Ive been in a few prop firms, those who were consistenly profitable had one common denominator, averaging down.
Exactly, trader fighter , well stated. This is because no one can accurately time the market Averaging spreads your chances of nailing the pending move. But tell this to the "price action" TA chart readers and they will not accept it as fact. surf
Looks like you have not been able to find an edge or your definition of an edge is different than most. The first time I heard the word "edge" was when I was a little kid and a broadcaster on TV asked Sugar Ray Leonard what his edge was after Sugar Ray had won the Olympic medal. In fact, I only heard the word "edge" used by athletes until I got older and noticed other folks used that word in different career professions. Simply, an edge to one trader may not be an edge to you. Regardless to the semantics of the word edge... Stay in physical shape, keep the mind healthy, eat healthy is a great place to start before any adventure. By the way, the first edge i discover for myself is to get a good night's sleep prior to trading. Helps tremendously in managing the stress associated with trading and helps reduce the risk of making trading errors in comparison to trading after a sleepless night.
You use charts and TA as stated by yourself many occasions here at ET. The only thing different is that you "believe" your use of charts or TA is different from those you consistently debate with.
If short, I don't want to have to pay the dividend. In old days, most stocks would go down after dividend was paid, but those rules have changed due to electronic trading most likely. I don't want to get stuck paying the dividend and the stock then also takes a leap up to boot. This was another reason why I generally only trade the Dow 30.
That is a perfectly viable strategy but you see it told in books and retail forums that it is the only thing you should not do! Like anything else in the hands of a skilled trader EVERYTHING is a tool.
The only golden rule I have is, stop losing. That seems obvious until you realize just how deep it is.
Says the guy who claims his model has called the top for the year and then didn't add to his short when it rallied close to it.