Coach: How's everything going? Me: I called almost every swing right this week and emailed it to my backer. Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything from this individual which concerns me. I am not getting as much communication as I would like. So, I'm hoping this will work but realistic that it may not. You know sometimes: I'm thinking about how can I find another backer (in case I don't get get this funding) and how can I meet my goals. I find myself clicking on google news and it burns me up. I'm reading the news. Coach: Right, it is behavioral coping strategy. You have a stimuli which is the anxiety and your conditioned response is to read or click on news. This helps to temporarily reduce the anxiety because when the brain is taking in more information then obviously it can't process the problem. And, more information also can confuse the mind, temporarily, it can basically overload it so that it doesn't function as well. Ironically, the behavioral pattern is both counter productive and yet easily reinforced. Me: Exactly. You know Mike Bella at SMB Capital wrote one of the most ridiculous posts I've read yet which talked about how yelling at a trader was a good coaching tactic. What I've seen is that yelling tends to be an anxiety relieving process for the yeller more then an effective communication tool. Honestly, the best way to get a behavior one desires is to focus on what you desire and nothing else. It is just that absolute focus without emotional noise which from what I've seen works the best. These principals of behavioral modification of directness work wonders actually in achieving both what one desires with harmony and minimal stress. If you want your dog to go outside and he doesn't listen then don't yell at him. Instead, gently take him by the collar and lead him outside. Coach: And, I agree that directness is virtue. If you want to limit risk to $1000 per day then program that into the system. Getting what one wants by focusing on what wants is the most effective and direct way to influence change. How do you intend to use these principals in achieving your own success? Me: Well, obviously I need to be more direct in terms of defining and focusing on my goals. I'm going to be more aware when I'm engaging in non productive coping actions. I will focus on the types of behavior, you know directly versus analyzing the psychology. Certain I feel that I'm lacking that directness and that focus that I need -- required for success. Coach: And to get that directness and focus then I'm going to encourage you continue to work on getting health, stamina, and physical strength aligned. Everything starts with physical health. You need that physical health and you must take it. Take it for everything that it is worth. Capture and use that single minded focus to burn through these temporary problems. It will happen.
Predictions have been extremely strong. Sharing my work with my interested backer has really helped to get my work back to my normal form. I think I've predicted every move in the market correctly for the last 2 weeks! This is not to say my trading has been as great. I'm doing a lot of experimentation and trying to adapt my style more to what they are looking for. My traditional style tends to need about 24 to 48 hours in the market and it needs to take those risks. My primary objective is to tighten up my trades and to increase my leverage. While I've made some progress, it has proved rather difficult. The difference is that with my current ability I can return 30% to 200% per year with good risk/adjusted metrics. But, I'm trying to do more. I don't know how this will turn out. I'm just treating it as an experiment and having some fun with it. I'm confident in my abilities and so I'm not afraid to try out ideas that might not work. In a lot of ways, this is a challenge to myself to try to challenge my existing beliefs. I've found a combination, a trading style, that works great for me. However, it doesn't mean I've found the very best style nor that I can't improve. To make this a bit more valuable for my readers, I will share the 3 models of betting, briefly. Casino model (Minimize risk per bet) Maximize opportunity model (Maximize profit factor) Maximize accuracy/Minimize cost model (Maximize net profit) Each of these models contain important assumptions about the nature of edge in the market and each of these models have various strengths and weaknesses. More in next post. I'll be posting this to my blog, as well.
Just an update, I've been busy with work and have taken a break from studying/reviewing trading. Honestly, it is hard to continue to put in the work to remain at the very best without funding. My experiments on the demo account haven't went well. However, I have convinced my potential investor that my ability to predict the market is real and so he has continued to encourage me. I am no longer updating my discretionary C2 system and that's a shame because almost every trade I would have placed would have been a winner. Even so, I checked my stats against long term tracked futures systems and my system is ranked in the top 10 when ranked by sharpe ratio. By my ranking when combining sharpe ratio with equity curve shape then I rank in the top 5 to 7. Anyway, I've also decided to withdraw from most other traders, as well. I really think that 99% of the people in this field are losing or liars. I find that it isn't productive to keep pointing this out. Replying to forum questions doesn't pay me, either. I honestly think that I may fail/not trade for the first time. I mean I've already have the top ranked futures systems. I've already begged for capital. I've already told everyone I'm one of the best in the world and my record demonstrates that. I've already did without and saved everything I could for years but haven't made much progress to having enough. Sure, I make more money but I have more responsibilities. Much of whether a trader will be successful simply boils down to how much capital he has. And you know, yes a prop firm is considering to back me and I won't name names. But again, he's been rather encouraging which is good. Most of these "traders" out there though are making the bulk of their money by offering training, offering dvds, offering courses,... basically sales. And the guys who get capital aren't that much different then the guys selling some other trinkets. It is just selling something else. Maybe, I need to refocus on selling to win at this game.
