Gordon, Where do I begin? I am 26 years old -- young like yourself. We have talked lots of times on AOL (I'm always here to chat with, btw). We are both ambitious and we both want to see the world and get plenty of cash in the process (who doesn't?) I'll say this much -- trading ES wasn't for me -- not at this time. I was too prone to fucking around at the switch and buying and selling on a whim. I was too amored by the flashing quotes, moving graphs and IB dings. It was just like Vegas on my own little 15" LCD screen. I was having a grand old time clicking the buttons and biting my tongue while waiting to see if my stop-loss or stop-gain got hit. Bells, whistles, flashing quotes, lines going up and down, heart pounding, sweat beads on my forehead -- the whole nine yards. In the end, it was something I wasn't ready to conquer. Look at a lot of the seasoned traders on this board -- most of them are retired and have plenty of cash to burn through. A lot of them are probably breaking even or occasionally profiting or losing -- but nobody here is making a killing save for less than a DOZEN regular posters (if that). I took a step back from ES and said, "woah, what are you doing here?" You can lie to everyone else, but you can't lie to yourself. I'm now sitting with just one 10 strike PUT on DAL that I sold in my account, along with a 5 strike PUT on DAL as well (Put credit spread). I made the trade when DAL was at $9.40. It was a successful trade. Long story short -- I'm too careless and hyper to daytrade, but I seem to make much better choices when I swing trade or trade over a longer timeframe. In fact, I have ORCL in my IRA that I bought at $8.40. I did the research and I made the bet and it is paying off. In my opinion, the shorter time-frames are just noise. Plenty of people will disagree with me, but that's just my honest opinion. You simply don't know what is in the pipleline 5 minutes out. However, there is more structure on the longer timeframes and that's where I am going to concentrate my energy when I dive back into trading. Part of my first experience at fucking up was to learn what does and doesn't work for me. I'd rather be a big fish in a small sea than a small fish in a big sea. In other words, I'd rather be really good at one thing than somewhat good at a lot of things. You'll get a job. Depending where you are, the unemployment rate is between 4 and 7 percent. Brush up your resume. If you have to do it, just lie. Invent some fake company and put your friends cell phone down as that company (or buy a new cell phone and put that number down). When they call for reference / employment dates, just have your friend (or you) give the dates and some fake salary amount that is commensurate with the going rate for that job. Lie out your ass if you have to. Its a numbers game -- but do what you have to do to survive. Nobody can knock a man for doing what he has to do to get some work. If you don't know shit about your job, go to the library and start reading about it pronto. If you get hired and don't know shit about it, you better take the first week and cram like you've never crammed before. Be witty, smart, charismatic and wear a nice suit and shoes to the interview. You're the shit -- don't forget that. The guy across from you needs to sell his company to you -- make that determination before you go. If you need any tips / help, send me a PM. Don't think you're the first person to lie out their ass in unique circumstances. You're out to get yours and you need to do what you have to do. 3 years without any work experience? Forget that ever happened -- start making up some shit and go from there. Good luck and keep in touch.
There's a difference between addiction and perseverance, doughy. If you haven't figured that out yet, perhaps you should take a longer look in the mirror. As for the successful traders on ET, sure, there may be some. But I haven't found more than a handful who might be. Who are you?
Aphster, why in the hell are hard drives going for close to or over retail on Ebay? Staples has an after rebate 30GB Maxtor at $29.95. Same drive on Ebay can bring up to $50+ S&H.
Remember, man looks in the abyss, sees nothing staring back. At that moment man finds his character, and that is what keeps him out of the abyss.
And your strategy? A secret? Ah. So all we have to go by is your word. Hmm. Well, hell, GG, on the basis of this self-serving testimonial, I'd keep at it until I'm living in a box.
Even though I'm new to this board, I was always skeptical of the amount of posts relative to one's trading ability. And behold, I was proven correct as GG has spent his life posting here, but cannot trade for profit. My equation goes: the greater the # of posts = the less likely that the person is a quality trader. GG, do yourself a favor, and get a real job. Do you see all the time you wasted posting here? Do you know what you could have earned by working at a real job? Good luck to you. You'll need it.
Geez, aphster, LII seems to give me a pretty idea for the next 30 seconds, which is all you really need.
That's a great question!! I have no idea -- but who am I to argue with ebay people. Buy, post, sell, ship. Remember the old adage that there is always a greater fool out there? I guess ebay reaches out to most of them!