lol, so is alcohol and weed and I use both from time to time (recreational). On a more serious note, I do think derivatives give you huge benefits by doing something strategic rather than pick a direction. If I would have put on my position in stock/futures directly my losses would have been at least 30% higher.
I know what you mean by that, I used to sell options for time value, why dont you try forex, there is something trending nearly everyday on the 4 hour time frame and you can just more from one pair to another when trending becomes ranging
NZD pairs trading strongly today for example on 4 hour timefram, you can use hiekin ashi charts to help you with trade management
Slow things down and open an account where you can trade small lots and build up once you have had enough practice, put your money to one side and practice everyday for a year
This is spot on. When you trade a portfolio neg. gamma you end up becoming a contrarian and spend more energy convincing yourself why the market will turn around or it is "exhausted". The problem is that mindset works a lot of times in indices so you are rewarded for this belief. Then you have an extended one way move and you give up months of profits. Figure out a method that makes sense for you of market direction (even a simple mov avg can do it) and put on some hedges. Yes the market will chop most of the time and you will lose a part of your return but the sailing will be a lot smoother. This last move up was a lot easier with a flatter T+0 line to the upside (I personally always have some extra puts too, just in case).
Great trading day today. Back to where I started this thread if not worse. All my hedges are basically gone and I'm back to having to put them on with worse prices and lower volatility.