you should explain it to smokey. Here's a quick tutorial in simple math. trader A makes 10 trades on Monday. 1000share blocks. 7 of those trades are losers, but because traderA kept to his stops , each loser is only 1 point. So he's down $7,000. 3 of the trades are winners. And because traderA lets his winners run to the target each winner gets him 5 points. Yielding him $15,000. traderA has just made $8,000 on the day despite only having a 30% win percentage and because his girlfriend cheated on him he gets to the gentleman's club within 10mintues of the NYSE close, gets many lap dances, then hits every club on the town, brings home 2 lovely ladies and has the night of his life.
Yo, dude..... Excellent traders are really excellent if they win on about 40-50%of their trades. 30-40% is a much more realistic perentage. Its all about $ mgmt.
I agree with the remarks on this thread that there is not a Holy Grail-- at least I haven't found it. However, I don't agree that technical indicators are useless. For me the advantage of technical analysis is that it shows you what a stock has done in the past. Support and resistance is an example.
This is the fallacy of the pattern daytrading rule. Think what a great training ground the QQQ could be, if only you did not have to have 25K to play. You can position size, take partials, scale in, scale out - do it all with 5k, instead of having to take the equivalent of 800 shares at a time with the NQ.
I want to wish you much luck..I have to agree with tntneo; you may need some back-up flow. You will also encounter EMOTIONS that paper trading just doesnt let ya feel..That my friend (IMO) is what trading is about. Make sure you follow your plan... When you run out of your first 5k...pm me
In a way I agree that indicators are not that useful, even for a full-fledged technical trader. Trend, S and R, patterns and trading savvy count for more. But indicators have a role. They are not the so-called grail, for sure. What they do is give you a visual indication of a condition that might not be apparent just from looking at the chart. For, example, a momentum divergence tells you something, as does a BB penetration. I find it useful, even though I may not trade directly off it.
this thread cracks me up. several talk like there is only one type of trading and trader. that's not true. I too tend to think aphie has it right, but not to the exception of others. of course you may need a 80% win strategy or a 30% is way enough (and hard to get to 35%!). it's good to be specialized in one thing, but narrow minded is something else ! there are all kind of ways to make money. and the funny thing, they are exclusively working. one method's rules are precisely the opposite of what you should do with another method (think GNP versus momentum for example). one of the many reasons there is no single holy grail, is because there are many. once you are profitable and know why (and did prove you could adapt to market change) then you have found YOUR holy grail, plain and simple. tntneo
Never been to NY, but can you really "hit every club on the town" with just 8 grand?? EDIT: Oh, sorry, got it, you were not talking about clubs in NYC... Sorry, just read the post too fast