many things you said were discussed in "the disciplened trader" by mark douglas (re: self-sabotage). in addition, mark douglas has also discussed the "forced awareness" issue, something you alluded to when you mentioned free nations and free markets. most people fail in the markets because there are no parameters to guide their actions (unlike in schools, or in a family environment with parents telling you what's "bad", etc.). "forced awareness" is when the markets act as the "authority figure" by showing the traders they're wrong (i.e blown-up accounts or enormous losses because they have violated their stop-loss rules), but it's too late at that point. many times, the traders have become part of the 90% population that always comes up here at ET when "forced awareness" happens. you should read it if you haven't. good trading.
We poor people have other things and duties to pay the juice for, thats just the way it is. You must loose/ win. "hase", the legend ..
This paragraph pretty much sums up the last few years in my life. I blew an account several times the size of the one mentioned. I quit a well paying job to trade fulltime. Looking back it was not the best thing to do. ozzy P.S I'm 29 and pretty happy this happened in my 20's and not later in life. That's about the only positive thing that came out of that experience. P.P.S the next time I will be the one giving someone a new asshole, I guess that's the way it works in this business.
I agree with palawan. You need to read "the disciplined trader" by Douglas. The simple fact that you took an account in 2 different trading environments and ran them up shows that you seem to have a profitable trading plan and it was not just luck but the fact that you could not hold on to the gains shows that you have a discipline problem. If you read this book and implicate all of the concepts into your trading plan, I think you will probably not repeat your previous pattern.
I think Mark Douglas said it best: I AM A CONSISTENT WINNER BECAUSE: I objectively identify my edges. I predefine the risk of every trade. I completely accept the risk or I am willing to let go of the trade. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and, therefore, I never violate them.
Wow, you must be some kind of bull shitter, :eek: oh I meant saleman to pull $150K a year on a commission gig.
Question for you have you lost a lot of money on stocks that have days where they just get pulverized. Say 20% down a day or something simalar to that. I know when a stock drops like that lowers any possibility of recovery to near zero.
no. you just dont know shit. sorry, but thats the truth. i used to do this job for about 4 years between trading positions (started life trading after college - floor closed - got it sales job - .com burst - went back to trading) some guys looking after big accounts for established IT companies (oracle, ibm etc) were pulling in 0.5 - 1 million easy funny thing is though - the real big hitters were in the top 5%, the 150k the 30% - the rest are just living off a basic salary of about 50-60k - just like trading or any other career. success is an attitude, not so much hard work.