A surprisingly good thread so far. What have I learned? The honest answer....I am not a trader, I'm a gambler. There, I said it! I don't have the patience, and perhaps the intellect to be a good trader. Gambling the market has had its up and downs, but has always been profitable, and for several years now. Trading has been nothing but down. I'm much better off looking at a OTCBB stock and thinking, I'll bet this bullshit will fly for a week or two, and jump in. In the end it's about the money. Are you making any doing what you're doing? If not, try something else. Be true to yourself is priority #1. It's cost me several thousand dollars this year to learn that. To the traders...continued success. To us gamblers...may lady luck smile upon us more frequently than not. For all, remember this, the market is one fickle mistress.
The best way to learn to trade is to learn to day trade. Day trading has completely transformed my trading style and my view of the markets. Now I have the confidence to say I'm a real trader.
Believe me, even those who think they are traders are gamblers, even the mechanical system traders who think they have an bullet proof edge. The great thing about the markets is that you can use the tools at your disposal to rig the game in your favor as much as possible such that if you are wrong you can actually still come out ahead or at least lose very little and if you are right you clean up. What I have learned over the years is that I am good at identifying tradable opportunities, very good at managing the trade once it is in play, and have some hard won money management skills that work year after year. If I learnt anything this year it was to keep my macro opinions to myself and just go with the flow no matter how ridiculous I might think it is. In short, I learned that I am not smart enough nor connected enough to hold an opinion on valuation.
my profitable trades were all with large position size 3000+ shares all my loser traders were all under 1000 position size. I have only one or two losers with a 2000 share position out of like 50 swing trades this year. Unconfident trades = Loser trades. ----------------------- #2 I am not a futures trader, I am closing my futures account at IB
Nice to see some coming around to trading futures. Futures are great for short term trading. These days i recommend ES to new folks that ask me about trading. I then suggest after learning how to "TRADE" to then sweep the futures account monthly and take the booked money and maybe trade stocks for longer term positions. A comment for the person that said he gave up on the so called "squiggly" lines on a chart. Friend, do yourself a favor and give reading charts more time for the learning curve to become clearer. There is no such thing as squiggly lines on a chart, there is meaning in every single tick. Sure there is "NOISE", there always will be so called noise. Your job (mission impossible) if you accept this mission is to learn or indeed you will self destruck just like the tape in the show. HA To say lines on a chart are bogus is admission that you need more work, you are NOT THERE YET. Every tick has meaning, with more experience you will see a nice setup forming and allow you in a great trade. Who said it was easy to make money? Nice also to see others have moved forward in their trading. Keep up the good work, keep trying. Remember it takes a certain amount of skill and talent to put a fine meal on the table. trading is like cooking, it should get better every time you put something in the oven.....if it falls, flops etc, change the recipe, temp, ingredients and with due diligence you will be a master chef ... When someone says: i trade never looking at charts, i wonder what is guiding this person aside from osmosis. Hope all of you have even a better year next year, i know i plan on a better one. Have nice weekend....
I have never been a day trader and I thought I would come to the board to learn how to daytrade since I plan on retiring soon. I've learned that day trading is not for me even though I have never actually done it. I respect those that enjoy it, and those who are successful, but I cannot get myself to focus on a screen all day. It's just not for me. I guess I'll stick with 75% position trading and live my life away from that screen.
I learned that I should use my "intellect" mainly for systems development and just trade them, as designed. Most of the time, when I second-guess them, I underperform. I also learned that there is value in ET, when one knows how to use it. Some good information, some good entertainment. I think I figured out which is which !
I didn't say lines on a chart are bogus, I said I trade better not looking at them. A visual plot of past price action isn't the only thing to base trade decisions on, ya know? I am averaging a bit over 1%/day return on my account trading like this. At this point in time, I have no interest in putting more time into watching bars form and understanding price action better. Which leads me to maybe the most important thing I've learned this year: the need for balance. Trading and analysis consumed my life for a long time. I didn't realize how out of balance my life was until I took time to step back and reassess where I am and where I am going. Do I want to be That Guy that spends 80 hours a week trading, studying, and analyzing? Nope. Am I willing to sacrifice everything (time with family and friends, health, etc.) to be a world class trader? Nope. Do I have to in order to make a good return on my money? Nope! I'm sure there are very experienced traders that will make a lot more money than me, and that is ok. Ya know?