Madoff was good at selling too...Look where that got him... Focus on building up your own capital and improving your strategies to trade your own money. Other than that you can go the prop firm route.
To the OP. Absolutely nobody is going to back you with demo account results. Has nothing to do with your ability to sell. I'm a bit confused by your statements throughout this thread. You claim that you feel you are the best in the world and that you've demonstrated it. Then you say that your program doesn't even rank #1 against an internet database. On the most popular fund databases, my program (trades real money) would rank; #1-2 on one year returns alone #1 on two year returns #1 on five year returns #1 on sharpe ratio #1 hands down when considering sharpe and equity curve Very confident that this will continue. Still, I don't think or claim that I'm the best in the world. I know of a couple traders who have outperformed me but are completely off the radar. Gotta stay humble in this industry. IMO, investors aren't looking for you to proclaim to them how perfect you are and that you're the best in the world.
Why did you stop updating your collective? If you are good you will build capital from subscribers. Seems like you demand instant gratification and capital but don't deserve it yet. How old are you? You come across as 18ish. You will have a hard time getting much investment being so young. If you are older you need to learn to not come across as an emo teen in your writings. In other words you need to act like a pro if you want to be treated like one.
It seems that the elitetrader wolves have came out detecting that I'm having a difficult time. But, the elite trader denizens are nothing that I fear. I don't have time to address all the questions/concerns. However, I will add my most prescient reflections. * I've been at this for over 7 years. For over about 5 years, I've been winning. Indeed, I am one of the best in the world, if not the best at what I do. Does that mean I'm the best trader? Absolutely not. But, it does mean that I am very unlikely to find anyone as good as I am when I set the rules to my LIKING. A lot of people here don't understand there are MANY GAMES in trading. I'm the best in the world at 1 game. I don't claim it is the most profitable game to play or the best game. I don't claim I'm the best at EVERY game in the casino. Even so, no matter how good I am then it won't make me a dime without funding. If this isn't palatable to your senses then let me share an analogy. Steve Jobs has, for all intents purposes, all the money in the world. No amount of money though has been able to buy him health. I'm sure he'd give up all of his wealth if it would make him healthy. The average healthy person has health in abundance and no wealth. Likewise, the average trader doesn't have the skills or the capital to be successful. They just immediately assume if they had the skills then they'd have the capital. But, the capital doesn't come from the skills. It comes from selling. Now, I was actually very good at selling in the past when I dedicated myself to that, breathed it, enjoyed it, fought it. However, now I am dedicated to making myself great at trading. It is difficult to pursue 2 performance activities at the same time. * Isn't it nice that all the great traders here can't show their audited record? I offered a monetary reward for anyone who could produce records that proved they did 3k-4k per month on a 10k account (over a reasonable time). Nobody came forth. So, when i speak about records, I speak about records that I can go and check. Not dream records. * Some traders say they don't feel they are the best in the world. They don't feel they can be the best. To those, I tell you to get out of this business, get out. Quit now. * Someone asked about why I didn't continue to update my C2 record. I tell you why because I have a top 7 ranked system. I've only had 1 person really wanting to subscribe. There is no money at C2. I only used the C2 to create an AUDITED record to show to serious investors. Getting subscribers at C2 is not part of my business plan. In fact, I view it as a required liability in a sense because they can subscribe for too little. I am still updating my quantitative system at c2. I've had several subscribers interested in it. Why the difference? My discretionary system has been tracked longer. The reason is that people don't make decisions the way you want them too. An investor has a lot more confidence in a systematic method that was both profitable historically and in-real time then a discretionary method. It is very difficult to find any investors that will entertain funding a discretionary trader no matter how great the record. Again, if more of you were actually in the business and trying in this business then you'd soon discover this. Fortunately, my quantitative system has been very strong.