I meant that trading is the most important thing, trade and improve your skills. If you can have a decent life or live well and practice by trading small, then trade. Lots of traders seem to worry about their results (if they are bad) and wonder why they are not a trading success in their first year or second year or third year. Well let me ask you, what professional gets paid top dollar or a living wage for only one two or three years of training? A neurosurgeon, professional tennis player, great accountant? well, maybe an accountant would, but none of the others. Trading well, making money consistently, winning is all about how skilled you are. Skill morphs into what people call "talent" when it is developed at a high level. Okay..this is what i do when I don't sleep. When I can't sleep I watch tv after the jacuzzi. First day of watching cnbc in about 4 years. These posts might not make any sense but im too tired to edit them as usual. I am still looking for market declines. I have loved this year the times when I have maxed my buying power 100% short. Trading at the end of the year may not reflect the true markets, gotta be careful but ready to go full steam when its right. That's what tough about trading sometimes. You gotta be ready.
Interesting thread and responses. I trade for around 2 hours every day and when I am trading, I am trading. I have no idea whether it is simple, boring or easy, but I do know that it is very satisfying. regards f9
I think scalping is the hardest. You have similar slippage and commission as a longer term holder, with smaller profit potential.
Most managers cannot beat the market, because people seriously underestimate how efficient the market really is. There is an endless supply of people who trumpet their 3 month or 1 year performance and then get shellacked the next period. They confuse "luck" with "skill"
trading is hard, not easy because 99% of all human beings are psychologically or emotionaly ill equiped to trade. even following a system requires psycholical dicpline. how many people could become a top fifty ranked tennis player. Even if you practised 24 hours a day , you could still not break into the top fifity. thats because nature has not given you the hand eye coordination, speed, resilience, detertmination etc to become a top tennis player. and so it is with trading, unless the basic raw talent is there no amount of pschological or emotional training will help, becuase at some point they will blow thier account.
Certain emotions is needed for one to bring themselves into a top tennis player status. Also, the environment factor is very important which unleashes these correct emotions in their right stages. In the end, I believe the psychological reason why most people lose was invented to cover up the randomness with the market and as a scapegoat. There are people who make actual money with trading, but then again, there are familiar faces at the last table of a poker tourney.
kind of agree with the orignial posting. when I started to do trading, I just follow one rule: up trend and rally with good news, then retrace & volume dried up, then I start to buy the market at that level, that works almost 90% time. then I tried to become smart, created lots of ways like averaging down, lowball bottoming fishing, panic buy, gap up short sale, gap down buy, hype short sale, rally chase, breakout trading,..... you named it,the trading results become worse and worse.... if I stick my only rule, I find I should double my account every month, but now it takes longer and longer to realize that... even took great hit and can not roll myself out of the hole! trading is tough since people always want to be smarter and smater and they forget the market is dynymaic, and you can not figure out a way that can handle all the sitiuations, so forget about this strategy or that strategy: just follow one strategy and stick to it! but people will get boring, just like me, try to outsmart the market, there is no way any one can outsmart it! so they finally fail. they fail becuase they can not stick to one strategy, they can not disciplice theselves. they like the excitement or creation or fun..... that is the nature of human being, no one wants bordem!
I agree. 99.5% fail because "keeping track of millions of dollars" is too simple, easy, and too boring.