That chart is so nonsensical, it would take magic mushrooms to understand it... Taxonomy of trader types? What the hell does that mean? lol! Is it a graded scale? A genealogy tree? What indication does that chart propose? Flowcharts are for flow, not comparisons.
Imagine if you REALLY know the exact guy or fund company that traded against you and profited from you... Or imagine the other person that you traded against and profited from is called Tony the Big Finger. And he just found out who you are and where you live... Perfect information is not always the best especially when it's not that necessary.
It exposes the best of lol crowd, - losers of life; always complaining about shit that doesn't matter and not paying attention to the stuff that does. If you can't understand the difference between a block diagram and a flowchart wtf are you doing attempting to trade futures? Here's some coddling: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26607812/difference-between-data-flow-diagram-and-block-diagram From the quality of your posts we know what type classification you fall in,... gimme a F, __ , a T, __ , a L, __ Go buy some vowels and get a clue,... for you have no idea what price is right. and trading will continue to be for you. btw, How are those truck payments?
"My guess is that most retail fall into the class of Investors, Fledglings, Gamblers or Futile traders. The survivor's either fall into the class of Informed trader or my classification." First, why guess? Second, why bother with classification in the first place? Does that chart help you to make money in your real live personal account? That particular post of yours belongs in the psychology section, not the trading section, IMHO.
Simply because I do not know. The things that I do know, I state as such from my own work and Due Diligence. There's is a notion that most whom attempt trading fail at it. That would most likely be those attempting to find another way to make money other than the three major ways. If you don't know what the three major ways are, go grab a list of the Fortune 500 and sort them into piles of how they made their fortune. Back to the topic at hand, if we start at Investors, there are those that start from nothing but their own savings and those whom family stakes them. Of these the former were generally raised in a family that had low financial intelligence and the other whose family had some - at least enough to provide a stake to start and some guidance based on experience. The former grew up in an environment where they exchange their time for dollars. The later grew up in an environment that learned early on how to have dollars work for them. As a Fledging, either Investor or Trader, the primary activity isn't trading. They have an occupation where they work for a living where trading is done on a longterm horizon, with minimal trades while weathering the trials and tribulations of drawdowns. They employ strategies early on to build capital and once a roll has been built up, employ strategies more aligned with less risk and greater capital preservation. Fledglings haven't built up their skill set to make their living through their Investment or Trading activity yet. They either do the DD necessary to become successful or look for short-cuts, tips, or go from one thing to another looking for a holy grail that they hope will make a difference for their cluelessness. So now we are left with those whom are operating under the illusion of making money but operate with other unconscious payoffs. The first class is Gamblers whose primary motivation is more an emotional payoff than the steady application of discipline. Greed and excitement motivates them. They after initial success more than likely will think this endeavor is easy and take risks that will put them in over-leveraged situations where they get auto-liquidated by being on the wrong side of the market. It's just a matter of time. Gamblers are a type of futile trader although Harris has it as a different classification. Futile traders also engage in the markets for an emotional payoff, theirs is primarily based in fear. A Futile trader is one where the very activity of trading is a losing endeavor. Their payoff is fear, anxiety, anger and hostility. This forum is full of them and they band together as a playground bully gang. Certainly there are exceptions to what I've outlined above. I'm not so arrogant to think I know who is on the other side of my trades but I have done my DD to know that it makes a difference to know whom is participating, where and when simply by looking a key piece of market information which most price action traders discount. I don't offer liquidity, I take it. When I take it, sure enough there's a wave coming pushing price in my direction keeping me on the right side of the market. This brings us to the clueless dumbshit,... They complain about things they have no control over nor makes an difference in contributing and building their skillset. They comment on the most inane things with content that makes no difference. They will not do the simplest thing of reading a well-researched and well-regarded classic that would at least clear up a lot of the basics. They have no idea who participates in the markets, their diverse set of motivations, what signals the participants look for, the types of orders placed nor the micro-structure of the various types of markets themselves. Ok, so classifications aren't your cup of tea, so move along,...
We are not trading against big bankers, fund mangers, big boys, prop firms ... We are trading against our own corrupted subconscious mind. ___
It is all in the charts. Big guys can switch their position momentarily and big guys fight with each other or collude with each other all the time, on and off. You would be wasting your time try to figure out that constantly. But in a simple way, if you are long, you fight with the short/the seller, if you are short you fight with the long/the buyer. Just follow your chart and go with the stronger one, in a timely fashion, then you are a winner, big or small, depending on how good your charting is (that signals your entry and exit) .