Why do 95 % of traders lose ?

Discussion in 'Psychology' started by oilfxpro, Feb 18, 2012.

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  1. a few reasons why most aspiring traders fail:

    #1: assume it is easy, like mastering a game
    #2: assume they will make money quickly
    #3: assume they must make money every day
    #4: desire to compete with others
    #5: desire to "prove themselves"
    #6: assume everything needed to know is available free
    #7: assume highly successful traders post live calls in message boards
    #8: assume they must master one market or symbol, period
    #9: assume they must know where market tops and bottoms are

    #10: most failed traders try to logic, reason or figure out which way the market is going from every bar on the chart, every second of every minute on the clock.

    Successful traders do the exact opposite of all those natural human-behavior failures. Very simple :)
     
    #51     Mar 1, 2012
  2. I do not agree with #1. trading is easy, enter hold and out. just like weight loss, diet and exercise, but how many people will follow!

    #2, i should correct it. people bring in money concept into trading, how can they follow trading plan objectively?

    #3, the same. if I want to make a certain amonut of money in a day, just like NOdoji, $400/day, take a regular job, no risk, even with lots of other benefits, like social support, .... trading is not a regular job. you can make millions in matter of days, if not like that, better take a certain regular job.

    #4, the ego is the enemy. but it is good too. it drives you to do better. all depends on how you use it.

    #5, the ego problem.

    #6, do not understand the market. be openminded,any thing can happen in the market

    #7, serious traders will not do that. it is a business.

    #8, I do not agree. based on foucs rule, most people do the opposite, they try to master everything, trade any thing. most people even told some setup proven to be profitable, but they goof around for others.

    #9, do not buy it. bottom and top is easy to spot. most people wait when they see a bottom, they want to buy it there, of course they can not get in, and end up, they chase the market to the top and buy.

    #10, logic on every tick is riduculous. the problem is here most people have a small account. that is why they pay particular attention to those little moves. in order to conquer this problem, do some good trades and move up. or trade size insignificant to those little noise. take an example of future crude, 300bucks move is noise to many $50k account, but to a $3k account, it is a huge move, %10. they do not kown what suits them.

    logic is good. you need it to figure out the inbalance of buyers and sellers or what they are thinking (try to break through, or bounce, ...)







     
    #52     Mar 1, 2012
  3. luisHK

    luisHK

    There's a long pop up on my IB account today when I try to open it, among the information is the following :

    PERFORMANCE OF INTERACTIVE BROKERS RETAIL CUSTOMER FOREX ACCOUNTS FOR PAST FOUR CALENDAR QUARTERS:
    The table below sets forth the percentage of non-discretionary retail forex customer accounts maintained by Interactive Brokers LLC that were profitable and unprofitable for the past four calendar quarters. The accounts were identified and these statistics were calculated according to the definitions and interpretations set forth by the CFTC and NFA1.
    TIME PERIOD NUMBER OF ACCOUNTS PERCENTAGE OF PROFITABLE ACCOUNTS PERCENTAGE OF UNPROFITABLE ACCOUNTS
    Q4 2011 45053 51.0% 49.0%
    Q3 2011 45058 51.2% 48.8%
    Q2 2011 41651 38.8% 61.2%
    Q1 2011 40370 40.4% 59.6%
    PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.


    It looks much better than 5% winners, yet why are they considering only non discretionary forex customers (does that mean only automated ones ? )
     
    #53     Mar 1, 2012
  4. emg

    emg

     
    #54     Mar 1, 2012
  5. 95% of traders lose because they take profits and they take losses
     
    #55     Mar 1, 2012
  6. d08

    d08

    It was called "Idiocracy".
    It wasn't just a fun comedy, there was a lot of truth in it. The correlation between a very high number of children and low IQ has been established, it's a scary reality. I guess we really do need more wars in that sense :)
    People also thought Orwell's 1984 was science fiction. Well, we are living it now.
     
    #56     Apr 10, 2012
  7. zdreg

    zdreg

    "The correlation between a very high number of children and low IQ has been established."
    it doesn't seem to affect mormons or hasidic children.
     
    #57     Apr 10, 2012
  8. I quit having kids about 30 years ago, and I've noticed since then I have gotten a lot smarter.
     
    #58     Apr 10, 2012
  9. luisHK

    luisHK

    I was surprised to read this, but a google search came with several links, starting with :

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_and_intelligence
     
    #59     Apr 10, 2012
  10. yes, it's a survival mechanism. Same thing with body weight, skinny people are more fertile.

    But there is a difference between being fertile and having kids.

    They need to do a study and see if people in China have become more intelligent since they implemented their "one child" policy.

    You could also make a case for abortion. Get pregnant, get an abortion, get intelligent.
     
    #60     Apr 10, 2012
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