Hahaha that may be quite true. Thank you for your feedback on available platforms - having a searchable application (i.e. has a DB) could be beneficial since not everyone trades at the same exact time (for example, I don't trade the close of the markets). Yet someone would probably appreciate it if all of the charts and commentary didn't disappear after I left.
I have been thinking about doing something like this or looking to join a community of traders as well for a long time. I have been trading for 9 years now, I only trade Crude Oil and it can get awfully lonely trading by yourself not having a community to share ideas with, talk to etc. I am based in NYC, somebody please start a Skype group and post the group invite link on here. We don't have to do video - to maintain some anonymity and also to avoid distraction - we can do audio. What you say?
Crude man, I absolutely, 100% agree with you. No video or screen sharing - if we are all professionals we all basically know what each other is talking about ("supply here, trendline over there, entry at this level because of this factor on the 5min, etc"). My question to you and others would be - how would this group vet you, or anyone else for that matter? In other words, how do we make sure that only good professional traders are part of this group? Also, if you have been looking for something like this... why haven't you joined something similar? (god knows there are thousands of paid and free rooms out there). Because I doubt you want a "coworker" who asks you everyday "what does a report of +1.5m barrels mean"? LOL By the way I would actually prefer to build a group consisting of traders with variety of unique strengths - like yourself. If you do actually ONLY trade crude FOR A LIVING - for 9 years - it seems like you would know MUCH more about CL than a trader who trades... everything.
I agree, Trading can get awfully boring and lonely. All you are doing is placing the trade(s)...then sitting like a patient turtle....waiting for the right time to exit/manage the position(s). Though a trading club sounds kind of fun in theory -- what is the purpose I'm not really interested in talking or speaking with other traders, or teaching newbies. I already know how and what to trade -- not that interested in talking about it either....except for showing off my bottom line results/returns. There should be a site for (real elite) traders where you just showoff your real results. and you can explain the trade briefly, if you wish. Only select members can join/post trade results, if they meet certain 'elite' criteria. I'm aware there are sites already out there for people to showoff their returns -- but I want to fine tune it, so only truely good traders can showoff their stuff/returns/prowess. I kind of like to remain private like Zorro as a trader -- but I still desire some human interaction, to some degree.
A group of us ET'ers started a mIRC chat around 2003-4. About half of us are still in there on a daily basis. It's a small group now of 8 guys, but I can't imagine waking up and trading without them now. So, yeah it can done, and worthwhile. Now we are on Slack which works ok, but it's a bit bulky not being able to minimize the left panel. At least there's no ads like Skype.
I 100% agree with you Lawrence. But tell me, have you never placed a trade straight out of boredom? I sure know I have, as "professional" as I might be. Sometimes it also helps to bounce off ideas, or get reaffirmed of something which you may be thinking about. I guess the purpose would be to have "coworkers" - just as in a real office. Most employees can do their job by themselves just fine, like you or I can do. But could we do an even better job by having other like minded people around us? It seems to work in literally any other type of business all around the world... Finally, the success rate of traders involved in a trading firm (institutional, private, hedge, etc) is far higher than that of individual traders - even seasoned individual traders. It only takes one moment of frustration to make a huge mistake, even as professionals. Coworkers can help with this, by providing some company.
Dustin, I would send you a DM but I don't want to bother you. If you have free time could you reach out to me? I would love to hear why you did this (probably the same reasons as me), and how its actually working out. Would it be safe to assume that you and everyone else involved trades full time, every single day, as their only job?
I think ET here is perfect. As a trader, I am basically looking for a place to unwind at the end of the day, sometimes a stressful day. The last thing that I want is to talk more about business and etc. Yes I might vent about the broker and talk about a stock that had huge moves but most of the time I just want to talk about lunch and some other stuff. So yeah I would want a place that's mostly social with very little almost none of business. I am open to new ideas and etc. but just not a place that I feel I always have to be ready to strike deals. Track records I dunno is a useful criteria considering that past performance is not indicative of future. I find personality should be a key criteria. I dunno how fun that club would be if it's full of obnoxious, self-indulging, cocky, thinking-he/she-is-the-king/queen-of-the-world-just-because-he/she's-made-a-lucky-killing-in-the-market douches no matter how good their track records are.
The problem with that is there is no way for you to verify those results. Trading results can be easily fabricated by those trolls who have no life. And then you have those who try to call those trolls out and those trolls try to defend themselves and they eventually resort to name callings and abusive exchanges. And then there are those big shots who get into pissing contests over who's got bigger returns. Seen them all. It gets really annoying sometimes.