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Should sim traders who pretend to trade cash be allowed on BMT?
I am talking about sim traders that post charts or posts/threads in a way that they pretend to be trading cash, like trading 10 lots at a time and making "calls" over and over etc etc, but that are instead on sim.
Should these traders be allowed to continue posting on futures.io (formerly BMT)?
Should they be banned?
If you've been a member of the forum for any length of time then you should know that I strongly encourage people to create journals to help them become better traders. But some threads have stopped being about learning and instead become some sort of "showing off" thing where a small number of traders routinely post charts as if they are making big trades on cash, when they are really on sim.
For anyone that believes that sim is the same as cash, obviously I strongly disagree as does everyone I can possibly think of and respect.
So the issue here is what it does to the more rookie traders that fall for those posts, thinking it is "real" when it is not. Those of us that have been around a while can see the BS from far away, but the newer traders can't. They may waste weeks, months, or even years trying to follow someone who seems to be a profitable trader, when in fact they are just on sim and are a huge BS'er.
I have also noticed over the last while that several journals now seem to be more about showing off than learning from mistakes and documenting the journey. Losing trades are hardly if ever shown and an endless stream of textbook trading is shown. I often ask myself, what's the point in doing that.
The learning comes from the mistakes. Who cares about text book trades. Learn from the losers, learn from the trades where you took profits too early, learn from the trades you didn't take because of XYZ. Put that stuff in your journal!
For me the journals I enjoy following are those where the trader is clearly struggling but is learning from their mistakes and making progress bit by bit. You can see the progress over the months. Really great to see.
I don't really think going as far as banning is feasible. In the end it's the person posting in the journal who is in my opinion completely wasting their time thinking that live trading is the same as sim. But I agree newer traders to the forum are attracted to such posters like moths to a flame. Im not sure there's much you can do about that, practically speaking.
I think there should be a full disclosure for people who have threads that are trading on sim.
There are a lot of new traders here. And I see a lot of newbie traders signing up all the time. People are encouraged and applauded when they start new journals. Do you really want to make this an unfriendly place for people just starting out and trying to find their way? That will really limit new signups I think. Just make them disclose weather in sim or not.
I think we have too implement some rules too overcome this problem, for example:
1: only charts with plot executions on are allowed
2: post weekly Generated account performance from trading platform.
A good example of the bad behavior you can see in this thread:
I have been day trading full time for 3 years. First 2 years stocks and E-mini with little success. Finally, i found a method which suits my style and i have been day trading Crude Oil for over a year now. My trading method is based off Mark Fisher ACD …
If you ask for proof he just puts you on the starters ignore list.
And here is a member that was doing a TST Combine but failed several and now is posting in that thread from mfbreakout :
The purpose of a trading journal is to log all trades, market conditions, thought process in relation to one's trading plan. If one cannot be true to his journal, the journal loses its meaning.
I have found myself not being honest to my journal …
see post 215.
Whit regards too the starters ignore list I think that that has too change too. A member cannot put you on a starters ignore list just because he do not like the question. I think we have too make a request too Big mike or Sam so they can see if there is a reason too put the member on the starters ignore list.
If you do not show all the trades and only show winners then I have no clue way someone is keeping a journal here.
The only way we can learn from our behaviors is by exposing our self's!
I think it is not important if some one is trading sim or real money but the journal must include all trades executed and the only way too implement this is whit strict posting rules, charts with plot executions, weekly account performance etc..
Let me say that first I believe there are only a very tiny number of these users on the forum.
And let me make it clear I am only interested in the ones who use their postings as some sort of "rock star" status, where they are posting big gains, rarely if ever post losses, and they end up amassing a following of inexperienced users some of which are actually trading real money and trying to emulate the "rock star" that is on sim. Inevitably, they end up losing a lot of money and waste enormous amounts of time.
I realize that trading includes a great deal of learning curves, but in this example I am talking about what I want for my community -- and just like if someone was in my house and just BS'ing over and over again, making things up, that I would ask them to leave - same is true here in my opinion. But of course in person you can tell a BS'er much more easily, whereas on a message board it can be far more difficult.
Also imposing all kinds of new rules is not going to happen because there are hundreds of journals, and there is no way to enforce such things. Besides, just because a trade is marked on a chart doesn't mean it was cash. Same goes for a performance summary.
The point really boils down to what these traders do to the community. They give it a bad name from the more experienced traders. What other side effects because these people are allowed to continue? Of course there are ramifications from those that try to follow them in good faith and don't know any better.
I am specifically talking about the posters who post multiple times per day making these "trades" as if they were actually trading them (cash), when in fact they are not.
And just in case I wasn't clear, if a poster makes it very clear they are on sim (like their chart says sim, or DOM says sim, or their post says sim, or thread title says sim) then I have zero issue.
hmmmm....I hope I am not considered to be one of "THOSE" posters.
I am 50/50 as far as simulations go I suppose. I use real charts and make real decisions and post those decisions before they happen. So from a learning perspective, I would hope that my posts are instructive to newbies. The only thing fake in this is the money involved. I have given myself $100,000 of play money. I record and display all transactions updating the status of this play account using real data at least every Friday.
I am always suspicious of posters who post their trades only AFTER the event has occurred...no analysis leading to the trade beforehand. Twenty - twenty hindsight does nothing.
PS: the trades that I have shown are real sizes for me as well...nothing fake there either.
