Yes - trade with the trend (dont try to be significant as the mkts are bigger than you) yet work hard with self esteem (get your sense of personal significance from yourSELF).
Grob, Guess we already know who's going to make it big and who won't. Lots of herd followers on this board, I don't blame them for following the herd, thats how we have so much losers on the market. I don't like your phrase high velocity trader Its not as flow as maybe "Sniper trader" or "Financial Rambo" think of some better terms please.
It is amazing I think, all the side trips that people will take, and all the resources that they will mobilize in this effort. Apparently many of us will do, and try almost anything except do the hard work of becoming professionally competent. For those who are interested in this idea, let me say that once a person has obtained professional competence in any arena, they will find that they are able to do even the most difficult job with a minimum of emotional attachment. As an example, just look at the way a physician treats his patients. Even though your physician may have to deliver bad news to you regarding illness or mortality, they seem able to do so with equanimity. This is one of the hallmarks of professional behavior. By all means, continue to look under every rock for a way to get there. I prefer to simply learn to do this job in a professional manner. At the end of the day, I go home with my ego in its proper place. Good luck tomorrow Steve
The meaning of ego in this thread refers to the need to fail. You need and want to mark yourself as one of all the others. You choose failure. Yes you can win if only by accident and it is pleasurable to recount it to those who will listen.. the bottom line being you are still one like all others, the downtrodden misled by a cynical world of cheats. Its a big comfort zone with lots of crowds to keep you company. There are huge benefits .. you don't have work too hard and certainly don't need to get smart. It also satisfies the masochistic drive .. the need to beat up on yourself. So, hell, there is lot going for failure and its many variants of semi-failure. Stay with it. Success, well thats a lonely perch for the few to manage. This is little a bedtime story, really. So, sweet dreams.. losers.
I have always found that the best way to get rid of ego is to get hit with a big fat losing trade. Nothing like sting on your pocketbook to put your ego in check.
The issue w/traders isn't always ego, it's also lack thereof. In our society there is a mindset that you have to work for someone else, or if you run your own business it must be thru a traditional venue and the failure rate is great. Trading as a business, as one's own business, is so far removed from the norm that we have trouble grasping the reality and the potential. As newbs, traders have naive dreams and plans of great, easy wealth. Then we start actually trading real money and get kicked in the balls and most of us say to ourselves "This is incredibly complex and difficult and I simply do not have the brains/talent/dedication to do this. I'd rather go to Law School for 10 yrs, the failure rate is considerably less." How can one possibly make a living working at home using one's own ideas? And actually enjoy it? How many people love their jobs? It's practically Un-American! Trading for a living is an aberration: The one-man career. No boss, no employees. Relying only on yourself takes great confidence, but it's part of the game. Lack of a healthy ego will kill a trader. H
From my perspective, it seems that, thus far, the people who have disagreed with Joe Ross's post do not actually understand it. Just my opinion, of course.
But you, the self proclaimed one who understood his post, do not find it necessary to say whether you agree with it or not and thus refusing to assume responsibility for your opinion. Smart attitude although not a courageous one.
thunderdog is great in talking generalatiies lacking in everything else. Still wondering whats wrong with his stoachastics that doesn't work all the time!