Trading is like business, not math, physics, engineering or science

[savoir]

IBD books do a good job of that, W Tailz, mostly single stocks; but i use ETFs+ money markets instead.
Amazing how much USa bridges last + hold up isnt it??
Also interesting a bird + beaver builds a home + beaver dam without math;
also amazing just how sturdy+ difficult to bust a beaver dam is .[NO disrespect intended to Army Corp of Engineers/TVA]
IBD ,FFTY, ETF, sadly seldom if ever beats benchmark-SPY ;
but WSJ News Corp buying IBD for $275 ,000,000 may have eased that pain LOL
Trading - investing not only helps business, transfers risk-reward, provide profits,[P+L LOL] dividends, helps market makers, specialist, exchanges....................................
Thanks for you comments Savior, I simply dont agree with all of them;
except you are right, insurance contract is not the same as some futures contracts

Good comments, murray t. If you want to count vicarious benefits, you can expand the list of beneficiaries to my data provider, charting software company, internet provider, utility company, and so on. I'm not that philosophical. Vis-a-vis other market participants, I'm solely a taker.

 

[murray t turtle]

Good comments, murray t. If you want to count vicarious benefits, you can expand the list of beneficiaries to my data provider, charting software company, internet provider, utility company, and so on. I'm not that philosophical. Vis-a-vis other market participants, I'm solely a taker.

%%
Good thinking LOL, power company 2......................................................
And something else/ when i pay power bill after hours that machine des not give change so its a loan to power co LOL Give + take

 

[Wide Tailz]

If you are providing liquidity to others, unless you are a market maker capturing the spread, you are what is called in the academic literature a futile trader, which is a nice way of saying you're a loser.

To play the game well, you should be a liquidity taker not a liquidity provider.

To reiterate, trading is a game. If you play it well, you can direct the money you extract from the market to productive uses

Thank you very much for this comment, now I understand the mind of a parasite who is just there to extract and not provide. If that is the true reality of winning in capital markets, my own psychology has prevented me from success, not my methods (and I've found several that still work).

I've been looking for a way to absolve a guilty conscience, selling to someone who shouldn't be buying.

Like you said, it is futility.

 

[savoir]

Thank you very much for this comment, now I understand the mind of a parasite who is just there to extract and not provide. If that is the true reality of winning in capital markets, my own psychology has prevented me from success, not my methods (and I've found several that still work).

I've been looking for a way to absolve a guilty conscience, selling to someone who shouldn't be buying.

Like you said, it is futility.

You are welcome. Acknowledging a parasitic role is just matter of fact and has no negative connotation. The markets are there for most anyone to participate and enrich himself. In terms of trading volume, people who trade their own money for themselves are in the minority. Large capital pools operate in the same space and they play the role of easy hosts.

 

[murray t turtle]

You are welcome. Acknowledging a parasitic role is just matter of fact and has no negative connotation. The markets are there for most anyone to participate and enrich himself. In terms of trading volume, people who trade their own money for themselves are in the minority. Large capital pools operate in the same space and they play the role of easy hosts.

%%
[Many think of a parasite like a deer tick or horseleech, that does not deserve its blood meal.]
Glad you cleared that up positive in capital markets context, savior LOL
THIS maybe where Dave Ramsey got the saying '' doing better than I deserve '' LOL
Back to trends + give + take.

 

[vanzandt]

Some people buy real property and collect rents. Personally, I do not like being a landlord so I do not buy real property unless I can use it. To each his own.

It depends how old you are. You don't have to become a landlord to allocate some money in real property. If you are in fact wealthy, just buy raw land. The right raw land of course. Will it produce NVDA-like returns? Lol...No. Unless you get lucky, or you were real smart when you bought it. But 30 years from now, you'll realize it was probably one of the best investments you ever made because it will still be there. That is if you didn't get lucky... there's a lot of farmers that have become multi-millionaires overnight when the likes of KB Homes or D.R. Horton came a callin'.

 

[Wide Tailz]

The service you are providing is assuming someone else’s risk. When you exit the market someone else is assuming your risk. Assuming another’s risk allows them a degree of certainty in their finances.

Eureka. Excellent post - thank you very much for weighing in. This is it. My psychology is a mental prison of continual torture when I'm up on a trade. I can't hold winners, but this is exactly why. The fluctuations kill me, and someone has to endure that. That is the value added. This is why a ten bagger is not theft, or taking money from little children.

 

[ironchef]

.

The cliche is true: good trading can be simple, but it's not easy.

BTW, when 6 years old I climbed halfway up a tree, opened an umbrella, and jumped out while holding it above my head. The umbrella immediately inverted, I hit the ground hard and sprained both ankles.

Damn that Mary Poppins

Sign of a good trader: Willing to try anything, even when you were only 6 years old.

 

[ironchef]

I remember a story Dad and Mom tell when they were children but did not really know each other nor that one day they would be married. The story goes that they were both in a crowd of children who were watching a simple-minded boy on a roof top claiming he was going to fly. So all the kids were down below watching with great interest. The boy jumped of the roof flapping his wings Dad said. He promptly crashed into the ground. Years later Dad and Mom spoke of the same event and compared notes and realized they were there at the same event, when they were just small kids. Years later, Dad will be 91 this year and Mom will be 86. That event is still embedded in their minds.


God bless your Mom and dad for living so long. When I went to camp Waganaki many years ago this kid in our bunk was given some fake pot and he smoked it and then he stood on the top step of a six step walk down and said " I can Fly " and jumped off.

So I think a lot of people think they can trade stocks and what does that even mean anyway? I do this every day so I guess I trade stocks. Some LT some ST, some swings, some break outs some rescues,some retraces, some earnings plays-- it's a spin the wheel on tactics.

But take this advice-- psychology is everywhere in the market. The market is a living entity and the sooner you understand what motivates this living, greedy creature and learn to go the other way-- the sooner you will succeed in the trading of stocks, stock investing or whatever you call it.

After almost two decades on ET, with all your posts, you must have read and seen them all.

Are we any different today vs the good old days?

 

[ironchef]

As traders, are we chasing obsolete methods that worked before neural networks, machine learning and backtesting, behavior modeling and spoofing came into the arena? There is only so much room for the various services we provide to the market (liquidity, price discovery). But you can't open a K mart next to a Wal mart. It will die a quick death. Remember the turtles?

A lot of people will claim that the turtles method still kinda work

Our own turtle, @murray t turtle can tell you it still works. He uses 50ma 200ma.