I understand what it is you are battling with... Invest your trading money in your business to grow comfortably. I am sorry to tell you this....the above statement is enough to tell me you are DOOMED as a trader. There is no other way of putting it to you.... Here is the tip..You have a business...you know what works...when did you ever give yourself the opportunity to understand currencies? Currencies market behaviour are not coin tosses... I wish you well,but please, stick to your business...trading is not for you... NiN
Odds of someone my age with their own business and nest egg with no help from mommy and daddy ...... guessing around .05% on the conservative side..... Most my age are in debt 25K-50K Odds of being a successful trader 5% I like these odds.
No way. Odds of success in business is directly proportional to the work you put into it. Nothing is further from the truth in trading trading is cold methodical boring. If you LOVE trading like you clearly do your odds of success are 0 and that's being generous the market is a funny mechanism. It holds the greatest attraction to those least suited for it. That's how it lives. It's clearly not for you. Please quit now. You can thank me later
Maybe you have to get uncomfortable. You say systems you have come up with are not profitable. Can you tell us why?
Let me be curt and to the point. Its a hard stat that 95% or round about that number guys who venture into trading LOSE. Why you think you will be in 5%? Were you in top 5% in your class, or in athletics or anywhere else? No need to answer us on ET, just some fodder to think about! If you want to win, you want to be methodical. 'Know yourself' - what does it mean? Know your numbers, know your edge (Assuming you have an edge - question for you - do you have an edge?), know your stats(win, loss, % correct, your uncle point). Doesn't matter if you are disc. trader or 100% systematic, you will have some numbers.... know them. It will take you 2 months to 2 years of data(depending on amount of back-testing you have done or more time if you are doing only forward testing) to "know yourself". Till this time, just keep on trading 1 or max. 2 contracts to give yourself some flexibility for entry/exit. If after 'knowing yourself', you figure out you have an edge, and you can psychologically handle your changing Net worth, just go ahead and start increasing size. Marty Scwartz lost money for 9 years before he became profitable. Persist! On 2nd thoughts, you should also answer this to yourself not to others on ET: When you already have an edge in your business, why not keep doing it? Why do you want to do trading -- just for fun of it. My friend, if you want to succeed in trading, you gotta be methodical and rational. Leave your emotions outside please. and you gotta have the personality to take and run risk. Know yourself!
Quote from olliescigar: No way. Odds of success in business is directly proportional to the work you put into it. Nothing is further from the truth in trading Fine. Go play the roulette wheel. Keep playing it for 5 years. Report on how much better you are at the end, compared to the beginning. trading is cold methodical boring. Glad you are such an expert. Umm, how much risk-adjusted return have you made annually the last 10 years? If you LOVE trading like you clearly do your odds of success are 0 and that's being generous Stop babbling the market is a funny mechanism. It holds the greatest attraction to those least suited for it. That's how it lives. Proof? It's clearly not for you. Please quit now. You can thank me later For what? Because you have blind, unfounded opinions?
Blox, What's common does not work consistently. However, sometimes common knowledge works, just not often enough for it to be profitable. Fading it is the same deal, does not work consistently, so forget about trading what's common or fading what's common. That raises the obvious question, so what can you do ? For starters, you need to be patient in trying to detect when the common strategies are clearly not working for the common traders and determine which side is trapped and how bad, if you can do that efficiently their exit decisions, which are usually quite dramatic, could be your consistent gain. This takes time, this takes dedication, plenty but it's a step in the right direction. Try not to read too much into public suggestions, traders around here don't really have a clue, very few do. Best of effort to you.
I know you didn't wake up watching euro and s&p futures when you were 16 -- my question is, why not trade stocks? There are hundreds of liquid stocks to trade, which equates to many more possible setups (however you define them). Why focus on singular markets where you are constantly competing against the fastest and brightest? And your setups -- what advantage do you have in employing them? In other words, why do you expect or deserve to make money from the markets? Do you think you're the only trader that has charts, bollingers, moving averages, etc? If you're sincere in asking for help, then answer these questions first for yourself.