The title of this thread should be "Why traders do not work".
Mav posted in the TST Combine thread:
Quote from Maverick74:
Or, he can take the longer term approach. Spend a year preparing for it. Slowly lose the weight and get in shape and be ready to run.
In my opinion, learning to trade well is like running a marathon, not a sprint. Most traders want to sprint. This is why guys make a killing selling indicators, books, weekend courses, etc. because that is the "fast track".
Nobody wants to spend 5 years and 10,000 hours to do this right.
Ain't that the truth!
Books, indicators...that's the aspiring trader's equivalent of the aspiring gardener buying seeds from a well-respected source.
"Look at these cool seeds I bought! I'm gonna have the best garden! I'll never have to buy food from the store again!"
Well, just to get those seeds to sprout, you need good soil, water, sunshine, and the proper temperature range. Once the seeds sprout, you need to continue to provide this environment and then you have to provide protection so insects and animals don't decimate your plants. When the weeds spring up, you need to rip them out quickly before they take hold and deprive the productive plants of sufficient nutrients.
Without all this preparation, attention, and ongoing care, you'll never reap the rewards inherent in the seeds. If the seeds fail to sprout or if they sprout but never mature, it's unlikely the seeds are bad.
A plethora* of aspiring traders ask for help with their problems:
"I studied [price action/fibs/oscillators/MACD/Elliott Wave/breakouts/etc] and I'm trying to apply these concepts and I just can't seem to get it going. I traded the [XYZ signal bar/ABC indicator/PDQ pattern] and I got chopped by the [range/barb wire/head fakes/HFT scum/stop hunters/bleeding heart liberals/heartless neocons]. What am I doing wrong?"
I find that every one of them I've spoken with is missing one or more of the collective ingredients needed to turn their seeds into a robust and productive garden.
The trading garden requires so much preparation and it does take thousands of hours of work. NO ONE can do this work for you. TA works beautifully, but
you have to do the work necessary to learn how to use it.
If you read Al Brooks and decide that it's confusing worthless garbage,
you are the one confused. Brooks provides the most comprehensive course in technical price action in existence today. He gives you a handful of every seed you need for a complete life-sustaining garden. And yes, it's difficult, because he covers a plethora* of advanced concepts and noobs will have to skip what they don't understand and come back to those concepts later. But Brooks first book is the Ivy League course in price action day trading and if you really want success, the seeds cost hardly anything.
*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mTUmczVdik