If it is time be silly you can call your left big toe the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is mastery of the market such that you can exploit it to the full to make your fortune .. to be a winner on a scale that puts you amongst the very very few.
I thought about your response and didn't understand it at first. I guess I just view trading and its potential on a lower level than most vis a vis a "Holy Grail" level of utility and success. Maybe most people have a very high setting for what is on the Holy grail" level. The spectrum of successful methods is very broad and I do look at the spectrum as having limited potentials simply because of inherent characteristics. In the next while, the press and media may begin to pick up on what is possible through good reporting and such. It hasn't happened as yet. I can imagine the forums of the future being able to accommodate many ways to allow people to learn about how to make money especially with regard to the spectrum out there and how making money goes from stage to stage. So far the forums are not on point and not able to process input for improvement as we all see and understand. At this point, it may be possible in this thread to see a variety of inputs that will enable people to see some of the spectrum available to anyone. Better still it will possibly point out the places to be avoided that are dead ends by their nature. I like the idea of overlapping the maps of knowledge, skills and experience and risk. This surface will embody what is a holy grail for most people if they ever get to see it. "Whats not the holy grail?" then can be seen as well. When one looks at a system that is not too size limited and can be continually improved by stages (I use a nominal 8 doublings of money velocity) of improvement in knowledge, skills and experience, then there is a definite view of the potential of operating in the markets with efficiency and effectiveness that would exceed most peoples possible imagination of what is there to have. just as the compound interest formula pays out best in the last third of its life, so, I believe, does the trader's performance if he is able to operate wholistically. That is not the modus of either ET or the financial industry at this point. Equities trading may only have a money velocity of 5% a day, but after the compounding is done for a few years, then the trading limitations show up and limit income levels. Money has to be removed as suggested possibly. I do not believe this means that there is not a high level goal attainable. It is just reached and a limiting capacity prevails in that mode. For me it is 100,000 shares being turned over in the natural half cycle. My best net to dat5e was 17 points on a 100,000 shares in the 30 dollar exit range. Taking half that out of the market is a normal way to operate for me.
I thought Nasim Taleb told me the holy grail was buying long out of the money puts and hoping the sun doesn't rise tomorrow...
Don't seek the Holy Grail: There's no secret trading formula other than solid risk management, so stop looking for it. buzz