Why most traders are losers

Tom,

You will not be well received around here. This is a place were vendors with products to sell hang out.

Everyone here is encouraged to keep at it and never give up. This is so the vendors have food on there table.
 
Quote from heech:

11 of them would later post on EliteTrader about their love for bananas, and 5 of them would assert roulette is easy.
More...
Are those new or used bananas?
 
I could not help myself because this is the funniest thread I've read on ET ever.

Look up the word VARIANCE.

You are not a trader - you are just in a lucky streak and your next 6 trades could easily wipe you back to nothing.

Just because all you play is AA and KK won't make you a profitable trader in the long run, sorry! :cool:
 
Quote from tomsmith:

I’ve looked at this forum over the years but have never bothered posting before. But after reading the nonsense on a recent thread about why 90% or more of traders are losers decided I would. To the original poster of that thread- if you listen to any of these people you will be one of the 90% losers. Trading is EASY, these people work their butts off to make it as hard as possible. Spending hours looking at spreadsheets and charts to see if a fast thingamadickie has crossed a slow watchyamacallit, or if the stock has hit a point it retraced to 8 years ago and other nonsense. Here is how you can be successful trading:

1. Understand trading is gambling. If you don’t want to risk your money don’t trade.
2. Only gamble your money when there is a HIGH probability of success.
3. High probability opportunities are few and far between, limit yourself to no more than
a couple trades per year.

Here is what I have traded over my 6 year career:

Took $50,000 from my IRA and it put into a trading account. Watched the market start to come off it’s bottom in 2003 AND WAITED for a HIGH PROBABILITY TRADE.

1st trade- Day after Memorial weekend I’m watching the screen at the open and the QQQ’s go from red to green within minutes and start to run up (.20 to .25 to .30 on the bid on SP 29 calls I‘m watching) . No, I don’t know if the Q’s have a flaming doji or an inverted hammer coming out of their arse on the stock charts or not, but I know that if the price is going up that fast there is a HIGH PROBABILITY I can make money buying. I buy 1000 of the near month 29 strike price calls for .30 and immediately pull up an order to sell 10,000 Q’s at market if the trade suddenly turns and I want to make money on the drop. Well the Q’s run all that week and Mon-Thurs of the next week and I cash out with the calls at $275+ and over $250,000 profit.
More...
Or..." I buy 1000 of the near month 29 strike price calls for .30 and immediately pull up an order to sell 10,000 Q’s at market if the trade suddenly turns and I want to make money on the drop. I'm a little bit nervous buying so many calls. Long options in general, and betting $30K of my poor little $50K account on a very risky short term options play, seems very foolish but I press on.

Damn! Some news comes out about another terrorist strike and the Qs drop like crazy in a minute. I get my 10,000 short on though (not sure how tho, since I only have $20K cash). Why oh why did I do something so foolish? I got a crummy fill with the Market order too. Uh oh! The news is fake and the Qs ramp back up 2 pts. Crap! I'm down more than $20K! I hustle to buy back the 10,000, but I'm forced to because the calls are OTM. Oh well, I still got the calls. They will obviously make money. Damn, damn, damn...the Q's drop again for some stupid reason, but I hold on til expiry. Shit...they didn't go ITM. I lose another $30k. I blew out my whole damn account on some dumb trades.

What am I going to tell my wife. I feel so stupid..."

Don't think that can happen? You really believe that you can predict the market and keep cranking in the bucks with trades like those?

Good luck. :cool:
 
Quote from tomsmith:

I’ve looked at this forum over the years but have never bothered posting before. ...................................
More...

Good luck with your fishing expedition tom.

Perhaps you will be successful in flushing out the info that you are seeking, but how will you recognise the good stuff when you read it.

regards
f9
 
"Don't think that can happen? You really believe that you can predict the market and keep cranking in the bucks with trades like those?"

If you read through my post thoroughly you will see that I say I cannot predict the market, admit that I am at a competitive disadvantage and admit that if I made lots of trades trying to beat the market I would be a loser. I only say that if you are observant, patient, have some common sense and don't play the game the way most of these "pros" ( your competition )want you to, you might be one of the successful ones. I also clearly state I accept that this is gambling and accept the risk. As for the rest of your post- let me ask you, if you were at the race track and they would let you place a bet on the horses up until they crossed the finish line and one of the horses was way in the lead, would you be afraid to place a large bet because he might fall? If you are going to sit there watching the q's run up at the start of a 10 day bull run and not take advantage of it because of fear of terrorist bombings that might happen in the 10 minutes it will take you to be profitable on the trade, I think you are in the wrong activity unless you are one of those people who like to slave over their trades HOPING to make $60,000 a year.
 
I’ve looked at this forum over the years but have never bothered posting before. But after reading the nonsense on a recent thread about why 90% or more of traders are losers decided I would. To the original poster of that thread- if you listen to any of these people you will be one of the 90% losers. Trading is EASY, these people work their butts off to make it as hard as possible. Spending hours looking at spreadsheets and charts to see if a fast thingamadickie has crossed a slow watchyamacallit, or if the stock has hit a point it retraced to 8 years ago and other nonsense. Here is how you can be successful trading:
More...
LOL, what a pompous ass
 
"wtf ur sample size is so low, and u call urself a successful trader???"

I don't want to be "a trader" if it means losing $. I just want to dip in and pull out money when the opportunity presents itself in a manner that will have a high probabilty of being successfull . I like Tom's style.
 
Quote from tomsmith:

I’ve looked at this forum over the years but have never bothered posting before. But after reading the nonsense on a recent thread about why 90% or more of traders are losers decided I would. To the original poster of that thread- if you listen to any of these people you will be one of the 90% losers. Trading is EASY,

Here is what I have traded over my 6 year career:
More...

3 trades in 6 years --- you're an investor, not a trader. Traders buy, sell, short and cover daily or short term to make $$$$ to pay the bills etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top