Well, i'm still a newbie and I find that you just need to filter out all the crap and you still can get some valuable information. Most of the time i'm on this site, I'm using the Search to look up old posts. When I find some one that appears to know what they are talking about, I pull up their profile and click on "read all posts by this user." This seems the best way to get to alot of real useful information here, at least for me. I also notice looking at old posts how fast they turn to a pissing match. When ever I find something that has like 15 pages of responses, I read the first 2 then click to the last page. More often then not you will see and entry from Magna saying to cut the crap on the attacks on each other. It's pretty funny cause it happens so much. The Trader P/L thread seems to attract the most attacks on people!
You are probably correct. In my case, I figure that if I were to explain why I took a position that it would be just a waste of time. I don't feel a need to respond to anyone's insult directed at me either. Most likely they are going to fail. About 99.9% fail. I've been doing currency trading since June 1995. I've seen lots of people come and go.
No you are not allowed an opinion.....kidding. Just curious why you thought equities were a better place...thats all. I agree with ya...consistency=success. But PTJ and SAC dont only trade equities.
Hello: Seems to me that a couple of things are at work (with regard to traders "leaving" the site). First, I think it is true that very few members actually trade. As we move further through this cycle, many of the wannabees have either lost their money, or are bleeding their accounts down while trying to maintain a "real" job to pay the bills. Also, the longer I do this, the more convinced I am that it is a lack of discipline that causes folks to crash and burn. This problem is not restricted to wannabees and retail traders. I work a system that keeps me out until the market shows me a significant intraday move to trade. From my perspective, there is a lot of temptation to trade (between the lines). I have already made that mistake, so I can stand back and wait, but I am pretty sure that much money is lost by inexperienced traders who are undercapitalized and simply can't wait to give it away. Knowing what I know now, I would be using the search function and posting very little. There were some good traders on the site a while back, and they offered some valuable lessons, and some decent system concepts. Good luck, Steve
just curious.... what is the turn over rate for new traders coming on this site....i mean how long does a new screen name show up before no one ever sees it again?
Incredible ... you where actually nice and helpful on this post! There is hope for ET yet .... I agree with steve46 completely on this, OVERTRADING in marginal markets with wrong trade size is the number one reason for blow out for most new traders. The problem is no one tells you what is realistic when you start out! There are so many stories of trader X turning 5k into 10 million but the problem is they are JUST stories and books. If you think about it realistically and logically even the true legends of the hedge fund world are the ones that can average 30-100% annually, if you can do that then you are a super star in this business. So those traders with a 10k account that have dreams of massive riches, i'm sorry but you need to get REAL and adjust your time parameters before you do anything else.
I'm pretty much a practical cycnic when it comes to getting/giving advice on trading; most often the people who are looking for it won't be able to use it anyways until they get to the level where they figure it out on their own, and by then it's just redundant. Me, I use these forums mostly as incentive to get the brain juices flowing and to clarify my own line of thinking. Sure it's fun to argue on the nature of markets and such but I'm not here to convince anyone of anything -- least of all to get other people to trade like me. Besides, I can only play my way so long as the school of what-has-happened-will-continue-to-happen trading still rules.
Before I found ET I was basically on my own scouring the internet for education, 99% of what I found was pure soliciting from various vendors promising riches. I bought a lot of the stuff because I had the money but also because I had no one unbiased to talk to about it. Et was great for me because it saved me tons of time figuring out WHO was a scam because of the others in the room that had purchased it. Since ET I have found several resources that really made a lot of difference to my learning curve. So I will give credit to ET because it really can help you especially when it comes to what NOT to do... A hint : No one in here who is succesful is going to openly share material with you that's just a fact but that being the case there are many good people in here that will help when they can but you need to be very cautious because the wolves come in sheeps clothing sometimes so do your homework and do not just trust everything you read in here.