stock picking site

Discussion in 'Trading' started by 10K, Feb 7, 2002.

  1. Threei, I believe you to be a very intelligent person. I believe that I am a reasonably effective communicator. Therefore, for you to keep introducing non sequiturs such as this;

    "You don't want chat room operator to consider these factors too for each trader, do you? "

    and other failures to connect in this thread really makes me wonder.


    "8 private messages and e-mails I got today confirm my take: it's just about different opinions. 6 of them are in favor of my point of view and 2 are against"


    Alas, people hardly ever write to me. Chartwiz used to, but then he finally quit the board and doesn't any more. However, I have an interesting theory on this. I wonder how many of your positive respondents were chatroom customers.

    I have noticed in this and similar threads that active chatroom customers tend to leap to the defence of their gurus. I wonder if we have the trading room version of the "Stockholm Syndrome" at work here.

    For those too young to remember, terrorists used to take people hostage and make demands, rather than blow things up. It was very common for the hostages to identify with their captors. In the case of young women, they sometimes had sex with and even fell in love with them. One famous case resulted in this being known as the Stockholm Syndrome.

    I wonder if those who put up large monthly fees to become part of a chatroom community feel compelled to defend their gurus because it psychologically re-inforces their need to believe that they are not wasting their money, in a similar way to captives identifying with their captors because it psychologically made them feel they had a better chance of surviving.

    8 people wrote to you, a trading guru and celebrity, but nobody wrote to me. Seems indicative of some need to identify with the guru.

    Just musing out loud, not really trying to start a debate on what is almost certainly unprovable.
     
    #91     Feb 9, 2002
  2. Threei

    Threei

    Believe it or not, zero. My guess qould be, this phenomena is rather explained by perception that I was questioned/attacked, and most of messages were in line with "Drop it, you can't win".
    I did all I can to rid of feeling of fight remaining within limits of dialog. Whether I managed to do it, dunno, hope I did :)

    Concerning failure to communicate - I was suprized by this, too. Perhaps each of us assumes other side knows entire train of thougths and some parts of it get lost. For instance, I was talking about intraday trading room all the time (and underlined it repeatedly) and haven't caught where and how you switched discussion to swing trading room... so at some moment we were talking about different things. This example you cite (commissions, availability of short)... I re-read your message and mine and still can't see your logic. But really, why don't we change the tune, it's getting beaten to the ground.

    Best regards,

    Vad

    PS. I hope in no way I managed to spoil your weekend :)
     
    #92     Feb 9, 2002
  3. Funster,

    Didn’t break anything but my pride was bruised a few times!

    Here are those charts I promised. By the way, options really do not require any memory of formulas. In fact, we have contracted w/ Larry McMillan to exclusively teach all our options courses and I'll tell you this guy is excellent. I would suggest you read his book, "McMillan on Options" as a start if you have any interest. Even if you don't plan on trading them, I feel the information will transfer well to futures which is your preferred vehicle to trade. I like to arb , spread, straddle and strangle w/ options and futures, therefore I can tell you, understanding on the interplay of each is worth the exploration. Anyway, here are the charts I put together. Whether you trade them or not, it will be fun to come back to these this week and talk about the play as well as how we traded them at MarketWise. We trade aggressively everyday, and personally I can't believe what I read in the earlier post where these live trading rooms won't show results. I agree w/ others that ask to see performance. Hey, if your gong to sell anything, you better "drive the product you sell". If you won't, something is wrong and as a potential patron, I say keep you money since there are no free lunches in the market, in fact, I found that when you start looking for them, not only do you not find them...but you also are the one left picking up the check! Subscriptions that teach...fine I agree w/ that, but subscriptions that claim you will make money from picks...I say don't walk away...RUN!
     
    #93     Feb 10, 2002
  4. First chart attached
     
    #94     Feb 10, 2002
  5. The second chart on volume.
     
    #95     Feb 10, 2002
  6. Threei

    Threei

    you missed entire point of discussion.

    We are educational service, not just stock picking site that wouldn't disclose trading method applied. We don't sell stock picks. We teach how to recognize setups and how to play them. As for the rest, I would suggest you to read entire exchange before passing the judgement.

