Dog-Who-Thunders. It's frogtalk. A poor jest referring obliquely to the famous bistro in Paris "Chien-qui-Fume", the smoking dog.
I repeat my question in case it got lost in the banter. Kindly do continue. I will cease quoting T-DOGG so he won't disturb your train of thought.
He takes himself a little too seriously, perhaps more than he is entitled to, so his smugness clashes with his thinly veiled contempt. Picture a navy suit with brown socks.
I think I get the message. Let's you and all his other fans hold it until I finish the interview, then you can all have at it after I'm gone.
I am going to change up the order of my questions, then, based on your response. I wanted to interview you to get a concise explication of your views on classical TA, which I will solicit in a bit, without all the catcalling that occurred on the thread. Not that I am agreeing with you, mind. I just want to hear you out. Proceed, please. But first this question: do you think it is a good idea for an aspiring trader to read books on trading? If not, why not? But if so, please identify a few that you would recommend. Books are an excellent way to get grounded in the fundamentals of trading. Certainly a lot cheaper than some of the $5000 seminars or $999 black box systems. I do not recommend any particular books outside the ones recommended by others. I would recommend sticking with the highly rated ones. I have read the Market Wizards and Fundamental Analysis & Technical Analysis by Schwager for example. But in all, I have read over 100 books. I also regularly read TASC, Futures & Active Trader mags. In addition to the Books link at ET, I recommend Amazon.com. For one thing, there are used books available that are often cheaper for people wanting to build a personal library. And also, more popular trading books have customer reviews posted, as 110 customer reviews for "Trading in the Zone" here: http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Zone-...1987266?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189801600&sr=8-7
Oh, yes, the Douglas books are near the top of my list. But I am surprised at your answer, because I view most books as being compendia of hoary old indicators and oscillators that don't work. Of course we could probably all name them! But what do you think a new trader would get out of those hundred-odd books, the good psych books excepted? And as I am about to be dragged out of my intorvert house by my extravert wife, I will pose one more question. Cold you summarize for us your views of "What Doesn't Work on Wall Street"? I ask because I couldn't bear to wade through that whole thread. Also for the benefit of those here who head the other way when they see a thread Marketsurfer has posted to. I'll be back late tonight. Thanks again for your kind indulgence. This is already stretching my old mind!
Oh, yes, the Douglas books are near the top of my list. But I am surprised at your answer, because I view most books as being compendia of hoary old indicators and oscillators that don't work. Of course we could probably all name them! But what do you think a new trader would get out of those hundred-odd books, the good psych books excepted? Ideas, money management, psychology, how futures markets work, how brokers operate, regulations, leverage, stocks, options, CFTC/SEC & govt oversight, evaluating systems, price charting, statistical validation, tax issues, retirement considerations, effect of catastrophic events on your trading, diversification, what FA/TA are, etc. etc. etc. And as I am about to be dragged out of my introvert house by my extravert wife, I will pose one more question. Could you summarize for us your views of "What Doesn't Work on Wall Street"? I ask because I couldn't bear to wade through that whole thread. Also for the benefit of those here who head the other way when they see a thread Marketsurfer has posted to. Almost everything used by Joe Sixpack Trader doesn't work well. All of us have a myriad of personal tendencies, motivations, and beliefs. A couple of my personal rules are: --- If someone purports to makes wildly profitability trades and refuses independent monitoring (Collective2, timertrac, timerdigest, futurestruth, Robbins, whatever), then he/she can be dismissed. --- Just because it is widely publicized/believed does not mean it is true. If I plug in hundreds of trades (data points) over differing market structures, and find the average/median trade does not outperform (edge), then I dismiss it. Unfortunately, statistical validation is lost on part of the ET community. They lot prefers to believe, and instead refers to vaporous other gurus who seem to make it work anyway. This was some of the points of the OP in that "TA doesn't work" thread.
Hmmm. I hardly know how to respond, since I am focussed so tightly on intraday trading, even scalping. I assume you refer to your preferred time frame of 1-3 days. If so, how do you get statistical methods to work with such relatively small samples, especially since there is an upward bias to the markets? And to the extent that you can comment, what DOES work on Wall Street? Oh, and congratulations! You seem to have found the perfect work and still be able to trade. There is always that awful dilemma otherwise that you make too much money working to quit and trade full time. And BTW, I tried swing trading for a few years and failed miserably at it, so you have my respect for succeeding at that.