Moving to greener pastures makes sense. I misunderstood reasons for him leaving trading. I thought he quit because equity trading business has changed so much that it was very difficult to make money. SMB capital- head trader Gman ( he is 31 years old) does very well mostly day trading and some short term swing EQUITY trading. He is also a tape reader, actually entire firm is built on reading the TAPE. Gman trade futures very little as according to him , he does not get a sense of tape reading from futures. I took remote training class from SMB capital on tape reading etc.. (costed me 5400K) and followed Gman trades LIVE via thier system. All, i got out of following Gman that ONE need substantial buying power and trade constantly to make money. He will be wrong many times throughout the day but will get paid like $300,000 on one position intra day. That's when I decided to try futures plus i could never identify S/R for stocks intraday and make money with 10 cents stop loss.
Well, yes, he did leave because equity business has changed and it was very difficult to make money. But he did it for 10 years. He made a lot of money when it was really really easy. Now he would make a fraction of what me made before and he doesn't want to stare at a screen all day. There is no doubt in my mind that he could still be profitable trading. But that is not why he traded, just to be profitable. The guy was consistently pull in 7 figures a year. Now he would make a small fraction of that. All the good traders I know left the business and most of them said if they had to start today they would probably not make it. Very very different business today. This business was so much easier before the algos showed up.
http://www.barchart.com/charts/stocks/$MMFI stocks above 50 day mvg avg very high here, looking to hedge here. back to lurker mode.
Important information to hear. Much appreciated, unfortunately for those of us just starting out, not the best news. The only thing that "helps" out us newbies, (besides Mav's generosity) is that we don't know how much easier it was "before." So maybe it says something if you're just starting your career now and not blowing up? I hope? My edge is not knowing how much easier things were 10 years ago... Lousy edge, but hey.
Why I am interested in a "model" that can work whithin the confines of today Algo centric markets. I developed one using some ACD priciples, and it works well when volatility picks up and now working on a "trend" model, same with ACD priciples..... need to adapt.
Agreed but for one point where I very strongly disagree - it is not a 'lousy edge' at all. Rather, I would say its a very strong 'mental edge'. Someone who has been at this game for 10 years and making consistently 200k+ every year till say 2009 or so, and now finding markets much changed and much difficult has a 'huge' psychological barrier to overcome. He might be 4.0 GPA holder from MIT, but all said and done - he is a human-being. He will always compare current mkt environment from previous ones and if he doesn't has steely resolve and the much needed motivation, having already made some money - will definitely consider changing careers. Compared to someone hypothetical starting in 2009, who lost money in 2009, broke-even in 2010, made 40k in 2011 - he has only upside and has a very strong mental attitude - as far as his head is concerned.
One of my favorite set ups worked out for some ticks. Set up is to short into OR highs after an A down. Short 101.72. cover 101.14. I am mostly done for the day- unless something dramatic happens. Maybe we will see a C up in CL today. Mark Fisher likes late day C ups when 30 days number line is positive. With 30 days number of -13, I will not be putting much trust in C up- meaning trade with small position size.