Why do traders fail?

cornix · Mar 31, 2014

Many people seriously underestimate labor investment needed to achieve success in trading. As a result they are locked in a situation when years are already spent with no positive result, but admitting it as a loss to even diversify (find a job or like that) is hardly possible for them emotionally.

Trading cost a divorce to one great trader who helped me so much in past...

dbphoenix · Mar 31, 2014

smallStops said:
They'd have been better off going demo.
Now, I am starting to understand this prop firm that was getting all traders on demo for up to 4 years if not more.

But sim isn't "real". Sim is for sissies. Real men just man up and trade for real with real money and just punch their way through.

smallStops · Mar 31, 2014

dbphoenix said:
Try twenty. People use margin, heavily, they fund their accounts with credit cards, they take out second mortgages. Granted the line between a large, weak ego and an addiction is fuzzy, and cognitive dissonance plays a role, but, yes.

wow !!!!! Thank you for putting out here what actually goes on.
I'd have never guessed!

cornix · Mar 31, 2014

smallStops said:
wow !!!!! Thank you for putting out here what actually goes on.
I'd have never guessed!

Yep. So my answer to anybody asking me about trading is: "don't do it".

smallStops · Mar 31, 2014

dbphoenix said:
But sim isn't "real". Sim is for sissies. Real men just man up and trade for real with real money and just punch their way through.

Demo is really like pilot fighters : they do thousands hours of demo before going live

cornix · Mar 31, 2014

smallStops said:
Demo is really like pilot fighters : they do thousands hours of demo before going live

They are forced to. Traders are not. Unfortunately.

dbphoenix · Mar 31, 2014

smallStops said:
wow !!!!! Thank you for putting out here what actually goes on.
I'd have never guessed!

I remember the Gorilla Game people at TMF back in late '99 and early '00. They believed fervently that what they called the "gorilla" stocks were well worth what was being asked, if not more. Even when it all began to unravel, they held on to the last. I tried explaining that there can be a vast difference between the value of a stock and the value of a company, but that for the most part fell on deaf ears. Eventually, some of those who listened thanked me, but most lost everything.

smallStops · Mar 31, 2014

cornix said:
Yep. So my answer to anybody asking me about trading is: "don't do it".

I now always says yes OK. First you need 200 hours with a qualified clinical psychiatrist.
I never hear from them again.

smallStops · Mar 31, 2014

dbphoenix said:
I remember the Gorilla Game people at TMF back in late '99 and early '00. They believed fervently that what they called the "gorilla" stocks were well worth what was being asked, if not more. Even when it all began to unravel, they held on to the last. I tried explaining that there can be a vast difference between the value of a stock and the value of a company, but that for the most part fell on deaf ears. Eventually, some of those who listened thanked me, but most lost everything.

:eek::eek::eek:

smallStops · Mar 31, 2014

It is true that there is a very thin line between trading and gambling.
Without putting safeguards, one can easily fall into gambling.

I think one thing that would help traders reduce failure rate is to determine in advance how much profits they want to make for the year, and to work on exactly how much profits they should go for, based on what they deam extremely easy to make, and what they would not get out of bed for.