Kingsville Texas. Small world eh? I lived in Mcallen and Pharr Texas many years ago. I was just down there this past year in the Motorhome. Saw some of my friends and road around reminiscing how I use to sell the Monitor newspaper on bus 83 in Pharr as a young kid. I think I made .01 cents maybe .02 cents per paper. I saved my money and bought myself the first suit I ever owned. Cost around $12.00 if I remember correctly. Seems like Dad and Mom had to buy me a tie as I ran out of money. As a kid I also picked cotton in Texas. I went to Eli Whitney Elementary school at Pharr/ Mcallen border (gone now I guess) and Edison middle school in Pharr/San Juan AND Jefferson Jr High in Pharr (now a college of sorts). I used to walk to school. We were quite poor. Dad made us kids save our lunch bags and reuse them for school. A treat was selling coke and milk bottles and buying Kool-Aid and pop corn and setting on our screened in porch in the summer and drinking Kool Aid and eat pop corn. I still have friends in the Valley. And many memories. Most good. Last year we went to St Augustine FL then to Disney World in the RV after our trip to the Valley in Texas. We stayed at a State Park that was about 20 minutes from the Disney World Entrance. After Disney World we traveled to OK and watched my granddaughter graduate from basic training at Ft Sill. Then we traveled to ARK to that Diamond State Park and for fun spent time digging for diamonds. We found none. Believe me it is easier to trade the markets but the diamond digging experience was fun! You have to dig up the dirt and put it in buckets and take it to the washing trough to wash out the dirt in a pan like panning for gold.
What great Sat morning tossing ideas around and listening to other ideas. We cannot all agree on everything but we can all share. Great thread Laissez Faire! For me I gotta run so bye. I know..I know I been saying bye for some time now but you people are just hard to break away from!
I went to take a shower and as I was showering I decided I should make 1 more post in this thread and stress 3 things: 1) I want to stress that I apologize to Laissez Faire for high-jacking his thread. I did indeed post too many times. It is a Sat morning and I just got carried away. I was not intentionally trying to derail his concepts he so clearly set forth in his OP. 2) I want to stress that Laissez Faire original post IMO is really a good post (probably for many traders) and likely has some sound information in it for many traders. I just personally had a hard time making that sort of approach work for myself. That probably is due to my quirky personality. I do think traders should really consider what he says in his first post. But I will refrain from taking it any further and will just state that they might want to consider what he says in his original post. He was probably driving home a point that many if not most traders might find to be a workable methodology or guiding principles. It was his thread, and a good one so don't pay much attention to my posts. Traders might want to pay more attention to his posts ...well most of the info in his posts. I can totally understand his pressing me. He may very well be correct in his OP if he is able to make it work for him, and he seems to indicate that he does. 3) I jostled around way too much with WXY. There is absolutely nothing wrong with WXY's trading only a CASH account, using NO MARGIN, and only entering the market on long trades. It too is a viable way. I do cringe at the thought of NO SL he seems to advocate. And I have some questions and doubts about using Elliot Wave but if he does use that and it is working for him then that is a great thing. I doubt I could make it work for myself. I am just simply saying in my posts there are other ways to maximize profit potential, but such ways may not be conducive for many traders. My comments would have been suitable for my journal maybe but not for his thread. Again, my apologies.
No need for apologies to me personally, @volpri. My post wasn't necessarily which method is better as both can work, but how any aspiring trader needs to 100 % understand the mathematical requirements to win and have a positive expectancy with the approach he's pursuing. However, as you're a strong advocate for scalping and do have your own journal where you're teaching techniques, I don't see why you're so secretive about your results? If you're just a casual trader who do it for entertainment - why don't be transparent about that and say you're not making the big bucks in day trading? Or if you're making the big bucks - hell, why don't say that? I can 100 % guarantee you that there's at least one poster (maybe hundreds) logging on to EliteTrader who literally take what you say at face value and may be pursuing the dream of day trading for a living inspired by you and Al Brooks. He may be quitting his job to pursue day trading encouraged by guys like yourself. In that sense you have a great responsibility and should as a minimum disclose it if you're not profitable. I know because I once was that guy. Not following you, but other people.
I totally agree. The math does matter even though the market is for the most part not mathematical but dynamic. But math is good to use in formulating a methodology. I think we can agree on that. I am thinking I should ask the moderators to just delete my journal. I would hate to think it has influenced traders and they lost a lot or blew their account. I have tried to let people know it is for entertainment and info showing how I like to trade. I warn them not to use the methods but on a SIM. I even state that some of my trades will be based on SIM trading and some on real trading myself and that I would not disclose which one. I have disclosed it a few times, so I didn't always stick to that. I realize that, maybe in a sense, I am teaching but in my mind I am teaching people how I trade and not telling them to necessarily trade that way. Anyway, here I am posting another post in your thread! I know often my posts show a high win rate and most show "grabbing that profit" and many sessions show FOT. Traders may doubt that and that is OK with me. However, I will not get into how much money I make or lose over a period of time unless it is specifically shown in one of my posts in my journal. I do show losses too. And try to show what I do about them. I gotta stop posting. I just got in some kind of posting mood today. Sort of weird. Have a good day.
Yes. I don't think you need to do that - especially seeing how a lot of people seem to find your teachings useful. I've seen your references towards practicing in the simulator and I think that's great. Sadly, I think a lot of people skip that part (I know I did and lost a lot of money even while I was in 'basic training' and had zero idea what I was doing). I just think it would be better if more people were discouraged from pursuing (day) trading and we need to remember that our words can influence people towards making dramatic life decisions. As an independent retail trader on your own without a mentor 10 years is probably a good approximation of what it takes to learn this. The harsh truth is that there are people who spend 10 years and still don't make it. Knowing that, I don't see how anyone can encourage anyone to go down that path. Or maybe I'm just a slow learner and in a negative mood. At the very least, we should manage peoples expectations.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence; I don't understand the reluctance to share returns with the forum. When you state that this method or that method is a great way to trade if you know what you are doing and then refuse to share returns it leaves some doubt as to how effective the strategy might be. I realize that when you throw a number out there some will want you to post a screen shot, then claim the screenshot has been photo shopped or is fake. It's a no win situation. FWIW My swing trading returns for 2024 were just under 30%. Anyone who wants to hire a reputable auditing firm is welcome to check that out.