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Your favourite Elite Trader & favourite Post

Discussion in 'Educational Resources' started by SProbability, Aug 27, 2002.

AAAintheBeltway
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Favorite ET'er: There can be only one. And there was only one who came on here, posted his trades in real time and produced a stunning record. For months. He's gone but not forgotten. I refer of course to the incomparable Seanote.

Favorite post: DoogieHoser to the insufferably arrogant Hitman, " What do you think you will do with the $12 you made today?"

#11 Aug 27, 2002

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Gordon Gekko
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Originally posted by AAAintheBeltway
Favorite ET'er: There can be only one. And there was only one who came on here, posted his trades in real time and produced a stunning record. For months. He's gone but not forgotten. I refer of course to the incomparable Seanote.
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yea, some congrats are definitely due to Seanote, imo.

Originally posted by AAAintheBeltway
Favorite post: DoogieHoser to the insufferably arrogant Hitman, " What do you think you will do with the $12 you made today?"
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oh shit that actually made me giggle!

#12 Aug 27, 2002

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SProbability
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So what happened to him? He posted as recently as 08/16. I've heard complimentary things about him, but never really benefited from his contributions, since I'm not much of a Journal follower.

#13 Aug 27, 2002

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Gordon Gekko
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Originally posted by SProbability
So what happened to him? He posted as recently as 08/16. I've heard complimentary things about him, but never really benefited from his contributions, since I'm not much of a Journal follower.
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you may want to read his journals. hehe jk dude..

#14 Aug 27, 2002

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daniel_m
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I like that Daniel M guy... he's so cool.

#15 Aug 27, 2002

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ElCubano
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My favorite poster is ....Daniel_M.

best posts i've read are from:
Kymar
publias
Mr.Sub
and of course "The Dark One"

#16 Aug 27, 2002

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Magna Administrator
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One of the most clever and painfully accurate "reminders" was by darkhorse in the "5K into 1000K in 18 months via E-minis" thread. Very succinct and to the point:

Originally posted by darkhorse
reality check:

Imagine all net positive traders standing in line to receive their paychecks from the market. The order of pay goes from biggest and best to smallest and worst. The guys at the front of the line always get the biggest lump sum. The guys at the back of the line always get the smallest, some of them only pocket change.

Look in front of you. See all those thousands of guys? See the titans at the very front making five hundred million a year, all the way down to guys making 30 or 40K? See all those blood stained veterans, lightning fast mavericks and ruthless soldiers of fortune? The pie is limited, and aaalll those dudes ahead of you have to be paid in full before you get to see a single red cent.

Now look the other way. How many people are standing behind you in line? Maybe like three other fish who just managed to struggle across the zero line. When you make it into breakeven land, there's an old guy with balloons in a blazer and top hat who shakes your hand at the gate: "Congratulations, you can finally pay your nut without bleeding to death! Here's fifty cents, don't spend it all in one place."

Still want to make a million? Or just a measly little hundred K? Fine. Great. First you have to get past all those other experienced hardcases who would rather eat dog vomit than give up a single spot in line. It's easy to take money from sheep- all you have to do is push the other wolves aside. Snicker.
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#17 Aug 27, 2002

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.sigma likes this.
Magna Administrator
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Probably my all-time favorite post on ET was also by darkhorse, this one really struck home with me. He was answering Gordon Gekko on the "Answer this if you make money" thread. A stunning piece of writing for which I'm most grateful:

Originally posted by darkhorse
Since I haven't seen your trades and don't know your psychology, I can't tell you what's wrong, though I assume something is or you would not be struggling. I wasn't trying to be flip in offering analogies and riddles, but rather trying to encourage you to think about the process. Also I don't think the mental rehaul process is throwing everything away and starting from scratch, not by a long shot. It's more like taking a blowtorch to everything you've amassed so far and burning away the garbage, so that only the good stuff is left. If you've been trading for a couple years you are probably close to the end of the first initial stage. Look at it this way: if you were a doctor or a lawyer you would just be getting out of grad school by now. Reordering your thinking is not throwing away what you've worked so hard to learn- it's just the opposite. It's taking a fresh start with the goal of maximizing what you've learned and getting the connections in place. 'Creative destruction' is a key element of capitalism and it is also a key element of the learning process.

I think a dedicated trader's progress can be comparable to a chart that puts in a long base of steady sideways action, and then has a major breakout to the upside (followed by a sustained uptrend if the base is good). It can be VERY frustrating to get nowhere but sideways for a long period of time- yet the knowledge base is necessary to get the big uptrend that follows. My guess is that you are much closer to 'getting it' than you realize. You have consistently asked very good questions in various threads you've posted over the past few months, so I know you are on the right track and I know you've got the mental goods. You just need to expand that habit of asking questions and working out the answers in your own head. The learning pattern is not to see a steady rise. It's to have long grinding periods of seeming nowhereness followed by intense Eureka! moments that represent all that knowledge interconnecting itself and coming out forcefully AFTER it has been connected and integrated and not one second before.

So again, I didn't offer thinking exercises to be flip. I was more trying to make the point that hints and tricks and technical mumbo jumbo aren't the solution. Developing a sense of understanding is the solution. I can't give you that and neither can anyone else. But you are likely closer to it than you think. The knowledge you've got already is like a bunch of jumbled legos in a bag, now you just need to put them together in a way that clicks. Just trying to highlight that making the connections for yourself is what is key. When you 'get' something for the first time, it is a very powerful feeling. I went through the creative destruction process myself in a huge way.

