Too Many Traders Are Cry Babies...

tomorton said:
Thank you for this perspective. I know almost nothing about how fund managers work but was prepared to bet that the way I trade from a spare bedroom with my own tiny capital bears little relation to how they run their funds. Same as being the mayor of the city bears little relation to being a cop on the beat.

You have backed me up by summing up some key differences so well.

As the next step I hope to high heaven I never hear Warren Buffet termed a successful trader ever again.
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It is a sham that Buffett has been lionized. We people do not have access to the "offers" he gets. Further, if current day Buffet lost 80% of his worth overnight, it would have no affect on his life. Meanwhile, an overnight loss of only 50% of your neighbors cool 2mil would be life-changing. Why do people compare themselves to him? Buffet has not done anything really great since...
 
trader99 said:
Actually, there was a period where I was making decent $ with stocks too. And I can probably continue to make money in them if I focus on them. Once you know how to trade, it almost doesn't matter the asset class.

Here are things I don't like about stocks but can easily manage around it if I work at them:

1) wide bid/ask spread. Not all stocks. I like to buy a 1000 shares each time. Regardless of price. Perhaps that's the problem. Anyhow, sometimes the spread is 20 cents. So when you get in you are already down $200. And if it moves 40-50 cents against you then you are down $700. Which isn't the end of the world, but when you are only trying to make low thousands per trade that's an unnecessary hit.

2) You need more capital. With futures the margins are low. To make the commensurate returns you need more capital to trade stocks. I can easily make thousands in futures with not much capital. For me to do the same in stocks, I have to buy enough shares.

Of course, some people recommend penny stocks or low priced stocks. I know a lot of internet stock gurus(e.g. Tim Skyes) push penny stock trading strategies. I think they are for suckers. I've gotten in several thousands shares of low priced stock before. But when they move against you it can be painful. Then I realized it's about volatility and not price. $5 stock can be more dangerous than a $100 stock if it moves 20% in a few minutes. I've seen low priced stock drop $1 in a few minutes which on a percentage basis is HUGE! Like 20% drop. What's the chance of a $100 stock dropping 20% in a few minutes. Not much barring crazy exogenous news.

So, I stay away from low priced stocks. But for big cap stocks, I feel it's relaxing to trade it. I still put on the occasional stock trade and make money.

But I feel like I need to focus and scale up in what's making money for me. Which is NG.

In the long run, I will built systems to trade stocks and futures. It's not fully automated but at least it will trigger alerts and get me interested in things. There are definitely lots of opportunities to make money in stocks too. And I've made money in stocks in the past.

What I found easy to trade are certain ETFs and certain leveraged ETFs! They have small bid/ask and plenty of liquidity so you can buy a lot of shares no problem. And decent volatility too. I've been playing those and making some money. But I would need to be focused if I want to scale up. With manual trading, there are only so many things I can manage and pay attention too. LOL.
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lol. easily nake thousands in futures then why worry about anything else kid..come trade futures and make thousanda a day
 
dozu888 said:
"Son is a professional gamer (just made to the global finals so we are going to Korea in October.. yay!!).
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Congrats on your sons success.

The odds of succeeding in professional gaming are far worse than that of trading- with odds rated as low as 0.01% :

https://kotaku.com/your-odds-of-being-an-eathlete-esports-is-rapidly-becom-1620528958

I'm curious - did you do your best to talk him out of being a professional gamer when you found out he expressed an interest in it? Did you tell him and his friends it was a terrible low percentage play and to not waste any time trying because there are much better higher percentage opportunities out there?

It sounds like you are pretty happy for your sons achievements and have no desire to talk him out of his chosen profession, despite the odds against him that make trading odds seem decent in comparison.

This is in sharp contrast to your opinions presented here that repeatedly tell people that trading is impossible or a low percentage play and that it shouldn't even be attempted.

You are among the 1st to respond to anyone asking about trading to tell them it's pointless and to choose another path. You don't even give them a timeline to see if they have any skills- just immediately give up and move on.

Did you apply this same type of advice to your son when you found out he had an interest in the ultra low percentage play of esports?

Did you tell him and his friends to immediately stop and move on?

Because it sure seems there is a large amount of hypocrisy going on here if it's okay for your son to pursue his dream in an extremely difficult venture and you cheer him on, while at the same time trying to extinguish the dreams of others considering trading, a far less difficult path than succeeding in esports.

How does a person who continually preaches to everyone to give up trading because of its high failure rate come to cheer on a son who is in a field with a failure rate that is many times higher?
 
REDP1800 said:
lol. easily nake thousands in futures then why worry about anything else kid..come trade futures and make thousanda a day
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who are you calling kid? Are you older than me? haha. Please read my thread "Make some progress but so much more to go". My goal is $5k/day. Not there yet. I'm averaging over a thousand a day now. You gotta know what AVERAGE means in this context. Some days you might make more but then there are days you lose right? Or don't trade because of work projects. Or you are flat.

