What is wrong with this way of thinking?

Not bad for day 1. See the image below.

I'm chosing to post my performance so that I am seen by everyone for who I actually am. For now, I continue to trade only in my micro account. I have a mini account as well with a larger balance.

Good things: I came very close to achieving my profit goal today.

Bad Things: I should have done much, much, much better if I had stuck to my guns. Missed 40 pips on a short on the USDollar that I dumped and breakeven when the bad europe news came out. Got out of gold at 1772 believing that it would drop down to 1760 before it continued its ascent. I was wrong. Never got back in again because I was busy throughout the day with other things. You can see where I have shorted gold and where I intend to go long again.

Thanks again everyone for your tips. I know that most of you intend well with your advice.
 
Quote from bhardy307:

How about today, before 5pm EST. I'm almost willing to offer my right ball. :D
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Thats good, i only have one left, because of a wrong bet i made one day. Betting balls can be painful sometimes.....:p :p :p

Well, for the big money in this Gold up move, you should have bought it last week on the daily down spike.

but now, you can look for shorter trades the way up, so long the overall move energy is not broken.

Just buy somewhere and wait, is stupid.:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Quote from HATEtheRisk:

Thats good, i only have one left, because of a wrong bet i made one day. Betting balls can be painful sometimes.....:p :p :p

Well, for the big money in this Gold up move, you should have bought it last week on the daily down spike.

but now, you can look for shorter trades the way up, so long the overall move energy is not broken.

Just buy somewhere and wait, is stupid.:eek: :eek: :eek:
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Gold is now doing a little of that scene from Braveheart: blowing a kiss at 1800, shaking balls, and then showing ass. Of course, what happens after 8am est is what really matters.
 
I think it would be safe to say that I pulled that one out of my butt. That was a definite stomach test when down $145 at one point today. On a day that gold spent most of the day going up, I shorted it. It finally went my way. Still slightly short of my goal, but I am using only my now $508 micro account. Up $134.34.
 

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I guess I have Mr Berlusconi's to thank for the sudden drop in the Gold price which saved my butt. He resigned.

Just learned from FXCM that my little plan to transfer money back and forth from my mini to micro account isn't as easy as I thought. So, I will put only $1500 in the mini and transfer the balance out of the micro into the mini, for a total of $2000. I'll set aside the other $1000.

Also, for those of you who are interested in FXCM. The mini account does not limit you to mini lots or greater. You can also trade micro lots if you ask special permission.

... no more upates until transfers complete.
 
Quote from Blotto:

To be honest it is better for you if you don't take anything here seriously. My sincere concern is that people do take what they see here seriously and make substantial financial commitments based on advice they receive here which may be ill suited to their personal circumstances. I don't like to see people get hurt, develop gambling problems, or waste their efforts and resources on what is for them a fruitless endeavour. I think it is cruel how the more impressionable are egged on by friendly encouragement to their ultimate detriment and considerable financial loss.

Regarding what you can afford - I have nothing against anyone having a go with what they can afford. Without such people I could not make profits from the market. Also I believe everyone should have a fair chance to access the market if they can stump up the capital. I would be a hypocrite to state otherwise. However, there is the very real danger that trading becomes a sick obsession for some. In the end I don't think uninformed speculation which ultimately creates losses is a productive use of anybodys time. Time is precious and limited, so in a sense none of us can afford to "waste" it. It is likely that nothing of value is learned while losing money in a failed attempt at speculation, so my advice to a newbie would be to set an "affordable" amount and get it over with as quickly as possible and then move on to the next thing.

As for why I stated you were not suitable. I will give you my reasoning in order that it can stand on its own.

The purpose of trading is to amass a large sum of money. This implies consistent net profitable trading, liquid markets, and correct position sizing. The required approach is a problem solving one - namely to devise a highly accurate methodology. This requires a great deal of time and effort in studying the market and coming to the appropriate conclusions.

