Nope. An edge is very simple. it either makes money or it doesn't. It doesn't? Search a new edge. All this psychology crap is what keeps the noobs, noobs.
Ziad's little treatise was actually a bit disappointing to me at least - regardless of his personal success he pistol-whips the 'newbie' into submission as sheep headed to slaughter and then offers precious little insight into his own success. He can't define it, other than the notion that he studies the market more carefully than most anybody else - and then some sort of Zen-like impulse steers him into action. There's certainly some truth to certain points he hits upon, but if he can't quantify or describe the methodology behind observing market price action and order flow, then either he's being incredibly evasive in terms of providing some 'meat on the bone' for the reader or his 'edge' is more art than science. If an edge is primarily 'art', then it is more exposed to the ongoing changes in market dynamics and economic cycles than he would ever care to admit.
"Market granularity dictates that stepping is involved. Profit segments are in an order one after the other. To continue on the correct side of a market, a person stays to the left of the boundary. A profit segment ends when the overlap of the new boundary to the right begins." PRICES FORM WAVES. STAY ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE PRIMARY TREND LINE ON WHICH YOU ARE TRADING. EXIT WHEN THAT TREND IS BROKEN "The rate of compounding is simply dictated by the extent to which profits may be applied. It is worth discovering this as an exercise on an Excel sheet." ADD CONTRACTS AS PROFITS ALLOW "It will be interesting to see just when Ziad changes from entry/exit trading to be able to take the market's offer. Taking the market's offer is done with hold/reversal trading." HOLD UNTIL TREND IS BROKEN, RE-ENTER ON NEW TREND :eek: :eek:
I went thru similar experience like guy that started this thread. Howerver, i did not push it too far because of other constraints outside trading. I had cuuple of good runs in shortterm trading using slightly different approaches. It is not easy jumping to 200k target yearly profit without adequate capitalization. Also if one has a good skills, then quits then in 2 years it gets difficult to explain future employer what were you doing. It is 1 way street in my opinion and wasnt ready to do that. An there is this largest drawdown lurking somewhere in the future... Single person without commitiments has best chances to succeed.
I finally was able to grasp markets after reading fisher's logical trader... I attempt to solidify the idea in my blog...opening range theory etc... http://theopeningrange.blogspot.com/
I have to agree with many here who initially commented on this thread. This is a disaster of a set of advice. Not only is it incomplete but it is sufficiently dangerous in a black-swan sort of way should it be heeded by someone still lost in the trading sea. If you sit back and think about it, this advice is the result of one and/or two scenarios: 1. This individual has a hot streak / lotto ticket run, and is now asserting this as a mandate based on his ephemeral success. or 2. He is a savant who hasn't hit his inevitable abyss of a drawdown. Those of us that have been around long enough know that even if those returns were accurate, his path will be either self-destruction, or style change (rare but it happens) before (and as such may avoid) said self-destruction. A solid approach that keeps you going over the long haul is teachable and frankly rather trivial. However once you get to the point of success, you start to realize why it is unlikely you will have much company and why it is inadvisable (and perhaps dangerous for personal relationships) to try and mold/teach/build/create a trader in your image. It is better for the few who will to figure it out on their own, with a little guidance and breadcrumbs from the old timers. If they last 10 years, it was meant to be.
10 years may or maynot be a good enough time range- certainly if someone was successful from say 2004 till now in 6 years seen pretty much everything market had to offer-low volatility high volatility, sharp sell off , great rally-if you were profitable as a trader in this time pretty good chance you made it. But back to OP -lots of different ways to trade so there is some truth to it but again it all depends how you trade.
Incredible some of these replies. That's the thing about ET, you're either preaching to a mute choir or a bunch of deaf loudmouths.
Or maybe there are a bunch of ways of either making or losing money with trading. The op's mentor thinks he has found the truth. And it might be for him. But it won't be for others. Thank fucking christ really. (see if that doesn't offend the choir)
There is not a single truth about the market. There are many truths and all have probabilities assigned to them, not truth is certain. The only certain truth is the traded price.