Academia and trading are vastly different fields. I would have imagined you had noticed that by now. Generally, as a rule of thumb, those who have something of value in their hands on ET generally keep it close to their chest. Understandably so. And those who may not, enjoy 'teaching' and lecturing textbook 101 concepts. ET have always been a harsh place and not for the faint of heart, so just relax and don't take everything so personally. You have to take it for what it is and maybe you're expecting too much. If you want a more friendly board, check out futures.io or whatever it's called these days. It's more heavily moderated and my impression is that it's mostly newbies posting there, although there seem to be a few there who may know a thing or two.
Oh, I don't take any of this personally. I just put people on 'ignore' who have nothing concrete to offer. Sure, I enjoy discussing ideas, but I'm not here to have my time wasted by guys who are intent on being dicks or whose replies are practically aphasic they're so unclear and off-topic. One can keep their proprietary concepts close to the vest without being either of those IMO. Anyway, I'll try that other board, thanks for the rec. Sounds like it might be a better fit, and I'm hoping to graduate to futures in the next 6 months or so anyway.
See Baron. Should of named site EliteFuturesOptionsStocksTrader. I say forget the rest, stay with the best. But check your ego at the door.
I never understood the need to ignore other posters - much less publicly announce it. I just scroll by or ignore by moving on. After way too many years on this board my ignore list is still empty, but I've understood there's many who are ignoring me. Each to their own. Anyway, you're doing it correctly by not rushing in and taking your time. I'm sure the most efficient use of your time would be to simply focus on the market and studying it. That's where your answers can be found - provided you're asking the right questions. Consider it a problem-solving task. If you can define the problem, you may have a chance at solving it, but it will not be easy and will likely take you far longer than you had anticipated (even if you set aside a few years). Some will even argue it can't be done. And for most that will be the outcome anyway even if it can be done. If you look at stock indices, though, there are various day types that keeps repeating themselves over and over again, so it may not be a bad idea to have awareness of those. That's your big picture view. From my perspective, yesterday was an Outside Day (roughly 9 % of all days on ES) and today was a Down Day (roughly 30 % of all days on ES) consolidating after yesterday's larger move down. Stock indices are generally volatile, though, so even if you get the big picture right you need some accuracy on your entries and that's more tricky. Generally, it's riskier to enter after the market made a move in a specific direction due to the mean reversion nature of these markets. Sure, once in a while a trend picks up with shallow pullbacks, but clean trend days are about as rare as yesterday's Outside Day. Most days have 2 or 3 major swings.
Sage advice. After a full year now of developing my trading plan, I had what felt like my real breakthrough month in July. Now August has been back to slightly below breakeven, so I'm well aware this journey might stretch out for years still, but I'm 100% committed to eventually gaining financial independence with this. Academia has really changed in ways I won't bore you with to a point where I'd gladly trade for a living instead if it ever seemed prudent. As for having an 'ignore list,' it's simply a matter of efficiency. I forget which posters are better skipped over and end up reading more of their nonsense if I don't have one. And as for announcing that I have a list, well that's just a matter of respecting their time too . Couple candidates in this thread who can rest assured they hit their third strike. Thanks again!
To be honest, I would consider pursuing swing trading instead if you're not too deep in or attached to the idea of day trading yet. Or maybe consider day trading stocks instead of futures. If you think rationally about it considering the time both speant learning it and the time spent actually trading every single day, day trading only makes sense if you're really good and bringing home a lot of bacon on a daily basis. Most can't accomplish that even after years of time and money invested. I think becoming a decent or half decent swing trader is easier. It may take you longer to reach that financial independence, but the chance of reaching it eventually should be much higher than if you choose day trading as your vehicle for financial independence. I may be wrong, but I think I'm not.
I agree. There are certain posters who add nothing of value to discussions. Some are just annoying. Having them on ignore make for a more pleasant experience. On days I'm bored or curious who other posters are replying to I can log off and satisfy my curiosity.
Just a few remarks about your posts. I told I would post some examples from getin and out again. Had still no time but will do it this weekend. There are many people here with huge egos, so they always interfere, assult or attack you. The famous Elite Trolls. It is not because this site is called ELITE that this word covers the reality. The majority of people on ET are far away from ELITE. They are more like people who want to be part of the "Elite" and think that being here is the only requirement. They are stupid and that explains why you get so many stupid reactions. Part of the answer is in bold in the post below: I am on ET since 2004 and learned not to post anything about my trading. There are several reasons for that. I invested a huge amount of money and tenthousand's hours of research over thet past 25 years to get where I am. It is fully logical that I will not give that away. I would create competetion for myself and make my life as trader much more difficult. Several things that I posted in past attracted trolls who started a fight, twisted my words and tried to ridiculize me. So I stopped posting things that might be too shocking for the trolls. Some even try to challenge/insult/provoce/ridiculize you in the hope that you will give away your secret just to show you are right. They just try to steal your knowledge. Over the past decades I had many AHA moments like you seem to have one now. But in hindsight these where just intermediate small successes on the road to profitability. There will normally still many ups and downs before you reach your goal. And on the road to that success you will learn not to pay too much attention to these AHA moments.
Amen to all of that. I knew full well most of these trolls aren't successful traders, but it hadn't occurred to me some of the moronic replies you get on here are to trick you into revealing a stealable edge. Of course I know better than to reveal core parts of my system, but one has to ask, if letting slip even the tiniest bit of general advice back and forth is so dangerous to one's own hard work, then what's the point of having this discussion board at all? Anyway, thanks for the candor. I've been learning entirely on my own for 2 years now. None of my friends share this interest, and half think I've gone nuts to have even developed it. I keep hoping I could find someone to bounce ideas back and forth with, but this is clearly not the place for that. Hopefully I'll be able to tell the valuable AHA moments from the ephemeral ones.
You seem to be contradicting yourself. You don't want to reveal your system yet you want to bounce ideas back and forth. As far as revealing your secrets, I'm of the opinion that you could lay out your trading plan and others would have trouble following it, because it's not their plan and they wouldn't trust it. My Plan: (Swing trade stocks) Buy stocks in an uptrend and hold them until the trend changes. Don't hold any losers in your portfolio.