Somebody who jumps in to live trading dicking around with micro lots and guessing has one of two flaws. The first possible flaw is that they lack the intelligence to realise what is required - that a trading model be comprehensively developed and tested first, and executed only after the development and testing proves satisfactory. If one lacks basic intelligence, then the problem solving required is out of reach. The second possible flaw is that even though the need for a complete methodology is understood, the practitioner is an action junkie, gambler, or masochist and proceeds on without the necessary ingredients of success. Planning to fail.

The presence of either flaw prevents a successful trading outcome. This analysis gives you a very poor prognosis I'm afraid. Perhaps it can be corrected in your case by logically reasoning and ceasing all live trading until the prerequisites are in place. Most do not do this.

As for my results - I am not advocating any particular methodology or making any claims about my results. My pronouncements stand on logic. If I were proffering a trading strategy or giving specific trading advice (trend following, BOs etc) then I really ought to be providing some proof that not only do I believe in my strategy but that I am executing it and making money. The proponents of textbook generalities cannot do this because the concepts taught in textbooks are not and cannot be significantly profitable. It is quite simple to see who is jacking away time and effort on haphazard hit or miss trading and beliefs completely devoid of any rigorous analytical thought. That they mislead themselves is unfortunate but that they mislead others by preaching what does not work for them is disingenuous and most unkind.

I no longer have any interest in mentoring / teaching others, whether paid or unpaid, as I realise that it is for the most part an impossible mission as those who do not find their own successful path are unlikely to benefit from mentoring. My trading strategy is and shall remain private, although I have discussed some isolated general aspects of it with others in the past. I realise now that attempts to discuss aspects of methodology with others were unwise.

I like to see people get on and do well. Many people who do not have the capacity for trading do have the capacity to do other things which they find personally fulfilling and are incidentally productive. As my Yorkshire friend would say, "horses for courses". Despite whatever desires or fantasies I may have, I do not have the physical characteristics or youth to become an NBA star. No matter how much that career path may be attractive to me. It is utterly out of my reach and likely always was. Does this mean that I cannot go on to great success in another field? Of course not. However if I were to spend my days stalking college basketball try-outs and trying to live vicariously through others without doing anything to further my own realistic potential then this would be a waste of time. As I mentioned earlier a waste of time and a life without purpose is a luxury which I believe none can afford.

In closing I wish you well in whatever it is you choose to do, and I would like you to cultivate the self awareness and courage to accurately appraise your own abilities such that you do not misdirect your efforts towards something which ultimately proves fruitless. Some individuals who embark on trading are simply doomed never to succeed because of their (in)abilities, attitudes, and beliefs. For the weak minded, the gamblers, the easily influenced, the gullible - it can become financially and emotionally unaffordable. I don't wish that sort of carnage on anyone. For those who do not wreck themselves but regularly donate what they can afford - well it is a hobby like any other - be it roulette, the ponies, or a golf membership. These donations from the public are required to pay for the costs of the trading industry. I think it is a rather sad and unrewarding way to use spare time and excess capital, but that is simply my own personal view. [/QUO

LOL!
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Quote from Blotto:

It is good that you have a strategy / plan etc. If we go back to your first post on this thread, you asked if there was something wrong with your way of thinking on the numbered points you listed. My reply was that if you are planning for losses and drip feeding new capital into the account monthly you are playing without doing the work to know what is required for profitable trading, without asking the right questions and before getting the answers. And if you were to persist with this you wouldn't get anywhere, except donating to the market and replenishing the account as and when affordable.



Bully for me that people are bothering to look at my posting history! I'm pleased at that. I've sent you a private message with more details of my motivation / issues, but the general gist for other readers:

Over the last month or so I did have an agenda at ET to grab potential suckers / losers and shake them until they realised that they shouldn't be trading live yet and not to follow the other losers who entice them to carry on. This is because I was recently made aware of a serious problem gambler who wreaked all sorts of havoc over years to fraudulently obtain money to pursue his trading fantasy. I was confounded by the level of sickness and self delusion in this individual. I shudder to think how many more there are lurking out there, perhaps only needing a little encouragement from a plausible source to start a nightmare for themselves, friends, family, etc.

