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Traders with 5-10 years of experience but still not profitable
What about the thanks given to thanks received ratio? I say that should be a consideration!!
... Wait, maybe that just means I am grumpy.
S
"The great Traders have always been humbled by the market early on in their careers creating a deep respect for the market. Until one has this respect indelibly engraved in their makeup, the concept of money management and discipline will never be treated seriously."
i agree with this sentiment, trading like anything else requires daily learning, its a never-ending process. You don't a 100 strategies to be successful, you need ONLY 1 that works for you. when you find it milk it and don't deviate until it stops working.
Thanks @kevinkdog, and yeah, I totally agree. As with most anything I write here, I toss it out there and someone may find it useful. It is also a useful mental exercise.
Well, really...plenty of people. There are volumes of published works where the secrets to trading are laid out, with Perry Kaufman's Trading Systems and Methods being the most notable compilation. @kevinkdog has published multiple works on algorithmic trading, and his ideas are profitable. Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities magazine has been publishing these secrets for 40 years. Even on the site I run, I show exactly how I build my algorithmic trading systems.
The problem is this: it is exceptionally difficult to take someone else's idea or system and trade it, particularly during drawdown**. There are reasons for this difficulty: different data providers, different methods of building continuous charts, rounding, etc.. However, the biggest is probably that a lot of people want assurances, of which there are none in trading.
I publish trading system ideas for all to see, with rules, timeframes, instruments, and the success/failure of the idea (most fail, as @kevinkdog noted earlier in this thread). There is full transparency, short of the code itself. Am I giving away the 'secret sauce'? Yes, but very few, if any, will be able to adopt the systems I have built and run them. If they do, then great! My systems are rarely unique and most are built on the shoulders of giants. The best part: I am not selling anything.
I have shared a lot of my ideas here on this site.
S
"The great Traders have always been humbled by the market early on in their careers creating a deep respect for the market. Until one has this respect indelibly engraved in their makeup, the concept of money management and discipline will never be treated seriously."
With the ability to move the market comes other disadvantages. If you can move a market to your advantage, when when you need to get out of a position, that's going to move the market against you. But as you said, that's "big boy" kind of stuff, and even the biggest of boys in a market like crude or SPX are not by themselves "the market." In a single stock, sure. But not trillion dollar equity, credit, FX, and large commodity markets.
Business is easier than trading. Much easier. That's why the potential upside in trading, despite minuscule chances, is so large. If it were no more than a regular day job, no one would try it.
Since you know who you are and what you want, and have stated what that is, I'd advise you to avoid trading. The attributes it requires are 180 degrees from what you've stated.
I might add something just for life in general, forgetting trading for a moment. Your "run 120% at life and take control" approach works well in cycles. I don't think I would have had some of the successes I've had, if I hadn't demonstrated exactly that type of attitude. But be sure to just take a step back every now and then. You said: "I hate being told what to do, despise authority, and am looking to go my own way. ... I hate my peers." If you're looking to "make an impact," well, money can help. But, in the course of making a real impact, you almost always have to do things you don't want to do, not only obey but respect authority, be willing to alter "your way," and lastly, hating your peers is your choice, but this probably makes it harder to make an impact in a meaningful way.
The control that you seem to think you have is largely an illusion. You might think you are "making your own path," but while saying that very thing, you are operating inside a machine, living by its rules, and are taking a similar path that millions of people before you have taken. We all should make our own impact in a way that we see fit and should have the autonomy to do this in a way that fulfills us. To some extent, we do, but this "I've fought for everything I have" is self-aggrandizing and a good way to stroke your own ego. If you live above the poverty line in the US, and you do, you already qualify as one of the most wealthy 1% in the world, and while your own actions have contributed greatly to your current success, don't be under the impression that if you were instead born in a hut in Mozambique, you'd be in the same position.
Not trying to be rude, or take you down a notch, or give a "back in my day, sonny" kind of soapbox rant. Just trying to be real.
You're not rude at all. I'd rather have someone tell it to me straight rather than beat around the bush. Sorry if I seemed rude earlier. I appreciate the insight. I'm also not trying to have an ego; just very driven to succeed. I actually don't think very highly of myself and use accomplishments to try and improve my sense of self worth. I don't usually compare myself to others; I'm in competition with myself. Perhaps with trading I don't know what I don't know yet. When I started posting for the first time I was just annoyed/frustrated with the trading community, but not necessarily this one. I felt like things didn't need to be so complicated, but there seems to be many different conflicts of interest from many different areas.
You're right about being born in the USA and not currently living in squalor. I can't say much about that.
I think what sets trading apart from business, is that you can usually outwork everyone else around you in business and succeed. With trading, it seems to be a: "either you figure it out or you don't" type of thing, where the more you work doesn't necessarily mean you're going to outperform the market or other professional traders. You could be at this for years and get nowhere.
I'm going to give this a solid month of intense, focused dedication and see where it leads me. I'll reevaluate if this is really for me, but at least I'm going to give it my all and see what happens. After all, the money seems to be so amazing if you can figure it out, it would be stupid not to even try. If I happen to be a natural (doubt it, but who knows) I'll share what I find out.
