I would like to start this thread to hear the thoughts of other traders about what myself and other new prop traders can do to increase thier chance of making it into the 5 percentile of people that are able to make a living trading. What seperates the the winners from the failures? Not being able to withstand the learning curve? Throwing in the towel before they give themselves the chance to make it? Would like to hear some thoughts about this. Thanks
Some are so afraid they never make the switch from paper trading to live trading. Don't be one of them.
It comes down to one thing.......BALLS Most traders want to make a ton of cash but cant handle being down. They get sick and most exist the trade right away. Since im an original SOES bandit and make a VERY good living at this i can honestly say most traders have no plan what so ever. Before every trade I know where my exit is and when im looking to take some off the table.I also think most traders have no clue as to when to enter and then re-buy when the stock is not going their way. In 10+ years the MOST i ever lost on a trade is 18K in MOT 7 years ago after hours(as there was none and i couldbt exit).You have to know BEFORE hand when to enter and when you want to exit .YOU NEED A GAME PLAN .If your looking to make good coin 500K+ a year then your going to have to trade with some size and your going to have to get used to being down 3,4,5,6,7,8,thousand in a trade.Hope this helps MOMO
MOMO.....I hear what your saying, but I'm not going to be swing size around in the begining. So what im asking is what is going to seperate me from the failures that sat in the same chair that im currently sitting at in my firm?
Oh by the way.....my current style of trading that was taught to me by my mentor (after sitting with him for about a month )is scalping NYSE using the openbook,etc. I've been trading for about 2 months and im trading 100 share lots of CHK,COP,WMT, and a few others so far.
knowledge. Every business is successful through knowing, knowledge. Trading is no different. Just because you have big balls, don't mean you are going to make a dime running a business, More like a quicker ride to the poor house. Balls will naturally come when you have the experience. no pun
CoolWeb....So I should be picking my mentor's brain as much as possible and not worrying so much about trading on my own?
the only way to attempt to guarantee your success is to throughly backtest your strategy as a system. Most people dont have the time to papertrade, so learn to backtest your ideas and others ideas as systems. Youll find that alot of what prop firms provide to there traders are ideas that may have worked in a former market, but clearly does not backtest well at all. There are tons of nomimally profitable systems, that make barely more than what the market returns, and with drawdowns that make them inappropriate for leverage. Youll then wonder, how come some people still make money- because they are doing things slightly different, scaling into a position, altering their strategy. For those trying to trade a strategy that your backtesting research says this strategy is not profitable anymore, I suggest you move on, as you dont belong at the firm. In my short excursion into prop trading, I have come across several of these broken systems being touted by daytrading firms. It also explains the 80% failure rate that exists.
Typically traders, whether prop or not, have many systems or ways or styles they trade that do work, that they do make money with whether high or low risk. However, there are intangibles that profitable traders need to have to make a good system work. They need to have their approach to trading correct. They need to have the capacity to handle risk. They have to develop consistency and risk control. They need to be mentally in the game. The need to be persistent. Think about it, why do 9 out of 10 people try trading. Because they want a easy, laid back, no-boss, low stress way to a high paying job. They want to work 3 hours a day. Guess what, they are likely to fail with a high degree of probabilty, probably 90% or more. Listen, people who enter trading with the right mind set, willing to learn and apply what they learn, while minimizing their ego, and also are willing to dedicate themselves 100%, might have a better shot at success. Those who do not will fail. Goodluck
Mizer, Cooweb is a very motivated, aspiring trader like you are, but he hasnt made any real $$$ yet so take his advice with a grain of salt. Here is my advice and its worked well for me so far: Work hard, always be learning, never get too high or too low, never get complacent, understand that its a marathon and not a sprint, be flexible, be humble, stay focused, trade each day for what it is, and of course, work very very hard