Don't be too smug. You are basing this on the recent market volatility the past few years. Just because the market has been roaring upwards in low volatile fashion doesn't mean you can be too bold in your hypothesis. I'd like to see you trade without a stop in volatile markets.
was that hard to answer the question? Good lord, you are having a hard time answering an easy question. Hence, a 10 yrs old will be able to answer a simple question.
it is the opposite. they need to spend some 600 hours before a live screen before they can become even remotely resembling a profitable trader. i am not talking about backtesting and all that. i am talking about sitting in front of a trading monitor day after day. focusing on the screen, watching and taking notes of whatever product, the beginner chooses to spend his life focusing on.... a person who wishes to trade profitably but do not or can not set aside about 2 hours a day studying the live market.... he is better off, just keeping his money in the bank until he wants seriously to become a successful trader and can spare the necessary time required to watch and study the market of his choice, whatever the product is. this is one major reason why so many part time traders, traders who trades without a successfully tested plan AND traders who trade without a stop.... fail again and again and again.... when a trader fails to make money, he/she can not and should not blame any thing, nor any one, nor any circumstances.... the only one who is responsible for his failure to make money is none other than himself/herself.... if any trader who is not yet profitable at this moment can accept this basic fact.... he/she might have some ray of hope of becoming a successful trader yet in days to come.... if he would refocus his trade, to perhaps only trade one product and one product only to start out.... i have the confidence that the person could and would become a successful trader.... only one man opinion here. cheers.
I realize that I'm not up on your level of trading experience and knowledge yet, but I was under the impression that the large funds do not use stops precisely due to their size, rather than because they find other strategies more effective in managing risk. Holding a stop on a 1 mm share position would potentially achieve an effect quite the opposite of minimizing losses given any level of volatility.
Maybe know your facts before you post. I have a client who went live on March 01, 2011 with a $25K account. He has returned 45% net on that as of yesterday. In four months, on a net basis, he has over $36K in his account. Advantage Futures clearing, CTS front end, eSignal running my models, those expenses deducted from the account. Non-Member rates. Swing trading futures spreads. Max drawdown ridiculously modest. Overnight SPAN performance bond margin credits of 65 % to 90 %. I have another client who went live on April 01, 2011. Same scenario, returned 10% net all expenses as of Friday June 24. And that includes an impulsive scalping debacle which earned my wrath because he deviated from his trading plan. Swing trading futures spreads.
That is not the point what your client has done and have yet to lose. The point is, you loss in this game of trading, which is why you are a marketer
And are you a successful trader? to ef hutton, i was an average trader who has no guts and no brain 'cause i did not listen when ef hutton talked and i did not average up when the going was good. to other traders, i was too slow and too clumsy and did not know when to seize the golden opportunity. to those close to me, i was kind of unorthodox, my 9t stop was hit about 50% of the time on the average. to my brokers, they were most often bewildered just how could a person who was stopped out about half of the time could still end up making a good living. to my bankers and accountants, they thought it must not be too difficult to trade. to my own family members, they would tell their cousins and nieces that it was a kind of boring sitting in front of four screens and doing practically nothing all day, all night. am i a successful trader? what do you say--al trader?