Why is trading so difficult?

padutrader · May 12, 2018

Sweet Bobby said:
Your initial post says you haven’t turned a profit since 1994! You suck at trading. Have you considered hat you’re never going to be profitable?
More...

like you i lie
i am actually profitable and hugely profitable but i lie to see what kind of sweet people come out

Bekim · May 12, 2018

traderGOD said:
YES
and in my case too big positions because i am so confident of what the market should do, but it always does not do that and sometimes does exactly the opposite.

The market does that because there are many who have good knowledge which enable them to reduce risk; but there should always be risk in your trade,because, if there is only one outcome,no one will take the opposite side of the trade.
She [the market] will never, allow herself to be taken for granted
More...

Well I think trading very small until your consistent in your profits is a good idea. But the next step is learning to trade with size because that’s he only way to make real money doing this.

volpri · May 12, 2018

traderGOD said:
like you i lie
i am actually profitable and hugely profitable but i lie to see what kind of sweet people come out
More...

ROFLMAO..WHAT now sweet bobby?

padutrader · May 12, 2018

volpri said:
ROFLMAO..WHAT now sweet bobby?
More...

GO FIGURE

aquarian1 · May 12, 2018

Lee- said:
In most hobbies, you are simply challenging yourself. Want to learn to play guitar? You have a set goal and you work towards it. Other people learning to play guitar independently of you have no impact on your ability to progress. Want to run a marathon? Another person doing this, doing it faster, etc, doesn't make it any more difficult for you to do it or make you any worse.

This is in contrast to say competing at a world level in a particular sport. In this case, other people's abilities do in fact have a direct impact on your ability to compete at that sport at that level. The more people involved, the higher the chance there is that someone is better than you. When you add a strong incentive (fame, money, etc), this draws even more competition. So true in the financial markets.

As far as your typical jobs. Lets say someone is good at job X. Chances are it is quite difficult to measure their direct impact to a company. In fact, in many cases, your ability to perform at a particular career is in part influenced by your coworkers, the support provided by the organization, and so forth. What I'm getting at is, a lot of people don't necessarily have to be particular great at their job for their companies to survive because the success of the company is contingent upon many people performing different roles. When you have many people performing different roles, it's all kind of vague as to what contribution any individual truly has. Sure some contribute more or less, but the same kind of distribution happens at the competitors of that company.

When it comes to an individual trader, it's all on you. Your ability to compete is directly measurable. Your contribution to the success of your work is directly measured and there's no one who can pick up the slack. It's all you.

Granted there's always a bit of luck involved with anything. Some people are able to get access to capital to start trading at different times. Some people have different abilities in terms of time (for example, maybe someone would be a very good day trader, but due to other commitments is not available to trade during market hours, so they try swing trading and they just aren't good at it, but they'll never know that they would be a great day trader because the opportunity isn't available to them).

You specifically mentioned that you've been attempting technical analysis since 1994, but perhaps you would have been an amazing fundamental analyst or quant and instead you didn't pursue what is optimal for you. On the other hand, maybe 1 more year and it will just all come together for you.

Best wishes in finding your path.
More...

Lee,

Excellent post.
I'm a bit surprised to see it so well covered. Well done.

aquarian1 · May 12, 2018

traderGOD said:
I have been learning and studying technical analysis since 1994 but i still cannot turn a money profit.
I do not make a loss in demo/sim.
More...

Lee pointed out some great points.

You don't mention your time frame or type of trading.

If it is daytrading futures (e.g. ES) the profit potential of a consistent system is enormous, due to the short compounding periods and leverage. The difficulty is enormous as well due to the quick movements and the algos trading, your broker trading against you and taking your stops (aka "Internalization') and the intense competition for the same dollars.

Hotcakes · May 12, 2018

Bekim said:
I think the biggest reason is patience, most people do not want to sit around and do nothing 95% of the time and only take the best trades.
More...

This. Easy to trade a trend correctly

Problem is only happening 20 percent of time....

Aero73kgp · May 12, 2018

traderGOD said:
I have been learning and studying technical analysis since 1994 but i still cannot turn a money profit.
I do not make a loss in demo/sim.
More...

Easy call - stick with the demo/sim where you're profitable

themickey · May 12, 2018

Aero73kgp said:
Easy call - stick with the demo/sim where you're profitable
More...

Ya, personally some peeps are just not cut out for trading, no matter how hard they try.
A desire does not equate that one will succeed.

themickey · May 12, 2018

24 years and still trying?
TraderGOD's trading vocabulary and knowledge displayed on the forum indicates a very primary school level.
And why in the name of hell would you come here calling yourself a trading god?