Trading Plan

Quote from 40yotrader:



My wife and I figured there's only three ways this won't work:

1). Our 9 year tested method is flawed and we've created a pipedream.

2). We don't follow the system 100% and screw up because of our emotions.

3). The volatility in the market drops to below where it was in the early 90's.

If we lose 5k or 40k between Nov. and Mar., it makes little difference to us. In either case we have to move on to Plan B. There isn't enough time to come up with a new idea and properly test it, so this is our one and only shot at the world of daytrading. If it doesn't work out, we'll have to just move on. My 17 years as a Marketing Strategist was full of risk and in the end it didn't provide for a nice retirement, either.
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Oddly enough, I was in marketing for over 25 years and I've been intrigued by trading for the past 10, but never had enough cash or time to try it, although I invested in stocks and funds. Since selling our house, moving and subsequently being fired, I've finally got the time and cash to try it. A blessing in disguise or bad luck? I don't know, but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Is your plan B going back to marketing? I'm disgusted with marketing as a career at this point and I'd have a hard time going back to it, but I guess that's my plan B. I don't really have a timetable, but I'll go back to marketing when I lose more than I've already made or get a really good job offer. Sadly, even if I go back to work, there's no real security in that either. I read in Fortune that the average tenure of a CMO is 2 years.

My system looks good too, but sticking to it is problematic. When you're playing with real money, it gets very emotional. I am living cheaply at this point too, but it has to do more with being confident in the system even when it looks like it's not working. I don't have any real pressure to to meet living expenses, but like you, this is my shot and I don't want to blow it. Plus going back to all of that corporate BS is just too depressing to think about.

Best of luck.

Chuck
 
I'm sure 40yo will eventually look in, but I've followed his posts here for years.

Like Bit said, this thread is 4 years old. 40 made it. No ? about it.

If anything gives hope to traders who want to bag the 9 to 5, this is it.

How did he do it? Read his posts, but in a nutshell - extreme discipline and a step-at-a-time. And don't forget decent capitalization. I also doubt he will give real details about his current trading method. Who would?

Read his posts and you can, at least, see the method he started with.

Good luck to all and congrats to 40yo.

:cool:
 
It has been years after the last posting from 40yotrader. I wonder if he made it or not. He seems to have a lot of the important ingredients of a successful trader. If he fails, then, I think 90+% of the new traders will fail...
 
K-KEEP
I-IT
S-SIMPLE
S-STUPID
THATS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR INVESTING OR OTHERWISE YOU WILL FIND ENOUGH CRAP TO TALK YOURSELF OUT OF A TRADE OR INTO A BAD TRADE
 
Quote from johnpinochet:


Anyone know what happened?
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4 year update to the first day I went "live".

I'm doing just fine. The experience with the journal was a net negative for me. I thought going through the process of what I did might help others if it worked out or failed. Either way someone could learn something from my attempt. I wasn't prepared for the extreme negativism and the constant badgering I received in my PM's. Also, I didn't expect people to bother me with "give me the details of your model and it's money management and I'll be forever grateful". I must have heard that pitch over a hundred times in various forms in my PM. That's why I turned off PM. I guess it wasn't enough to describe in detail how I built the system (which I still use for every new project today). I even gave away the logic that shows what days I use the system to trade, but the hounding continued.

I've made some changes to the original model mostly to suspend trading when the daily range falls below 7 points. Anything larger than that and I would do ok. The original model with no changes has had 4 losing months from 11/1/02 - 10/31/06, so I guess it is possible to build a stable, profitable model.

Since 2002, I've added more models in more markets and all are doing ok. I've tried to figure out ways to work with other people but each time I've tried, I've found it's better to just do my own thing. Anyway, I'm profitable and working on building a legacy so my kids won't have to worry about their future like I did with mine.

44yotrader
 
Thank you for your candid input. Sorry for the heartache. If it's any comfort, you helped at least one.

Congrats on your winning system(s).

Be careful not to spoil your beneficiaries too much. :)
 
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