Traders: How are we different from the rest?

Quote from peg_leg_joe:

I am one of those highly independent people who cannot stand having my life dictated by a boss and who cannot bear the thought of living out the rest of my life in the BS corporate bureaucracy where everything I do is mandated by an SOP and/or a supervisor who makes much more than me and does far less work. I've been there, done that. To return to that kind of hell is unfathomable to me.

In the trading business, you are only limited by your own talent and resourcefulness. Unlike most other businesses, your overhead is low: no employees (unless perhaps you are running a hedge fund or a commodity pool), no office space lease (assuming you work from home), no business trip expenses (unless you attend a lot of seminars/workshops outside your area), no physical inventory, and so on. All you need is good computer equipment, a trading stake, data and software, an edge, good money management, and most importantly, the discipline to take advantage of your edge.

Bottom line: It's all about freedom, independence, and the possibility of nearly limitless success.

P L J
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Well said. :)

~Scientist
 
Quote from bobcathy1:
We are looking for the freedom to travel in our boat all year long. With service businesses we were stuck in the same place and at the beck and call of our customers. Hopefully now we will be able to travel and trade at the same time.
:) [/B]
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Sounds awesome. :D Personally I'm living in one of the nicest places in the world, sitting in one of the nicest offices at home (I like having a nice office - Bookshelves full of trading books, surround-sound computer speakers (Logitech Z560-Awesome!), Elite Keyboard, Silver-grey monitors & cases all in matching colours silver & black, Custom-made desk, Fibreglass-Ufo-Lamp, Red & Silver Lavalamp, transparent ATX case with a gobsmacking black-light on fluoro-cable inside creating an awesome blue ghost effect - You name it...) Even my sportscar's got the same silver/black colour theme. Guess I'm a pretty visual person
But then I guess I'm just a twen, so I got an excuse :p

But then I read your thing and thought... "Yeah. Why not get the f*** outta here for a change?" Living on a boat! Great! But living on a yacht, for example, how would you trade? Connect to a local port phoneline? Satellite phone? Well satellite wouldn't work because of the latency - So yeah. How would you trade?

Be very interesting to find out indeed. I like the idea of not only travelling around the world, but maybe also trading the market of each individual country - at least the local index futures. That would complete the 'foreign culture experience'... :D

Looking forward to your reply!
Sincerely,
~Scientist
 
Quote from Scientist:


Sounds awesome. :D Personally I'm living in one of the nicest places in the world, sitting in one of the nicest offices at home (I like having a nice office - Bookshelves full of trading books, surround-sound computer speakers (Logitech Z560-Awesome!), Elite Keyboard, Silver-grey monitors & cases all in matching colours silver & black, Custom-made desk, Fibreglass-Ufo-Lamp, Red & Silver Lavalamp, transparent ATX case with a gobsmacking black-light on fluoro-cable inside creating an awesome blue ghost effect - You name it...) Even my sportscar's got the same silver/black colour theme. Guess I'm a pretty visual person
But then I guess I'm just a twen, so I got an excuse :p

But then I read your thing and thought... "Yeah. Why not get the f*** outta here for a change?" Living on a boat! Great! But living on a yacht, for example, how would you trade? Connect to a local port phoneline? Satellite phone? Well satellite wouldn't work because of the latency - So yeah. How would you trade?

Be very interesting to find out indeed. I like the idea of not only travelling around the world, but maybe also trading the market of each individual country - at least the local index futures. That would complete the 'foreign culture experience'... :D

Looking forward to your reply!
Sincerely,
~Scientist
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Sounds nice!

I am jealous..I live in the now always dreary and rainy Northeast. :mad:

Right down the block from an overflowing river! Flood watch!

Trading around the world would be sweet indeed.

Best
David
 
Come on folks! You lack enthusiasm!

Trading is the best job in the world!

You can go wherever you want whenever you want,
choose friends at your discretion,
get paid EXACTLY according to your performance (rather than that paycheck nonsense - been there done that screw that).

You can find the nicest place in the world and settle there and trade from wherever it is (I left frosty old Germany and moved to Australia! :D)

You hardly need any tools or other possessions (possessions are heavy and draw you down, remember?)

You have everything you need to be successful in your brain. You can go into any market and trade it.
Even if you turned out to have nothing at some time - You can join a trading firm and build up your stash with OPM - Provided you've got a halfway acceptable trading record.

Trading improves your character everyday.
Just making an effort to learn trading can be very beneficial to personal character development. Trading is as just and fair a profession as you can find on earth.
It emphasizes and breeds by absolute necessity the most precious human traits,and punishes with terrible pain the bad, useless and destructive human traits, such as fear and greed, but also all of the cardinal sins, being pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust. Every single one of these traits can and will challenge you frequently while trading, until they fade with experience.

The successful trader, however, must feature Discipline, Dedication, Drive, Courage, Knowledge, Modesty, Humbleness, Patience, Responsibility to name a few.
He will have to cultivate all these. That would make traders better, happier and more desirable people - Wouldn't it?

I think all this heavily contradicts the common perception and prejudices we get from non-traders, as bred by people like Michael Douglas in "Wall Street".


