+1. I wish more people thought like you. If your a trader and your not making much (like me), or some who dont make anything, then the community seems to write them off as dead wood. I think this is why a lot of traders (pros) dont teach or share knowledge is because they have all this built up resentment from the way they were treated as beginners. Trading is imo, one of the toughest ways to make money in this world (even though it seems deceptively easy from a beginners perspective). Traders should really do a better job of sharing knowledge, then shooting eachother down, and I think lescor is doing a good job sharing his experience. kon
Thanks for that, Kon. It seems like a lot of folks on this site just want to be critical of others, rather than trying to be helpful and contribute something positive and supportive. It is refreshing to have people like lescor, who are willing to share some of their knowledge and experience in the spirit of helping others. Thanks, lescor, I am really enjoying your posts.
Most pros don't teach beginners because trading in the shorter term time frames has a limited amount of payoff. Sharing ideas and strats only divides up the pie. Or worse, it spoils the pie and leaves nothing left for anyone (Millenium arb anyone?). We worked hard to figure out our strats, why would we want to give them away? If there's condescension toward beginners on this board it is simply due to the endless stream of beginners that come here thinking they are on the sure fire road to riches and walk away disillusioned. Some make it over the hump. Most do not. But you are wrong to think an experienced trader has any reason to give you anything. Having said that, Corey has been about as helpful as I've ever seen a veteran trader be in a public forum. It doesn't get any better than this.
I believe you are referring to me in your above comment. Yep, SWM loss was due to position size and bad risk/mental control. Hope people will learn from this, I sure did
Like most of my "what / how do you...?" answers, it depends on the strategy. Anywhere from 5 seconds to a month.
No, I don't size with the assumption that a $50 stock could triple in price instantly. If I did that I'd never trade more than 100 shares. Yes bad stuff can happen but you have to be reasonable. There is almost always a chance to mitigate the damage along the way.
Shreddog, I can tell English is your second language as you obviously misread some key grammatical concepts. My questions are related to my own experiences. I too thought my complex "discretionary trading" was impossible to automate. It turns out that anything we can see with our eyes... the computer can too. If you are able to articulate and quantify what you do day in and day out you will be surprised how accurately you can make the algorithms mimic your own behavior. I obviously don't know lescors strategy and parts may not be automatable but the reason I asked was because I became a bit depressed when I actually did automate my day trading strategies and rendered myself useless in executing intraday trades. As for the second question I see you got confused when I asked after he startED making serious money how could he be sure his broker, prop firm, etc wouldn't start to front run his trades. It looks like you thought I said when you start. It's ok Shreddog... its a good thing trading is easier then reading!! Insert smiley.
I see you were asking the question in a speculative sense. It was your use of the word "would" (not "could" as you have above) that threw me off track. Apologies.
It's ok S-Dog. A little more time with Rosetta Stone and you will pick up on those kinds of nuances with our language.
But back to the original question. Once you start(ed) making good money consistently, Lescor, how would you protect yourself from unscrupulous brokers, prop firms, etc flagging your account and trying to frontrun you?