Why read published material?

[MikeJones19]

As I've become a more successful trader (in my opinion.. I have no down days this year, yet).. I've wondered to myself, why would anyone want to publish a money making strategy, and why would anyone want to read it? Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid, but computers today can automate just about anything, and with money being so cheap, any winning strategy can have as much capital as possible thrown at it. So why do you think some top selling book on Amazon is going to give you an edge? If it truly were a money making strategy, 1) people would be too busy making money to write a book about it, and 2) it would quickly become exploited until it no longer worked.

There seems to be no shortage of information on technical analysis, but if you want to find an actual winning trade, it's tough to find that information. I know that my trades would be very difficult to find online.

 

[cornix]

Same as why scientists read published materials (which by itself don't contain ready recipes for new breakthroughs and Nobel prizes either ).

 

[kut2k2]

Quote from MikeJones19:

As I've become a more successful trader (in my opinion.. I have no down days this year, yet).. I've wondered to myself, why would anyone want to publish a money making strategy, and why would anyone want to read it? Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid, but computers today can automate just about anything, and with money being so cheap, any winning strategy can have as much capital as possible thrown at it. So why do you think some top selling book on Amazon is going to give you an edge? If it truly were a money making strategy, 1) people would be too busy making money to write a book about it, and 2) it would quickly become exploited until it no longer worked.

There seems to be no shortage of information on technical analysis, but if you want to find an actual winning trade, it's tough to find that information. I know that my trades would be very difficult to find online.

Every now and then something gets published that is actually useful. Not a full money-minting strategy but an idea or technique that can be a component of one.

Good reading.

 

[Maverick74]

Quote from MikeJones19:

As I've become a more successful trader (in my opinion.. I have no down days this year, yet).. I've wondered to myself, why would anyone want to publish a money making strategy, and why would anyone want to read it? Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid, but computers today can automate just about anything, and with money being so cheap, any winning strategy can have as much capital as possible thrown at it. So why do you think some top selling book on Amazon is going to give you an edge? If it truly were a money making strategy, 1) people would be too busy making money to write a book about it, and 2) it would quickly become exploited until it no longer worked.

There seems to be no shortage of information on technical analysis, but if you want to find an actual winning trade, it's tough to find that information. I know that my trades would be very difficult to find online.

Wow, this post has a lot of inaccurate assumptions and falsehoods. And even a hint of trolling thrown in to add some spice. Welcome to ET.

 

[Money Trust]

What's funny is that a lot of the strategies and rules that make for successful trading is so simple that even if published on a wide-scale, hardly anyone would follow it. A successful trader I know recommended a list of well known trading books after I'd asked him how could I learn to trade. A lot of the books were on technicals, fundamentals, mathematics and statistics. When the guy gave me this book list, he told me upfront that those were the books he used to build a highly profitable system and that I'd have to read them and develop my own system...just as he'd done. Which I eventually did.

I said all of that to say this: In my personal opinion, the error is in looking for books that offer ready-made systems. 9 times out of 10, the systems seller is a charlatan. Instead, one should seek out books that gives information. That way, the information can be observed, tested, and the person can build their own system through trial and error.

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from MikeJones19:

As I've become a more successful trader (in my opinion.. I have no down days this year, yet).. I've wondered to myself, why would anyone want to publish a money making strategy, and why would anyone want to read it? Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid, but computers today can automate just about anything, and with money being so cheap, any winning strategy can have as much capital as possible thrown at it. So why do you think some top selling book on Amazon is going to give you an edge? If it truly were a money making strategy, 1) people would be too busy making money to write a book about it, and 2) it would quickly become exploited until it no longer worked.

There seems to be no shortage of information on technical analysis, but if you want to find an actual winning trade, it's tough to find that information. I know that my trades would be very difficult to find online.

I've never seen anything in a book, video, webinar, forum, or chat room that can "find a winning trade".

I've seen an ample supply of information that explains how to profit from series' of trades on an ongoing basis, some of the best of which is currently being offered here on ET.

The vast majority of people want a system that finds winning trades and will often drive themselves bankrupt or mad looking for such a system.

If your method of trading is very difficult to find online then either you have an edge with a limited life span or you're at risk of serving time. :eek:

 

[drcha]

What's funny is that a lot of the strategies and rules that make for successful trading is so simple that even if published on a wide-scale, hardly anyone would follow it.

So true. And this is exactly why the stuff that truly works continues to work--because everyone will not follow it--a conundrum.

 

[kut2k2]

So true. And this is exactly why the stuff that truly works continues to work--because everyone will not follow it--a conundrum.

If trading was so simple, we'd all be rich. Virtually everything appears simple or obvious in hindsight, but getting to the point where you can view something like a profitable trading strategy in hindsight is a lot of work IMCO. Go read the first post in the "Ghost of If You Can Draw A Straight Line" thread and see dbphoenix explain how he had to dumb down his approach even for some readers motivated to follow his original IYCDASL thread.

Clearly the "simple" isn't always so simple. When asked why his theory of relativity was so complicated, Albert Einstein stated that theories should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

I think people who keep proclaiming the simplicity of successful trading suffer from hindsight bias.

 

[drcha]

If trading was so simple, we'd all be rich. Virtually everything appears simple or obvious in hindsight, but getting to the point where you can view something like a profitable trading strategy in hindsight is a lot of work IMCO. Go read the first post in the "Ghost of If You Can Draw A Straight Line" thread and see dbphoenix explain how he had to dumb down his approach even for some readers motivated to follow his original IYCDASL thread.

Clearly the "simple" isn't always so simple. When asked why his theory of relativity was so complicated, Albert Einstein stated that theories should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

I think people who keep proclaiming the simplicity of successful trading suffer from hindsight bias.

Fair point. I don't mean to imply that learning to trade is simple, only that methods that work are surprisingly simple.

 

[dbphoenix]

If trading was so simple, we'd all be rich. Virtually everything appears simple or obvious in hindsight, but getting to the point where you can view something like a profitable trading strategy in hindsight is a lot of work IMCO. Go read the first post in the "Ghost of If You Can Draw A Straight Line" thread and see dbphoenix explain how he had to dumb down his approach even for some readers motivated to follow his original IYCDASL thread.

Clearly the "simple" isn't always so simple. When asked why his theory of relativity was so complicated, Albert Einstein stated that theories should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

I think people who keep proclaiming the simplicity of successful trading suffer from hindsight bias.

Well, I wouldn't call it "dumbing down". More separating the wheat from the chaff. Learning how to draw involves focusing on circles, rectangles, and triangles.

Though trading is not easy, it is simple. Those who can't trade simply invariably can't divorce their egos from their trading. A child can do it because his ego isn't involved.