Because us humans need something to hold on to. In trading there is no such thing, coz the market does what it does. It moves random. What you need to learn is to accept that markets move a random and mentally that is hard for some people. In fact, some will never learn to do so. When I'm talking about 10% knowledge and trading on the basis of letting your profits run I'm talking about things like: - Not going long when the market is already up 1.1%. Because the major part of your upward potential is already gone. How often does the market go up 2% or more? It can happen, but it's not likely to happen. (yes I've seen the fluctuations lately, we had a record in the Dow of four days with a swing of more than 400 points. It can happen, but it's not that we set a record every year). - Not going short when the market is up 1.6%. Because your downward potential might look enormous, but it's not likely that after being up 1.6% a market in such a positive sentiment will close at 0.3% It can happen, but it's not likely. These are clear examples, but there are other examples that ask for more explanation. But as mentioned this is the stuff you learn on the job. Nevertheless you don't have to agree. I'm just sharing info and what you do with it is for you to decide. Shaka , Frits
There's two types of price action analysis. 1) Chart analysis (this is TA...sometimes referred to as chart reading) 2) Bid/Ask/Time & Sales analysis (not TA...sometimes referred to as tape reading) I too don't put a lot of merit into TA via technical indicators but I do personally know a few consistently profitable traders that do use technical indicators. However, it's not their only tool. Thus, technical indicators is just one chapter of many chapters in their trading plan. Yet, I've never met a consistently profitable trader that exclusively (as in 100%) uses any form of TA to be profitable and nothing else (e.g. experience, discipline, proper capitalization, proper money management, key market events and so on). Mark
the best advice I can give anyone is to ignore all "advice" you get on public message boards from anonymous alias' that mask perennial losing traders. your best bet might be to research the older P&L threads going back a few years, pm or email the consistent posters who were profitable then and weigh their advice. but the absolute last thing you or anyone should ever do is take advice from those who are still wandering blindly in the proverbial desert themselves
Just a thought... I personally only take experienced traders in terms of what I teach, and at least half of the traders coming to me have been scalping ES or CL or 6E or GC or something along those lines for at least a couple years. A couple observations from that crowd: 1. The survivors and even the thrivers tend to hold trades longer and play for position more than the traditional 'scalper' might think, and 2. Stretching out seconds to minutes (and dare I say, maybe hours) is going to insulate your position away from the robotic and automated turbulence. The really higher frequency manual traders might find themselves getting shaken out of stuff. Just my 2 cents.
Agree. You saying the books you bought weren't published by vendors. Thus, in seems like you're also saying the "little money" you did use to purchase books from vendors was useful via the "...gained exposure to ideas..." commentary. Mark
I don't consider the likes of Elder, Van Tharp, Douglas, Sperandeo etc as vendors, but as authors. Some wear 2 hats, and like Carter are also vendors, but my point was I gained exposure to a variety of ideas, at a lower cost than 1 vendor would have charged to teach his way of trading.
Best way to learn day trading is to learn swing trading. I often day trade the middle portions of a missed opportunity.
I have to agree with the guy who said don't listen to people on a message board. The truth is that there's many different ways to trade where you can become profitable. No one knows you like yourself, so you'll have to work on building a solid trading foundation that works for you. This comes from hard work, study, reading and trial and error. Never trade real money until you're profitable; there are too many good paper trading programs out there. Remember, this is a trade, so you'll have to pay your dues. It's a good profession, so work hard and many option may open up for you. Good luck!
This is wisdom. "Come on baby light my $100 bill on fire." Mr. Miyagi teaching day trading: "Show me $100 bill ON FIRE!" (Prospective student in a state of confusion is standing next to a pile of burnt $100 bills.)