Hey Forrest, for someone who doesn't think that short-term trading can work, you spend quite a bit of time on a trading forum...what are you trying to accomplish? (in 2 sentences or less)
Gimmie gimmie gimmie, prove prove prove, gimmie gimmie gimmie, prove prove prove Garcia, if you aren't a trader and have a serious dislike for short term trading, why the f*ck do you keep coming to ET???
trying to forget about that buy and hold decision on C two years ago. i guess the money didnt go to charity either.
Lets see, he starts consistently low rated threads and gets abuse from all sides. Maybe he's masochistic.
Maybe we should all start wholeheartedly agreeing with everything he says, maybe then Garcia will leave
The PnL thread is pretty much useless because as you say it "seems" they are profitable. 1)self selection bias, somehow I suspect less people post on losing days. 2) As they start losing they suffer surviovorship bias. 3) tendency of the reader to remember self reinforcing data ie strong gains vs losses. Tell me do you think most journals tell a story of success too?
And none of this applies to index investors? They are all immune to behavioral biases? Lets keep it simple, either prove that your brand of investing/trading is successful or dont accuse others who have proven their track record of double standards.
Obviously you missed the crux of my point. Evidently you think the PnL thread is meaningful in your atttempt to point out the frequency of profitable traders on ET. I'm telling you that it's not very valid and gave you 3 reasons why. The journal threads are more apt to be accurate, so maybe it would be more accurate for you to base your opinion on the success rate of those threads. I'll be giving you the opportunity of demonstrating your ability to beat a relatively passive portfolio soon also.
Soon the opportunity for you to backup all that HOT AIR will arrive. Well that is IF you man up and accept the challenge. Somehow I doubt it though.
I am not talking about opinions here, I have seen number of traders posting on the PnL thread who have been profitable and posting blotters since a long time. I dont believe that most profitable traders would be bothered/have time to talk about their trades/edges on a Journal unless they are working on some aspect of their trading and would require inputs or document the process. You claimed to make an X amount and at the same time 'accused' others of 'bragging' making 'any' amount, all I am asking you is to prove your own claim first and if you don't then it leaves you in no position to play down others. You are free to use indexing, astrology or random entries but this doesnt mean you have to insult what others chose to do and do well.