In 'regular' businesses, it takes couple of years to build a customer base or loyal clientel to be profitable.. or break break-even point. but in trading stocks, you don't have an customer base or business to build. so you should be making money on first 1 day of trading or there is something wrong with your trading system. or trading plan is flawed... if you keep losing money you should quit the way you are trading. it's call cutting your losses...why continue to lose money in the business....your time is money too
I'm with traderNik on this one, even your thread title reveals alot -- "waiting" won't get you anywhere different from where you are now. I've seen a few of your journal setups and have already warned you that what makes you pull the trigger isn't going to work over the long run. The good news is, you're doing what all traders starting out do their first year(s) or so; the bad news is you will fail if you continue to stay where you are and not move forward. The most important thing for you now is to realize that your results might have very little to do with your actual edge or lack thereof, and everything to do with current market conditions. The market might break new highs, grow more volatile, hence more and more of your breakout trades start coming into green more often. But all that might do is confuse you by implying you are "improving" on your trading, when that might not be the case at all. In other words, don't confuse brains with a bull market.
Vectors101 - STFU. If you are being sarcastic - then by all means, that's funny... but, I think you're antagonistic, and, frankly - overflowing with shit. I too have followed cash through the *years* now - both nik and I have mentioned similar things to him. I also think that cash is doing just fine for his experience level. Cash, you've got capital, you're breaking even (positive for some months). These are good signs - you're doing just fine. Good post TraderNik - pretty much exactly what I was going to tell cash. The answers lie in self-reflection. It's called an "internal locus of control". Cash, you are the reason things happen - think about that for a few minutes - the world/market does not "do things to you", you are the one behind all your results. I will say that the last two weeks have been a struggle for anyone who trades a breakout strategy, so, if that's what you're trading cash, then its time to add some more skills to your arsenal. Remember - part of growing as a trader is seeing all the market cycles - this takes a few years minimum. Mike
Interesting response to my post, cm. So let's see... Well, there's a difference between being disappointed in your performance and not knowing whether you should quit. For example, as a beginner you might have had a bad week trading, a week in which you took some losses by breaking your own well-formulated rules. You might say 'Damn, I am disappointed in my performance today, I need to do better'. But if someone asked you if you were wondering at what point you should just quit, you might say 'What, are you kidding?? I'm not going to quit! I'm going to keep trying!'. But more generally, it's interesting to me that you are disappointed in your performance. As I pointed out and as Mike also pointed out, you actually seem to be doing not too badly! Since you know that the vast majority of guys fail completely, the fact that you have made over 100 trades and are only down 2.3% should actually be very encouraging! But you seem to be choosing to be disappointed about it. I say choosing because once again, there is nothing in your performance to cause disappointment, necessarily, and you are fully aware of a) the failure stats for newb traders and b) the fact that xx months of breakeven, given higher trade frequencies, is perfectly acceptable. You know all of this... and yet here we all are. By the way, I totally disagree with the guy who said that you should be profitable starting on Day 1 and that trading is not like a business. To say that all successful traders were successful from Day 1 is ridiculous. This is another very interesting comment. I actually took quite a bit of time to compose a response to you and I went out of my way to make sure that the tone was not abusive, and that it was clear that I was trying to show you something that I see and feel you could really use (and apparently others here see it as well). What about my post suggested to you that your posting here bothers me? Anonymous internet personalities don't bother me (ok, maybe ZTroll bothers me ) I hope you find a way to profitability and I doubt you'll do something as precipitous as quitting, now, when your performance doesn't justify it. I doubt I'll put you on ignore - there's no need. I will make this my last post to you and wish you luck. The sooner you stop looking outside of yourself for answers and look within (cliche as it might sound, it is the truth), the sooner you will find what you're looking for. This is assuming that you are not trying some horrendously misguided strategy, but I assume that they've straightened you out in your journal thread. You've asked a lot of questions here, cm... I mean a lot. Do you have the answers you're looking for yet?
I guess everyone thinks their trading experience is going to be different...that some how they'll pick it up just a little bit faster than the next guy. Sad to say, looks like I'm going to have a very grey next few months. cm
even lescor will tell you it's not that easy http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17707&perpage=6&pagenumber=2