Successful traders see things that others don't...it's kind of like art, and science. -- Along with a host of other dynamic variables in play that creates their perfect storm of trading success. Trading is kind of like obtaining a black belt in Karate, or nothing. -- There is no in between, or just semi-trading or semi-learning. If you don't have the time or dedication or discipline or mindset...then don't bother with this trading thing , because you will either just slowly bleed money away, or get shotgun shot or ran over with a train or truck. You won't learn how to become a successful trader through books or mentors or seminars or through Elite Traders...it's kind of something that you have to awaken within yourself. Open and exists on your own plane of existence, -- because all the other souls that you know and linger around you...are holding you back from entering that new dimension called Success. But more importantly, My new book called Make Trading and Your Life Great Again will be released July, 2018...High-Five` All 500 copies will be hand-signed by me, and an 8x10" photo of my face included.
Good summary lawrence. Trading isn't like conventional occupations / professions etc. All our educational systems and conventional employment positions teach us that to do a better job and get a better reward we have to work hard, work long hours, be taught by someone more experienced, know more than people less experienced, pass exams, get qualifications, focus on our mistakes to eliminate them progressively and to focus in on increasingly tiny details. None of this is good for a trader. A trader has to get in there and trade. See what works. Know enough to make it work but no more. What doesn't work isn't a mistake, a negative by-product of the learning - it is the lesson.
It just isn't. I know you think it is, because the wording's slightly different, but it's clear to everyone answering "How do I learn to trade?" that "How did successful traders learn to trade?" is actually the same question, and that your reason for wanting to know the latter is to try to answer the former. Don't take this the wrong way, but you need to stop asking the same questions over and over again, expecting each time that the answers will somehow, magically, suddenly prove more helpful to you than they have in the past. They won't. You have to decide by whom you want to be guided, listen to those people and ignore other input, otherwise the outcome (as you've now seen repeatedly) is unhelpful to you. (One way to try to do that is to stick to established, accredited, time-honored textbooks, in the hope that that way the information you get is mostly "information" rather than "misinformation", and to avoid online information. It's not a bad way. It works for some people. It worked for me.) I understand that you're "floundering" at the moment and feel you're making no helpful progress. The reality is that the way you're trying to get advice isn't helping you, and you need a different approach. It isn't altogether your fault. Forums are like that: there's no quality control of "information" and when you ask repeated questions on subjects as vague and ill-defined as you have been doing, you're going to get a wide range of opinions, and they're not going to have any value to you for the simple and obvious reason that at the moment you lack both the experience to interpret them and the judgment to distinguish between the few who know what they're talking about and the many who don't but just like posting in trading forums. It's a kind of "Catch-22" situation: the people who need the help the most are also the ones who don't know how to interpret and use it. There's no easy answer to that reality, but appreciating that what you're doing at the moment isn't working for you is a starting-point. I hope you appreciate that (a) this observation is meant helpfully rather than critically, and (b) we've all "been there". Again, probably the only direct, constructive suggestions I can offer you myself are here.
Mistakes, or real trades won’t teach you anything if you have no brain. People die repeating the same mistakes.
The difference is that the Olympic or World skaters had top coaches (former top skaters) in skating and they had the psychological factor of support from family & friends. In comparision, most retail traders do not have such and believe they can substitue such via social media (online). Only a few can do such successfully. My point, whatever we use to help pick us up...its got to be in person interaction. In fact, its well known that a lot of top athletes will relocate to be near their coaches and support system if such was not available in their own city/town. wrbtrader
You are so right. Retail traders also have the distinct disadvantage of having to trade their own money. If I had to do it all over again I would get my degree in Economics at Harvard and go to work at a firm, getting my salary and expert mentorship while I learned to trade. Unfortunately by the time I had discovered what trading was, it was too late to do that!
Sounds like you're more interested in a job, and having that traditional, steady route. And making your money through a fixed salary, and management fee's. and wearing leather belts and shoes and watches. But then again, for every Dan Zanger, Japanese traders CIS and BNF, Tim Sykes, Marty Schwartz, Mark Douglas, Larry Williams, Larry Wildman, Xela, Handle123, Pekelo, Sweet and Sour Bobby, Kim Klaiman, Charles Tanti, MarketSurfer....there are thousands, if not millions, of completely failed traders/investors out there. It takes a relatively...rare colored diamond of a trader...to make a living doing this trading thing , You have to be able to push things to the limit, in a constantly dangerous environment. Try to predict/trade/manage/tame the daily Dow/Spy/Spx/ES broad market chart. If you're able to do this, then you got something on your hands and mind and future with trading. 2018 ET. Also keep in mind, most people are full of shit and/or not successes themselves. I feel like eating a thick, medium-rare restaurant burger with alot of mayo and ketchup. Two of them. -- and just a water.
Then it means you are not trading in accordance with the behavior of the market. The market is telling you what you are doing wrong. Now it is up to you to make the necessary adjustments and fix it.
You should be able to discover if your system is viable prior to any real money trades via backtesting and then simulator trading. If it doesn't work out in backtesting and then simulator...start over again...keep repeating until you find something that works prior to any real money trading. Yet, lets say you did all that and then the system fails in real money trading after being successful in backtesting/simulator...that implies there's a psychological variable in the trade method that was not able to show up in the backtesting/simulator trading when there was not any real money on the line. wrbtrader