Great P&L? Getting written up in one of Jack Schwager's books? Writing a book oneself, even if one has no real-world track record of trading success? What do you think?
making 2x or greater your max dd in the majority of years. so if max dd for the year is 10% if you're banging out 20%+ that is really good IMO
An intriguing question and one which very few are truly qualified to answer. Few know, and fewer still reach this level. However, it is for each individual to set their own definition of what they view as acceptable performance / outcomes in this business. Taking nothing away from those who operate very successfully in the shorter timelines, from HFT through to manual trading teams with a time horizon up to 15 minutes, such strategies soon become capacity constrained in futures. For me, a master trader is one with the knowledge and ability to transact in significant, market affecting size where liquidity issues need to be fully understood over longer time horizons due to an extremely well developed understanding of the order flow in the markets they trade. The ability to determine how much of a commodity is for sale at any given time is key, or how many contracts required to move the market from A to B. I'll defer to one of our more experienced ET members, "nokomisjeff" who wrote elsewhere of very large currency speculators, all independent, typically residing in Hong Kong, Monte Carlo, or the Algarve, who take tens of billion dollar positions for their own account and keep a low profile, not choosing to be included on any rich lists. The decades of highly focused, diligent, and sophisticated participation required to reach this level are beyond all but a handful of people worldwide. While those who work for trading firms, i-banks, funds, etc have their place, as do profitable small speculators, it isn't realistic to place them in the same class as those rare independents who transact significant business. I posted on another thread in late November to question whether it was wise to be shorting EUR/USD considering the accumulation by such large interests. Then a story appeared citing anonymous (of course) "ECB insiders" warning of a negative interest rate in the Euro currency - a formal decision of course never followed. What did happen however was that large interests were able to accumulate an extra few billion euros at favourable prices which otherwise would not have been offered. I have no idea who arranged this story, but it would be naiive to consider that there was not a purpose behind it. The Euro now trades four cents higher, and it appears to have further to go. And small specs everywhere have been shorting the Euro during this time...I wonder who took the other side of those trades I think very few would qualify as master traders who did not have multiple decades of successful trading experience. There are obvious exceptions, such as John Arnold and Paul Rotter.
Controlling oneâs losses.., while allowing profit to flow in as the mkt makes available May not make for a âmasterââ¦. but at that point â who gives a crap RN
master discipline, massive patience, at times massive cahones!!! and most important master discipline ---underlined, bolded , italics and should be tattooed on your fore arm to see while trading.
as a side note to someone elses comment- I think fundamentally most people have an idea of what it takes to be successful, however, there are so many factors and distractions that make it easy to fail. As an example --everyone knows how to lose weight, a five year old could tell you how.. but how many people lose weight and keep it off long term? not many--discipline in the long run is difficult even though you know what needs to be done--just carrying that through over the long haul is very very hard. Trading is more complicated but if you break it down to a handful of good habits i think lots could be successful---but many cant follow through
Weight and fat are not the same thing. Majority of people have no idea how to lose fat (and keep muscle), and do not make the difference between losing fat and losing weight.
Jack gets his fairy books sold, the guy mentioned inside gets calls to manage funds, and the reader gets the other end of the stick.
"What makes a master trader? " I think it no different than waking up each morning, whether one is flipping burgers, CEO of a company or a doctor seeing patients, just knowing you will make money and be able to keep it. It is all about confidence and past years of bringing home the bacon. Yeah, trading hard to break the nut as often the nut is one's brain, but like all jobs, once you learn it, you just going to get better, you start finding small nuances, how to make that one extra tick in day trading or patience of waiting one more day for a swing trade. Little things you just thought was impossible to make sense are giving you images of understanding. Took me three years of everyday staring at the Dome to develop patterns to add to my trading. My father was in construction, he had no trouble laying block on 100th floor story building and yet he could chisel intricate pieces with rock. I tried laying block up just 7 stories and my knees would shake and all the rock cracked in half for me. I use to ask him how he did what he did, and he would say he just saw it before accomplishing it. My Father was a Master at what he did, he loved doing it, don't think money had much to do in what he did. I think if you do what you love, it's not a job and the money is Secondary. I love the Game.