Would you rather Trade or Be Rich?

Quote from wavel:

You make a couple of good points and I followed the same path as yourself during my route to becoming a 'better trader'.

...

Finding 5 trades per year that you can rely upon for success is as easy as 1-2-3. Infact, if you increase the number of markets that you monitor, any competent trader should be able to find 5 high probability trades per month. However there ain't no harm in waiting for the super 5!
More...

I like your optimism. The fact is, my system gives me about 3 per month but the number of trades I had been taking in reality was closer to 15.
 
I once ran a Beta trading room and a lot of the time was spent doing nothing. The natives because very restless. Your down time is the most important time in this profession but very few realize that. They want to be in the market getting a piece of the action. Very few have the patience to wait until the market offers an opportunity.

Trading is all about putting yourself in a position to take advantage of an opportunity when the market gives it to you.

Quote from J.Joseph:

I'm sure everyone on here, no matter how unskilled at trading, has been able to identify at least 5 day trades per year that were just so outrageously obvious that they couldn't possibly lose. If those trades were placed with options to leverage the win, anyone could double their account size in a year with only those 5 day-trades. Knowing this, why aren't more inexperienced traders sitting out 99.9% of the time and taking the 1 trade out of every 50 or so that screams "Easy Target!"

I think it's because most traders want to be traders more than they want to be rich. They have a need to feel smart or exert their dominance over the market. If this was really about the money, there's no reason more traders couldn't be well off. I mean doubling every year for 10 years grows $10,000 into ten million. And that with only about 5 hours in the market PER YEAR while leveraging with options.
Have you ever really thought of your true motive for trading?
More...
 
Quote from J.Joseph:

I think it's because most traders want to be traders more than they want to be rich.
More...

You have me pegged! I already consider myself "rich" and have never really had to rely on trading as my only source income. But even once a month I find a setup up that is just like duuhh and that one trade usually funds all my losers for the following month. And I suppose even if that setup failed a few months out of the year I would still be better off just taking those high prob trades (I wouldn't go all in as you suggest, I like to risk 2k to make 10k) Although I'm pretty proud of myself for not shorting against this spike in oil. I told myself 95 and that is what I'm waiting for and if I miss one big red bar I'm sure there will be 2 or 3 more to follow :p I've been trying to keep my self busy and by doing fundamental equity research even though it is meaningless it keeps me from trading for the sake of trading.

I also suppose there are many skilled traders that say why once a month or 5 times a year as you say. There are 1 or 2 super high prob trades everyday. What is the difference in trying to capture 20 cents on 5 contracts as apposed to capturing a buck on 1 contract? Just like model railroading! pick your scale. I like HO!
 
Quote from the1:

I once ran a Beta trading room and a lot of the time was spent doing nothing. The natives because very restless. Your down time is the most important time in this profession but very few realize that. They want to be in the market getting a piece of the action. Very few have the patience to wait until the market offers an opportunity.

Trading is all about putting yourself in a position to take advantage of an opportunity when the market gives it to you.
More...

Absolutely.
 
There is no way to know, without hindsight, those 5 trades a month. The exits are what determine the outcome, not the entries, so...without kissing dozens of frogs there really is no way to find the princesses...If you can breakeven or make 1 tic or lose very small on all the frogs, then you catch the 5 princesses per month and have triplets with them, then you are one of the top 0.001% in the world.

You only want to kiss princesses and not kiss frogs. It's understandable, but unrealistic.
 
Quote from PushPull:

There is no way to know, without hindsight, those 5 trades a month. The exits are what determine the outcome, not the entries, so...without kissing dozens of frogs there really is no way to find the princesses...If you can breakeven or make 1 tic or lose very small on all the frogs, then you catch the 5 princesses per month and have triplets with them, then you are one of the top 0.001% in the world.

You only want to kiss princesses and not kiss frogs. It's understandable, but unrealistic.
More...
yeah, but some of us like frogs. Maybe not kissing them, but they're fun to catch and watch for a while and then let go. (Especially enjoyable if you catch them when they are just tadpoles.)
 
Quote from oldtime:

yeah, but some of us like frogs. Maybe not kissing them, but they're fun to catch and watch for a while and then let go. (Especially enjoyable if you catch them when they are just tadpoles.)
More...
Sounds like a shorter timeframe with a lot more "trades" per month. Fine for some. I prefer the princesses.
 
Quote from PushPull:

Sounds like a shorter timeframe with a lot more "trades" per month. Fine for some. I prefer the princesses.
More...
I'll probably never quit, but I'm trying to cut down to two or three a day (one after meals and one after sex.)
 
This topic is really about position sizing. I haven't read all the comments so I apoligize if this has already been said:

For mathematically correct position sizing, you should study well:

Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street

Plus

The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence by Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard L. Hudson


kztd
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top