Why do 5% of Traders Win?

cornix · Feb 20, 2012

Actually, if my words cause irritation, one who's irritated by them should ask him/herself, why is that?

Is that because he/she subconsciously disagrees with the idea that success in trading requires a lot of hard work and nearly insane degree of dedication to this profession?

If so, that is the reason to seriously think about it and if trading is what you really want to do as well.

I have yet to meet the truly professional trader who would disagree with such an idea and say that trading is just a matter of finding the holy grail system or database table.

oilfxpro · Feb 20, 2012

Quote from cornixforex:

Ad hominem remarks start when there's nothing to say on the subject.

If most people fail due to wrong expectations or banal laziness and lack of dedication, focus and discipline, psychologist or not, I have to point it out, no matter how harsh it sounds.

Did I really give the game away?L O L.

oilfxpro · Feb 20, 2012

This thread is about dumber than dumb.The dumb look smart , if they don't say anything.

Some statements made by some people are interpreted appropriately by highly intelligent readers.

cornix · Feb 20, 2012

Quote from oilfxpro:

Did I really give the game away?L O L.

No secrets in this game, just a lot of work, very hard work.

And, by the way, I don't like 5% number. Way too much for such a scalable profession as trading.

cornix · Feb 20, 2012

Quote from oilfxpro:

This thread is about dumber than dumb.The dumb look smart , if they don't say anything.

Some statements made by some people are interpreted appropriately by highly intelligent readers.

Oh, you reminded me one important moment! Intellect is by far not the most important quality needed for a successful trader. Most of the best traders I personally know have military professional background, rather than intellectual professional background.

I think it is because self-discipline is one of the most important traits of this profession.

oilfxpro · Feb 20, 2012

Quote from cornixforex:

Oh, you reminded me one important moment! Intellect is by far not the most important quality needed for a successful trader. Most of the best traders I personally know have military professional background, rather than intellectual professional background.

I think it is because self-discipline is one of the most important traits of this profession.

I once stated you have to be a dumb moron trend follower to make money from trading.Keep the intelligence for other uses ,not trading.

cornix · Feb 20, 2012

Quote from oilfxpro:

I once stated you have to be a dumb moron trend follower to make money from trading.Keep the intelligence for other uses ,not trading.

Absolutely agree. For me trading is primitive routine of watching price, waiting for it to demonstrate one of the regularly repeating patterns and executing trades according to a pre-defined plan. Period. Nothing else. Just empiric observations and simple rules constructed around those observations.

oilfxpro · Feb 20, 2012

Quote from cornixforex:

Absolutely agree. For me trading is primitive routine of watching price, waiting for it to demonstrate one of the regularly repeating patterns and executing trades according to a pre-defined plan. Period. Nothing else. Just empiric observations and simple rules constructed around those observations.

If the 95% just followed trends ,there wouldn't be 95%.

Golden words repeated thousands of times.The trend is your friend ,until it bends.Run your profits , cut your losses.

cornix · Feb 20, 2012

Quote from oilfxpro:

If the 95% just followed trends ,there wouldn't be 95%.

Golden words repeated thousands of times.The trend is your friend ,until it bends.Run your profits , cut your losses.

Don't remember where exactly I read it, but someone compared trading to weight loss. Everybody knows what to do to lose weight, but only a few from every hundred succeed at it.

Same here. Simple technically, very hard emotionally.

Emotions are the weak link of us human beings in relation to activities which demand hard discipline.

oldtime · Feb 20, 2012

Quote from dafeeder:

5% of the traders win, they just win.

dafeeder, I nominate this as the best post on the thread.

(I was always looking for a good comeback to emg)