Unorthodox legal ways to gain an edge

[fordewind]

Your freaking brain is a mess, judging by your intro post.What edge your talking about?

 

[Scataphagos]

brings to mind a question, what are some unorthodox legal ways to gain an edge in this day and age, short of being a HFT & raising tens/hundreds of millions to dig through the mountains to get a chance at making a few extra pennies per share?

No.

The closest you're going to come to achieving "edge" is to have real-time news and be able to execute faster than others. That's not edge over the market, just over other players who might not act as fast as you.

 

[murray t turtle]

there's a saying how if you do what everyone else is doing, you'll get the same results as everybody else

which brings to mind a question, what are some unorthodox legal ways to gain an edge in this day and age..........................................................................
- getting ideas/ reading materials from sources away from beaten track - everyone reads bloomberg, wsj, etc
- having cash flow away from trading, using sources of permanent capital for trading - eg. much harder to wash you out of the market unlike some hedge fund maven scared of lagging the S&P that quarter
- not wasting time on poker and other time drains

%%
Read the WSJ;52 weeks late, which helps mostly more than any current issue.
Take a hint; Investors Business Daily did not change its name , but did change its nature, to a weekly, about 52 times per year.

And ocasionaly find some truth in a joke. Want a ''system to never lose money trading wheat[100% sure thing] for $500??'' Never trade wheat.

 

[tomorton]

No.

The closest you're going to come to achieving "edge" is to have real-time news and be able to execute faster than others. That's not edge over the market, just over other players who might not act as fast as you.

This is a realistic viewpoint. I try to remain humble and ask myself occasionally - What can I do better / bigger / faster than the people at Citigroup?. The answer is probably nothing. But that's OK because I'm not competing with them and I'm not trying to trade the way they trade.

 

[murray t turtle]

I try to remain humble and ask myself occasionally - What can I do better / bigger / faster than the people at Citigroup?. The answer is probably nothing.

%%
Most likely true, not bigger -they're big.
But better, + better= because an elite trader noted ''when there is a screwup,[c] Citigroup is there LOL. ''But they're up >23% YTD + nice dividend.

 

[SimpleMeLike]

there's a saying how if you do what everyone else is doing, you'll get the same results as everybody else

which brings to mind a question, what are some unorthodox legal ways to gain an edge in this day and age, short of being a HFT & raising tens/hundreds of millions to dig through the mountains to get a chance at making a few extra pennies per share?

looking for general approaches, not specifics for obvious reasons

my current list includes:
- identifying sources feeding out trading tips that have consistently been on wrong side of market, to filter opportunities
- using databases that usually cater to different audiences to piece together info
- knowing another language well enough that i can conduct market conversations in that language

mostly trade macro instead of individual stocks, so could be different for those punting AAPL, FB

also a few extra could be (depending on lengths taken, could make a real difference):
- getting ideas/ reading materials from sources away from beaten track - everyone reads bloomberg, wsj, etc
- having cash flow away from trading, using sources of permanent capital for trading - eg. much harder to wash you out of the market unlike some hedge fund maven scared of lagging the S&P that quarter
- not wasting time on poker and other time drains

pinetboltz,

Good point.

I believe the edge is this for us retail traders. Edge is hard work and effort and smart thinking and working with smart people who have the same trading ideas as you.

1. Trade the future markets only on the intraday charts. That is where the money is. Looking for stocks to trade is too much work daily.

2. Sim trade til you find a strategy that makes money, than go live.

3. Buy the SP500 index for long term retirement.

I think edge discussion is a waste of time. Focus on smart hard work. There is no short cuts. Don't worry about the HFT bullshitting. What do you care about that for. I just think it is a waste of time worrying about HFT or anything other than starring at the chart looking for good high reliability profitable trade setups and studying the charts. For example,

 

[Overnight]

An "unorthodox legal" way. That is there I fell down in the thread, which is in the title.

Sux having a logical mind, because I cannot get my head around and away from that concept. Error.

 

[pinetboltz]

An "unorthodox legal" way. That is there I fell down in the thread, which is in the title.

Sux having a logical mind, because I cannot get my head around and away from that concept. Error.

lol, yeah i put that in at the last second bc didn't want to get book recommendations on The Black Edge, etc

 

[sle]

What can I do better / bigger / faster than the people at Citigroup?

Oh, trust me - bigger and faster you might not be, but being better than the Citigroup people is not hard.

 

[Wide Tailz]

there's a saying how if you do what everyone else is doing, you'll get the same results as everybody else

This is so true! If you can find a successful trader and actually do what they do (much harder than it seems), you can be quickly successful yourself. Took me years to finally emulate early mentors and give up trying to find a more unorthodox way, but I think the journey was necessary to gain experience losing money, to know how and why it happens and who is picking up the pieces. Now it's strange talking to anyone about stocks. They pay attention to the most insignificant things!