the only equivalent to "house" in markets are the brokers. yes, they always win. does that mean that all the players loose? i don t think so no...
IMO trading is closer to poker in this sense. There's a "house" which keeps small part of the pot and indeed always wins, but there are also winners as well as losers, both occasional as well as consistent professionals.
That small part is enough to take away your edge over time. Just like you say you will win over a series of trades, the consistent Vig is why your tactic and TA philisophy is guaranteed to fail. See your journal. I am not trying to be a jerk--- it's just necessary sometimes to come down heavy when folks just don't seem to understand.
Definitely it has to be overcome in order to produce net profit. That's what differs losers from winners. What's wrong with my journal?
Nothing is wrong with it. Ask yourself , is it profitable enough to overcome the long term effects of the Vig?
Absolutely. I wouldn't trade something live and especially for other people if wasn't sure about the strategy. Beating the figure of 20% annually which you called "top performance" is not even a question and significantly more is pretty realistic.
Somewhere in the range of 4% for conservative capital allocation since beginning of journal in June I think. But we both know trading is a marathon, so short-term profits or losses shouldn't be taken too seriously. Decent sample size consisting of many trades is needed to make conclusions. Series of 10-20 trades can likely be random.