Transition: loser to winner

Discussion in 'Trading' started by 1contract, Oct 24, 2003.

  1. Pabst

    Pabst

    LOL!! Of course going broke "requires" a lack of discipline. Who knows whether in one year, ten years, or thirty years when their own season will change? There is a prevalent yet dangerous fallacy among younger traders that getting over an arbitrary experience threshold guarantees long term monetary success. Nothing can be further from the truth. Many of you twenty something gentlemen are in your trading/personal prime. You're living in nice apartments, dating pretty girls, and making enough money to give you the illusion of both prosperity and security. Now let's look ahead as you perfect your craft with age.

    All of sudden you're now 45. You've been trading for twenty years. If skilled you may have a nice home virtually paid for, a million in your account/bank, a wife and kids. But inside you something has changed. Maybe you have an affair with that hot chick you met cross town. Then your wife finds out and voila', you're dream house...gone. Half your liquid assets...gone. The lolita that caused your life to turn into such turmoil...gone. Now you're back in that one-bedroom apartment that you started in, twenty years earlier. At 45 you clearly have more experience and savvy than you did starting out. Even post divorce, you have more money then you did back in those days of prop shop trading during the boom. But now your expectations, your longing for what you had and what you lost, places you in a position where the notion of regrouping and remembering what made you a success is as remote as the blind mans memory of squinting in the morning sun. Now you're pressing, overtrading, chasing the mythical dragon. Next thing you know, you're being sued for child support, and unable to afford an attorney, you spend a night in county jail, your jaw fractured by a fellow inmate who thinks you're some rich asshole. This story happens every day to some formally happy to be trading more than one year, now I've made it trader.
     
    #31     Oct 27, 2003
  2. Pabst you just gave me a great idea for a movie. It will be called the Jerk 2.
     
    #32     Oct 27, 2003
  3. ertrader1

    ertrader1 Guest

    As soon as I started to listen to the many skilled and profitable traders on Elite trader, did i turn a corner on my p&L.

    Now, with all these "Amazing Systems" i too can trade with in the channels like BOB and take out profits between 3 to 5 cents each trade.

    YES..that is correct, your heard me......these "amazing systems" provided by many members on ET have helped become a success.

    And you, yes you too can become a profitable trader in just three, thats right, three weeks of reading ET.

    And get this....ITS FREE, and YESSSSS ....FREEEE, thats right ET is Free to you and me.

    So dont hesitate....follow this proven methods posted on ET and take charge of ur trading career.:D :D :D :D :p
     
    #33     Oct 27, 2003
  4. 10-25-03 11:54 AM



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    Quote from Hungry4Knowledg:



    This is what really scares me. Do all strategies just quit working after a period of time? Do you start completely over at "square one" or do you try to reconfigure your original strategy? Is this something that has happened to every trader?
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    Do all strategies just quit working after a period of time? Yes and no. If you're rigid about them, then the answer will most likely be "yes". But if you break them down into their components and see what's failing, you can then use the same basic strategy with what may amount to one minor change.

    It pays to have several options at hand, at least one for each type of trade: breakout, test/reversal, and retracement. That way, you're not just sitting there twiddling your thumbs if the action on a particular day isn't the type that your one strategy is designed to exploit.

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    The above is a bad answer to your quest.
     
    #34     Oct 27, 2003
  5. Cheese

    Cheese

    Hungry4Knowledg, you have to assemble your own system. The codename you have chosen is a good start.

    Shall we start? The question you have to answer is not Why but HOW.

    Humbly IMO no one is going to give you the formula or formulae. And even that, if it was all given to you .. you would still not know the nuances of it, what had been eliminated in putting it together or the reasons for each part in it/them.

    It is question of the numbers; the numbers are what charts use of course but charts only amount to a pictorial representation that really pay little attention to what is underneath .. the numbers.

    So there you have it; you have now been given the base answer!
    Embark, if you so choose, upon the trail to the Holy Grail.
     
    #35     Oct 27, 2003
  6. Atlantic

    Atlantic

    treat every single trade as if it was your very last one - and as if it should become the best one of all.

    and as soon as the trade is closed - see it as part of the big picture.
     
    #36     Oct 28, 2003
  7. Rc51Rob

    Rc51Rob

    I guess I'm just the exception to the rule, I paper-traded for 3 months, thought about using a stock picking service, decided against that and sold my beloved motorcyle to open a trading account with $6000, that was the first of August and I as of today my account is $8954, almost a 50% increase in 3 months, not bad for a newbie, anyone else get this lucky?
     
    #37     Nov 5, 2003
  8. Detachment! It is THE key, you key, my Key, and our key to become winners.
     
    #38     Nov 6, 2003
  9. - It's all numbers (Everything you see is an illusion... a representation of the truth that lies beneath... Zen.)
    - It's all psychology. (The answer lies within.... ask and thou will find thee self.)

    Whatever.

    Will someone please give a NON-cryptic answer?


    How about this:
    1. Find a repeating pattern that's tradeable and that YOU are comfortable trading. (Defined risk, positive expectancy.) You'll have to watch the market for a long time to find a pattern or maybe someone will point you to something. Read, watch, learn. If you're stuck here, you either don't know enough or you're trading for other reasons (Psychology).
    2. Test it, back-test it, paper trade it until you know it will work. If it doesn't, go to step 1. If you're not doing these things, you're trading for other reasons (Psychology).
    3. Learn to trade it without your emotions making the decisions for you. (Psychology)
    4. Buy your 3 mercedes. (Spend your time on ET and talk Zen)
    5. If it stops working, go to step 1.


    Yes? No? And no Zen answers please. (And don't give me some psychological answer questioning why I don't want a Zen answer. I'm simple person.)
     
    #39     Nov 6, 2003

  10. Whats the question?
     
    #40     Nov 6, 2003