I just did say no in my last post. In fact, i said i've already done what you were asking and decided not to do it anymore. Why in the world would i do it again due to you asking if i've decided it's detrimental to my PnL? You're welcome to heckle me for losing money during the posting period, but at least i was honest on my fills. I could have easily posted more "favorable" prices and looked profitable, but that wasn't the case so I didn't pretend like it was. If i had posted profits, I'm pretty sure someone would say i was lying anyway so what's the point? If you really want to know if I trade or not why not ask me questions only a "real" trader would know?
my confession is: trading is not as hard as I thought before or as many thought. in trading the hardest thing is manage myself to do the job according to my plan. trading is an odd's game, so after I abandoned the idea to search the holy gril, I accepted there is no secret for making money in the market, just odd's game, I started to make money, I stick with my buy high and sell higher and sell low and sell lower strategy, I made money, when I try to become smarter with my betting system (try to buy low and sell high or sell high and buy low), I lose. in wall street, there is no secret. like warren buffet, he buy lows, he made money. or like some pit traders, they just aimed for several ticks, they made money too. but people always thought because they did not get the secret, that is why they lose. most people can not think in probability. when you told them a strategy, if they lose one time, they will discard it and search another one. the problem is just here. they can not accept the probaility reality. they want zerop-tolerance, there is no sure thing in wall street. what you can do is follow your betting system (wrong, accept it, but do not discard it)
Even this is not necessarily an effective way to confirm anything. Case in point as I recently alluded to on another thread: I have traded profitable for around 10 years now. However, it is UNCOMMON for me to make money in much more than 50% of the names I've traded in a day, and more common to lose in over 50%. So even if someone did that, and was ultimately wrong on say 66% of their live calls, it doesn't mean that they couldn't have done really well, if they know how to manage their trades properly. It's about how much you lose on that 66% of trades, and how much you made in the other 33% (unless of course every trade you make or lose equal amounts, in which case it's all about the % of profitable trades - but that's not a typical reality .
every trade's odd is 33.3%(favor, against,nowhere), that is the reality. so if you want to get ahead of the game, when you win, you must win more than two times the loss per loser, or R/R >1:2.otherwise it is a sure thing for failure or can not last long. if you are very sturnborn, or not disciplined enough to overtrade, the odd may dramatically decarese to 10% under, in that situattion, when you met winner, you need 1:10 R/R winner, that is very hard. I have lots of losers, but I stick with this probaiblity law, I am ahead of the game. put more filters there, the odd will increase to 50%, even 60%, 70%, it is hard work: discipline
Funny how far you have fallen from the OP "Trading individual stocks has been my full time profession for almost 7 years. I've made more money than I ever could have hoped for or expected... I'd love to hear confessions from the other dozen or so successful traders on the site if u choose to share." But keep practicing your paper trading. You were never credible from the start...
WHAT ev This whole thread is pointless and any other just like it. No one believes a successfull trader when they see one anyway. ET is a place where just about everyone claims to be successfull, but are quickly flamed by other et members either because they ( the poster)are full of shit, or maybe are the real deal, but when asked to proove them selves, they laugh, and simply give a cold shoulder. so... 1. Either a trader that claims to know how to trade is a liar or 2. they can trade, but refuses to proove it to the ET community because their Cowboy pride gets in the way, opening themselves to criticism its an endless cycle. cheers CM
There are about 100% of 1. and about 0% of 2. How many successful (longterm, lucrative, good trading stats) traders need to come onto ET and brag about their prowess by opening a new thread and proclaiming it?
I trade using price action, I rarely have a losing day, although I don't just trade one instrument, I diversify throughout the day. The one thing I won't do is come out in the open in a public forum and tell the world how I do it, especially with details. I'm not a multi millionaire because my size increase is gradual, not in a rush but do want to keep a steady pace of size pressure to avoid failure. Don't be so negative, this is not an impossible task.
Since you are not a successful trader and will never be one, how could you possibly think that you would know how one thinks or what they would do? You spend your days and nights flaming et posters on almost every thread, that in itself must be exhausting - no wonde ur in such a bad mood all the time. It's some closed mind you have thinking that since u cannot make it work that no one can. It's the closed mind of someone who will never be profitable, but please don't let that stop you from sharing your vast wisdom.