 1%-2% in each trade, which doesn't seem to be excessive. Perhaps the market is just too choppy for me right now.
 
Shay said:
can you tell us what kind of option trading have you done in the last two years ?

Did you Buy Options or Sell ?
ATM or OTM ?
Naked or spreads ?

Shay
More...

It depends. I was doing a lot of selling, then the market changed and I started doing more buying. I've had a couple friends wipe out their accounts selling naked positions, so I backed off of selling in this chop.

Short Puts (not much opportunity in this choppy market)
Debit Spreads
Credit Spreads
Iron Condors
Long Calls
Long Puts
 
VTS posted:
"2 years is plenty of time to make certain realizations on your own and find your own unique style of trading that does work"

Keep dreaming. As an independent trader, on average, it it takes much longer
 
chiquita said:
They all worked, but then my gains get wiped out by losing trades.
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OK, so this is more of a money management problem.
Or not holding winners long enough, which is common. You could try posting your trades. Sounds like you may have an edge, which you are giving up.
 
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