I do not think my personality type would allow me to sit down and explain everything. Whenever I educate on something I believe is very valuable, I enjoy sharing the information but in puzzles - that is, you have to a degree decipher what I'm telling you to get the answer. Also, there are so many nuisances to my trading approach that I couldn't just automate it and say do this, that and the rest, and you'll make money. That's not to say I couldn't create a mechanical system that is profitable, because I know I can, it's just that my approach I believe allows me to significantly increase my profitability and success rate. I couldn't program that fundamental perspective I have on markets, and how news and reports affect that. From a technical perspective, I might expected to see a temporary retest of a low, and buy the low risk reversal off that; yet sometimes certain factors indicate it could be a breakout and I might not take the trade. One of the those factors is gut feel from watching the markets so much. Etc..
"Only if you have been profitable day trading for 6 + months Do you think you could teach someone of above intelligence to trade your "edge" w/ in a week." Why does it have to be daytrading . . . There's just as much money trading over longer timeframes, and there's much more aggravation daytrading. Remember that adding to your acccount at 40% a year will double it ever two years . . . And even a $50k account will grown into $1.5 million over 10 years growing at that rate. Does it really matter if that's done by daytrading or not? Plus you get to actually have a life if you don't have to make 50,000 trades to get there.
i could teach someone on paper what i do in a week just as anyone could memorize a football playbook in a week- but when it comes down to reading the defense or reading the price action, nothing can replace the experience absorbed over time.
I guess it boils down to whether or not they are trading their own hard earned capital. Sure give someone a comprehensive trading plan with entry/exit signals, position sizing, and everything else, and away they go. Drawndowns on somebody elses money (be it virtual money or the company's money) is no problem at all. Most trading systems out there are percieved as crap because they are pitched to the wrong type of trader, some have high drawdowns, some require fast entry/exists, high frequency of trades, some are only tradeable once a week, stuff like that. If its not the right system for you, then you won't trade it the way its designed too, or if the drawndown risk is too great, you will bail. I think most people look at trading differently to other professions because it is possible to "get lucky" and win at least in the short term due to the 50/50 nature of what you are doing. Not so if your performing open heart surgery or trying to build a bridge. Fact is, most people don't regard it as a profession at all, but rather a hobby that they can "get good at" over the weekend or in a few weeks. Trading tests every emotion/skill we have, not so if your a dentist and you're pulling a tooth or an electrician fixing some wiring. For them the job is straight forward and without emotion. They're job is purely technical in nature. Was it Van Tharp who re-evaluated that trading was 100% psychology? That's probably true. The system and/or "edge" is more or less trivial in nature. Profitability only comes when you employ risk, and risk is psychology.
Could you paint a masterpiece in a week after watching the artist do it live minute by minute.....? I think you have your answer.
You could be taught in an hour how to remove an appendix... but that wont make you a surgeon, nor will you know what to do if something goes wrong.