    Best regards,

    Vad
     
    #96     Feb 11, 2002
  7. Vad,

    Perhaps you are correct. I admit I did not read the entire thread. My point was a little strong, but I was I trying to express that traders can only truly learn by trading. There is no teacher like experience. I created one of the first active trading schools in the country and have trained thousands of students and know through close data base analysis that traders make it when they learn how to survive first. I am not passing judgment on you. I don't know what is taught through your methods, and in fact even if you don't trade yourself, value can be derived by the student, but I don't believe in offering trading ideas in the way of actual picks if your not actually trading them. Again, I am not suggesting this is what you were doing and my comments were general in nature and not directed at anyone in particular.

    Secondly, I feel the more a fledgling trader relies on services that attempt to do the thinking for the trader the greater the crutch they put under themselves which will lead to the eventual fall. They need to learn right out of the box to think for themselves, especially in the area of money management and risk control. I spent a lot on money developing a trade analysis program which data based every trade our traders made. The program then analyzed the data in terms of:

    1. Time in trades
    2. Losses/trade vs. gains
    3. Type of security traded and Beta
    4. Liquidity
    5. Relative Strength/Weakness
    6. How much heat taken
    7. etc.

    The analysis showed and I believe after 17 years of trading that the new trader WILL LOOSE MONEY before they turn the corner. First they learn how to break even, they turn and burn and make money. BUT...only if they learn early on to take responsibility to think and react for themselves. As soon as they believe in tips, analyst research, news, or other services that make them believe they can free themselves from this critical responsibility, they are done. The fact is...and I am sorry to admit...only 15% to 20% make it as traders over time. The numbers are probably even worse but knowone really knows industry wide. The reason is not because of the education, it is because not enough tough love is given forcing a new trader to understand they are the dominant ingredient! MarketWise is in my opinion the finest school anywhere (and of course I am bias) and I tell the student straight up, the school may deliver 10% to 20% of what you need to know, the other 80% to 90% is about your personal psychology and approach to the way you handle losses, and yes even success.

    Vad, again, nothing personal to you and I apologize if my message was seemingly directed to you...it was not intended to...I was just expressing my deep concern for all the false prophets out there claiming to teach something that only can be learned by the student. Yes...many years can be taken off the learning curve with a good school and mentor (this is what we provide), but in the end, the student must understand there are no easy answers. This is why our education is free...it is primarily provided to customers of TerraNova free as a service to help them survive before they can thrive. We don't make money with the school, we provide it as a service to the customer similar to a web based services like account management, research, etc. Finally, TerraNova recreated our Trade Analysis service. They data base every trade a customer makes. If the customer wants to analyze their patterns of trading over time, I will tell you this report is invaluable. You learn so much about yourself regarding trading. For example, I know that I am a much better trader in the morning than I am in the afternoon. This one piece of information has helped me keep more profits. While I am still trying to figure out why this is true, in the interim it is helping me to be more conservative later in the day while more aggressive in the morning. Anyway, good luck Vad, I am sure your business objectives are pure and I mean no harm. I wish you the best of success.
     
    #97     Feb 11, 2002
  8. David,

    That must be a fascinating database. Can you share any general conclusions from it? What typically causes traders to fail? How do winners operate differently?
     
    #98     Feb 11, 2002
  9. I get the email everday from "Thunder and Lightning" ...these people must be at least Billionaires by now...with their track record (according to the emails), theyshould have all the money in the world. Perhaps I will be working for them some day...:)
     
    #99     Feb 11, 2002
  10. In my book "Rules of the Trade" I show three examples of the analysis. It is remarkable what you see, for example, a daytrader who is active and disciplined can have a win rate of only 51.6% and average only $93 profit per trade, but still net $68,000 for the month. This was one example I used in the book. We have many other example like this. Trading is about being active and disciplined, not about always being right or even highly profitable when you are right. It is more about crucifying losses when you are wrong. This guy I used in the example is one of our traders and these numbers are typical for him. Again, win rate of 51.6%, total trades in the month of 731, and a net of $68,000 for the month. This tells you something about hitting base hits as opposed to home runs. There is much more that can be learned as well from the analysis, this is just one example. I will say that in today’s market the base hits are not as good given the valuations of issues, but this same trader is still as active, and is averaging 25k to 30k per month (after commission). Hope this helps. Check out the book for an example of our analysis. We have also expanded it dramatically and it is available to all account holders of TerraNova. Good luck!

    David.
     
    #100     Feb 11, 2002