mav, granted there are a tremendous amount of idiots, scammers, and the lot here; but i do not agree with you that people are "less intelligent" here. i have talked to more than a few guys who seem quite smart, but its the lack of vol in equities that just holds a lot back from making a career of this if they only have a small stake to work with. i know you mention over and over many products have high vol right now; but new guys are just not going to trade cotton or soy beans as their initial jump in to trading markets.
SIV, it's not the low vol. We printed a 9 reading on the VIX in 2007 following 3 years of the deadest markets in the history of markets and activity on this board was 3 times higher and the intellect was higher as well. There are plenty of other places out there where content is being shared and ideas exchanged regardless of the current vix reading. I believe that more intelligent people have moved on to higher mediums of exchange. I think that is just a natural evolution. ET is basically fast food. It's quick, easy, cheap and bad for you. LOL. And that is the demographic it seems to attract now. Sure there are some intelligent people here. There are also intelligent people at a French whorehouse. I'm talking about the distribution around the mean, not the tails. In fact, just to take the other side of your trade. You would think in theory that a more difficult trading market would eliminate the cranks from the pool and leave only the the most astute market practitioners. The bad should be weeded out no? But you claim the opposite, that a bad market is keeping bad traders here and good traders to leave. That argument doesn't work in any other industry from sports to academia to entertainment. I don't think it's Baron's fault. In fact, technically the site has become more feature rich and user friendly. But just like telnet and dial up internet, technology and behavior has changed. My advice, change the model.
And furthermore SIV, let me add, most people on this board most certainly do NOT trade equities or the VIX for that matter. That has not been the case since the late 90's. The PDT rule killed that. If you put a gun to my head I would bet 90% of the actual "traders" here are trading energy which has been ROCKING or FX due to the low capital requirements and FX has been very volatile the last year. Nobody is trading stocks here. Seriously, link me to one freaking intelligent thread on this forum talking about stocks. And the ES? Come on. The ES is basically an IQ test. If you are trading it, you failed the test. LOL. I mean Christ man, oil has practically got cut in half, nat gas popped 40% in a month. And the Yen and dollar have made moves not seen since the 1960's! Yeah I get it, Johnny one lot is not aware there are other markets in the world outside of the S&P, but then again, you were referencing "intelligent traders".
i think he is really trying to adjust with social changes. anyway, mentioned before..but i must agree also if a trader has an edge and has alluded or helped on here..there's not much more to say once its discussed (hence going to archives). even for me posting p/l bored me to death after a while...once the point is made..how much more can u beat it. re that u are quoting me saying bad mkts getting good traders to leave; i must say i do not follow u..don't think i implied that..nor do i believe that for the record. also, changing the model i do not think will get "real" traders to offer up edge to new posters. the only people i will share my ever changing models with are family and best friends..and only if they have what it takes. how many business will share their trade secrets with the same business down the road? none of course. same should be true with a money making trader. simple mentoring though i can see going on in all careers, including trading. i do my share here when time permits.
SIV, even at ET's zenith, nobody ever shared their edges. That is NOT what this forum is for. This forum is for exchanging "ideas". For example, I might find an obscure article about John Arnold. It was a really good article actually and I posted it. The dude NEVER EVER talks. And he did. I posted it. It got ONE response. LOL. THAT is what this forum is about. Stuff like "hey SIV,did you see this new ETF that just came out?" "No mav, I haven't, thanks for the heads up" That is called dialogue. That is what this site has always been about. NEVER since 1997 has site ever had guys come on here and offered out their edges, at least not while they were working. Sure broad strokes are discussed, but not real edges. This site and all like it about guys getting together and sitting at the end of the proverbial bar having a virtual beer and chatting it up. That is completely gone and what is left in it's wake is a Justin Bieber concert.
Monetizing this site ala Tsu won't bring in quality posters, it will bring in money grubbers. One thing I mentioned years ago is getting rid of the multiple accounts. I never understood how allowing sockpuppets, at least half of which are set up specifically to troll other people, was ever a good idea. Sure it generates page counts but at what cost? Oh yeah, at the cost of quality members who get fed up with the bullshit and go someplace where it isn't allowed. Shutting down the pigsty called Politics and Religion at least temporarily will make a lot of sociopaths move on to more idiot-friendly pastures. Things may have reached a tipping point from which there is no recovery in terms of enticing high-quality members. They have other options now and they are voting or have voted with their feet.
ok, i follow u...having been here since 2003 in another form i get u...i'll toss one more possibility out there to u::: is it possible there is a generation gap now that u..me..etc are older now? i can't sit at a bar and bullshit with some 20 something guy about chicks, markets...can u? so maybe ET is tougher to hang because of that?
Perhaps we really need to investigate and understand Why another popular trading forum site can state that: " Most users ever online was 11,980, May 26, 2013 at 12:56pm. " Probably a survey could be done by sending a professionally designed questionnaire to all posters/ members for why they stopped visiting and posting on ET. What suggestions they want to see for improvements? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_research Before it's too late! Just 2 cents!
I was thinking in terms of that tiny fraction who have (or think they have) a working strategy. To trust a worthy strategy to software made by a company with loyalties that don't lie with the traders but rather with the paying customers (the brokers) just strikes me as extremely naive.