You're making a leap here which may not be justified. Given the variety of time intervals, types of stochastics, stochastic settings, varying thresholds, he'd have to have a nearly infinite number of stochastic windows open in order to see "what other people are doing", and even then, whatever he learned would be lagging. As far as "overbought" and "oversold", those mean only that price is higher or lower than it was n periods ago and doesn't necessarily preclude going long or short. If he wants to know what people are doing, his best course is to understand price and price/volume relationships, particularly as they relate to demand/supply and support/resistance. He will then be one step ahead of anyone who is using indicators for signals as indicators are always behind. --Db
actually, i said $100/week. at the minimum, i would like to not think twice about buying all my friends their beers when we drink. eventually, i would like the freedom to do what i want. by that, i mean, not having a regular job. if i get rich, great...but really, all i want is the ability to pay the usual bills and a little spending money.
good luck to you GG. sounds like you'll have lotsa support here. FWIW, these were the two biggest obstacles to my profitability- 1)trading too many stocks (i think >5 is way too many) 2)ignoring the trends i hope it helps!
An entry into your journal that reads "No trades today, I didn't see anything I liked," will be entirely appropriate. There are plenty of participants on ET who do not offer the stepwise approach to their trading method. I think ddefina is writing a journal where his specific strategy remains private. As such, sharing your strategy is not necessary for a successful journal. If you write that you bought because this did this, there will as many who say "yes that's right" as those who say, "no never do it that way." Oversimplified, yes... but you get the message. The overwhelming reasons journals are created is for accountability of emotions. Traders having difficulties pulling the trigger, sticking to their method, cutting losses and holding losers too long who are looking for support, and tips on how to adjust their mindset. Your previous posts don't tend to fall in the category of emotional discipline. From the archives of journals, I wonder what percentage of them end their run with something to the effect of, "Thanks everyone, for all of your help. I am now profitable, having overcome my emotions" or ".... having had my method fine-tuned by you guys has really made a difference." Before you make the next trade, your method should be written on paper as a checklist. It should have been backtested and traded forward in real time on paper. There should be no doubt in your mind that it works. As such, you might want to wait until it experiences a losing streak before you start... if it ever does you tradin' stud. Good luck!
"a few months ago, i was someone who would not make a journal. i thought that i would be hurting myself by exposing all my ideas." O man, how embarassing is it for me to admit that I was EXACTLY like that just a few months ago. I was afraid to share, but I had nothing to share of value anyway (I didn't have any edge)!!! It's eery how much losers are alike. Well, you're getting out of that mentality and so have I. I've understood that winners are not paranoid, and they share valuable info, even if it's not specific BUY here, SELL there method. I was so paranoid I wouldn't give some common sense advice like "you should work on your money management" because I felt like I would be giving advantage to another trader. Yup, it's really embarassing to admit this. But since I saw the same sentiment from your post, I decided to confess And I have changed. And I'm sure there's many losers afraid to share on ET. It's just that few of them are as candid as you and me to admit it. GG, you are making the right decision to papertrade. That's the only rational decision. Don't even think about trading real $ before papertrading shows you have an edge. Good luck, man!!
Ole buddy GG! Before you start re-inventing yourself, 1. You need to come clean and peel off the baggage. Start by admitting to this forum all your dozens of aliases. 2. Include the ones that you argue with yourself, so we think it's different person. 3. Ask apologies to all the people that you verbally attacked, (do not include your dupes) 4. Sign up fresh, and don't look back. 5. Be honest with your self. Your trading is for you and you only and not for your audience. 6. humility is a great first base to start. 7. If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on arriving where you've always been. Honestly, good luck to you ps: to borrow some of nitro's words, this thread will reach ten more pages, until the Gordon Gecko, comes clean or he and the thread auto distructs
Mr. Gordon, Keep away from the information overload. You're going to get SWAMPED with advice from hundreds of people. It is going to take some amazing self-organization on your part to figure out which advice is something that applies to your psych and which advice just won't swing it. Take Nitro for example. He's been trading for YEARS. He's looking at Prem, Tick, Tock, etc ... He's making split second decisions that, to you and me, would be like, "huh, what? Prem's where? What am I supposed to do when tick does that and the blue line crosses over the red line during 3:30??" Remember the first time you drove a car and you kept hitting the break and gas trying to get it all in sync? Now you can drive 100 miles and forget you were driving!! The mind is going to assimilate all your observations until things start clicking. You and I both need to watch the market full-time and just paper-trade all the time. It might take a half a year before we both start feeling that "I can drive without thinking" effect, but until then, we're just playing with the gas and brake. Good luck! You can do it! Just don't wipe out trying!
anyone... anyone who is attempting to learn how to trade at this stage of the game is fighting a losing battle ITS TOO LATE SPARE YOURSELF you are not in a sound financial position to even begin learning under a veteran guru trader. HOW CAN YOU DO IT BY YOURSELF?
I guess my point, badly made, was that he's eschewing the things many other people use to make decisions, thereby thinking he knows more, has a better angle. He says he has many ideas so I made the leap that he's actually used some of these ideas and they don't produce consistant profits else he wouldn't be here posting how bad he is. (Unless he is just jerking everyone's chain as others have posited) My read was that he has no intention to do anything different than what he has been doing. Since he has refused posting any trades, we'll never know. Perhaps I've spoken too soon and once he starts posting his efforts a light bulb will go on in my head and I'll see the wisdom of his ways.