I love the stock market, I have great enthusiasm for it, I remember when I was 7, I worked my butt off carrying out newspapers to save some money.
Then I walked past a bank and saw a stock chart and loved it. I stared at it for hours. Then I walked in and asked to buy that stock - The bank lady just laughed at me.
I didn't think it was funny at all, walked to the manager and complained. Next thing I know is the manager disciplines the teller lady and grants my wish for buying that stock. Sorry for the inconvenience, he said and placed the order without even charging me a fee. I was happy. I had bummed my way out of paying a fee (my god - 30 bucks?) and I finally owned 10 coca-cola shares! The bank manager strongly advised against the trade, saying the company wasn't going anywhere and the earnings projections weren't gonna improve. I didn't care. This was like in '88. I was a smart 7-year-old (don't you think you're the smartest when you're 7?) and I knew what I was doing.

Umm... I bought KO @some odd $6 and sold a coupla years later for some $20... I know it wasn't a HUGE gain over that timeframe when I look at scalping the e-Mini's today, but it was certainly sufficient to defy my family's efforts to put money in my savings book and "watch it grow" - at 3% p.a. LOL.


I learnt several things from that:

1. Do your analysis. Look at charts for hours, even if you don't understand anything yet.
2. F*ck the broker / banker's advice.
3. F*ck the fundamentals.
4. Stocks can bring higher returns than a savings book at the bank.
5. I LOVE THIS.
6. I'll never look back.

I LOVE TRADING. I love it to death. I can stay away from the markets for a few days, but I'll always have some books near or I'll be writing down code for new trading systems or going through my logs&diaries. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, impatient to see what foreign exchange market's doing... I wrote my first simple trading system at the age of 12. In BASIC! On the beach, I'll be drawing chart patterns in the sand. I see douple tops & v-shaped bottoms on my girlfriends. I see congestion patterns on my granddad's forehead. At the checkouts I'll be adding up the shopping on-the-go while the chick's typing it in the till and give her the 'total' before she tells you!. -Always gets you big eyes. She'll go: "How the hell did U do that?" I go: "Tape-reading baby!" Sounds corny, but with a bit of attitude, it got me a helluva lot of nices dates :D


Am I glorifying trading? I don't think so. This is my life - And yours! Never underestimate the privileges we enjoy.
If you know a better job than this? Tell me!!!
Mattress tester? Adult actor? Can't think of anything :D

Let me hear what you think!


Have a nice Life,
~Scientist.
 
“ When I was a child I didn’t know what Money was. When I was a student I knew that I didn’t have any money. When I was a college student, and I wondered how my professor knew so much about the stock market but didn’t have any money. When I was a stockbroker, I knew a lot about money had enough of it, and I knew what the company name was, but didn’t know the symbol, and then had the guts to tell my professor he didn’t know anything about the market. When I recommended stocks to my clients at the beginning of the biotech craze, I didn’t understand why my clients looked at charts when I was looking at fundamentals. When I joined the SOES Bandits in ’95, I didn’t understand how Harvey made money without fundamentals and without charts, what the hell was momentum analysis so he taught me. When I began trading actively with him actively, and teaching others how to trade, I knew the symbol, and didn’t know the company name or was what the hell the company did. When I took measurements in my house for improvements, I didn’t know how to read the 1/16ths and 1/32’s on a tape measure, and which socket to use to put together my son’s toy, but I knew how to outbid someone on NOBE or STJM by 1/128th on INCA, scaling 10,000 shares 200 up and down. Then up until ’96 I figured out that GSCO high bid doesn’t mean the stock is moving higher, and if he was low offer it still wasn’t moving higher. Oh, and watching the ECNs go live on Jan 13, 1997, people didn’t accept that some potato farmer from Boise, ID was using ISLD or INCA, to outbid a Brooks Bros suit at GSCO for 100 shares. I watched the ECNs wash many of the “original bandits” away, as I embraced the ones that didn’t to embrace their knowledge. Then everyone was used to fractions, and couldn’t figure out the decimals (like calling someone, the phone keeps ringing and ringing, and them finally someone picks up, and it scares the hell out of you). Then I became a benefactor of Greenspan’s statement, “irrational exuberance”, becoming exuberant with profits made from irrational traders hitting my bids and lifting my offers, then I really knew what “fade” meant. The market will continue to trade long after I’m dead and buried, but I will not be killed and buried by the market. And I saw that professor at Barnes & Noble April 1st 2000, and you know what he asked me? “Where do you think the market is going?” After talking with him for 5 minutes, he signed up for a seminar.


What really makes us different?

- We look at and respect the entry, stop and target in not just every trade, but everything we do.
- By doing just that, we know what our risk and reward is, in everything we do.
- We take responsibility for our own actions, unless of course our quote or execution platform dies on us.
- The frequency of our opportunities is only tempered by the time frame we hold ourselves to.
- We’re the only people besides morticians or funeral directors, that get a look of fright when we tell the mortgage or personal bankers what we do for a living. And we’ll have to live with the “no-income verification loan if we want to buy real estate.
- 60% of the people, who told us to go out and get a real job because what we do is risky, are now out of a job, and are asking us what they should do with their 401k.
- We’re the only people who wish the market were open 7 days a week, and yet at a social function when we meet someone who asks what we do, and doesn’t understand what we do, we excuse ourselves and go the bathroom.
- The family and pets are wondering what the hell we’re saying to ourselves all day long while we look at the screen.


