What posts make the true old pros laugh?

nononsense · Dec 14, 2005

Quote from uninvited_guest:

I agree........99% of ET posters use an alias. Why not use their real name? What are they ashamed of?

Hey buddy uninvited_guest,
How true! I guess that we are about the only ones using our real names.

nononsense

TGregg · Dec 14, 2005

Quote from uninvited_guest:

I agree........99% of ET posters use an alias. Why not use their real name? What are they ashamed of?

Cuz there are some real loonies who read this board, that's why. Years ago there was a person who posted his phone number, soon begged to have it removed, and cautioned others against the same thing, saying he received some pretty bad telephone calls.

Thunderdog · Dec 14, 2005

Quote from Ripley:

I meant 2 years at the very least and if not, no more than 3 years.

It took me 3 yrs since I started lurking on the ET boards, or 2 years of trading.

I think that anyone who can become consistently profitable in under 3 years is truly exceptional.

cvds16 · Dec 14, 2005

Quote from Ripley:

I meant 2 years at the very least and if not, no more than 3 years.

It took me 3 yrs since I started lurking on the ET boards, or 2 years of trading.

how do you know if you are any good ? ? ? ?
I have been doing this for 15 years and I don't even know if I'm really good at this. I had great day's trading index-futures in the mid-nineties, but now my knowledge about that is worth nothing anymore. I was always very good at trading options, but that opportunities have totally vanished there for my kind of trading and those days aren't coming back anymore.
I had a friend who made about 25 million euro's trading index-futures as a floor-local (he started trading in the late eighties, made money consistently for years although he had this huge drawdown moments) and went bankrupt last march trading from a screen.
You can't tell if you are any good after three years.

Thunderdog · Dec 14, 2005

Quote from nononsense:

...The truly unsupportable ones are those science & math clowns. Not that nononsense doesn't have any respect for science & mathematics. Much to the contrary. I only hate those pretentious impostors and quacks.

Which reminds me of the old joke about the definition of a business calculator: an instrument that allows you to take two seat-of-the-pants estimates, multiply them, and get accuracy to the 6th decimal point.

nononsense · Dec 14, 2005

Quote from Ripley:

I meant 2 years at the very least and if not, no more than 3 years.

It took me 3 yrs since I started lurking on the ET boards, or 2 years of trading.

To do what? Make 8.1% per year (after commissions)?

gnome · Dec 14, 2005

Quote from cvds16:

how do you know if you are any good ? ? ? ? ... '

Longevity. The market will (a) shift gears and (b) threaten to take you down in catastrophic fashion several times over your career. How well you cope with the changes and how well you dodge the bullets will define you as a player.

cvds16 · Dec 14, 2005

Quote from gnome:

Longevity. The market will (a) shift gears and (b) threaten to take you down in catastrophic fashion several times over your career. How well you cope with the changes and how well you dodge the bullets will define you as a player.

exactly my point, three years is hardly enough for that, more like ten or more ...

El OchoCinco · Dec 14, 2005

Trading can be quite an isolating activity so many come here just to chat with like-minded individuals and break the monotony, chat, rant, bullshit, laugh or exchange ideas. I think you have your pretenders but you also have a lot of experienced traders who spend a lot of time in front of the screen anyway so posting and reading ET threads is not big deal and it is a welcome distraction. It is quite understandable why even a professional day trader would have time to post on ET. It is usually easy to spot the ones who lack experience anyway so real names or not it does not matter.

uninvited_guest · Dec 14, 2005

It's interesting to read old threads from 1998 to late 2000. The Yahoo forums was a good source but I think they recently deleted them and only go back to 2004.

Re-posting an actual JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU) post from 2000 when it was at $145.00 (now at $2.70) would make you laugh today.