The main rule is never post an "after-the-fact" call even if it was the best trade of your life. If you did not mention it before it moves, then you can't mention it at all. Otherwise, if you do mention something that qualifies as an "after the fact" call then you look silly and lose credibility as the people on these boards are smarter then you think. For example, on a certain board I saw one poster who said they stopped out of an ES position at 1152 some days ago. Then they posted today they are 20 points up on the ES and had loaded up on the FAS yesterday. Oops, too late. Since he did not post that he entered before the move, he cannot post later on that he owns the security or future. One tactic of shills and hacks on the web is to post after the fact. You dont want to be mistaken for one of them... To sum up...make a post BEFORE you make the trade. Posting after the stock has moved makes you look foolish and opens you up for questions and criticism from other posters.
That would be kinda hard to do day trading wouldn't it. Any way a trading board isn't an audit, I've learned from others postings of trades after the fact, from their winners and losers.
Thats true. The message board is an informal place and its not really an audit of our results. You can learn things from other peoples trades even if its after the fact. However, one liners like "I am up 20 points in the ES today." without any other explanation are foolish and annoying. It kind of insults our intelligence and we can't take away anything from that. It would be nice to think these message boards hold some truth and knowledge, but hindsite explanations and after the fact calls simply do not advance either truth or knowledge. Most of the time, I see people just post up one liners and it doesnt appear to me that anyone wants to learn or study other people's trades. Its almost like a message board of one upsmanship where everyone wants to be associated with good trades, but the stinkers are seldom (if ever) mentioned. I think we can improve these boards by simply posting up before the fact and if you do post up after the fact then accompany it with some type of explanation as to why so it appears you are not just bragging about your alleged trade...and if someone comes on to question you about the after-the-fact call then understand why they are questioning you. After-the-fact calls lack credibility and it just seems annoying at the very least.
I don't post calls one way or the other and place no importance or value on other people's calls. However, for the sake of argument, how can someone post before a move if they trade by reacting to moves?
Hope your satisfied with just after the trade. I post when I open a position and also just after I close it. Its not that much of a hassle. But really who cares?