I wish I had the time to read every Wikipedia article out there about the math geniuses and/or risk takers who created each stock indicator and trading system, etc. - for example: Has Personal Trading Experience: Bollinger Bands - John Bollinger: analyst, awards, alpha geek* Donchian Channel - Richard Donchian: author, newsletter, alpha geek* Relative Strength Index (RSI) - J. Welles Wilder Jr: mechanical engineer, author No Personal Trading Experience (that I can tell): Elliott Wave Theory - Ralph Nelson Elliott: accountant, author Black-Scholes Formula - Myron Scholes: Nobel Prize, alpha geek* (*alpha geek = job at a Wall Street firm) I would simply like to know... Are/Were there any successful/active Traders among all of History's market innovators?
does it matter, think of architect and builder or scientist and engineer,edison invented the light bulb, doubt he worked on the assembly line making them
I guess I need to explain then. My original question relates to correlation. RSI works very well. Elliot Wave Theory does not work at all. I think there is a correlation. Hmmm, maybe it's trading experience?
if you watch any half related indicator against any instrument you will develop famialiarities between the two, so its screen time
You won't find the answer to your questions on Wiki or anywhere else on the internet as trading is much more an art than a science. Bollinger Bands are great tools IF you know how to use them. We can make a blanket statement about every indicator at our disposal, which includes my favorite type of analysis -- quantitative analysis. It's my belief that the difference between winning and losing comes down to an innate ability to read price action, or interpret what the market is telling you based on it's movement, better than anyone else. This is where the art of trading comes in. Everything else is science and only serves as a tool to support what you probably already know. That being said, there are times your science will tell you things you don't see or "feel" so a combination of the two is essentional. A book I would strongly recommend to develop the trading mind is "The Art of War", by Sun Tzu. It has everything to do with trading and nothing to do with trading. Another I'd recommend is "Trading in the Zone," by Mark Douglas. Pay special attention to when he talks about "just knowing" and what causes random, sudden movements in the market.
Absolutely agree with the screen time. A pilot doesn't get his license until he has completed his hours of "screen time." Same goes for an Attorney, Doctor, or any professional with an advanced education. You need to sit in front of a computer for a minimum of 1-year, everyday, just watching the market move. If you want to place a small trade or two during this process go ahead but keep losses small as they are much more likely than victories. It's rare that a person has the luxury to sit in front of the market and just "watch" for any length of time w/o having to generate some income to pay the bills. I took a third shift job to accomplish this task. That's how bad I wanted to enter this profession. There's a reason 3rd shift is called the graveyard shift -- if you do it long enough it WILL kill you.