...thanks for answering my question so thoroughly. Reading your response I was struck by how radically our viewpoints differ on trading. I am a lousy trader. I will ALWAYS be a lousy trader. I don't even WANT to be a good trader. Here's why: I will never be able to trade as intuitively, decisively, and quickly as the way I imagine that you trade. Therefore what I want is a stable of good SYSTEMS which I develop in my fumbling, hacking, random style. I want the ensemble of SYSTEMS to be a good trader. What I am puzzled about is that as best I can decipher the relevant posts, Grob109's approach isn't that complicated. If I remember correctly, he speaks of three prescreening criteria, a volume entry rule, and a three level decision tree with eight possible outcomes for how to manage the position thereafter. No doubt there are more rules for the details of entries and exits. As a wild-assed guess, I would think that the system has maybe 20-25 rules. This alone makes it impossible to verify its optimality, but aside from that, it fits on a page. From my perspective, if he has rules, it's by definition a a mechanical system. To me there is not much room for a middle ground between mechanical and discretionary trading. What am I misunderstanding (please remember, you are corresponding with a literal minded idiot)? And BTW, I got to the VERY modest level of success I have now only after I forgot everything the books and gurus teach and started teaching myself by simply watching market action and hypothesizing rules (like most autodidacts, I have a fool for a pupil). Best regards. - Mike
And a shudder ran through the crowd. There have been a number of threads on this point and I hope we don't create yet another one. But even a discretionary system has some rules. Otherwise, one is just trading by feelings. The latest threads on this are fairly recent. I don't have the titles at hand since this isn't a subject that interests me much, but surely someone can provide you with a few titles so you don't have to go through the agony of a search.
Wait a second. I'm a analogical minded idiot. We may go round in circles. What it is you are misunderstanding may better be answered by discretionary traders who know why they are more skillful than those who are not. But be forewarned, I believe what they know may not exactly be rendered in 7 lines.
You seem to be fixed on this 7 line business. There is a vast difference between learning a method/system and learning to be a trader. As I said, the former can be accomplished in no time at all. The latter can take a lifetime. I don't know what the point of this thread is, but if this distinction is not kept clearly in mind, there will likely be far more heat generated than light.
OK, I skipped the previous 8 pages of stuff because I know what it says already. Because we're running around in circles here. Listen, Jack: THE BEEF A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE WITH YOU HERE IS THAT WHEN YOU POSTED UNDER JACK HERSHEY HANDLE YOU DID NOT SPEAK ENGLISH. YOU SPOKE IN WHAT I CALL JACK-ERESE AND THOSE PEOPLE WHO WERE UPSET SIMPLY COULD NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THE HECK YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT. IN MY OPINION ANY INTELLIGENT PERSON WOULD BE AT LOSS AS WELL. THAT IS THE REAL REASON WHY A LOT OF PEOPLE DESPISE(D) YOU HERE. NOW YOU'RE BACK AS GROB. GROB STILL USES HARD TO UNDERSTAND LANGUAGE, BUT GROB ACTUALLY SPEAKS ENGLISH. WHY THE CHANGE? THIS SHOWS THAT YOU'RE IN FACT ABLE TO SPEAK ON THE LEVEL THAT PEOPLE UNDERSTAND AND WHEN POSTING UNDER JACK_HERSHEY YOU WERE PURPOSEFULLY USING ARCANE LANGUAGE!!!!!! DOESNT IT? SPEAK IN LANGUAGE PEOPLE CAN UNDERSTAND AND THEY WILL RESPECT YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS. SPEAK JACK-ERESE AND YOU WILL CONTINUE TO BE DESPISED. THE CHOICE IS YOURS.
Well said everyone. Critiques and criticisms have all been very good. I truly appreciate the civility that the majority of this thread manifested while discussing issues that have previously raised the tempers of one and all. Well, except for hypo' who wasn't here yet. db' made another good point as well in his most recent post, and I wish to follow up with it by saying the usefulness of this thread has run it's course with regards to the topic, so I will close the thread. If there is a desire to continue the discussions that have occurred over the course of the lst several pages, let me know by PM, and I will be happy to split the pertinent posts to a new thread. Thanks again everyone. And a special thanks to nwbprop for sharing his current experiences.