I believe in discourse. I never said it shouldn't be done. I am simply arguing that unfortunately I doubted it would have the benefits for which we are seeking.
Interesting, KP. However, i don't think the number of trades makes a difference. That becomes a magnitude issue, I think-- but is uncorrelated to long run luck--
I also wonder, what would be the point, to himself, for this expert trader to be "crowned"? I cannot say with certainty as to what DbPhoenix would say, he is participating in this thread of course, but if I had to guess, along with what I've already been saying about how statements will in no way help a new trader, showing statements gets into ego. I think that he simply doesn't care what anyone thinks of his own personal trading. He puts his method out there for each trader to evaluate, those who can make use of it, great for them, those who cannot, this doesn't bother him in the slightest. Now of course if the idea is for the expert trader to find clients, then of some sort of classification system makes sense, but for the traders on here who are sharing out of the desire simply to help and are in fact the real deal, most have more than likely learned to leave ego at the door, and would never care to go to the trouble to provide any proof. What trader, who is here giving his free time wants to show to the world that he made 10 million last year and open himself up to all the extra traffic and attention? I think that if a person is going to be intelligent enough to trade, he should be intelligent enough to separate the good stuff from the crap.
Actually I think it does. Being right 15 out of 20 times is one thing, but being right 95 out of 100 times is a whole different ball game. It is statistically more likely to be right 15 out of 20 times more often than 95 out of 100, but given doing this enough, you will still get a person right 95 out of 100 times based purely on luck as long as you do this enough. So given so many day traders out there, many have been lucky for months at a time before their eventual demise. (I am happy to report I have zero luck with my random entries, and I see right from the beginning that a real statistical edge is necessary! )
Gary Smiths Trading for a living was one of the best books I ever read too. One of the things that book made me aware of, made money for me last week... and it helped me make a few hundred thousand in the 90s when I daytraded full time.
He really helped me too. I would attribute my trading success in large part to Gary. In a nutshell, his book advocates find a trading style that suites your personality. Figure out a way to wrap your mind around letting your winners run, and cut your losses very short. Obviously that's nothing new, and very cliche in trading. It's easier said than done certainly, but it's entirely possible. In order for me to accomplish that, I had to come to the realization that I won't "get rich quick" and I am way better off keeping my day job and position trading.
I think this could be a good idea, but realize that it also discredits people like myself who aren't currently traders but come to learn here in hopes of being traders at some point...that may be a good or bad thing, I'll leave it to people more involved here to decide...just pointing it out. There's also the possibility that it will contribute to the pervasive attitude of dick measuring here that has absolutely nothing to do with the original post on threads. All too often I find myself just scrolling over pages of back and fourth bickering in hopes that on page X the conversation converges back to the original topic. Anyway, just my opinion, I think it's probably a good way for experienced traders to recognize each other, but I also feel there's some inevitability of it being abused.
Nvestly is a free, new platform that was launched last month. I believe there is also a paid version with extra features. I just signed up for it, so I can't speak from personal experience, but it looks like it has potential to address a lot of the issues you brought up regarding credibility. Here is a link to a short article about the service http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/chi-otavio-dalarossa-nvestly-bsi-20141105-story.html