Somehow it's gotten into the public psyche that the intraday time frame = "professional" trading, as if, after being profitable in swing trading, they could "step up" to the next level with real-time ticks and .05 profit targets. You know what's wrong, you see the solution, take your own advice
frankly.... if these newbie gamblers are too ignorant to know that trading off the floor intra-day is not an easy gig... than f** them! There is a trade off between not taking overnight risk and positions home, and pulling a slot machine lever all day. I say a hybrid of both methods works best! The only new ones making steady money off day tading are the book writers and a few wunderkinds that fall at the far end of the bell curve!!! ICe
THESE WORDS ARE GOLDEN. Without the knowledge of exactly how your winners and losers are supposed to act, you cannot set profit targets, stop losses, or most importantly, you *cannot manage the trade* after it's open.
I don't know anyone who makes money trading SPY QQQ and KLAC. There is little to know edge in those on a daily basis. The key to trading is knowing and understanding backdoor correlations. Example, today dollar rose. A correlation that has worked lately is that Phelps Dodge likes a weak dollar. Not to mention its had a good run, so a back door play on the dollar rally today was to short PD. The key to trading IMHO, is to figure out a zillion correlations like that. Also know all the stocks that are highly correlated with one another and sectors. This has always worked well and continues to work even in this shitty trading mkt.
A milk round! You must know what a milkman is. It's not the tooth fairy that leaves those pints on your doorstep you know! SJP, you are a diamond! I enjoy your posts, genuinely funny. I work at a trading firm as you do and I'm profitable every month (except when I'm screwing up non farm payroll numbers like I did in Jan). We are coming from the same place but we have a different opinion on this. It has been my experience that some people, often guys who aren't very bright or deep, are naturals at daytrading. Also very often people who are a bit more intellectual, and have a belief that in life you must work and learn to become good at something, can over-analyse trading and get themselves in all sorts of trouble. So, I know where you're coming from. Trading isn't like other areas of life, you can't manipulate your surroundings only yourself, you can't learn a definitive method of trading (there's no perfect or right way). You can, however, improve your performance and this is something I have seen firsthand be proved by many traders including myself. I think you are right that people often delude themselves by finding "evidence" to prove what they want to believe instead of changing their approach and mentality and having the balls to look at the reality of their situation and of trading. I have simply listed a few things that have helped me and I speak as someone who has had to go through the process changing. It can be done if you want it enough and someone should not give up on their dream because of a few initial setbacks. I've seen too many people come from constant failure to huge success to believe that someone should give up easily. Still, you can only turn things around if you want to find a way to be consistently profitable, more than you want to find new way to do the same things. Yours Responding Trader
Hi All, A few soothing quotes as plucked by Ramoutar: "Subscribers here by thousands float, and jostle one another down, Each paddling in his leaky boat, and here they fish for gold and drown. Now buried in the depths below. New mounted up to heaven again, they reel and stagger to and fro, At their wits' end. like drunken men. Meantime, secure on Garraway cliffs, A savage race, by shipwrecks fed, Lie waiting for the foundered skiffs, and strip the bodies of the dead." "The market is a financial eco-system. Traders who never get it, will always provide food for us, the traders who do get it. You can lead a trader to a profit, but you can't make him take it. I can teach him / her how to take it, and if s/he won't take it I will." "Traders nature will change one day, but not while I am alive. While I'm alive I will profit from it, and help other do the same." "Things are the way they should be, if someone doesn't like the way they trade, they can change it or keep feeding." I hope this helps nononsense