Why doesn't anyone want to admit the facts? If your plan is flawed you will fail regardless of following it. Plans can be programmed and executed flawlessly therefore a plan means nothing in the real world of trading. It just "sounds" good and better yet "sells". This thread sounds like its from the 1950's. Computers have eliminated personal issues from interfering with the plan. Its the plan that is flawed. Dont blame feel good reasons like psych. Does no one "get the joke" yet concerning what we are dealing with? Get the joke or continue to lose!
The gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it is often rather large. http://www.neurosemantics.com/business-ns/the-knowing-doing-gap I trade because I discovered a few edges in liquid markets that have been offered several times a day for at least 6 years now.
Two questions: 1. How long did it take for this thread to go off the rails? 2. Why would cornix begin a thread that had Troll Magnet written all over it?
No real option, keep the business running to bring it what ever it brings in, not a lot, markets can top up the rest. I dont see trading as that hard, how i trade i dont really see an issue with making frequent cash, although not back there yet, i have been there before.
I dont believe an EA can trade profitably long term, I'm a programmer not of EAs mind, EAs can think or adapt, good for entries but useless at realising when wrong or to take profit. No time for trading, no motivation when I have the time as tired, too much running around, life gets in the way.
This is not what I would call an intelligent statement. You can only speak about your own plans, because all the others you don't know. As you don't believe in TA, you probable were never motivated to, at least for a few years, study this material. I never knew anybody who became successful in anything if he was not for 200% motivated to succeed. It is clear that this motivation is missing with you. Because of your statement that TA does not work it is already impossible for you to even study the first page of any lecture about TA. Your attitude makes it impossible to ever have even the slightest success in TA. I tried to program my "plan" but was even not able to make a profound analysis of all the rules. So I have to continue to trade the way I trade. I never asked a professional programmer because I don't want to give away anything, and I don't trust strangers. After more than 20 years I meet by coincidence somebody with whom I have now a long and honest relation as friend. He is a independent professional programmer who works on projects for big companies. Because I trust him, he was present one day when I was trading, just to see if he could help me programming my "plan". His reaction after the closing was: Oh my god!!! This is very complex and confusing. Even trying to write down all the possible scenario's is almost impossible. On top of that there were certain issues because of the (strange) way I analyze data. So to say: "Plans can be programmed and executed flawlessly", is really far too simple and not credible.
i need to correct your misstatements of fact. I was a TA user and believer for many years. I was even MTA member-- know what that is? There is a published article of me arguing eith my friend victor niederhoffer about TA with me being in support of it. So please dont make assumptions. I was profitable during this time but much study and research proved TA had nothing to do with my profitability--- i accepted the quantified truth. Rather thsn what i thought or felt. One day you will get the joke that you bought into if u keep an open mind. Surf
This raises an interesting question. If a plan (or if you prefer a trading system) can't be written down, or explained to other people, or coded into computer language, is it really a plan? (I notice you put "plan" in quotation marks, so perhaps you agree) I'm not trying to start a war here, I'm sure you are a very succesful trader but it sounds like what you are doing is too fluid to be described as a plan. I think the vast majority of people wouldn't be able to match what you're doing (I know I couldn't) - for them it would be better to have a simple strategy. The hardest part isn't coming up with a strategy that would work (although you need to have experience to sort the wheat from the chaff, so it isn't trivial), but in sticking to it (again without full automation I know I would really struggle to do that). So for the vast majority of traders sticking to a plan is probably one of the hardest hurdles to get over.