"Verified profitable" badge

"Count me in ... but I'll continue to cite reasons why it shouldn't be done.". LOL. Yeah, real convincing. I haven't fallen for that ruse since junior high. How old are you again?

I believe in discourse. I never said it shouldn't be done. I am simply arguing that unfortunately I doubted it would have the benefits for which we are seeking.
 
I'm unfortunately not as well versed as I'd like to be on statistics, but this comment made me think of something I read... I believe it was in the book "Fooled By Randomness" by Nassim Taleb (I could be wrong since I read quite a number of books on this subject), where he states that someone like Warren Buffet is still statistically possible within the realm of chance given how many managers there are. Now of course Buffet does seem to use good methedology (buy low, sell high,etc), but it still struck me as interesting that you can often make data say what you want.

Now I'm not sure if a day trader, given that he puts on thousands of trades within a year could be so lucky over the long run (Buffet for example puts on many less trades), so I'm sure there is a certain number of trades beyond which it would be possible to still be a winner less than 0.00001% of the time if by chance and not an edge, even with the huge number of day traders out there, but this idea of the statistical nature jumped into my head when I read your comment.


Interesting, KP. However, i don't think the number of trades makes a difference. That becomes a magnitude issue, I think-- but is uncorrelated to long run luck--
 
I also wonder, what would be the point, to himself, for this expert trader to be "crowned"?

I cannot say with certainty as to what DbPhoenix would say, he is participating in this thread of course, but if I had to guess, along with what I've already been saying about how statements will in no way help a new trader, showing statements gets into ego. I think that he simply doesn't care what anyone thinks of his own personal trading. He puts his method out there for each trader to evaluate, those who can make use of it, great for them, those who cannot, this doesn't bother him in the slightest.

Now of course if the idea is for the expert trader to find clients, then of some sort of classification system makes sense, but for the traders on here who are sharing out of the desire simply to help and are in fact the real deal, most have more than likely learned to leave ego at the door, and would never care to go to the trouble to provide any proof. What trader, who is here giving his free time wants to show to the world that he made 10 million last year and open himself up to all the extra traffic and attention?

I think that if a person is going to be intelligent enough to trade, he should be intelligent enough to separate the good stuff from the crap.
 
Interesting, KP. However, i don't think the number of trades makes a difference. That becomes a magnitude issue, I think-- but is uncorrelated to long run luck--

Actually I think it does. Being right 15 out of 20 times is one thing, but being right 95 out of 100 times is a whole different ball game. It is statistically more likely to be right 15 out of 20 times more often than 95 out of 100, but given doing this enough, you will still get a person right 95 out of 100 times based purely on luck as long as you do this enough. So given so many day traders out there, many have been lucky for months at a time before their eventual demise. (I am happy to report I have zero luck with my random entries, and I see right from the beginning that a real statistical edge is necessary! :D)
 
Gary Smiths Trading for a living was one of the best books I ever read too.

One of the things that book made me aware of, made money for me last week... and it helped me make a few hundred thousand in the 90s when I daytraded full time.
 
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Gary Smiths Trading for a living was one of the best books I ever read too.

One of the things that book made me aware of, made money for me last week... and it helped me make a few hundred thousand in the 90s when I daytraded full time.


He really helped me too. I would attribute my trading success in large part to Gary. In a nutshell, his book advocates find a trading style that suites your personality. Figure out a way to wrap your mind around letting your winners run, and cut your losses very short.

Obviously that's nothing new, and very cliche in trading. It's easier said than done certainly, but it's entirely possible.

In order for me to accomplish that, I had to come to the realization that I won't "get rich quick" and I am way better off keeping my day job and position trading.
 
I think this could be a good idea, but realize that it also discredits people like myself who aren't currently traders but come to learn here in hopes of being traders at some point...that may be a good or bad thing, I'll leave it to people more involved here to decide...just pointing it out.

There's also the possibility that it will contribute to the pervasive attitude of dick measuring here that has absolutely nothing to do with the original post on threads. All too often I find myself just scrolling over pages of back and fourth bickering in hopes that on page X the conversation converges back to the original topic. Anyway, just my opinion, I think it's probably a good way for experienced traders to recognize each other, but I also feel there's some inevitability of it being abused.
 
One phenomenon I've noticed after doing this for 17 years is that nobody thinks anybody else makes money trading. You can have two guys going at it in the forums and they are both profitable traders, but yet neither thinks the other makes any money whatsoever. And even somewhat famous traders that have posted on ET over the years have been relentlessly accused of being clueless and broke. If someone brings in a statement, people will just say it's fabricated or missing information. Bring in a 1099 and people will want verification from the IRS. And even if that got verified, then the inevitable "Yeah, but were your taxes done by a credible third party?", and then that would lead to "Fine, but were your trades audited to determine that they were indeed intra day trades in XYZ and not swing trades or other gains from other types of investments". And it would just go on... and on... and on.

I think a "Verified Profitable" badge is an interesting idea, but if nobody really believes it, then it doesn't have any value.
Nvestly is a free, new platform that was launched last month. I believe there is also a paid version with extra features. I just signed up for it, so I can't speak from personal experience, but it looks like it has potential to address a lot of the issues you brought up regarding credibility. Here is a link to a short article about the service http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/chi-otavio-dalarossa-nvestly-bsi-20141105-story.html
 
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