One day I'm going to open a small separate account and go hyper-aggressive trading it. It will be interesting to see how it goes. I've often wondered how profitable it would be. Probably would be a fun ride, that's for sure. But I could NEVER use that tactic with my main bankroll. Patience and discipline has always served that very well.
George Soros is quoted as saying when you are right your position is never big enough......OK!!!..... How does he know when he is right?.... INTUITION is the greatest offence, has to be...:eek:
Marketsurfer, It is always more exciting to be aggressive and if you have a system which has shown profitable long term then, by all means attack!!! However, if you are just starting out and still trying to minimize your mistakes like me----slow but, sure is best!!! I have a friend who was very aggressive but, the bad thing is she did not understand trading completely and blew a good chunk of her $300K on 2 trades at that!!! Like I tell her, you have to have discipline. Couple that with not being able to pull the trigger when you have to and she missed a couple of option trades I gave to her (I made money and she didn't). She finally did it right in our last trade and she made $2775.00 on $1325.00 invested which was 200%. Now, she promises to listen. I hope she does!!! If you get your entry and exit points right, right stock, right direction as well as choosing the right option and time then, by all means add to your contracts. I started with 2 contracts, now trading 5 contracts and I plan to be trading 10 contracts in January 2006. Have a $3 to $1 win/loss ratio in my 13 trades placed since, May 2005. I will be trading more but, easing into it slowly. Each trader has his own style and what is right for one trader might not be right for another. You have to ask if you have the discipline and patience needed to be successful otherwise, you are just throwing your money away by over trading.
offense requires courage. greedy pigs can get slaughtered, but sometimes it takes courage to be a pig. traders sometimes get complacent or just feel fearful of bigger things. not everyone was meant to become a market surfer.
Iloveoptions, Would you care to elaborate more on your system and techniques. You're performance has been quite good although it's interesting that the wins are so much smaller than the losses--good thing they're less than 20% of your trades. I've also noticed it looks like you're willing to take positions with a substantial amount of your capital, perhaps up to 20%, in each trade. Can you also talk about how you determine that position size. For instance, in one trade you bought 300 options at 90 cents each, a month later you had a trade of only 100 options at 90 cents (1/3 the position size). Also, what did you do differently between 2004 and 2005? I guess the other thing is, are the results actual or theoretical...it looks like collective2 doesn't audit actual results, but simulates your system. Anything else you could add would be very interesting to read. Thanks. --Snake
they had the strength to do that. utilize primordial instincts to trade without feeling, without passion, without judgement. because it's judgement that defeats us. "I remember when I was with Special Forces...Seems a thousand centuries ago...We went into a camp to innoculate the children. We left the camp after we had innoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every innoculated arm. There they were in a pile...A pile of little arms. And I remember...I...I...I cried... I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized...like I was shot...Like I was shot with a diamond...a diamond bullet right through my forehead...And I thought: My God...the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters...These were men...trained cadres...these men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love...but they had the strength...the strength...to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral...and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordal instincts to kill without feeling...without passion... without judgement...without judgement. Because it's judgement that defeats us. " -Col. Kurtz, Apocolpse Now
Surf, a great post and I could not agree with you more. I do think that a good number of people come in too aggressive, but there are just as many on the opposite end of the scale who are not willing to risk enough on good ideas, and so they never get the results they could. Playing not to lose does not work, its a lot like the team that blows a huge halftime lead simply because they change the plan and try not to blow the lead..if they just kept doing what they had done in the first half they would kill it but they get scared.
There is a huge differance between being reckless and being aggressive. It's not always an easy lesson to learn, but an important one anyway. Brandon
Obvious from your post you haven't been trading long. Otherwise you would clearly understand - and appreciate - the need for always maintaining a defensive posture. But as with thousands of other busted traders, you'll learn this lesson too late. You've likely heard it said that there are bold traders and old traders, but very few old bold traders. Only experience will demonstrate to you why that's so true.