There are so many other things that make us different, but the only thing that will keep us different is to keep evolving. God, I love what we do!!!
 
Quote from RAMOUTAR:

“ When I was a child I didn’t know what Money was. When I was a student I knew that I didn’t have any money. When I was a college student, and I wondered how my professor knew so much about the stock market but didn’t have any money. When I was a stockbroker, I knew a lot about money had enough of it, and I knew what the company name was, but didn’t know the symbol, and then had the guts to tell my professor he didn’t know anything about the market. When I recommended stocks to my clients at the beginning of the biotech craze, I didn’t understand why my clients looked at charts when I was looking at fundamentals. When I joined the SOES Bandits in ’95, I didn’t understand how Harvey made money without fundamentals and without charts, what the hell was momentum analysis so he taught me. When I began trading actively with him actively, and teaching others how to trade, I knew the symbol, and didn’t know the company name or was what the hell the company did. When I took measurements in my house for improvements, I didn’t know how to read the 1/16ths and 1/32’s on a tape measure, and which socket to use to put together my son’s toy, but I knew how to outbid someone on NOBE or STJM by 1/128th on INCA, scaling 10,000 shares 200 up and down. Then up until ’96 I figured out that GSCO high bid doesn’t mean the stock is moving higher, and if he was low offer it still wasn’t moving higher. Oh, and watching the ECNs go live on Jan 13, 1997, people didn’t accept that some potato farmer from Boise, ID was using ISLD or INCA, to outbid a Brooks Bros suit at GSCO for 100 shares. I watched the ECNs wash many of the “original bandits” away, as I embraced the ones that didn’t to embrace their knowledge. Then everyone was used to fractions, and couldn’t figure out the decimals (like calling someone, the phone keeps ringing and ringing, and them finally someone picks up, and it scares the hell out of you). Then I became a benefactor of Greenspan’s statement, “irrational exuberance”, becoming exuberant with profits made from irrational traders hitting my bids and lifting my offers, then I really knew what “fade” meant. The market will continue to trade long after I’m dead and buried, but I will not be killed and buried by the market. And I saw that professor at Barnes & Noble April 1st 2000, and you know what he asked me? “Where do you think the market is going?” After talking with him for 5 minutes, he signed up for a seminar.


What really makes us different?

- We look at and respect the entry, stop and target in not just every trade, but everything we do.
- By doing just that, we know what our risk and reward is, in everything we do.
- We take responsibility for our own actions, unless of course our quote or execution platform dies on us.
- The frequency of our opportunities is only tempered by the time frame we hold ourselves to.
- We’re the only people besides morticians or funeral directors, that get a look of fright when we tell the mortgage or personal bankers what we do for a living. And we’ll have to live with the “no-income verification loan if we want to buy real estate.
- 60% of the people, who told us to go out and get a real job because what we do is risky, are now out of a job, and are asking us what they should do with their 401k.
- We’re the only people who wish the market were open 7 days a week, and yet at a social function when we meet someone who asks what we do, and doesn’t understand what we do, we excuse ourselves and go the bathroom.
- The family and pets are wondering what the hell we’re saying to ourselves all day long while we look at the screen.


There are so many other things that make us different, but the only thing that will keep us different is to keep evolving. God, I love what we do!!!
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you are still making money off other people instead of taking if off the markets like a trader does..

if you are taking enough from the market, I don't see why would want to give seminars about trading, I don't see any of the market wizards going on seminar tours to SELL something..

of course, there are always exceptions to the rule..and I don't think you are doing anything wrong at all by giving seminar or selling services, I just don't think this thread is FOR you..
 
oh..by the way..

I took a look at the tradingscience website..

very nicely done..

hey..everybody..there is a special goign on for the "pro package"

for $1595!!!!!!!!

($1445 when you attend "how to control the trade in any market")
 
It's very difficult to teach someone how to trade, if you're not a trader, don't trade, and don't make money trading. I love trading, I love making money trading and I love helping other people make money trading. The best feeling next to pulling money out the market, is watching else someone do it after you've taught them, and taking it from someone who will never learn. :) That's got to be the number question I get from traders, "If you're such a great trader, how come you're not trading?" I appreciate the question, and happy to answer it. That's when I grab them by the hand and show them how I trade, and help them do the same. Bernard Baruch, JP Morgan, Anthony Robbins, Bruce Lee, and Burt Reynolds (when Burt was a great actor) all gave seminars or had schools where they shared their knowledge and taught others. I'd say they were pretty good at what they did. There are exceptions to the rule, and it's a shame that it's the exception and NOT the rule. Thanks for the comments on the site, and soon there will be a wealth of helpful trading info on there for everyone to see for free. If ever I can be of help to you Vegasoul, drop me a line. Be well!
 
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