The bucket shop you trade with just takes an opposite position to you, and they are making consistent profits from you.
Come on ES, ok we will give you a taster. It is about channelling a suitable animal spirit. You can start with this sticker to begin.
Trading is a lumpy business. You probably make most of your profits a few months out of the year. The rest you thread water and some you lose a little if you are good at risk management. That's why the daytrading mentality of making $X a day is SOO WRONG!
So, order flow trading didn't work out...? It might very well be that your mentors lied to you or made false promises. IMO, it can be done, but it's extremely difficult. Particularly so because you're ultimately alone in this game and you need to rely on your own findings and research. This takes TIME. A lot of it. But I agree that it's a good assumption that posters on ET frequently lie and mislead. The ones most eager to teach are the ones who most likely know the least.
True dat. Even if you're a day trader, you still make the majority of your profits from a small percentage of trades. The rest of the time, you get jerked around. To cope, you need to have knowledge and discipline. All kinds of ways to come up short. My view on "consistency".... even if you get jerked around all day... and if you manage to "net 2" in the ES, that's still a victory. Not a big one, but you "got paid" for your time at the screen. And tomorrow is another day.