What do they do for me? As I myself learned to trade, I am the type of trader who learns from experience. There are some traders who can read something and act on it precisely and be successful. I'm not one of those as I need to experience it through success and failure in order to have it stick and make sense. Then I can say, "ah, that's what was meant." There are so many nuances and steps to trading because I think the variables change so much all the time. The one variable, to me, that is a constant is human behaviour which is why I focus much of my attention and thought on it. I mentioned previously that one step I take and still take is to eliminate what is hurting my trading. I think I am no different than other traders in that I've had many successful trades and many failed trades. It was a much more suited process for me to eliminate the failed trades rather than seek out and strive to make every trade a success. I suppose this is akin to a sculpture only adding exactly the clay they need as they are making their piece, or starting with a massive imperfect piece and chipping away and eliminating the nonessentials. I found myself to be the latter. One early and simple example of many is that I eliminated watching CNBC on TV entirely. I have not watched it in over 10 years because early on I discovered that it truly had no benefit to my trading and was in fact quite a nuisance and hindrance. I found that it gave me a slanted and almost false sense of the market. The internet has helped greatly as I can now pick and choose to read headlines and just a handful of commentary.
Speaking only for myself, my first post in this thread a few pages earlier had nothing to do with either kindness or concern. Again, it was not about you. It was about my own curiosity, which sadly continues as my two questions remain unanswered.
Id personally like to commend the OP on not even bothering to answer the questions of the usual culprits whose aim is to just disrupt threads. He appears smart enough to realise that any answers he gives wont be enough for them and they'll continue ruining the thread. Kudos!
I started this thread because I feel I am where many on this board hope to be, not because I am a fantastic or great trader, but because I've been trading professionally (my sole profession and source of income) for over a decade and make a very good living from it and plan to do so in the future. So, I started this thread to answer questions to the best of my ability. If my answers are not to ones satisfaction or what one is looking for, then there are many other resources out there. I would hope that it helps someone in some way, but what people are looking for and what they take away from this thread is entirely up to them. When I first started, I read and read and read. Some things clicked some didn't and most things I had to learn first hand. Of those things that I found most helpful were usually the fundamentals/basics of trading and experiences and minds of others. I guess that is the essense of this thread.
If you are not posting under the guise of helping me or others than my post was not about you. I accept that it is not all about me but it is also not all about you.
What's your money making trade secret? You answer this and you have answered all questions of the thread. There is no substitute for the essence.
Okay, but to the extent that you do not have a defined strategy, relying instead on experience and feel, how does this thread go anywhere? You can neither impart "experience" nor "feel" to anyone reading your thread without a fair number of specific examples for illustrative purposes and clarification. Otherwise, the terms "experience" and "feel" have little meaning and no useful application in this thread beyond the initial comment. I'm just saying. Not that I would advocate sharing a defined strategy if you had one.
If the OP is unwilling to share his profitable strategy then what exactly he is willing to share? What else is there?
Hmmmm... then you'd been trading professionally (as your sole profession and source of income) for 3+ years at the time you wrote these? Never would have guessed... I've already browed the CME website looking for a quick summary of e-minis, but theres a lot of chaef there. Can anyone describe in brief what they are, and the difference to options? http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=81047#post81047 Anyone know where I can get these readings on the NYSE and NAS in realtime and preferably for free? besides the CNBC streamer Is there a symbol for TRIN and TICK on InteractiveBrokers? http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=82226#post82226 Is it true that the IRS doesn't get any information whatsoever from the broker about our option trades? As a result, the IRS has no information to compare our reported trades with? Then how does the IRS know if we are over or under reporting our capital gains from options (other than indirectly thru interest reported in bank accounts)? http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=160677#post160677