I'm your Huckleberry!!! <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KfbAFgD2mLo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
vey cool reply. every year the Tombstone city council argues about main street. AND every year they cover it with dirt to take Tombstone back to the dark ages. dust and a whorehouses go together perfectly. and whiskey. we can only use a whiskey glass once; the bottom falls out. They scoop it all up after tourist season. Tourists come in the summer from Detriot and Newark. 115 degrees at high noon; it is hard to hold a gun, even. Tucson is called he "Old Pueblo" (SP) At old tucson there are shooto us every day. UOur annual NRS banquet is in late September when the snakes and lizzards have new skins and the old ones just snap crackle and pop under foot in the dark. If we grew grass and mowed it, it would be like making hamburger that has a nice poison spiciness and some greens mixed in. Our lightening bugs are so tough they burn rubber on takeoffs. Their glow cuts steel like lasers do.
Well, okay thank you for the many replies. A few years ago I happened up on elite trader and looked for beginner advice. Some of it was very helpful and some was noise. In the end though, I didn't listen to any of the advice and did exactly what so many warned would happen. I committed myself to paper trading but quickly felt I new what I was doing and within a week I was trading the YM live. I remember the last day I traded I started with one contract......well let me stop there for a second and explain my brilliant strategy.The plan was to trade 1 contract and if it went in the wrong direction I would hit the reverse button and add a contract until I got even and then go back down to 1 contract. How the hell I came up with this I have no idea as it was counter to every system I had read about. I just thought it up myself. Okay, so here goes....I start my 1 contract and it is working in my favor. Took 4 points and got out. Started again.....this time went bad and hit reverse and added a contract but it quickly turned around on me so I reversed and added another contract. I was at 3 here but not catching up. When I missed it again, I reversed and doubled the contracts to 6. At the peak of my failure I was in with something like 35 contracts and in the negative to the toon of about $45,000. I'm not remembering all the details as I was both crying and screaming at the same time; thoughts of losing my home, my family. It did finally stay in one direction long enough for me to recoup some of the loss. In fact, it went in my favor by about $4,000 at the end but I was so green that I didn't know how to close so many positions at once and by the time I finished I was about $2,000 down. Still, I remember just rejoicing in the fact that I hadn't lost everything and more. I don't know how often something like this happens. It did not need to happen more than once for me to get a clue. I didn't deserve the opportunity and didn't respect the market. I didn't respect the tools and mostly I didn't respect the you guys; the ones who warned me and also gave some initial direction. I agree that a mentor would be awesome right? I mean the problem in the beginning is getting a sense of direction. Even now I struggle. For the past few years I never stopped thinking about investing and making a living in the market. I have a successful business but it is not fulfilling and it's not my life's ambition. About a month ago when I decided to try this again I was sure that it was going to be in the direction of picking stocks. Perhaps focusing on options of companies that I liked or disliked. When I started doing some reading though and posting and listening to advice the feeling I was getting was that anyone who wants to make it as a trader for a living must trade futures. Or maybe forex but certainly not individual stocks. Having a mentor might have been able to say, " John, stick with what you love. If it's stocks, then focus on the broader market and learn" (I don't know if that is what he would have said or not!). Or maybe he would tell me that trading stocks takes to much work and it's to broad of a subject to make a living at. Perhaps that is why most of you trade what you do. I don't know. Without the help of someone with experience I think it just takes a lot longer and perhaps costs a lot more making mistakes than it would have been if someone had your back. So where does someone find someone like that. I don't want to go through this journey not trusting anyone and getting scammed but it does seem like when I knock at the wrong doors there are people who will gladly take my cash but with little in return. At the same time, I think some investments in either money or time are necessary to learn. One such instance comes to mind. I recently was doing some searches about price action trading and came across a youtube video. The guy was recapping the days market and he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Older guy who seemed genuine and not looking to get rich. He had a small website on the video and he mentions on the site and on his videos that he isn't out to get rich with his teaching. He wants to pay back all that he has been given. Well, I did write to him and inquired about this package he sells on the site. It was $99 and it provides information on what he knows about price action and includes his written text and videos. So he writes and tells me this.....he says among other stuff, "Listen to be honest, this package I sell doesn't have any more information that can't already be found on my site and on my videos. It is just organized a little better and will save you time in getting all of the information." I was impressed by that and bought the program and it was in fact organized better and more clear in its presentation and I believe it was worth the $99. This is in sharp contrast to another site I visited that was also prompted from a youtube video. In this case though, the site was very well organized BUT it was too clean. They had 3 different packages to help launch your career as an effective price action trader. Package 1 contained 3 studies on price action trading, Package 2 offered even more and Package 3 that costs $250 an hour was an individual 4 hour session by phone to help refine what I learned with packages 1 and 2. I'm making it sound stupid here but honestly it was at first intriguing. I contacted him by email and inquired about his offering telling him that I really wasn't in the position to spend $250 an hour at this point but that I was considering perhaps a different package. The guy has emailed me every day and also sent another email containing the day 1-5 videos, blah, blah blah. This is the kind of stuff that I can't stand and I admit I was probably to blame for that one. I am just trying to learn and move forward. Aside from two books I recently purchased on Amazon (Trade your way to Financial Freedom and High Probability Trading), that $99 package was the first thing I have purchased. Without a mentor or guide, I gotta do it on my own. I really needed some beginner basic information to get started and I assume the rest will come by paper trading in as much as can be accomplished in a paper trading account. I'm not looking for shortcuts but I am looking for honest, accurate information that I can use to learn. In one of the books I mentioned above, I can make my own reality by believing so it may have less to do with technical information and more about psychology. This is just another view of the many that are available to the newb. One thing I do like that he wrote was that I have to find out what works for me. It's not a one size fits all world and what may be making one person successful may not work for another. I have have to find out what it is for me. I didn't mean to write so much but I wanted to get it off my chest. Thanks for reading.
