(Why) do most traders lose?

Discussion in 'Psychology' started by kiwi_trader, Jul 25, 2006.

Why do traders lose?

  1. Undercapitalized

    23 vote(s)
    8.5%
  2. Trading Strategy: Entry

    20 vote(s)
    7.4%
  3. Trading Strategy: Exit

    26 vote(s)
    9.6%
  4. Psychology/Discipline

    137 vote(s)
    50.6%
  5. Money Management

    65 vote(s)
    24.0%
  1. Cheese

    Cheese

    Our K-ONE-doubleU-One friend makes a good point.
    You can't teach help to ineffective or failing traders .. where in any event he correctly notes that execution by them is not done properly.

    Bottom line: you can't.

    It really gets back to the need of people in general to prove to themselves that they are losers.
    :)
     
    #101     Aug 9, 2006
  2. No objection at all! :D
     
    #102     Aug 9, 2006
  3. taowave

    taowave

    "Some people will just plain never accept training...prefering
    (I guess this did end up sounding a bit like an ad...but I firmly believe all the above to be true...and there are other places who train....FNYS for example). "

    Don,i have no problem with "promotion" as long as whoever the mentor/trainer is,they come with an audited track record of five years..

    If they dont,their advice/training is absolutely meaningless and no more than a scam
     
    #103     Aug 9, 2006
  4. To those retail traders on ET. You guys are claiming that you are making money. How much money are you talking here? Since retail traders don't have the Buying Power (BP) like some pro traders, I would guess not much. And if you are making less than $100K, that is nothing.

    You have not seen how much some of these pro traders really make. You don't here them talking, especially on ET.

    Good luck trading.
     
    #104     Aug 9, 2006
  5. LOL, I agree...it reminds me of when I first put together my "Professional Traders Panel" a few years ago....If I recall, I invited about 30 "experts" to join us (thinking only a few would want to join in)...and about 22 said they would love to join in.

    Then, to be sure that we had some credibility, I asked that they prove that they had made, at minimum, $100K trading the last couple of years.....at that point I ended up with 5 people, including my brother and I...LOL....

    Don
     
    #105     Aug 9, 2006
  6. eagle

    eagle

    Hmmm Interesting... Even the experts make less, what about the non-experts! :D

     
    #106     Aug 9, 2006
  7. Why do most traders lose?
    cause they do not know how to win :cool:
     
    #107     Aug 9, 2006
  8. I love comments like this. "Less than" $100K, being able to sit at home, trade for a few hours in the morning, then take the rest of the day off. No "job", no boss, no bs.

    Yep, that's nothing.

    LC
     
    #108     Aug 9, 2006
  9. Lamont C's comment about lifestyle is a good one. Because I trade I can live in the tropics (surfers paradise), I need to put in about 6 hours a day with no commute starting at 11am so I can fish, surf or whatever beforehand, and I have no f'ing boss. How good is that :)

    But this 100k less than nothing stuff is just an illusion presumably based on trading US stocks. I note that st didn't say that the trading account was only 100k but will use that as an illustration. I trade HSI. Yesterday one of my fellow traders claimed 400pts per contract for the day and having traded the day am very happy with his veracity. On average I make a reasonable fraction of that each day. If your trading account was USD100k then you could theoretically trading 32 contracts (I have a bigger trading account and dont trade 32 contracts but this is just to illustrate, also you need to get clever about positioning if you have over 10 contracts). Say you averaged 100pts per contract per day (quite doable) ... but lets drop it to 50pts which you should be able to do with one hand tied behind your back ... then 50pts * 30 contracts * usd6.40 = $9,600 per day or 2.4M in a busy year.

    Now, I dont know about you SizesTrader but I haven't found that I need 2.4M to put my kids through private schools and enjoy the lifestyle.

    Cheers :)
     
    #109     Aug 9, 2006
  10. They are the experts because they know the TRUTH about markets. Most likely, if they are truly an expert.. they wouldn't even trade.

     
    #110     Aug 9, 2006