There's a progression for a new retail trader who signs up to ET, but I'd guess many or most don't get anywhere near full value out of what is, despite the noise and fun, a hell of a good resource. I've noticed at least five apparent misconceptions (if anyone actually cares): 1) ET is full of unpleasant, counter-productive types, i.e. people shoot each other down / you need a thick skin; 2) a high proportion (90%) of ET posters are failed or failing; 3) those who are reluctant or refuse to post details or live calls cannot trade / are not profitable; 4) any specific setups / strategies that are posted are trash and don't work; 5) anyone acting selflessly and helping others is a stealth vendor or full of shit. Adjust the perspective and neither are necessarily as true as they might seem. 1) It's a minority who are counter-productive, immature, etc, but these few tend to make the most noise. Cut through the noise and you see--on the whole, bar the odd off moments--the majority are actually a bunch of reasonable, amicable types. 2) As for the idea that the majority here are losers, well it's most likely true if you include everyone. But remove new and here-today-gone-tomorrow members from the sample and that "90%" number is only going in one direction: down. Taking it further by reducing the sample to only the most constructive (and amicable) posters and that number's going to come down again. I think some would be surprised by the level of success amongst many members. Comprehending a 7-figure trading account is quite a leap when starting out with 5k. 3) Traders like talking about trading. They'll get drawn into a discussion, but it's kind of like driving with the brake on: wanting to engage in a discussion but without giving too many "tasty bits" away. And too many live calls leads to the risk of a strategy being reverse engineered. It follows that those who have gained and continue to gain most from their methods should be least willing to give too much away. This makes for discussions lacking in details and specifics, which could well be frustrating for those needing those details and specifics. That said, there are a few who give away quite a lot. 4) Yep, you can't win, whether you keep the details to yourself or share them! When setups / strategies are shared they're rarely presented along with all that is necessary to make them work, such as prerequisites or footnotes about context. These, sometimes good ideas need to be treated as starting points or food for thought, not complete solutions. And back testing on X years of data will most likely disappoint. 5) Given there are thousands of members, it shouldn't be a surprise that a handful of successful traders do exist who go beyond the call of duty to help others: the others being those who are receptive, humble and willing to learn. Regardless of these perspectives it's a drip feed of information, often hard to usefully interpret without some kind of a foundation. Casting a load of lines off, if that's what it is, apart from having the opposite to desired effect, will most likely be next to useless without a foundation.
As not to be rude, as the author of the title I should acknowledge your satisfaction, but if the truth be told it came out of the ether. I merely typed it in. A not so interesting fact: in terms of number of characters it's the longest title possible. Titillating. My favorite title of late is the one below under Similar Threads: http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/your-forum-is-so-shit.214910/ And its content amused me too, but then different strokes to different folks...
With this thread being a bit dull, I thought I'd liven it up a bit. Here's my largest trade, by size, at the moment. As it stands the paper profit is worth 12% of account. Since the move is only at the beginning, I have great hopes for the eventual outcome. Anyway, look how masterfully I entered the second trade right at the bottom of the price swing ? It's the epitome of perfection.
Now, suddenly everyone and his dog can see prepositioning. I wish I joined this forum earlier. It would have saved me years of work.
I dunno. What I see is that you added to a losing position and were lucky when it turned in your favor. Of course, this being an FX practice account, it's all irrelevant anyway.