If you judge a book by an editorial reviewer, you are probably the kind of person that goes to movies based on other peoples review of it. Another piece of advice. There is a dualism to this book: There is Gonzales recounting stories, and there is Gonzales giving his interpretations of what happens in those stories as to what went wrong. _Even_ if all you did was read this book for the former, it would be worth it's weight in gold. As an aside, the older I get the more I realize that what Wittgenstein said is true - you only understand things once you understand them. Zen masters say mostly the same thing. One can read a book like this ten times and get nothing from it. You then have an experience. You go back and reread it and tears would flow from your eyes. The best books seem to mature as you do... nitro
Relax bro, I'm just having fun. I agree with what you say. But I've just learnt not to trust books that purport to "explain" how such and such and people done such and such things. All you can ever hope to get is the author's subjective take on it, no matter the number of scientists they quote, and ultimately there's never anything conclusive beyond mere common sense anyway. (Yeah, the above was from the review, but it still states the author's conclusions.) Of course, as you say, such books still have "read and reflect" value, but if, as you say, it won't help until you've experienced anyway, I prefer to spend time on the experiencing. One I've heard goes (supposedly Chinese), "I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand." Edit People will still keep writing and people will still keep reading such books, of course, because the traditional education system has conditioned us to believe that learning takes place by reading books, which, if you think about it, is utter nonsense.
Best post on this thread. After trading a while, you've just invested way too much time and money and its hard to walk away unless you're forced to due to lack of funds. The "tommorow I'll turn it around and never look back" mentality is always there for a guy you hasn't found consistnacy in trading. Of course they'll always be days and streaks of days when you bank and that gives you the hope to continue. But its just a matter of time before you find yourself at new lows, if the consistancy is not there. So when do you know when to continue or throw it in? I'd say focus on consistancy, if it isn't there then don't wait for the new lows to hit you. (trying to follow my own advice).
That's the nail in the coffin of every failed traders carreer, not the $ losses. The $ losses is just a sideeffect of the addiction to the action.