I have a successful business but it is not fulfilling and it's not my life's ambition. --- You also have a family, your first and foremost priority is providing for them. This in mind, you need to accept the fact that with or without a mentor you can expect many years before you may become consistently profitable [if at all], and only after multiple years that your trading outperforms your business should you consider abandoning a successful enterprise. A few years ago I happened up on elite trader and looked for beginner advice. In the end though, I didn't listen to any of the advice and did exactly what so many warned would happen. --- To your fortune, you learned a valuable lesson, which should be a stark reminder how imperative it is to be patient and wait before leaping in the fire. I agree that a mentor would be awesome right? So where does someone find someone like that? --- Most traders did not have the luxury of a Mentor, they are autodidacts by nature, self taught. They achieved their success by sheer hard work, studying, trial and error, developing their trade plan [profitable strategies], building their tool sets, understanding the IMPORTANCE of patience and discipline, growing slowly, overcoming their Demons, blah, blah, blah... --- Mentors are not easily found, most profitable traders "trade" not teach, you can't search out a Mentor. www.mentor.com does not exist, you will only find "snake oil salesman who advertise to mentor". It is on the rare occasion that one may meet an individual who respects your attitude, determination, work ethic, finds you amiable and desires to help or mentor you. This may be due to interaction on the internet, local coffee shop, grocery store, etc... usually in a place you least expect... You should plan on doing it on your own, and along your journey you may meet someone who can help direct you further, but don't wait or plan for that to happen... Trading is a solitary/lonely business, and for most so is the journey to success. I really needed some beginner basic information to get started. --- Regarding getting solid, reliable information or advice on ET, you will need to do your homework. There are some very good experienced traders here, but unfortunately they are in the minority and outnumbered by imposters, trolls, and negative personalities. As in trading that 95%/5% ratio holds true for ET as well... That being said, if ET is your only source for direction [may God help you] I suggest you create a list of those members which exhibit a positive attitude and post intelligent comments, advice, etc... [ET buddy list]. Once you have identified those individuals, research their past posts, compile a document of notes and find the common denominator. If I recall correctly 5-years ago you had some very good advice, you may reconsider re-visiting those threads. Once you have completed your initial research, read the suggested books, prepare a personal training syllabus and start from there. Consider it like a Pyramid, build a strong foundation and progressively add layers. --- As an FYI, most see Trading as a road to easy money... it is quite the contrary, Trading requires the same, if not more dedication, hard work, commitment of time as any other profession... You are competing against some of the most brilliant minds, institutions, algorithms in the world... don't for a minute think that this is an easy business... [Day Job may not be so bad after all]
Thanks for that well thought out reply. I don't go into this blindly and if I've learned nothing else so far, it's that this is a difficult challenge. Maybe that was why I was drawn to it. I don't know. I appreciate that you didn't berate me and discourage me from following this dream of mine. As I mentioned before my business does well and mostly runs itself as it is internet based but it may not be here forever. I firmly believe that I will need a backup plan if my business fails. I've been working it for 12 years now but the travel business is great as long as the economy is stable. I need a game plan if it goes south. Anyway, I appreciate the post and will take it to heart. Thanks.
The chance of getting on the right path in trading is slim. If nobody has told you before, look at the top two links in Education Resources section in ET. You do not have to pay anything for useful knowledge. Good mentors will not charge you. Good luck in your journey and you need it.
Read the ACD thread in technical analysis forum. That thread is better than any training I paid for. I suggest you become a successful investor before you worry about short term trading.