A good while ago, maybe two years in, I remember feeling like a complete know nothing jackass. I had made money and lost it, made money and lost it, made money and lost it. Made a 400% return in a few months and gave it all back. I had read at least 60 books by that time, and been studying the futures markets all day every day. I was giving regular advice to clients (as a commodity broker), regularly giving currency and index commentary to the newswires, doing articles and newsletters. But I didn't really get it. I wasn't a good trader at all. After a really bonehead move at one point I said to myself, 'You know what man? You are just another fool broker who talks the talk but can't walk the walk. When the rubber meets the road you couldn't trade your way out of a paper bag.' Talk about a depressing feeling! I felt like a complete chump, just another fast talking sucker peddling dreams I couldn't even fulfill myself. Emotional wasteland. I was basically looking at the possibility that the years I had spent were a waste, that there was some mysterious element I was missing from my gut, that I just 'didn't have it.' But my personal pity party got old pretty fast. So I said to myself 'Forget that whiny crap. If I suck then I suck and that's all there is to it. Clearly I've gotten nowhere, so I might as well start over. What have I got to lose?' I viewed starting over as an admission of complete failure- which was fair, because from a trading perspective I Had been a complete failure up to that point.

So I threw everything out, declared myself a dummy, and went back to square one from a mental perspective. I went back over ALL the old ground. ALL of it. And you know what? At that point, two years in already, is when I really started to learn. All of my true 'Aha!' and 'Wow! and 'now I SEE it!' moments came AFTER that point, AFTER I threw in the towel on my ego and started over as a self declared know nothing. The entire first two years had primed the pump and nothing more. I remember going back and reading Market Wizards and Reminiscences again, and each time it was like reading entirely new books I had never seen before. I kept saying to myself, 'how could I have missed that! It's so obvious now! How could I not have seen that before!!!!' But the reason I had that flood of clarity is because of all the slogging I had done. I had to lay that groundwork and then go back over it again before I got anywhere. I had to build a base of knowledge in my subconscious to connect and solidify later, and I had to break myself before I could break out.

I believe that before you get anywhere substantial as a trader, you really have to flush your ego down the toilet and embrace the pain of feeling like a fool, no matter how much it hurts. Most people cannot do this. They may want to, they may talk like they can do it, but they can't. You know how some people talk and talk and you know that talk is all it is, no matter what they say? When it comes to embracing the pain, that's the barrier right there. Most people are WEAK, plain and simple. That's just the way it is. See, what I am saying ADDS UP because it reflects the real world. To make it as a trader you have to be strong, mentally, emotionally and maybe even physically. So why do most people experience long run failure at trading? At the root of it, because they are weak. Period.

So the only real secret is to always treat yourself like a beginner and always be on that hunt for clarity. Thinking is the key whether you have a few rules or a truckload of rules, because thinking things all the way through is the only way to establish those connections deep down in the recesses of your mind. Tips won't do it, specific advice won't do it, generalisms won't do it, because no one knows what your flaws really are but you. If I give you advice in area A but your problem is in area X, nothing is solved. If you yourself don't know where your problem is, you can't hone in on it. All I can say is, don't see the rehaul as an admission of failure- or if you do see it that way, don't be afraid to admit it as failure. Creative destruction is vital. Going back to square one- or square seven, or square fifteen, whatever- is a necessary and vital thing to do. That's one reason why so much market specific or technical specific advice on this board is, in the end, a waste of time. You have all these peeps who have never gone deep in their thought process and never embraced the pain. And I don't care if that sounds like Freud, lack of deep knowledge and lack of trial by fire has real world effects on the trading account, period.

So again I say, thinking is hard, admitting your own inadequacy is hard, backing up the truck is hard, embracing the pain is a bitch kitty. But that's the whole point. This stuff will always be tough, if everyone in the human race were strong and smart and disciplined there would be no one to take the crappy jobs. Mediocrity is like a black hole, you have to fight with all your might not to be sucked in by it. You might be close to breaking through, you might be years away yet. But it may help to know that it depends on your knowledge and your curiosity and your strength to persevere, NOT on some magic bullet.
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#18 Aug 27, 2002

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Magna Administrator
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The single funniest post I ever read on ET was by Mr. Subliminal when he made a perfect recreation of one of our favorite .... er .... ah .... well, somewhat obtuse posters. It was, of course, on the "Mr. Subliminal's Remote Trading Journal" thread and it cracks me up every time I read it.

Originally posted by Mr. Subliminal
murray t turtle wrote on 06-22-02 01:08 PM:

Multiple,moving avg{4,EMA}??????.......[Linda Raschke p24-28]..."[1]Bar[chart],longer than 5min...........[2]more
noise........[3]Shorting Argentinian Christmas/Hannukah RALLY"---------ActiveTraderMag

murray t turtle,nickname,not an alias
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#19 Aug 27, 2002

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dgabriel
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I like many posters here and would not want to make a list for fear of leaving anyone out. Except for one, myself, I always revel (or cringe) at my own posts, especially my journal.

#20 Aug 27, 2002

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