Yes, a positive expectancy system must be traded as the casino, not the gambler. It requires that all valid setups be traded (the casino must play against every valid customer), and managed according to the plan that produced the positive expectancy. If you begin picking and choosing which games to play, and/or if you let emotion instead of rules control how you play each game, you become the gambler. P.S. Since you are a writer, feel free to turn all my posts into an article or two and put your name on it
Same here. You were asking many questions, kind of like an interview, figured a writer might be writing a trading article. Have a good life, dude
Sorry if I misunderstood-- no article from this--- my interest is the same interest I have in mystics , extra ordinary claims & market esoteria --surf
When I first got interested in the stock market there was no internet and therefore no internet resources. I knew stockbrokers but no traders. I did read voraciously, however. As an always broke college student, it took me a while to save and open my first discount brokerage account. I can't call what I did those days "trading." It was more like dabbling in the market and I closed my account eventually with a bit less than I started to buy a car. About a decade later I opened an online account with TD Waterhouse after getting my first job in my profession. Within a month I was up over $100K. From start to finish, I have no idea how many hours that was. I never kept track of the time spent on what I was interested in learning. No doubt it was a lot of hours. With regard to your question itself, I do not consider it important to anything. There is nothing significant about a six-figure year in trading. I didn't know much when I extracted my first $100K, and I have lost that much in one day a handful of times, though not in many years. Nowadays I keep a small personal account and spend most of my time on accounts of family members. Trading is a performance activity. Even after figuring out how the market works and organizing the self to extract from it, my experience is I can still do poorly. Poor health, stress from a bad relationship, tax problems, illness and death of a family member...I've gone through all of them and lost a lot of money in the market and in a couple of those times outside the market as well. Consequently, I have never understood the incessant harping on the "consistently profitable trader" thing I read and hear nowadays. Usually it's the people who think being a trader is making a few hundred bucks a day, day in and day out, like a job, and to them a hundred K a year is some kind of standard for a decent salary, I guess. What I know is that it's just not possible to always be at my best. Therefore, the important thing isn't what I made in the past, it is to be able to bounce back from future reverses and to keep things in perspective. In any case, I'm not sure my reply is responsive to your question. Cheers, anyway.
Sorry, I must have read your biography wrong--- I could swear it said counseling for traders. I do have a question, why are you anonymous-- even on your site? Are free market practitioners still persecuted in your nation? Thanks! surf PS. All of Dr. Brett's work comes highly recommended. I like it all so it's hard to pick something over another. While his views have become refined since 2004, here's a snippet of work I did with him back in the day--- perhaps this is. Good place to start. The original writings seem to be unlocatable to me, so these abbreviated reprint is all I can locate. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=5263787 I know Denise, also. She is a cool lady.
Pretty much stuff promoted in traders world magazine, never lose scalpers, average joes who found the secret, astrofinance, cranks, charlatans--- you get the picture...
Poor health, stress from a bad relationship, tax problems, illness and death of a family member...I've gone through all of them and lost a lot of money in the market and in a couple of those times outside the market as well. Day trading requires so much focus and precision, IMHO, that I even have rules related to overall preparedness and edge dilution risk. If I'm tired, distracted, angry, whatever, no trading. Also if I'm present for the first two valid setups of the day and skip them for any reason, no trading. That's not to say I always adhere to those rules, but at least I'm aware of the importance of being at the top of my game before risking capital. Consequently, I have never understood the incessant harping on the "consistently profitable trader" thing I read and hear nowadays. Usually it's the people who think being a trader is making a few hundred bucks a day, day in and day out, like a job, and to them a hundred K a year is some kind of standard for a decent salary, I guess. Yes, I consider $100K a year an excellent salary. If I was young, unmarried, childless and without a mortgage, a couple hundred a day would be decent. I believe that if you're trading to grow a retirement account, or to generate a little extra income on the side, then it doesn't matter if your capital grows slowly with significant drawdowns between gaining periods. You have a regular job and you're not risking capital you need to survive when trading. On the other hand, I believe that if you're trading for a living, "consistently profitable" is a core requirement. If I'm a day trader, I need consistently profitable weeks. If I'm a swing trader, I need consistently profitable months. Otherwise, how do you pay the the bills that keep consistently coming? Thanks for your reply, and cheers
Correct, I have counselling traders in my CV, but that never was really a business in the sense that I never did it on paid basis, despite I can definitely say to be able help traders cope with their emotional/mental issues. I am not anonymous, BTW, even here on ET quite a few people know me closely enough. I just don't use my name as a brand, preferred to use my pet crow as a funny brand. Some day maybe it changes. But I think privacy is an asset too hence no financial statements, personal info etc. beyond the means of absolute necessity. Thanks for the link.