Please do not be scared of me. I will be happy to share contact details of Swiss forex broker, if anybody is interested in "forex managed account". But minimum is $20,000. You can PM me or email at-: business.onn@gmail.com
I'm not claiming EricP's thoughts and ideas are of little value. You are. I pick up as much as I can from this board. EricP along with many others I tend to get great info from, and if you have anything worth reading on this board feel free to link me.
<i>"Ericp, what do successfull traders think about indicators?"</i> <b>http://www.donmillerjournal.blogspot.com</b> ...indicators work for him... and others. They work equally well if not better for discretionary stock traders, not mechanical system traders. There is a difference in tools used between each.
What I said little value, I was talking about the entire thread. I said: It is about an edge and money management. Psychology and all the other fluff do not overcome the house advantage He lost me, when he tried to get the moderator to move some of the responses after his first 8-10 posts, so he could pontificate without interruption.
few random thoughts... i don't look generally look for validation (i've told one person i'm helping that it doesn't matter if people believe how i'm doing), but one of the best feelings i had was the support and respect i got from traders (whom i still get together with, 9 years later), who i used to provide tech support to. i curse a fair amount during the day when no one else is around. that surprises most of my friends, but it's the way it goes. it (profanity) doesn't affect my trading at all, because i don't hold a grudge against a trade going wrong. and when i worked support, i'd hear cursing on the desk all the time. other than that, the rest of the points were pretty spot-on for me. eric's a very successful trader. i've got quite a ways to go to be in his league, which is fine with me. i don't have to be a superstar to be successful, just good in my area. also, i'm discretionary...keep saying i'll devise automated on the side, but haven't done so yet. 2008 was my best year, and yet i've already established my goal for 2009: stop making trades when they aren't there. i'm the hardest judge of my trading performance, and know i could have done significantly better than i did. an edge and discipline... i use indicators as a reason NOT to get into something, never as a reason for going into something. if i see RSI is low, i may avoid putting on a short, but "low" varies on some factors: in a bear market, i'll have that number much less than in a roaring bull. and i agree about SI. too bad... random thoughts on a snowy, cold december day.
thanks very much for the post Eric. Sorry it got all jacked up starting about page 10... just wanted you to know that there are many traders who appreciate what you guys who have been in the game for a while are putting down for us. A lot of us don't post very much, and it's hard to sift through the negativity that has become ET, but we are out here and we do really appreciate what you guys try to do for us.
I'd like to thank Eric for starting this thread. I happen to have known Eric personally for the last ~ 4 years, and can say that he's one of the people who've affected my trading the most. He's been generous with his time and offered assistance on many occasions. I strongly recommend that anyone looking to understand the mindset and techniques of successful trading read all of EricPs posts. In addition to the discussions so far, I'd like to add what i consider one of the most important aspects of becoming and staying a consistently profitable trader: It's a relentless pursuit of improvements. I constantly review all my trades, analyze the very good and very bad days in detail, check all my routing and commission costs and constantly adapt my systems to what I learn. I realize that this easily could be viewed as a silly "search for perfection", but I simply don't know any other way to stay on top of things. I'm not looking for perfection, as I'm pretty sure that doesn't exist. I'm looking for that extra little improvement that will give me an additional .1c per share, improve the overall statistics, etc. After all it's a game of large numbers, and even the smallest incremental improvement adds up over time.
Very good point, vikana. I like to say that the toughest thing about trading is to get to the point where you can consistently break even with your live trading. Your survival is at stake while you are consistently bleeding, but once you reach breakeven, you have turned the corner. At that point, you just tweak, tweak, tweak, making minor (almost insignificant) improvements over time to slowly and modestly improve your trading strategy. All those tiny improvements, as you say, make all the difference towards turning a breakeven strategy into a strategy that will support a comfortable lifestyle.