This is one of the best posts I've read for a long time! Your "basic truth" is very true indeed. Successful traders don't whine about those things - they don't need to. As for myself, I say this quite honestly, I have been trading under what any of those "great" traders out there would call "lame" or handicapped circumstances; For almost 2 years now, I have been trading under a "terrible" commission structure (IB = 4.80/RT), with an extremely slow internet connection. There are so many people here who grandously declare that they're "consistently taking money off all those lame people with 56K connections..." Ladies and gentlemen: I have been trading, namely scalping index futures ES&NQ, from a 28K internet connection, with a ping of ~450ms. No kidding! And I've done well, and still improving. I chuckle to myself when people talk about their T1-lines in an apartment 500m from the CME and how impossible it is to top-perform without it, because it tells me how much better than them I must be. An ace trader friend of mine lives in a suburban area, too, and does comparatively huge size trading on the indexes, from a 56K connection, doesn't even care. If you want to talk about handicaps, read "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator", so you get an idea what kind of handicaps real traders can deal with. You either are a trader or you aren't. Absolutely, and period! That's what I'm doing. I don't constantly whine about my internet connection, commission structure and brokerage reliability. Instead, I seek solutions. 1. Broker Complaints: Yes, I've complained to IB about their recent server down-times. Quite publicly here on the board, even. Why, to whine? Nope. But to get IB off their four letters to put some money into redundancy. They are long far from the cheapest anymore, they're making plenty of money, don't worry about that. They should bloody well put some of it into looking after reliability. And so they do. They've openly declared they're going to put large resources into alleviating the problems. Fair enough. Anybody who could risk losing a few K just because his broker is down, has a good reason to complain. 2. Connectivity: My lease here is running out in 3 weeks, I've made the very hard decision to cancel, I am in the process of leaving this spectacular beach villa and moving into the city, where I can get broadband (Cable or ADSL), with a ping a fraction of the time, yet not nearly as fast as living in US, but who cares? Better is better. 3. Brokerage: I'm in the preparation of getting a professional broker and an exchange seat with CME, still weighing against each other the oodles of offers I've been getting from the various brokers. This will reduce my commissions by over 75%, plus enable me to throw in a lot more scalping even. You see, from this point of view, things can really only get better. All the spoilt kids are gonna fail as soon as they're subject to worse circumstances. I've already been through "the worst" possible in terms of trading infrastructure, and I'm sure I could perform anywhere. It's like with the Marines. The gutless Army soldiers, if under fire, will run for cover, hide in trenches, wait until it's over. Marines go the other way. They seek cover only behind their backpacks, at the same time sealing forward, pushing even closer towards enemy fire and popping their heads off by the dozen, one or two cool precision snipe shots at a time, while the enemy loses discipline, panics, fires all their rounds and needs countless breaks to get out more ammo and reload. Meanwhile, the Marines keep pushing forward, popping a few more. That's why they can perform at incredible killing ratios of as much as 1:15, and why the Germans called them "Devil Dogs". One or two helicopters full of elite Marines can take control of entire land strips. That, IMHO, is true performance. That is how a true trader should think, too. Whingers don't have my respect. They'll get popped tomorrow, with all the others. bundlemaker, I feel like I have found someone who speaks my language! May the force be with you! Scientist.
And another thing that kills me is the saying "ur only as good as ur last trade". NO SHIT. Ertrader1 This always ranks as a powerful self-humbling saying. But the thing is that in trading your last trade, the one before and the one coming after the last one is only as good as your system. Put another way if you are in Rolls Royce or a Cadillac then the mile coming up after the last mile you've just travelled will be just as good .. right?
===== Question [nickname] ; [#1]Good implied point; some of the best pattern fragments come thru experienced , full time traders/ investors. [#100] However Maverick had a good derivative point welcoming Newbies; remember a new trader asked a chart printing question which on meditation of that question helped my chart printing. === Would respectfully disagree that thoughtful advertisements or money or capital is somehow an evil empire. Like that Scientist little ad for the marine warriors & slow work. [# 500, building on T-rex #100] Even though Andrew Carnegie was born in a poor family in a Virginia log cabin; started with '' $500 buying stocks in steel production'' Andrew Carnegie, Scottish name, built lots of libraries; '' asking only they inscribe the words -let there be light - above the entrance''
An established trader once told me "you're only a trader if you've been trading for at least five years" I've been trading for four. Almost quit a few times but I truly believe a lot of traders are the "posers" you speak of. That's OK though, without their greed/fear none of the consistent veterans would make any money. good luck all