Quote from lilduckling:
Hey pclark, lilduckling hereâ¦â¦.. I know where your coming from and I feel your pain. You want to focus your attention on a narrow set of methods or method, and not spend months and months chasing every strategy to see whether or not they work. Thus when you see traders shooting down a method, you kinda of want to see the reasons why, so that then you could use your own assessment to determine who is on to something and who is full of shit.
Well, I will tell you some things hereâ¦. You may or may not agree with themâ¦. I donât knowâ¦. and it doesnât matter to me either way.
First off, you need to make a sharp distinction between knowing how to trade, and becoming profitable. The two are not the same, different as night and day. A basketball coach knows how to play basketball, but could never compete against players that know a lot less then him. You often hear people inquiring âwho is a good traderâ or others posting their trades to proudly show how well they did. Its all bologna. None of that tells you whether a system works or notâ¦. It just tells you it worked for that particular trade in that particular time. A feat that a chimp in any zoo could easily accomplish also.
Secondly, you need to draw out a plan that explicitly states what is profitability and what is break even. Not just for every trade, but for the week, for the month, and for the year. It is very different for everybody. After one year, you made $3500. Itâs a profit on paper, but is it a profit for you? Is it a breakeven? Trader A makes $4000 in one week, and gives it back the following 3 weeks and is at zero for the month. Trader B makes $50 per week and is up $200 for the month. Some would say they are both break even for the month. Others say trader B. What if after six months they are both at $2500. Along those 6 months trader A had 60% draw down while trader B had 8% draw down. Is it still a coin toss? I donât know. It doesnât matter. Its something you have to sit down and decide for yourself. Because it is between you and your wife, if after one or two years, you made $15,000.â¦.. And your wife tells you to get out and get a ârealâ job or sheâs leaving you.
Third, you are starting off like I didâ¦.. Putting more emphasis in the method or strategy than on yourself. The best trading systems will not be profitable if in the wrong hands, and the oldest crummiest ones will work in the right hands. Just like a camera. In my case a firearm, often in the range, I would outscore shooters with high tech modern pistols, while I used a 120 year old colt revolver replica. When I started trading in 03, I remember being in Dan Zangers room (In those days I was searching for everythingâ¦. Gurus, trading rooms, methodsâ¦.newslettersâ¦.etc, left no stone unturned) anyways there was a trader that was really making good money, big money⦠he would call out trades from stocks he was day trading, but it would usually be too late by the time you were ready to hit the buyâ¦. They moved fast right after he called them. He never would talk about his method. Fed up one day I asked him for some tips. He didnât give me any, except to say that I have to find my own way, find what works for me. Of course the system he was using was what I wanted, because I could see it working week after week. I didnât understand then, that it wouldâve never worked for me. He was using tremendous amounts of money (millions) for very small moves. Even if had I somehow adopted his strategy, had the balls of steel to scalp in and out like he did, I still would hardly make any money. In fact the profits would not pay for all the data fees. The point is thisâ¦â¦ just because a system works, doesnât mean the system will be profitable for you.
You have to be in the right time frame, the right trading vehicle, with the right amount of $, that fits your style and personality. No one here can tell you which of those is best for youâ¦.. Only you can figure that out for yourself. And you will figure it out. All you need is two things in this business to become successful. You always hear 97% fail. But all youâ¦. All anyone, needs to succeed is TIME and MONEYâ¦. thatâs it. Run out of either one before you learned the ropes and thatâs it⦠your out. 97% fail⦠but anyone can succeed. Take a homeless bum off the streets, if he has no restraints with money or timeâ¦. He will become a profitable trader!! It may not be as fast as you⦠might take him 15 years to get there⦠but he would get there. Most fail because there IS a constraint in money and timeâ¦most are out in under 1 year. Even a monkey, will become profitable!! Just give him 150 million years in front of a computer. So what you have to do, before you even draw up a trading planâ¦. Is come up with a business plan. Thatâs right⦠you need both a trading plan and a business. Because some of the most important things you will do, is lay out a foundation that will allow you the time and expense to become profitable in trading. THIS is often overlooked by manyâ¦. And thus they fail within 1 year. Have a business plan, that will allow you the time and money to stay alive in this, long enough to learn how to become profitable. As you are beginning to see, some off the most important things you can do to increase your odds of success, has nothing to do with trading. Some of the most important things in trading, have nothing to do with strategies⦠as I mentioned above. Most approach this business in the exact opposite of what I have laid out. They start off looking for a strategy.
Now I want to address the posters here. There is bad information here, and there is good information here. The bad info posses no threat to you, since you see it for what it is. The good information is what you have to be careful withâ¦. Since itâs what may have you spend time with further investigation and dissemination. Time, as I spoke about earlier, is a commodity in this business. This brings us to your original dilemma⦠how to tell which posters are sharing valuable info, and which ones are just posting opposing views for the hell of it. Well if you are new here and donât know the posters, then its difficult⦠since your just going by peoples opinion. When you read a strategy out here do two things: Does it make sense? In other words is it rational? If yes, then figure out if it fits you. So if thereâs a neat thread about swing trading using fundamentalsâ¦. And your style is day trading with technicalâs⦠no matter how good that system is, it would be a waste of your time to pursue it. âOh⦠maybe I can incorporate some aspects of it to fitââ¦.. forget it!! There are so many strategies and systems that are up your alleyâ¦. Why spend time walking around in another neighborhood? Some people think⦠âIâll take a little from that system, and little from that other oneâ¦. etcâ¦. and Iâll end up with a real sweetheart of a systemâ well feel free to engage in mental masturbation all you want⦠but you usually end up with the red headed step child. The truth isâ¦. Its almost impossible to tell a new trader they donât need other peoples strategies. A new trader does not want to hear it⦠its like asking them to breath underwater. Only when a trader begins to get experience under his/her belt, does that trader realize the truthâ¦. That they, and only they will come up with a system that works. âBut, but, but how..but I need a start, I needââ¦â¦. Take your computer, turn it on, watch the market. Donât trade, donât even paper trade⦠just watchâ¦.watch. Start taking a few notes after a while. But keep on just watching. Weeksâ¦even months! Believe me, you will be head and shoulders above so many others that start this.
Lastly, there are no âsystemsâ that people have that they want to keep secret⦠in fear it might âwater downâ the profits. Any system they have that is working for them is because they made it âfitâ them. Its like one old lady asking another old lady if she can borrow her dentures because she left hers at the house. Systems are kinda like that.
I know I didnât really answer all your questionsâ¦.. But I figured Iâd contribute something to this thread. Otherwise people will say all i do is attack Jack.