You failed while a few did not...that's trading. Most will not be profitable while a few will. It's that failure to understand, failure to be profitable when you know there are traders out there that are succeeding regardless to the method being used. That's life and the fact that most business owners will fail while a few will not is proof. I have a friend that's starting his 3rd restaurant in 12 years. The other two didn't make it. What keeps him going at it? There are two very successful restaurants within 5 minutes driving distance from his home. Those restaurants have been around for +20 years (family owned). He sees that every day and its what convinces him he can do it too. Thus, its not an illusion about the success of others. The real illusion is his own abilities to properly run a restaurant business. Traders are no different animal. As long as you see someone else that's profitable, there will be that urge to keep trying. I don't know if [Al] Brooks is profitable or not in his trading. Yet, I have seen "a few" traders using his concepts from his method (not as originally designed by Brooks) profitably based upon real-time trades and some broker statements and I have seen others fail too. Will they all continue succeeding or failing into next year, next 10 years...I don't know. Yet, I do know this fact...you're just not getting it via your own admission and you should go back to the self taught route until you get it or go bust (seriously). That way the next time you look in the mirror...there's nobody else there except you. Hopefully the next thread you start is about you as a trader of the self-route. wrbtrader
Posted this morning, 0549 NYT: And after the market close: This is exceptionally difficult and should not be attempted unless under the supervision of a child.
This thread never had a chance of staying on topic and not going to hell anyway... http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index...itable-strategy-for-struggling-traders.99283/ This is the infamous AHG thread. http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/fib-expansion-and-retrace-in-forex.223293/ This is Shopster's thread. Very good thread. similar principles just laid out differently. btw - the original posters in these threads both were also called every name in the book. Fraud, guru, snake-oil salesman, hindsight chartist, etc. At one point "a truck driver that doesn't even actually trade" was eventually alleged.
Eh, I'm new but already getting used to that. I knew about Anekdoten, but hadn't seen Shopster's thread. Thanks! Funny, if someone isn't selling anything, just sharing how they work, who the heck cares what their P&L actually is? They're just meant to be seeds for my own system development ideas, not pre-cooked "this is the one and only way markets work" instructions. I haven't yet seen anyone pretend to have the holy grail, much less share it if they had it. The only holy grail would be time travel, anyway. (Groundhog Decade - now that would be profitable!) What keeps me on ET though, is that minority of vocal members who do put in the work, and share with each other. Trolls are easy enough to ignore.
Tisk tisk... now you're just getting nasty... just like Schaefer who states "In case, it is still too difficult for the kiddies, I labeled the lines for you." Db, I have always at least thought you to be civil. Firm yes, but civil. Lately though, you're getting a bit arrogant, and its rubbing off on Schaefer who seems to go to town with your demeaning comments. Trading is anything but easy, and the proof is in the widely available statistics of how most people fail. So don't go around berating those of us who aren't doing well and making it sound like a child could do better. Please have a little more respect than that. Furthermore, about your posted, chart, it sure is beautiful how price reacted at the overnight high, which of course was also the previous day high, and also at the overnight low. But here is the thing. That resistance line, price breaks out of it... so what does your arrow mean to say? Are you saying go long since we poke above resistance? Or are you actually looking for a short since you expect further resistance? I know.. the answer is to observe and formulate a plan based on what you see. Then when price comes back down again, you have another arrow at the resistance line. Are you saying now look for a long as a test of resistance which can now be support? Or are you saying that the move above wasn't successful? That resistance line provided both a long, and then a short. Finally, now we reach the bottom of the overnight range. Wow... look at that, price bounces off the support line. So let me see, up above, we broke above resistance, and here, we bounce off support. So at resistance, we go up, and here at support, we go up. So if I'm to understand this, we can either break above resistance or bounce off, and at support, we can either bounce off or go below. Of course you also point out that we can also go sideways in other messages, which is what often happens at these levels with an initial breakout, then a breakdown, and then the breakdown fails because it goes sideways. I think that covers all bases of what is possible... correct? Don't get me wrong, I think the way you explain the market is phenomenal. But what your arrows show, all that they show, is that something will happen here. Its a great way to be right every time!
First off, DbPhoenix's exact words were, I believe, "Trading is simple, but it sure ain't easy." So he would agree with you there. Second, if you would just stop wallowing in self-pity long enough to think about what you write, you might actually find something out of your own head that might set you in the right direction, such as the snippet I quoted above. Get rid of the abused attitude and the smiley face (like Gringo said earlier - we're not mental deficients - we know what you mean to say and we get exactly what is going on with you) and you have an observation from which a consistently profitable trading plan can arise. How do I know? Because it is the basis of my own trading plan. But NoDoji has you pegged - for you it will not be enough to know where the price levels are at which a tradable event will happen - you need to know what that event will be with the certainty that will enable you not to lose. That ain't gonna happen, dude. Third, you have to want to learn and be better than you are to get something out of this. For example, I wasn't trading to tday, but I was watching, I did do step one and identified the range, and at the very end of the day, I had a great moment where I saw the climax and the secondary reaction near the close and realized I would have exited my shorts much more quickly than I have in the past. This behavior has often been the source many of my trading errors. DbPhoenix posted a chart on Friday that really just shook me from whatever was blocking me from recognizing this behavior in real time. Today was a great day for me as a trader, and I didn't even place an order. Lastly, kp, I will tell you again. You are going down an ugly road with respect to your attitude and your behavior toward those who would otherwise gladly have helped you. You may as well put DbPhoenix and other SLA'ers on ignore, and go hang out with that marketsurfer character. I hear he has a system based on something called price drivers that is always right even when the market is wrong.
Don't get me wrong, I fully believe in Price Action trading, and I haven't a clue what price drivers are anyway. I'm fully aware that marketsurfer is full of shit when it comes to trading, although he does post great things as well. I think I'd enjoy talking to the guy, just not letting him teach me to trade!