Why does it take so long?

When you look at a glass that has 50% water, what do you see?

You most likely will either say it is half filled or half empty.
You stare at it fifteen years later, what do you see?

I can see ten different things now as I have allowed my brain to brainstorm to give me many more ideas of what I am seeing.

When people first look at something they are drawing up ideas immediately of what something is even though they have no clues what it can be, right?
 
Handle123 said:
When you look at a glass that has 50% water, what do you see?
You most likely will either say it is half filled or half empty.
You stare at it fifteen years later, what do you see?
More...
For sure. Been sidetracked quite a bit by thinking I can get more than what the market actually offers me. Because of my impulsive gambling nature, over-leveraging wasn't an easy lesson to put behind me.
 
profitlocker said:
For sure. Been sidetracked quite a bit by thinking I can get more than what the market actually offers me. Because of my impulsive gambling nature, over-leveraging wasn't an easy lesson to put behind me.
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You can turn this around by thinking is it really over leveraged or is it too high of risk. I never think in terms of over leveraged as that is contract size, I think in term if the risk for a trade is too high, then I have a different kind of signal I have to use, the old "YoYo', wait for the breakout and then retrace low enough so risk is acceptable, those who took the breakout, I am supplying them as their stops being hit cause they go in during expansion instead of waiting for contraction. I love this game.
 
profitlocker said:
Looking at the gray hairs on my partially bald head just made me think back.
Why did it take me 15 years to get my mind right in this game?
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Some people just pick up things naturally :cool: -- while others may take quite a bit :rolleyes: -- and while others may never see the light at the end of the tunnel. :banghead:
 
Becoming a successful trader is like trying to develop a new medicine. It takes years in general.
There are so many questions to be answered and each answer can generate new questions.
  • Which timeframe?
  • How many timeframes?
  • How should the different timeframes relate to each other?
  • Which timeframe has priority in case of conflict?
  • Which indicator?
  • How many indicators?
  • How to interpret these indicators?
  • How find the trend?
  • Different interpretation of indicators depending on the trend?
  • Develop own indicators? How, how many and based on what?
  • Etc….
And then the very time consuming testing. As there are in total millions of different setups that can be generated by combining the answers on the previous questions.
Only people that are already for years in this business really know how hard it is. People like Handle123.
You cannot explain to a newbie why it took you years to build a good performing system. They never believe me if I tell them how difficult it is. I have 2 friends who started because they thought they could quickly build a system. They started 3 years ago and are still making consistently losses every day. They had to refund their account already four times. The only thing they realize now is that it looks easy but in reality is very difficult. Both have a university degree, one in computerscience and the second one in economics. So they are really not stupid.
 
profitlocker said:
For sure. Been sidetracked quite a bit by thinking I can get more than what the market actually offers me. Because of my impulsive gambling nature, over-leveraging wasn't an easy lesson to put behind me.
More...

You have to put your 15 years in the context that most will never make it. I say well done if you have arrived. Some people take longer than others to work through the issues that are stopping them. You mention impulsivity and like you I also suffered from this. It took me 6 years to get through to what I call the 'accumulation' stage and I certainly dont consider myself as having made it until I have made my number.

I have only met one person who managed to be successful in under 2 years most take much longer.

I think you know you are well on the way when you stop looking for other trades/methods and are not even tempted to look. You stop trying to be disciplined you just ARE disciplined, it becomes part of you. If you lose money you size down until you make it back. You never overleveraged. You never rush, always patient, bank early, sometimes letting a portion run. I never look to squeeze out every tick of a move I let others sweat that. I just want the initial lions share then I am done for the day, walk away.

All this takes time. It took me 4 years to stop letting losers run.
 
profitlocker said:
Looking at the gray hairs on my partially bald head just made me think back. I'm no Einstein, but far from a dummy.

Why did it take me 15 years to get my mind right in this game?
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One of the reasons I would guess is that you did not find a decent mentor who was willing to tell you how the markets actually work and just as importantly how to build a winning mindset. There are very few capable who are willing to talk and for good reason. why would they once the market is now their personal ATM? Especially given they could dilute their edge depending on the strat.
 
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