Today I read a news headline where some prisoner on death row extracted his own eyeball and ate it. I did not click the link for details... enough information already. Can you imagine removing your own eyeball by force while fully awake, let alone swallowing it for good measure? What prompted him to do such a thing? What was he trying to communicate... what about himself did he want understood? Countless brave soldiers thru history have thrown themselves on live grenades to save fellow comrades. The ultimate sacrifice was made without hesitation, but for what reason(s)? Selflessness and anonymity to all for eternity? What if our perception of heroes was backward. What if every hero who gave their lives for others was mocked and scorned instead of praised and immortalized? If a soldier who pounced on a live grenade as his very last act in this world was outwardly mocked and ridiculed by all, including those lives saved, how many heros would we have? In other words, who would be a hero if the only reward was negative feedback? That is a linear leap from what everyone does in here. If every post of helpful intent was met by either silence or scorn and not one iota else, how many helpful posts would there be? If selfless intent for the greater good, giving back and paying it forward was met with 100% ridicule and scorn, who would keep paying forward? Everything everyone does is for their own benefit to some degree. If it happens to be a symbiotic benefit = relationship to others, the act will be well received. But no act will ever take place that does not pay off both parties somehow, some way. The difference in successful traders seeking anonymity or public attention depends solely on what the greater payoff is at any given time. Same holds true for any human act, money is never the root issue but merely one aspect of the equation.
something to consider is also how important it is to constantly and if possible systematically improve your trading operation. trading successfully is really a business. if you don't have all the components needed you can't succeed. it is then best to wait or get together all these components, I probably speak from experience. but here, I'd like to bring up the idea that losing trades are underrated. imo, most of what you learn from trading come from losing trades, not winners. a related and i think rather well known concept is that even though entry is not irrelevant, the exit is really the key. another underrated part of success is money management. this was touched a little earlier when EricP mentioned being paranoid about blowing the account and preserving capital. I think the following characteristics are important: - constantly learning from losses. - relentless drive to improve all business ratios (be it, risk/reward, equity curve analysis, costs -all of them-, etc) - actually know that you need to have business ratios and track them! - tweak, tweak and tweak again constantly because markets are changing a little bit everyday -and sometimes dramatically with a rule change or new route, etc. - and one of the most difficult than lescor mentioned as well: manage growth and its side effects. from what I see from successful traders, they, either intuitively or deliberately, run trading really like a business. virtual business, yes, but a business. those I know, are really, sort of, liquidity providers not speculators so it makes sense too. trading as a business is then really inventory management, on a short term scale and at the same time on a large scale with often many products in inventory -and sometimes very large volume. I know other successful traders use other paradigms, but it is best if I only speak of what I know.
Saxon22, I'm not a "successful trader" by any means, being new to all this. However, it appears to me that you are under the mistaken impression that what is interesting or motivational to you must or should be interesting and motivational to everyone, and that if you find something boring then it is of no value to anyone. If someone really really enjoys trading, what's wrong with that? If someone doesn't want a Ferrari, or happens to enjoy cheap Chinese takeout, what's wrong with that? I believe you're speaking somewhat to perceived extremes, and I would agree that balance in one's life is important. However, even in terms of balance each of us is different, and each person's balance will be different from another's. - Andrew.
Trading is a job. One might like it, enjoy it and take pleasure from it, but it should never become an obsession, or an addiction. If someone, like you said: "really, really enjoys trading" then it might be gambling and not trading you are experiencing. Ask yourself this question: what is it about trading that you are enjoying so much? I am not saying that what I enjoy for a living should be pursued by others. What I am stating is that some traders do end up dead with couple of million $$$ in their account and a basement full of pizza leftovers and pron dvds. Now,most people live uneventful lives because they are stuck with all kinds of obligations that they have gotten themselves into. They watch TV eat shitty food watch some more tv pop a few pills to make them happy, slepy, horny or all three and they call it a living. I call it existence and a sordid one at that. One might say hey it is his life and it is true, the question is was it living by a standard definition of living. Existing? Perhaps. Living? you answer that question.
I agree with most of that. I'm just saying that without seeing the full picture of someone's life it's not particularly useful or instructive to make judgements about the value of their existence. For instance, if this theoretical gentleman in Hong Kong very much enjoyed his job, found value in frequenting the same lunch place he ate at when he was "poor", and enjoyed spending his evenings and weekends gardening with his grandchildren, would that be a wasted life? Perhaps he just felt that just because he was wealthy, he wasn't "too good" for the food stand around the corner. We may know some things about a person, but we don't know the balance of what makes someone who they are. On the one hand it's certainly good advice to suggest that people branch out, learn new things, and enjoy their lives. On the other hand it comes across as rather judgmental for you to make comments about someone else's quality of life based upon one or two sentences of description. - Andrew.
Life is like trading. Probability is everything. So when I see a fella who has millions yet his life has not changed much then why make all those millions? If you are going to lie a sordid existence like the 90% of the population, then why have the $$$$$? Mind you, am not talking about guys who are pushing 50 to 100K a year replacing a corporate ass licking with a cushy trading job at home watching over a kid or two and trading. For them not much changes in terms of grand goals. They survive in a comfortable fashion and that is OK. My "beef" is with guys who have a lot more and keep living in a proverbial basement or a garage with parents asking them when will they start going out.
The first thing on their minds is about potential LOSSES, not profits. They build their strategies and techniques around that idea. Simple as that.