Deep Pockets, Are you can simply skip all the bullshit and ask for track record of trades or broker statements, right? In addition, how will you confirm "the real deal" even beats the SP500 index year to year? You will spend months and months listening to about 500 traders who will send in you about 500 rabbit holes. lol
You'll run into many issues. Some of the best posts, threads, members are way back in history. Sorting wheat from chaff is a huge task. Do you think you can recognise a helpful tip when it's presented? If you don't know then how can one know? If you find someone whom you like, then look at whom they follow, that is if their profile is viewable.
Think of ET as a cafe lounge where people come to chat after work, most is idle chat, social chat. I've been in this game +30 years but seldom/rarely discuss actual trading. The reason; my trading is unique, my style of coding and algos is unique, no one I have ever read about use my methods. I wouldn't discuss it because I don't wish to. The point is, this trading game is a long lonely road, ET is a space for relaxing and letting off steam, a place to express oneself because if you talk about the real nuts and bolts of trading, everyone has a different opinion and most often we pull in different directions.
you don’t want to listen to people who have an edge. You want to learn from people who can help you develop your own edge. the valuable people will give you the pieces which you synthesize together.
I hear you and largely agree. Although track records are important, they are most often not statistically relevant. Often they are too short to have statistical relevancy, or, they are during a specific type of market environment. A good example would be someone who almost perpetually trades from the long side (which is most people), during a bull market (like we've had for so many years), it's very hard to discern if that person has positive expectancy and generating real alpha or is just riding the beta wave. I'm someone looking for pure alpha. A good example is Carson Block of Muddy Waters. That is crazy alpha and it's understandable as to exactly what he does yet he doesn't give away trade secrets. There must be others in different arenas (maybe in the grains, in the unique Chinese futures markets, etc.), that have some sort of explainable edge that gives them positive expectancy throughout a variety of market conditions. I appreciate your thoughtful response
Also, I'm not necessarily trying to beat the S&P 500. Returns in isolation are meaningless without examining how much risk is being taken to achieve those returns. It's the highest after tax risk/adjusted returns that is sought. There is a lot of subjectivity to the "highest quality" returns which is really what I'm personally interested in.
Agreed, it's not easy but I suppose Julian Robertson has done a decent job of finding "Cubs" who've gone on to incredible success. I'm sure he had many failures for each success. One has to enjoy the process of looking i suppose
From your first paragraph, you sound like someone who could be the real deal which I define as someone who can make a good, consistent living from this business throughout an extended period of time. If one can scale size, that's the best of all worlds
I'm not seeking tips or someone to teach me their edge. I'm happy to pay someone who is that VERY rare bird who truly has an edge and produces consistent alpha irrespective of overall market conditions. Tell me your cousin is the syndicate manager at Goldman and you get large allocations of IPO (obviously illegal but just for illustrative purposes). That's an edge. I wouldn't mind hooking up with someone like that. I've allocated out over $1 Billion++ to these very rare situations. They exist but admittedly exceedingly hard to find