Yes, exactly. You have your own strategy for making trade decisions, but it's not based upon a MACD cross (using your own secret set of MACD parameter values) along with the proper RSI, stochastic, Dual moving average crossover, with a parabolic stop loss, etc, etc... Those sorts of indicators, IMO are grossly overrated and I don't know many people that successfully use them. That's not to say that it can't be done, just that I don't personally know of many who do.
I will define Characteristics of a Successful Trader in one simple statement-: A Successful Trader is one who has been paying profit of 35% - 40% p.a. (without compounded interest) for past 10 years.
Let me say in other words. You never win until you cash in, you stop losing until you exit. You're continuously facing losses in one of the following scenarios. 1. Lost that was happened right from the start. 2. Winner turned into loser. 3. Big winner turned into small winner.
My post is a true example because my Swiss forex broker has for past 8 years paid average profit of +34% p.a. (without compounded interest). He has 30 years of experience in forex. Compounded profit comes to +1000% in 8 years. January 2008 to November 2008 profit is +155% for "new 4 hour system". He trades with Maximum risk is 5% per new trade (conservative risk structure). These profits are for "Forex managed account" So, Swiss forex broker = Successful Trader.
4 months back, I had a discussion with a "Big player" and he said to me "We are the ones who move the markets". This "Big Player" is from Saudi Arabia. He has business contacts with Prince of Saudi Arabia. Do I need to advertise anything? Just sharing true example I have.
Tom Baldwin had the ability to "make market move" then had a handsome profit. While the Prince had the influence to "move the market" then lost $4B.