I am sure there was more to it. After all, Lescor did travel to another country,spent 3 months away from his family and quit a well paying, secure government job to go to Arizona. Something tells me it was more than a desk, computer and $350 charge that made him travel to Echo.
Very true but there is also another way took at the "nil diversity of selection to filter from" Less can be more. We all know there are many ways to skin a cat (please be kind to animals). Trading just a single instrument, be it a stock, an index future, soybeans, a women trading husbands or whatever...............you have CHOICES in how you trade what you know best. Trend, range, channels, milk retraces, add-on for continuations, reversals etc, etc. Tom Baldwin (was my secret hero) he did bonds and traded some bonds and when not bored traded some bonds......... I just wanted to point out there are many ways to beat this trading game regardless what is traded...........we all are wired different.........thank goodness for that. PLEASE.........some of you guys do not get into semantics of this is better than that and you know what is best for the other guy. Go to the trading thread and argue with king of semantics if that is your desire. Great work Lescor........... PS: Thought you guys might like this: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a0dqXyjnQ6dg&pos=10# I like the part where he trades ES intuitively..........
lately the ES specifically makes one - two minor price swings inside the first hour of trading, and then channels dead flat thru 4pt channels for five hours straight. catch or miss the first hour wiggles, and that day is all done. Stock traders working spreadsheet orders on several to dozens of symbols have multiple opportunities to get something right. It only takes one, maybe two stock trades with solid profits to make a day complete. When trading any single symbol of any kind, opportunity is obviously limited relative to trading a diverse group of symbols. Some believe the eggs in a guarded basket, some believe eggs in diversified baskets are superior. Depends on the trader and where they are in their evolution of skill set. imo a diversified stock trader would not enjoy the same smoothed equity curve lescor does if forced to trade one of any symbol. imo they would still find ways to become net profitable overall, but not necessarily in the same consistent fashion.
He already said he trades futures on a few occasions with a small size and that he's profitable. Thus, he obviously has found something that works and i doubt it's just beginners luck because Lescor is no beginner. Therefore, most likely if he had no other choice except for futures...he would survive and prevail nicely in the futures market because you nailed it... ...it's the man who makes success an outcome thru work, study and application. Yet realistically, stocks will be around forever unless the planet explodes. Thus, I doubt Lescor will make futures his primary trading instruments. He'll find another way to exploit stocks if something he was using has lost it's edge. Mark
I was their Bro, the only other thing I could tell is that Lescor and Patrick had the passion for the market and stock trading, but I will let him tell it. After getting my series 7 to trade at Echo i was hoping to get some tutoring or mentoring in day trading stocks from the owners there but that was not to be. There was a young guy there name Thorp that use to post here a lot years ago some of the older members may remember. I think his father Van Thorp wrote a great book on Money Management. The son was able to recruit a few traders by his well written post here and other places but I soon found out that young Thorp was not a good trader and he blew up his own account a short time later. It not so funny that he blew it up through poor money management the one thing his father was so good at. If you are looking for great commission structure for large experienced traders trade their, if your looking for a mentor their FORGET IT. A good mentor is very hard to find because their is nothing much in it for them. Everything I have learned about life as well as trading has been through my own blood sweat and tears. This post is just my to 2 cents and my be worth exactly what you paid for it nothing. but I hope it may help in some way. Well back to lurking for another 7 years LOL.
So what was the reason for going all the way to Arizona? There are 100s of prop shops between Lescor's residence and the state of Arizona as well as dozen or more Echo shops.
10-24-08 12:42 PM Quote from PJT: Do you think trading successfully is a factor of emotional intelligence as much as it is technical intelligence? You need control over your emotions to trade successfully, no one would dispute that. But to grow bigger and bigger, to keep scaling up as your profits grow, is the hardest thing to do and the limiting factor for most profitable traders. You always hear of guys who make money but then when they try to trade bigger size, they screw things up and take a hit. They know how to trade, but have not let go of the emotional attachment to money. Everyone has a certain comfort level where the money truly doesn't matter. The key to growing is to slowly and methodically bring that level up while at the same time honestly and truthfully letting go of any emotional attachment to your p/l. It is hard to do and takes time. After you've become consistently profitable though, it's the number one thing I think a trader should work on. Lescor, read this from one of your old posts and find mastering your emotions very difficult, if not, hardest to overcome in trading. How did you 'let go' of your emotions over the years was it gradual process, did you find solace in your statistical analysis? And, with the help of automation, did it seal the deal for you? Is there anything else in your mind you find one should focus on conceptually speaking besides risk management, system, etc? Kudos on your success.. g
Harley, thanks for your post. Pls drop me a pm to let me know who you are and say hi, it's been a while. The main reason I went to that particular Echotrade office was because of Robert Tharp (rtharp on ET a long time ago). I was a newb and to me he seemed like a guy who had it all dialed in according to his ET persona. I loved his dad's book "Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom" and figured Robert was a master trader. I wanted to sit with him and learn from him. Within a week of meeting him it was obvious he wasn't all that great of a trader. Within a month it was obvious he couldn't trade his way out of a wet paper bag. He was a really nice guy, but just didn't have what it took to make it as a trader. I don't think he lasted much more than another year.
This is all sooo "Counter Intuitive" to me. Why trade reversion to mean (rtm) with highly volatile stocks? Stocks with big swings in price throughout the day seems ideal for a breakout strategy trader, whereas the s&p 500 would be ideal for a rtm trader because folks often refer to it as having little volatility or a range bound instrument. What am I missing here??? Is this not correctd... High intraday price movement (volatility) = breakout strategy Range bound intraday price movement = reversion to mean strategy Walt
is this the same robert tharp? seems like he's still teaching pple how to trade. http://www.iitm.com/seminars/Great-Systems-for-Bear-Markets.htm