I found this site around 2006 or 2007 time frame. And I've been silently reading for so many years, and very grateful for the experience I got from some of the posts here. Just want to tell my own story here, i guess part of the reason is that this is season of sharing? so I feel i need to do something useful now. I1. loss years: 2005 - 20015, for this 10 years, I traded/gambled away all the ESPP and options gains I got from company work. I did all the mistakes you can possibly think of. I traded all the markets, stocks, options, commodities (CL, GC SI, zw/zc/zo/zs etc, NG....) and of course AUD/EUR/GBP..... whatever you can think of. During this 10 years, I only had one year that was positive gain with less than 2K dollars. It was so painful, and every April tax season, I felt so guilty and shameful in front of my wife. I still kept the account balance slip with less than 300 dollars in my IB account. That was the lowest point (it actually can go lower, but I kept sending in checks.) some of the vivid failures I still remember: shorted AMZN in the 80s, shorted SBUX at the low right after 2008/9 meltdown. I would categorize myself as perma-bear, that's why like to short. and the fatal root cause is: overtrading and really addicted to the market. I was literally depressed during Saturday. and I was like coming back to life around 2:15PM PST when FX market opens. I just want to be attached. 2.And then, the break through came when I switched to another job. In that job, I couldn't login to my IB accounts from company network., I was forced to keep distance from the market. But all these years addiction to the markets, the gazing of the quotes almost 8 hours a day somehow I have a very accurate reading of the direction of the stocks. I quit daytrading, focused mainly on options within 1-2 weeks to 1-2 months away. And the patterns I am mostly fond of is the triangle breakup/breakdown. And I trade big if I see that opportunity. This cuts down my trading activity a lot, i used to trade everyday, but now I trade like 2-3 time/week in average. But i still daytrade GC/AUD/EUR, but keep lot small just for fun if I am really bored waiting for GOOG/AMZN to spike up. I am more flexible during this period. and I don't panic, I don't show much emotion if I win or loss. I guess some of the reason is that I have lost so much, the loss of couple K really doesn't depress me as before. Another major change is that I became more balanced in my view of the world. Partly thanks to the CEO of GS, I watched his graduation speech for some college and in there, he mentioned that people need to keep balanced view, not too optimistic and not too pessimistic. It's been a bull market for so long, you know. Anyway, I started to buy as well as sell. 3. recovering the loss and then some more. For the past two years, i got back all my losses and earned some. You might think this is such a crazy bull market, so anyone can do it.. I have doubts too, but I can feel after so many years, with family growing, went through so much pain and sleepless nights. indeed there's something has changed for good inside me or how I trade the markets. 4. I recalled a few useful posts here: one was from a guy in Texas, he used to trade Ags mainly, and he called out the super Sugar bull long ago, I piggy backed and won some. And most importantly I learned how a trader should wait for the right moment sitting on the hands for 3 months. And of course few others, thanks from an anonymous. I am very grateful. +++++++++++
10 years is the length for a lot people to reach the stage of consistent profitability, especially for people who have regular jobs; though some people got it earlier and some others got delayed a few years.
Could also argue that the last 5 years have been the easiest 1 directional markets we will see aside from the couple of hiccups in 2010 and 2014
Hopefully all of that time, and experience and lessons and maybe some wisdom gained will translate into some market riches for you. Most people will remain in the contrary...they continue their same destructive, unproductive behavior, no matter how obvious it may seem. Applies to business, life, relationships, health, etc etc. A little thoughts on my experience so far 2018
You've read these forums for 10 years and never posted or made an account.... Interesting. U shorted amazon... I thought fiction was supposed to be imaginative Or interesting..
Shorting should be left to highly experienced traders. If anyone struggles with normal trading, x5 that when attempting the shorting game. It's not because of a bull market that shorting is a tougher business, even in a bear market you will feel more pain more frequently than long only traders. There are reasons for this which is another subject for another day. Any edge you may think you have for long trading does not translate into that for shorting.
Here is a simple fully disclosed system : 1. Figure out the trend by looking at a chart. A five year can do this. Hire a 5 year old if you cant do this yourself. 2. Only place trades in line with the trend