I hope to hear responses from the hot boys aka EricP,lescor & Dustin bout how's its going. EricP said he might hang up his gloves,Lescor said he's treading water while Dustin was still whacking it as in the old days.
Seriously? He made 350k in 2012. People love to just make stuff up when all you need to do is look at his thread. Anything to confirm that their mediocrity is ok. Trading is dead, it's impossible, no one can do it and all the other excuses.
Less volume? Less volatility? Wrong type of volatility? HFTs? Dark pools? It moves different? QE? The Fed? Chemtrails? It is different. It has changed. It is changing. It will continue to change. Yet I look at a chart and see that everything is fine. Keep trading!
In that thread that's the lowest he's ever made. I doubt when he started he was banging out mid 6 figures. Oh wait that's right he said he lost for 7 years before he was a consistent winner. The game takes work and I'm sure he will tell you that. I would also be willing to bet that his performance wasn't due to the markets some how becoming unbeatable. I would bet it was because he was complacent the last few years. That's not a knock on lescor either it's just the way trading is and always will be. It's like sports. Does Tiger Woods think it's impossible to win a bunch of majors because he's struggled the last couple of years? It's very difficult to stay on top for long periods of time in any performance discipline. That doesn't mean it can't be done.
Personally, the low volatility has made this my worst trading year in a decade. I've had four losing months YTD, versus only 7 losing months in the prior 7 years. While my worst month has only been a loss of 0.5%, my best month was little better, with a gain of only about 2.8%. The vast majority of my gains in 2013 have come from my long term investments. My trading philosophy is to trade only during periods when conditions favor my trading style. In recent months, the opportunities for successful trading using my strategies have continually declined, along with the volatility. With the holiday trading period expected to contribute to more dull trading days, I've decided to suspend my trading until January. I suspect that this suspension of trading will be 'profitable', by avoiding what might otherwise be a net losing period for me. I expect to resume trading in January and hope to see an increase in volatility at some point next year (or 2015?) as the U.S. reaches an endpoint in the money printing game and must also finally address our fiscal issues. Regardless, I think it's prudent for traders to suspend trading when the environment doesn't suit their trading style, which is exactly what I'm doing this month. I should probably also point out that my relative success in the past decade has made me somewhat lazy, and I've done very little to research or improve any trading edges in my portfolio. "Adapt or die" is fitting as always, and I'm content to be outdated and retired, if that is what the market dictates. A more industrious and motivated trader might redouble his efforts to find productive trading ideas and lead to record trading performances in 2014 and beyond. One other thing to point out that might be of general interest. Of the successful traders that I know, most are finding this low volatility trading environment to be difficult. Perhaps one or two might be having 'good' years, but most are seeing profitability that is on the low end compared with the performance they expect in a 'normal' year. Best of luck in December and 2014!
I hope you or lescor, if he is reading, didn't take any offense to my post where I said that your slower years were because of complacency. If that is the case, I don't blame you as it's obvious you made more than enough during your "better" years to allow for a little complacency. I'm sure it's hard to stay motivated when you have accomplished quite a bit. Best of luck to you too. I can't wait for the fed to stop holding the market hostage either.
I used to make close to 1 million per year for the last decade, this year, my profit is only 200k, worst ever.