This question is for anyone who has a viable, tested edge that allows them to consistently profit from the market. How easy was it? Or how hard? Was it simple or complicated for you? I don't have an edge yet, but I know that for me so far, it's been hard. Primarily because I complicate things too much. I feel like I'm right around the corner, and it's frustrating at times. God bless the guy I'm working with, because it's probably frustrating for him too! I would just like to know where others here on ET stand in relation to myself. Considering I don't know anyone in person who trades, I don't know where I stand compared to others!
took me 12 years to find a consistently reliable, profitable, and practical edge...The key is being able to properly analyze when you have a good edge and when you just have fools gold. The ability to write computer programs helps too.
Edge? No such thing, Buckaroo. Some traders think they have "edge".. they don't. The only genuine edges are illegal... like front running or insider info.
OMG, does this mean I have to give all the money back I've made over the last 10 years since I don't front run or know any insiders and turn myself in to the investment police?
Of course the academics who can't trade their way out of a paper bag don't believe edges exist...which is great for me because I certainly won't try to convince them.
Acquiring an edge is kind of painful, unless you have a really good methodology and framework for testing and validating/rejecting ideas. My suggestion is to take an edge that used to work or idea that people have claimed to work, then go find out why it doesn't work anymore and see if you can engineer an alternative around it. The other alternative is to get data and analyze it day in and day out, and this is like a full-time job and is the sort of thing that will consume you to the point where you dream about it in your sleep. Using a computer makes it easier to test your ideas. Keep in mind the market will try to neutralize this edge that you do find. (I'm going through this process currently. What worked for several months is now drying up and giving mixed results, so I've been taking a string of marginal days and sputtering results while trying to engineer a solution to how I am being gamed.)
Trading edge is easy. Most all reasonable systems work (anything you can explain to a 10 year old, say). Some market experience helps. But it's not about that. It's about how fucked up your psyche is. I don't come easy to myself
Clearinghouse, I've been doing the second option. Sitting, staring at charts for months. Finding a pattern is not an issue, there's millions of them. The issue is the risk and money management portion, or how best to play the pattern. With what you said about your signal drying up and getting mixed results, I'm hoping to find a way around that as well. Does it make sense to place stops/entries/exits/targets/etc. based on dynamic conditions rather than number of ticks or something? Like having a stop below support, rather than 2 points away? It seems logical, since this way volatility would be automatically factored in to the trade. This is an idea I keep coming back to.