Well, sounds like making any money now would be more than you made as a trader (since losing 600k is not making money). I'm glad you moved on, your skill set obviously wasn't a proper fit for trading. Not everyone's is.
Fireplace you could be losing trader and not ready to admit it. however, i am taking your word that you are consistent..i wish you the best with your success. i have better things to do than come on a message board but i do because there are many more guys like i was and i would like to help someone out. sometimes hearing my story will open up someones eyes who relate.
Honestly Hood, I hear ya and if someone else out there is following your same path then they, too, should move on. If you can reach one of those guys then it's totally worth it. My issue is with blanket statements about trading in general. Not saying you are saying this but the vibe I've gotten lately is a very negative one from new/unsuccessful traders. Yes, most will fail but same can be said about most any endeavor where the rewards ceiling is undefined. People should refrain from saying that trading is a total scam or everyone loses just because they experienced loss. I mean, how did you make money for 6 months at a time, was that ALL luck? Or did your undoing have to do with your own weaknesses that you could not seem to get a handle on?
Your story is very common place regardless if it's 600k or 1k lost. Many traders have more profitable months but that one or two losing months bundled with "lack of discipline" is what does them in. Next, they regroup, refund their accounts and do the same thing again via "lack of discipline" even though they promise themselves as you did via saying... By the way, when you were profitable in those long durations prior to having the blow up duration...did you see messages from friends, family or online trading pals that said what you were doing was bad for you or your relationship with your family ??? More importantly, were you getting the same messages when you were profitable during those long durations ??? I'm curious because I think when traders have a taste of success...they are more likely to ignore help, opinions, suggestions to make changes in their trading or stop trading all together when things start to unravel and then go wrong. Simply, hope you do reach at least one person that went through or currently contemplating refunding another trade account after a blow up due to something that's arguably the most underestimated or ignored reason for why most don't make it in this business called trading... Lack of Discipline. Also, glad you're not blaming your blow ups on some indicator, price pattern, chat room, bad data, wall street, obama economics, FED, brokers taking the other side of your trades or any other conspiracy theories about why traders lose because very few have the ability to admit the key to success or failure is YOU. Therefore, to those that are currently profitable with good discipline...stay the course or be sorry. Mark
The truth is 'lack of discipline" only comes into play when you are losing--- "lack of discipline" can also result in HUGE WINS---It's a non issue, in other words. It's something that book sellers and vendors without a real edge push cause it sounds good-- but its just another farce in the real world of trading. best, surf
The truth is that the market needs millions of guys like Hood to keep the casino running. Goldman Sachs by itself takes about $400,000 out of the market in profit every minute during regular trading hours.
I disagree. I've seen too many times as you've noted where traders have a "lack of discipline" that results in big profitable trades. That is far more damaging in my opinion because it convinces a trader or gives a flaw excuse that it's OK to have "lack of discipline". Simply, those few nice profitable trades via "lack of discipline" is not an edge but it is a big issue because it "enables" a trader to continue down that path of self-sabotage. It's like a professional baseball player hitting home runs with bad posture...eventually it will catch up and cause ligament damage to the shoulder, elbow or knees from all the pressure. Thus, you'll knock the ball out of the ball park once in awhile with that powerful swing but eventually you'll be on the disable list or worst. Regardless, it's his own words to the cause of his problems. It doesn't seem like some book seller or vendor told him that's why he failed based upon the history of his message posts prior to this. Like I said, few can admit why they fail and I'm curious if it's because those they socialize with those that have encourage the inability to admit to the reasons for failing. Think about it...how many threads have you seen where someone publicly announced here at ET that they are quitting to then get replies like... * Don't do it * Change your method * Get more discipline I see 5 - 6 threads like this every year. The sad part is this...some of the OPs give in and try again...they refund their accounts...one more time when they shouldn't be trading again. In contrast, OP's of threads like this should just walk away and don't look back after they finally have the ability to realize their flaws along with admitting it's something they couldn't fix. Mark
That's not truth, that's just your opinion. Discipline is the cornerstone of any successful method. I don't care who you are, if you break down and lose discipline and just 'wing it' it's only a matter of time before you implode. I don't care what happens after I exit my trade, I exit for the same reason every time.....my method said to exit. If the trend is to continue, I'm confident I will get another entry signal. And If not and the mkt just "goes" I don't really care. I am confident that there will be plenty of other intraday turning points to catch. I never hold a trade beyond where I should, I do not care to be rewarded by market action that I can't decipher. Surf, successful traders don't make it long term by having lack of discipline.