I do a lot of typing here... over the years I've improved at self expression and it has extended over into my personal life for the good as well.... But I'm looking at my current trading strategy and wondering how much influence ET had on it... not a lot really... not all that much... and most of those parts that came from ET are very commonly discussed almost anywhere trading is discussed... there is a gem or two in there that basically, without ET, I'd not have them but they are not a large part of the overall strategy...
I agree with the poster above who said they never meet a trader in real life. I do belong to two stock trading groups, but I don't think there are many real traders in there, if any. The population of each group fluctuates a lot and there are only a few chronic attenders. As I have gotten to know some of the regulars I realize they are not well suited to trading, either. The bottom line is, I like to talk about trading, but I don't do it much with my friends. First, they do not understand what it is anyway. Second, nobody really wants to hear you talk about money, especially if you are making some--it's obnoxious and rude. But here, I can talk about it.
ET is particularly useless, though it is entertaining at times (until the usual whiners start using the threads to rant at one another)
Then one uses the ignore button for those. But flaming is standard fare on almost every internet board. It is the nature of anonymous collections of people.
LOL OP. You sure poke some shite for someone complaining about the value of message boards (you might see your shrink about that old fellow). I still suggest you pm me in 2 years to demonstrate that longevity instead of making unverifiable bb claims.
It would be ironic is those other traders didn't think the internet was useless. Out of curiosity, how did you find out about your broker, data vendor, virus protection program, spreadsheet program et cetera if you thought the internet was useless. My point is that trading involves more than just trade signals and if you make trades via online connection...you will understand that the internet is absolutely valuable to your trading needs. Seriously, it seems like you're saying that after you've gotten what you needed from message boards or any other online source that helped your trading... Your now having difficulty in finding anything new that will be useful along with finding it as useful as your in person collaboration. By the way, I too find more value in the in person side by side collaboration but I also communicate to the same folks via the internet especially considering I don't see them every trading day in person (once or twice per month and that's all). Simply, the internet is useful in the relationship in maintaining those in person collaborations. Mark
Retail trading is a solitary profession, He/She needs social gathering of like-minded traders. This is a good place, trader monkeys scratch each others back or have a flaming war, or pure wast of time which is part of a trader's life.
So maybe YOU could teach us something. If successful traders don't share, why do you expect others to do the same??? ET is what you get out of it. If you put in your time and effort to find the valuble posts, you will get value out of it, otherwise it is just timekilling/etertainment. So as a start, share a few of your strategies, experiences.
It is indeed very difficult to sort through the posers in search of honest intellectual interaction with like-minded professional traders. There is going to be two major problems with ANY forum open to the public: 1) Successful traders are usually very tight-lipped about interacting and sharing, and 2) Posers are not at all usually tight-lipped about interacting and sharing.