First off, people who are learning to trade should not be posting whatsoever on ET during regular market hours rather watching the mkt like a hawk to learn. Once the mkt is closed, and after you've compiled some questions about what you saw, then come here and post and maybe someone will help you. I guarentee no one is going to help you learn if you post threads like this.
Exactly, nobody can predict the markets, that is why ppl who try to predict tops and bottoms often go bust. Just trade what you see, buy into up trends and sell into down trends. KISS.
Just try and use your time more wisely, if you indeed want to trade and do it well. You dont need to apologize to me, this is for your own benefit, not mine. Think about it, if you want to learn something, you must study it. If you are busy posting on here, how can you be studying it efficiently and effectively? Its just commone sense, thats all.
OP I think you found something out about yourself during your foray into trading. As I have always stated, trading is more than just numbers, markets, trends, etc... Trading will usually bring to light many things about the individual you never knew before. This is good. How one chooses to handle these things is what makes all the difference and separates successful traders from, well, everyone else. Perhaps trading is a scam and those that are profitable are merely fooling themselves until probability or some other unknown risk event catches up with them, but in the meantime I'll continue to do what's working for me and wisely use the fruits of that labor as I see fit. For you; trading = scam. For me; trading = freedom. I guess that's what makes a market. Accept your reality and move on within it. Good Luck!
...that's kind-of the point. Start w/ what Steve said and quit relying so much on others; I think it was Livermore that said, "Trading is about being alone."
Succesful Trading is about pattern recognition and learning to use probabilities or stats to your advantage along with alot or psych. Your failure lies in 1 of the 3 areas, maybe all of them. It took me all of last year to learn that I can scalp, but it doesn't agree with me mentally. Go back to sim as I did, focus on finding patterns that agree with you mentally and build from there. As Brett Steenbarger says in his new book, it takes 10 years to reach expertise in almost any field. Do you have the patience to work at being an expert or are you just trying to make a quick buck?
Good question. I do have the patience to become an expert and dedicate my life more than 10 years to this. I know I've been having some bad times, but I will still continue to learn this.