To average $5K /day that means I need to have days that I'm up $10K. I'm far from that.

Hopefully I can get there some day. I feel like I'm on that path. Let's see.
 
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trader99 said:
who are you calling kid? Are you older than me? haha. Please read my thread "Make some progress but so much more to go". My goal is $5k/day. Not there yet. I'm averaging over a thousand a day now. You gotta know what AVERAGE means in this context. Some days you might more but then there are days you lose right? Or don't trade because of work projects. Or you are flat.

To average $5K /day that means I need to have days that I'm up $10K. I'm far from that.

Hopefully I can get there some day soon. I feel like I'm on that path. Let's see.
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Think smaller. Adjust your targets based on the potential of what you can lose, not what you can win. That is my thought, anyways.
 
soulfire said:
Congrats on your sons success.

The odds of succeeding in professional gaming are far worse than that of trading- with odds rated as low as 0.01% :

https://kotaku.com/your-odds-of-being-an-eathlete-esports-is-rapidly-becom-1620528958

I'm curious - did you do your best to talk him out of being a professional gamer when you found out he expressed an interest in it? Did you tell him and his friends it was a terrible low percentage play and to not waste any time trying because there are much better higher percentage opportunities out there?

It sounds like you are pretty happy for your sons achievements and have no desire to talk him out of his chosen profession, despite the odds against him that make trading odds seem decent in comparison.

This is in sharp contrast to your opinions presented here that repeatedly tell people that trading is impossible or a low percentage play and that it shouldn't even be attempted.

You are among the 1st to respond to anyone asking about trading to tell them it's pointless and to choose another path. You don't even give them a timeline to see if they have any skills- just immediately give up and move on.

Did you apply this same type of advice to your son when you found out he had an interest in the ultra low percentage play of esports?

Did you tell him and his friends to immediately stop and move on?

Because it sure seems there is a large amount of hypocrisy going on here if it's okay for your son to pursue his dream in an extremely difficult venture and you cheer him on, while at the same time trying to extinguish the dreams of others considering trading, a far less difficult path than succeeding in esports.

How does a person who continually preaches to everyone to give up trading because of its high failure rate come to cheer on a son who is in a field with a failure rate that is many times higher?
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oh :)

actually - behind the low success rate, the fundamental reason is the opportunity cost... taking on short term trading, spending 1000's hours on it, inevitably will

- drain your energy that otherwise can be spent on pursuing a better career with greater pay potential;
- erode your financial resources that otherwise can be used to accumulate shares.

my son is 14 lol.... no opportunity cost here... at this age all I care about is that he is happy and grow up healthy... this gaming thing, yeah I know the odds... it still feels like hitting a jackpot lol because there is little credit I can take.

btw at the moment Toronto is playing Florida https://overwatchleague.com/en-us/
my son's team just beat both of them this weekend in practice scrims, they also beat Chengdu and Guangzhou... so at this point odds are good for these kids to make the league... in his case he needs to wait till 18... and at that point the opportunity cost discussion will come up, like if the league is not a lock, then do you skip college to keep playing the minor leagues.
 
Overnight said:
Think smaller. Adjust your targets based on the potential of what you can lose, not what you can win. That is my thought, anyways.
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I made around $700 on NG and it's Sunday afternoon! Like clockwork. Could have been over $1K if I waited longer. I scaled out as it was going up. Not complaining. A wise man by the handle @Overnight told me once as long as one is positive on a trade then it's good. LOL. Also, one can't get MFE on every trade he wisely putted.

Technically Sunday is counted as Monday too. So I can still keep my $1K+/day average going! woohoo!
 
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trader99 said:
I made around $700 on NG and it's Sunday afternoon! Like clockwork. Could have been over $1K if I waited longer. I scaled out as it was going up. Not complaining. A wise man by the handle @Overnight told me once as long as one is positive on a trade then it's good. LOL. Also, one can't get MFE on every trade.

Technically Sunday is counted as Monday too. So I can still keep my $1K+/day average going! woohoo!
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Excellent! Now this is where your discipline comes into play. You made your money for Monday. Can you stay out for the entire rest of the day until 6PM ET Monday night? Let us watch.

My advice on this is to pull a room 237. Stay OUT!

I have had days like your's before. Made the goal on the night before the RTH. Take tomorrow off. Go have a Wendy's Frosty™. Just chill. You deserve it.

But do NOT go looking into room 237 tomorrow. The temptation is strong. But stay OUT! You hear me, stay OUT!

I will Halloran all over your ass. Stay OUT tomorrow. Heed this.

 
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