I can do nothing about this fact of human nature, and trying to warn newbies at elite not to jack away money in live trading before they are ready falls on deaf ears.

The last person I warned, cl marathon, was not suitable and went on live trading further until he lost what he could lose. No doubt because he was encouraged by that dangerously plausible know nothing NoDoji who told him that he had a "valid technical edge" when his trading was haphazard guesswork. There is no getting away from the fact that she routinely encourages newbies to trade live with this nonsense, to their ultimate financial detriment. Meanwhile she writes screeds of textbook trading advice and gets to play guru in skype rooms. I tell a clueless idiot not to waste his money trading in a live market and I'm set upon by the fan club, including a moderator I might add (who also knows nothing about trading). There is nothing I wish to do about any of this. Self deceit appears pretty universal and I'm deluded to think that my comments here serve their intended purpose of stopping the newbie stepping on the landmine.

I am now back to my own agenda and choose to relieve myself of the self imposed obligation to try to be the lighthouse of Elite Trader. Sailors will crash on the rocks or reach the shores they seek based on their own navigation only, as it should be. Might I suggest ere I depart judicious use of beeswax when sailing so as not to be pulled in by the siren song of false gurus?
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LOL! This guy's a hoot. A real fucking poet and not a sanctimonious asshole.
 
Quote from cap'ncod:

LOL! This guy's a hoot. A real fucking poet and not a sanctimonious asshole.
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Hey, Cap'n, good thing you quoted Blotto or I'd not have had the chance to see this:

"The last person I warned, cl marathon, was not suitable and went on live trading further until he lost what he could lose. No doubt because he was encouraged by that dangerously plausible know nothing NoDoji who told him that he had a "valid technical edge" when his trading was haphazard guesswork. There is no getting away from the fact that she routinely encourages newbies to trade live with this nonsense, to their ultimate financial detriment."

CLM has a valid technical edge that, in fact, triggers entries $100 or more per contract ahead of my entry triggers. I spoke with him a few times via Skype. As was clear from his opening post on his journal, he is not a newbie, but rather suffers from the usual psychological issues that plague many traders who have an edge.

During our last conversation he had the chance to observe my trading in real time, realized he had a lot more work to do, and decided to quit trading live while he fleshed out his trading plan.

I saw right away from his trade journal that he was attempting to trade Brooks-style price action and several of us spend time trading together almost every day in slightly similar styles. I was concerned by the way CLM picked trades and skipped others, the fact he used a fixed stop when often a smaller stop would suffice or a larger one might be necessary, and the fact that he had no understanding of how to let a winner run to a reasonable target. I PM'd him and we ended up connecting in Skype a few times.

He traded for a very brief time and lost little. His final journal post was:

"I need to get back on the treadmill and put in more miles on the simu until I can execute all my setups without hesitation again.
I became very gunshy during the last two weeks, and afraid to pull the trigger on my setups. I have to admit I am not ready yet for live cl trading."

The ease with which I put on trades when a setup signaled an entry and the relaxed way I managed the trades in such a volatile instrument, caused him to realize that a well-defined trading plan is necessary, and although he'd defined an edge, he'd not yet addressed a lot of other important details necessary to reach a comfort level and remove emotion from the equation.

Blotto, CLM's trades as posted on his journal were haphazard, but not because he doesn't have a solid edge defined. It was because he was missing all the other ingredients of a good plan, followed by the mastery of the mental game that allows you to put it into practice.

As for "he was encouraged by that dangerously plausible no nothing NoDoji", I leave it to the ET community to decide if this (my first post to him on his journal) qualifies as encouragement to trade live:

Quote from NoDoji:

In a word, there are many ways to profit from the markets and every successful trader believes their way is the best way. The reality is: without a plan that we personally are able to follow, every potentially profitable strategy fails.

I played with quite a few profitable strategies during my journey, some much “safer” than others, yet every one of them failed when I failed to follow the rules.

clm, you have some rough terrain ahead of you day trading CL, because it has an uncanny way of getting you to violate your plan.
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