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Honestly, I am profitable in the FX world, and getting there in the futures world. However, I assume that it translate no matter what market you trade.
There will come a time where the people in the forums become more of a distraction than anything else. Its a lot like going out to the bars. Yes, it can be fun, but in the end its all the same. Forums are basically entertainment at best. I can also say that almost nobody on one is profitable, and the more they post - the less likely to be true.
And then there is the behavior of people on these things. People can get really mouthy behind a computer monitor, but in real life it is different. It shows weakness, and its aggro I don't need. This is more my experience at Forex Factory, but it only took about 5 posts to start having $hitheads giving me grief about something here also. Its just how the losers and weak roll. Those who are profitable are basically elite, and don't waste their time with negativity.
My 2 cents. I could be full of shit though. Who knows?
Of course everyone is an individual. I think you need to separate aggression from negativity. I am a super happy positive person but our family holidays usually stop just short of a fist fight over even something as stupid as Lebron vs Jordan. I am far more mouthy in person. I would have felt very at home in a Chicago pit. To me, this is not a gentlemanly game like golf at Augusta. I have read fighting on the floor was a huge no no so guys would take it outside and settle things with a fist fight.
As far as posting trading results I just don't care. To me what speaks the loudest here is everyone is making huge profit$ scalping ES but there is absolutely no discussion of long term investments from that cash flow. Never read anyone mention a real estate investment they made here. That pretty much says everything you need to know really IMO.
For me it’s not so much the esoteric parts of trading it’s the gap between perceptions and reality and people’s relationship with money.
Friends and family, a necessity for a well rounded life. We’ve learned to accept their quirks, and on balance, they’ve learned to accept ours.
Let’s not kid ourselves though, most of them are terrible with money. Some people think they can pick up the latest issue of USA Today and have a well-I formed opinion on the markets and “business.” Others have accumulated assets in a bull market- hard not to if you live beneath you means- and feel they are somehow more smart than lucky on timing and placement....after all we could’ve been born in sub Saharan Africa.
It amazes me how people assume they know what trading is and diversely underestimate the amount of work involved.
I used to talk to my dad and update him on my progress. His egocentric and superstitious nature makes it difficult to suffer through a conversation. He’s excited to talk to me and seeing my progress, but in all humility can’t comprehend some of the complexities and paradoxes of trading.
I think not. Otherwise you wouldn't have shared your experience and posited the question. my thanks, btw.
I have the same experience you do. I don't want to talk about trading with others who only have an average understanding of it, but when I encounter another trader, I welcome and encourage engagement. I'd estimate that half of the general public doesn't know that markets are bi-directionally profitable, but they know prices are bi-directional. "oh, yeah, selling short, I've heard of that. But that's immoral..." - the OL.
You've made yourself an expert in a particular discipline and in the process, made yourself an outsider to the larger social group. There's a social price to expertise.
I still get calls or texts from family members when they see the s&p down 2% or the dow down a ton... when in reality I make most of my money on those momentum plays...... some people will never get it
-P
"Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie"-Miyamoto Musashi
When I started out, I wanted to gather info, I wanted to talk with people everywhere, my friend, my uni finance profs, my company research team, I wanted to talk to my broker, I wanted to attend free seminars (mostly they are snake oil salesmen pitching seminars but still), I wanted to basically do everything that can be done to learn/get info from others and check how they were doing if they were involved with markets. And it didn't matter who they were.
That slowly started to change when I found that these interactions were not fruitful anymore, its not that I didn't want to continue with the exercise, its just that my horizon was changing. Then I moved on to my local traders grps, then national ones, then international forums, started coding, starting performing research on my own and did many tests on things that may or may not be useful for me. This didn't happen in small period of time, and it was fastened a lot due to advent of social media in this generation, but it did happen. And when it was happening, my interactive circles kept changing, tbh mostly without even me knowing.
That's a first aspect, which can be considered as "widening of your own horizon" and the change that came with it, which was kind of ppl you talked with.
The second aspect is as you become serious and able trader, you want to get less and less disturbed when you are trading, you do not want to hear that "inside scoop" anymore, you do not want to pay heed to that "hero or zero call on expiry", you have no interest in that "next blue chip" investment recommendation. You have experienced and realized that these things can be futile and are very confusing to your own process. So you want to maintain that zone of less corruption to your thought process and want to trade your own idea and system.
This second aspect can be considered as "traders disciplining themselves" to get finite expected results on their own ideas. They have matured from pure gambling and trading on news.
Neither of these two things suggest that there is suddenly lack of will to share or learn from others as you move forward, its just natural change in oneself and result of progressive path. Trading is very niche business, and there are even less ppl taking it as full time career path, so obviously it will narrow as you move forward. On a flip side, if this hasn't been happening it may mean that there hasn't been that much progress in oneself. That last statement is mostly my view, do not take it personally.
I think this is a pretty good take on the process of a trader becoming more focused and more aware of what is working and what is not, which also may lead to becoming in a sense more withdrawn -- which is an issue many of us do have.
This community does help, at least some of the time.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
