My dear brothers...OBTAINING AN EDGE

There's opportunity in that mess of ticks and indicators and timeframes. Finding it is like going out in the wilderness alone. You survive, or flourish, or perish. For the successful, it's a lone walk.

 

"GURU" .........Man do I hate that word.

I do appreciate other posts on this thread agreeing and sharing my sentiment. I believe an edge is developed and there is no "one" EDGE that would work for all but that one can find a methodology they can adapt to. I run a small chatroom ( not hyping and wont mention....don't ask ) because I did develop my edge from being in many different chatrooms myself. Some lost me money, some I made some money with, but the main thing for me was watching and listening to people who at least had something of interest to say. Only follow a chatroom that has a moderator that trades him/herself and get to know them a little before you start taking their calls if at all. The main purpose of a chatroom is learning, so if going to one to make money be careful as there are only a handful that can do that. ( small handful )

I am a chatroom advocate, sorry to say, and I did actually develop a lot of what I now do from the various rooms I was exposed to. BUT, I looked at them as more of a learning device than a way to make my living off following their calls.

BE VERY CAREFUL chatrooms can be as dangerous as they are usefull so do your homework, and use them to learn, if they work for you. This is not an easy business to become successful in (trading) so do not take lightly the entrance fee that is required.

Good luck and good trading.

Allenz

 

Neo, I trade pullbacks. I trade them profitably. Everything I can write down about trading them is written down on my bulletin board. My edge is described there. You are a member of my bulletin board and have had the chance to see everything I know. However, I only learned to trade them profitably by putting in many hours of practice and observation, thus assimilating the skills and knowledge that cannot be written down and, most importanly, making lots of silly mistakes and gradually developing the discipline to make fewer and fewer of them.

Can you trade pullbacks? Obviously not, even though the information is there.

This is why you can't in my opinion. It is like the old saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" It seems to me through many of your posts that you are looking to be given fish rather than really striving to learn how to fish. You want the magic recipe for profitable trading. There isn't one that I know of. It requires perseverence, hard work, dedication and a real will to succeed. These are all part of the edge.

I am sorry to say I think you may lack some of these qualities and not be cut out for trading. I say this because of the evidence you have provided here of hopping from place to place in the markets, trying this and that for a short time and then moving on to try something else. You seem to expect to find fish lying around and when you don't find them you ask for them. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work that way.

Not everyone is cut out to be a trader you know and many people would have saved a lot of money by recognizing this sooner than later. You should seriously ask yourself if you might be one of them before you lose your money. I know it is a huge sum by Croatian standards.

There are many descriptions of how to be a "fisherman" in books and on the internet. However, just like a real fisherman you will never become skilled in the markets until you decide what type of fisherman you are going to be and study that style in depth and then practice with real perseverence and dedication, and taking the basic principles and gradually developing the skills and attributes to use them effectively while discovering all those nuances and exceptions that cannot be written down. If you don't have the patience, dedication and perseverence to do this you should quit now

Sorry to sound brutal, but that's how I see it and I am only trying to help you.

Congratulations to Croatia for producing one of the stars of the Olympics.

 

ADCTrader,
Thanks for your contribution.
I checked out amazon.com, which Appel book do you recommend:
1) Stock Market Trading Systems, or
2) Winning Market Systems
Or, let put this another way: which book where you refering to?

Richard

 

Very nice comments regarding trading with an "edge" - agree fully with what you wrote.
Just curious - are you Allen Zuckerman of Realitytrader? If so, you should've stated that you do run a chatroom instead of merely saying you are a so-called "chatroom advocate".
With regards to averaging 20% a month in your trading, you did achieve that in the years prior to 2001 during the go-go years of the Nasdaq. Your results though started going downhill real fast at Mtrader starting the 2nd quarter of 2001.
It sure didn't look like 20% a month returns to me.
This is of course assuming that you are indeed Mr. Zuckerman. If not, pls disregard this message.

 

Give me just a little break.

I do not post, hype, or describe in the slightest my chatroom. I use this board to offer some help and guidance to those interested in learning to trade and this is the reason I did not post where I was from. Yes I am Allen Zuckerman. (big deal) I am a trader like anyone else. Indeed my trading in the latter 1/2 of 2001 left something to be desired as the market changed and I was attempting to make a change to trading a different instrument as the market itself changed, and in my opinion, offered better opportunities in places other than where my trading was concentrated at that time. Throughout rough periods and easy periods alike I always posted my results, good, bad, or mediocre what ever they were at the time I was trading.

By the way Trader88 this is a quote from my previous post.

"I run a small chatroom ( not hyping and wont mention....don't ask ) because I did develop my edge from being in many different chatrooms myself."

My returns over the past 5 years averaged what I said they did and yes 2001 was sub par for me thus the term "average", as my results exceeded that in years prior as they should in those types of markets. Any trader that has ever made a penny in the market knows some years are good and you take advantage of that and some years are tougher and in those you maintain capital so you are around for the more predictable and more lucrative markets. In my reply on this post all I was doing was trying to help without touting my own services to do so. Those that ask questions I always answer honestly and in a straightforward manner without trying to "sell" anything. To Trader88 I am not sure what your post was meant for. Please let me know.

Allen Zuckerman

 

I'm not trying to pick a fight. I just feel that we should all be honest in what we say - or post.

Cheers.

 

IMHO, I only agree with Rigel and possibly dufferdon.

I will tell you this though:

1) Hitman posts a journal on this site, and he trades like a sh*t load of daytraders I know.

2) Don Bright has posted a strategy that _NEARLY_EVERY_SINGLE_TRADER_AT_BRIGHT_USES That's like 250 daytraders!!!!

3) Robert Tharp has posted one of his "systems" on ET.

4) I don't know anything about dufferdon, but he seems to have given you some ideas.

For crying outloud man, what the heck do you want? Here is an example of something you migh have said that might get you somewhere: [the following is fictional and meant as an example]

"Guys,

I have been trading for a while. I have tried the chartrooms, I have read the books, I even went to dufferdon's board. The only conclusion so far is that scalping is definetly not for me 'cause I am 60 years old and I am too slow. I also can't stand NASDAQ, cause that shit moves all over the place. I think I can handle daytrading, but what really fascintes me is Swing Trading.

I have made a few trades: Here are the setups and attached are the .gifs so that you can follow my thinking.

I would love some comments.

neo_hr

With this, _MAYBE_ you would get some sort of answer. Another is if you opened a journal like Hitman, put in the work, and made people feel like you were working your ass off. Than, maybe after a month of getting your ass kicked trading 100 shares, and _STILL_ persevering, someone, just maybe, will take an interest in guiding you along.

I don't know how else to say this brother, but I think either:

1) You are ready to trade - go for it and keep a journal and write _EVERYTHING_ you are thinking (BTW, "thinking" can really get in the way of a good trader, but in your case, you need to do this.)
2) You aren't cut out for it.

nitro

 

nitro

I think you want to address your last post to
neo hr instead of tntneo.