This thread brings to surface conclusions that a trader has made. I will not sit here and pretend that there are not some clear identifiable mistakes that I have made that I regret. Also I have made some wise decisions too. The half cup of water thing I do not want to get into here or the philosophical arguments that destiny may bring... Item #1. I actually was seaching for this and do not regret it. Today trading is not stressful to me, but I need more sleep. Item #2. No I would of ended up trying equities at some point in my trading journey. I do not really know when it would have been the best time. I trade Retail Spot Forex now. Item #3. This I would do. I should have been with the right people or joined ET, but ET was not born yet. I would have studied the "correlation" of instruments. Item #4. I do not know. Item #5. Does not have anything to do with trading other than to challenge your mind and keep it nimble.
alan, guess you are done this time. allow me to say the following. over the years your tone has changed, especially your latest posts are much softer, less edge-driven. the two most disturbing posts i ever read on the net was one of yours regarding your diagnosis of PTS (or whatever that was). the second was one in which you said you wanted that your children have an early edge. i found the latter extremely sad. i have a five year old girl and, hell, i hope she will be strong enough as a person not to need what we call "edge". but well, that post of yours dates back quite long ... take care of your self. and don't look back. g
Without any doubt in my mind. The most powerful paragraph I have read on EliteTrader. Much food for thought.... Thank you Acrary.
I would have stayed at the school that would have let me graduate after the 11th grade. I would have used my college money to start investing at 17 (saying I'm older on the account applications of course). I would have invested 90% in indexes and traded the remaining 10%. I would have pursued a unique business idea that I had when I was a teenager that was non- capital intensive and had a high profit margin. After two years, I would have used a pell grant to completely finance a stint at the local community college and then transferred to one of Virginia's highly regarded public universities. I would have learned to drum and would have joined Weezer right before they broke. I would have gotten my picture on the cover of Rolling Stone and would have used a fly swatter to repel the obnoxious groupies. I would have sold plasma to buy domain names in 1992 and cashed out millions of dollars in the green a few years later. I would have bought 300,000 shares of CMGI at $0.26 and sold a few months later at $330.. hindsight is 20/20...
I would have mastered the discipline of trading early on and avoided wasting all the emotional moves that dropped my P&L. It took me 2 years to finally get past it. I trade like a robot now. It works. Learn it. It's the way to survive.
Nothing....do the same thing, Team up with RMETAL, trade what is moving...never loose my cool and hope 911 dosent happen this time. I would do nothing diffrent. E
I would have taken this much more seriously when I started. It was just kind of a lark....got lucky, made some money. Luck ran out, gave much of it back. Copped an attitude.....you know the one, the game is fixed, F'M MM's, all that crap. Had I quit making excuses and started looking at myself I could have not squandered so much time. Guess that's true about my entire life to date. Eyes wide open now. Better late than never.