Regardless of where either of us are in the intellectual scale, this statement has little use. I have seen way too many "gee, if someone is continuously losing, what if I do the opposite?" This is called grasping at straws... My previous statement stands. Profitable trading has little to do with reversing the practices of an early trader. It has to do with learning proper money management, studying the markets until your eyes bleed to understand their characteristics, finding your edge(s), controlling emotions when risking real money, becoming a student of leverage, reward:risk factors, and numerous other things.
IOW, doing the opposite of what a newbie would do, correct ? Your previous statement suggested not learning this busines like everybody else, but doing the opposite. Hello. I was refering to trade execution and management, not path of education. Lost more than a few points though...
1) you get to find your *edge* 2) you have to be d*mn good in executing this edge, because you won´t be the only one working this edge. (most never even pass the 1st stage imo)
it is NOT entirely true people are stupid & thus they can't make it in trading. you all seemed to forget manipulation is pervasive in wall street. the big boys are "killing" small shrimps for their gain. even within wall st, the smartest guys are being hit in regular basis. so, please don't be over-confident & don't put people down just because they lose money and you are not, one day you will feel very regret because you'll learn a hard lesson soon enough: "no one owns the market, NO ONE!!!!"
well, sorry to keep the questions newbie-ish. But a lot of people speak of keeping your emotions in check when trading. It seems to be a big issue. So my question is, what about using a black box? A program that makes all the decisions for you. Do experienced traders do this? And if so, does it work?
Etc. etc. etc. Nothing but put-downs and ego-stroking, but I guess that's par for the course for ET . I'm very happy with my progress, thank you very much. Maybe I'm years away, maybe months, but I'm certainly further along than I'd be if I'd spent the past six months reading theory and trading with play money. Not to say you shouldn't do the studying; quite the contrary. I just prefer to study things I can try out the next day in the market. Personally, I move forward when I lose money. I set out the rules that are to be followed, I tell myself to practice patience and discipline, but I only start to actually do these things when I take real losses in a real environment. This strategy has cost me about 5% of my starting capital so far; maybe it's not for everybody. Point is, your experience will vary. I find that live-fire practice is the best way for me to learn. Maybe the multi-year sabbatical is the way to go, maybe it'll just be wasted time you could have spent gaining useful experience.
I dont know much about the subject of black boxes, but its not easy. Unless you can program, you'll have to pay someone, and you'll have to work out the bugs which will result in lost money..god knows how much. Goldman lost over 1bln from their black box trading...and goldman has some of the smartest minds in the business.