Most of the other participants,unfortunately, are smarter, better capitalized, more experienced and work in teams--- that is your competition, not clueless investors throwing their capital into a casino. Your opinion is a widely believed myth. surf
One problem here with definition (and expectations about future). It is: period of consistency matters. Trading certainly can be a sole source of income, but for how long? What edges are "timeless"?
Cornix , The delusion level on this thread is priceless. Guys claiming to make solid livings from Wyckoff materials printed in late 1800's and early 1900's--- seriously! Just by what they claim, its obviously false--- perhaps some are on winning streaks, perhaps others just "think" they are. The reason I know this is that these methods have been extensively tested, computerized, and run on every conceivable permutation and NO EDGE EXISTS. You need to realize that there are a lot of CNBC shut ins on this site with vivid fantasy lives. Not to mention dudes stuck in jobs that they hate so they become "fantasy traders" online-- rather than just admit trading is a hobby. keep searching for the truth, you are getting close. Just to be clear, I do believe its possible to make a great living and get wealthy from the financial markets. But certainly not using the methods that are described 97% of the time on this site surf
My personal experience is: edges exist. Probably now as well as always did. But every time I found some, it later ceased or morphed. Not saying I am the showcase sample, but nevertheless, 10 years of practice in trading should mean something. That's why at one moment I realized it's not very responsible to rely on trading as a sole income, particularly leveraged short-term trading. Recent CHF spike made me more sure than ever before. Well, the good thing about any experience is it teaches us something. We may think our goal is one, come closer and realize it's another. Nothing wrong about it, even something intriguing.
Yes, edges exist. But they are constantly changing because the market morphs to protect itself. This is why those who say they been trading the same way for 10 plus years or whatever, are either delusional or not telling the whole truth. Then we have guys saying they use methods from early 1900's !!! Seriously! think about that--- it's beyond bizzare The thing that is wrong with it is undercapitalized folks losing their money that they can not afford to lose--- Heck, if you can afford to lose, trading is a great hobby--- but if you can not, STAY AWAY> surf
I have a sharp of 1.53, with 61% of win rate ratio in one of my coded strategies leading to 14% CAGR (strat.jpg). The second one I show here has a 66% win rate with a sharp of 2.40 leading to 32% CAGR (strat2.jpg). strat2 achieves near 5000% in 14 years with a 32% CAGR. I code a lot of strategies and spend many hours of my time trying to find inefficiencies in the market that can be exploit. I work with, MathLab, RightEdge, WealthLab, TradeStation and NinjaTrader and I use C, C++, C# and Python. The point here is that, when I see someone claiming 85% to 95% win rate ratios and 100% to 300% per year in profits, you bet I have to be sceptical. I would love to see some proof because if the returns are correct, then we need to talk ASAP! This is my last post here... PM me if needed...
You are correct surf, the reason that I know this is that I make a good living trading the indexes, if I can do it then so can others. On the odd time that I discuss my approach I have been howled down by the 97%, these days I don't waste my time. Usually, the blind are leading the blind. Cheers John
Being a retail trader myself, I must say that seriously underestimated the true risks of the game. Anything but net long options or long-term investments (without much leverage) is really dangerous and can push trader to NEGATIVE balance quickly. People think it's rare so not going to happen, but huge spikes happened several times across past few years. And in global instability which is now...