What you are describing are merely the evolutionary phases every trader must go through before making it. Going from ‘tell me what to do!’ to ‘tell me how to do it!’ and then realizing you have to do it all yourself is a process most traders go through. It will probably continue on for as long as there is trading.
There are definitely two types of newbies and two types of profitable traders. Newbie #1: Help I am just getting started what should I do, is there a shortcut? Trader #1: Get disciplined, put in the time, take notes and learn from your mistakes. Newbie #1: Thank you for the reality check, I appreciate it. May I ask more questions as I begin to make observations? Trader #1: Sure, no problem. Newbie #2: Help I am down in a well can someone throw me a rope? Trader #1: Here you go, here is a rope. Newbie #2: Can someone help me pick up the rope and hold on to it? Trader #1: Hmm? Trader #2: F@#ck everyone! F@#ck the newbies and F@#ck all of the other traders. Why should I be grateful and pay anything forward. I am the supreme cause of my F@#cking awesomeness. Why should I help anyone? In my dictionary 'gratitude' comes between 'gimme' and 'gotcha'. Newbie #1 can become Trader#1 or Trader#2 or a Vendor Newbie #2 is a hopeless case I am sure there is not one profitable trader on ET that is going to lose their edge by newbie#1 also becoming a profitable trader. Edges are not lost by a few noobs becoming profitable traders, to think so is simplistic and naïve.
To learn from someone is an ability caled wisdom.1% only posesses.This thread is pointless, as 99% will eventually learn on their own.
In summary, do not help and do not ask for help. People, what is wrong with you. Please do not judge and just help.
I was 25 when I started clearing through Singer-Wenger. The only help I received was advice from head honcho with the pony tail. I didn’t attend their floor scalping practice sessions they had at CME. Stage: 1 Keep quoting the market with hand signals. Become proficient in being part of market making process. Stage: 2 Only quote certain sides of the market. Based on price patterns and news events intrinsic to the market. Stage: 3 Network and develop friendships in the pit with floor brokers. They will immediately take both sides of your trade from orderflow hitting the market. Within seconds you make 1 tick. This basically fed you and didn’t leave you exposed to speculative risk. What helps me today is developing macro sense of the market within the economic cycle. And playing dispersion in price within the trend using that macro economic back drop. And using other markets to enter before the market moves with implied indications of the first market. Chris
There are a bunch of pathologies on any message board. This happens to be a trading site so you get various levels of experience. 1) The rank newb who obsesses about one method, goes bust, finds new method. 2) The 3rd World FX trader who’s only looking for a new 400x bucket shop. 3) The ex floor broker that never made a living wage on the floor but thinks he’s Izzy Englander. 4) The jaded 30-year grinder who laboriously posts each trade and trend line. On 4th marriage. 5) The dude masquerading as a woman with an avatar taken off of google images. Will spend 3 hours a day spouting Wikipedia-level garbage. There is no subject that they will not feel confident in offering a nickels worth of advice. 6) Jack Hershey — in a class of his own. Empirical proof that some individuals were simply born to fail.