Yeah, I don't know. There are guys on Twitter like Cem Karsan who know a LOT more than Dest. People fall on his every word and talk about how brilliant he is. But when the rubber meets the road, there's no proof he actually make money trading options and most of his predictions turn out wrong. If one wants to master 2nd order Greeks and wax philosophical about derivatives of derivatives of derivatives, more power to them...but I still say "show me the money (profits)."
As someone with a background in applied math, yet no formal training whatsoever in finance, I am intensely frustrated by these "greeks". We have an equation (Black-Scholes). We've defined its variables (V, S, t, IV). For instance, dV/dt is theta. Why not call it dV/dt? vonna, vanna, volga...
I believe I have a much different perspective than you guys. Was a market maker on the Amex,traded at a hedge fund and later the head trader of equity derivatives at 2 IB's.. I retired early ( not my smartest move) and started trading again due to covid and boredom... The last 1.75 years,I've doubled a halfway decent sized account making markets and taking no risk other than execution. With said said I make most of the money in 2 months out of the year due to a "mispricing" that doesnt last for long...Pure market making... Does that make me a good trader??? I dont think so and as a result spend my free time reading books by the likes of Minervini and somewhat advanced opton books by Taleb and Bennet... I fully agree that being halfway human at direction is paramount..Can you trade options in a simplistic manner? Certainly...Does understanding Kurtosis,Skew,volga,vanna, sq root of time behavior put more P on the board??I honestly do not know.But I do know that it could very well save you from making some very stupid trades,which is inavaluable.. Its very hard to quantify the intangables..
lol I made more on this day than you've made, lifetime... and it wasn't even the best gain for the month. All quotes and news matches the time stamp of my post. https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/dests-everything-journal.332136/page-11#post-4859112 Up 2% on the day (today). Cem is allergic to money. He's made nothing over the last 5Y.
Im not a nuthugger,but I am on the Des bandwagon... If you cant pick up some useful ($$$)shit from Des,thats on you
I've sparred with the loser on the pol-forum and I will defend my performance against defamation. I don't see his blotters.
Dumb question: What is the most effective/kosher way to extract useful knowledge from those who possess it? Most of the time, due to the jargon and lack of experience/background on my part, I fail to comprehend what they are saying. Do I simply start a thread with my current trading and thought process and ask for feedback? A trading journal?
Looked up up this guy on linkedin, and I'll be damned if he wasn't 2 years behind me at Rice. I didn't know him. I guess if I would have studied math econ instead of applied math & geophysics, I wouldn't be a 47 year old douche grasping at straws on a message board.
read their journals...when you dont understand something, get to googling. if you dont find your answer continue the thread then the next one then the next one then eventually come back and reread their threads and you will have a new perspective. In your down time read books that are more specialized for advanced options concepts...this helps a lot with knowing wtf these guys are talking about. Honestly i dont blame them for ignoring us...they are casting pearls before swine, it is not their fault if we trample them under our feet. The answers to all of your questions have been answered out there somewhere...except a few of Des's Acronyms that is haha. But what do you expect from a guy with a SCAR 21 without a scope on it?