Well the post below is kind of embarassing and stuff but I am not a slave to my ego like too many on this board so here goes. Well, it looks like I'm about to declare a ceasefire in my quest for "consistent profitability", (no, not the Holy Grail). I'm about take a full-time Dilbertese job. Now this is a ceasefire, not a capitulation. I will never be happy until I master trading; and if that means never that would mean I'd never be happy all my life, yes. I'm declaring ceasefire because I'm not making money, not because I'm losing money. Basically, I'm not making money in my papertrading; and I refuse to trade for real until I do. I've been at this for a total of 3 years on and off. Yea, doesn't sound too good, but I'm not the least able guy around plus I don't know of any other occupation where so many intelligent people miserably failed. So I'm not feeling too bad. I guess to have something to show for the 3 years I decided to summarize what I've learned here. By the way I'd like to thank ET as a whole for providing a forum for learning and a number of ET members who selflessly share their knowledge, who will remain un-named. So here's what I learned: 0) Successful, consistent trading is very possible. 1) Short-term trading is done via technical analysis (not FA). 2) There's systematic and discretionary kinds of trading. 3) People trade in all sorts of (TA) ways and make money. 4) 95% of vendors are losers just like 90% of traders are losers. This fact really complicates learning in this industry. That said there's some honest ones (5%). 5) Don't trade until you're consistent on paper. 6) There's 3 parts to trading success: method, discipline and money management. The latter two are pretty straight-forward. Method is the hardest. Look at me, 3 years, and still looking. 7) Yes, probably finding a mentor is a great way.. in fantasy land! Here I'll try this. Are you a consistently profitable trader? Would you like to be my mentor? I won't pay you anything up-front (refer to #4). But if I'm successful I'll pay you 20-50% of all my profits for 1-2 maybe even 3 years. I'm only interested in daytrading e-minis. PM me if interested. There, let's see how many takers I'll get.. My bet is none. 8) Traders get paid for absorbing risk. No wonder, 90% get the hard end of the stick. So it's a risk thing. In a bigger way, I take significant risks and sacrifices in trying to become a trader; if it works out I'll be paid. 8) The kingpin of it all is consistency. With consistency you can average net $20 a day, and be in the promised land pretty quickly by building your size. So number of points blablabla doesn't really matter. What matters is consistency. 9) I found that personally systematic trading appeals to me. I also found that developing a mechanical method takes a lot of work and there's been some kind of a psychological barrier that told me "Noo, don't do the hard work". I guess that's my latest failing. 10) I understood the role of leverage in magnifying return/drawdown. Also the return/drawdown "paradigm". 11) I understood a lot of things about markets and investing that are obvious to traders, for example I will never be a bag-n-holder and watch my 401k disappear like a sheep. Well that's about it, I guess. If any other "wisdoms" pop out that I forgot to include I'll edit the post and include them in the list. I feel much better struggling for my goals than living in peace of mediocrity.
I've got an even better deal for you... Invest with me and I'll even execute all the trades for you. You can pay me at the low end of your range -- 20% of profits. We'll be swing trading the Naz, Dax, and T-notes. All it takes is the $20k minimum investment.
I don't think that's what he's after, Aaron. I think the guy wants to learn how to fish, not pay someone to fish for him. Well the post below is kind of embarassing and stuff but I am not a slave to my ego like too many on this board so here goes... Sounds like you'll make money some day. I've been at this for a total of 3 years on and off. Can't do it half-assed. Either sh!t or get off the pot... 5) Don't trade until you're consistent on paper. Paper-trading is bullsh!t. Skip it. 6) There's 3 parts to trading success: method, discipline and money management. The latter two are pretty straight-forward. Method is the hardest. Look at me, 3 years, and still looking. Nope. The first is easiest and the last is the hardest. It's all about risk, baby. 8) The kingpin of it all is consistency. With consistency you can average net $20 a day, and be in the promised land pretty quickly by building your size. So number of points blablabla doesn't really matter. What matters is consistency. Yup. You said it there. Can you win the lottery consistently?? Think about how many traders make successful trades that have absolutely NOTHING (read: NOTHING) to do with their analysis and EVERYTHING to do with the market and sheer luck. Know what the difference between the good ones and bad ones is? The good ones manage their risk on the BAD trades so they can keep playing and grinding out profits... Just my .02. I hope it helps...
Do you think you can expect any guarantee in a case like that? Is it even legal to guarantee anything? Just curious.
email me at SP500_trading@yahoo.com. I have some mechanical trading systems that I am considering sharing with others. They are not free, but certainly cheaper than what others offer. Today they brought me 17 ES points (8+5.5+3.5) and thanks to two of them I was able to predict today's upside breakout last night. I posted about my entries last night in one of the threads on this site, so you can check it. My PM box is full so I cannot PM you. Others can email me about it too. I am not a vendor so I will distribute only a limited copy of my systems to keep my edge intact, but since I am a trader I do not want to make them expensive to other traders either.
Now it all makes sense. I have read many of your posts Traderkay from the beginning of your association with EliteTrader through recently. Not all, but many. It was my attempt to discover why you were so angry about not being handed a trading method guaranteed to work, complete with entry, exit, stoploss, etc. Now it all makes sense. Well I am sorry to read that you are getting a job different than trading. Had you approached me in any other fashion than the two times you did, I would have been happy to share with you the very methods I use to pay the bills, grow the account, save for my children's college, etc. All for free too. No percentage, no fee. Just free. And as you know, I am all about simple. Amazingly to some, I still hold the offer open to you. PM me and let's go to work. Or you can bash me one more time here, etc etc, and go on with your life. Either way, peace and good luck to you.
You should just Capitulate 3+ years paper trading and you can't make money? Boy, When you start trading for real with real money on the line, your mind is gonna go nuts If you can't trade sucessfully with no money on the line how are you going to when you have real $$$ on the line?? Just Capitulate