I find it ironic, but not surprising that this thread is currently the most active thread on the forum. In the almost 10 years that I've been a member, (and @Big Mike will attest to this fact) we've gone through many, many, iterations of discussions on this very topic. It's almost a cyclical phenomenon. Another generation of aspiring traders embarking on what they think is going to be a walk-in-the-park, until they discover that achieving success in trading isn't quite as easy as they had envisioned.

Most of them are under-capitalized, and the majority of them don't know the difference between a stock and a bond. A lot of them believe the market owes them a living, and will blame the market for their lack of success, when in fact they lack the self-determination to succeed. There is nothing novel about this phenomenon. And, there is certainly nothing surprising about the response it is generating.

Other aspiring traders are eager to offer their advice. What's ironic is most of these traders are experiencing the same problems, and are incompetent at trading themselves. Incompetent traders are at a double disadvantage, since they are not only incompetent, but they are unawre of it. Almost 1/2 of them couldn't even pony up the $ to become elite members, most are on SIM and have no skin in the game, and I truly wonder how many of the others are consistently profitable to the point, where they can actually support themselves and a family, from their trading. Yet they are crawling all over themselves to tell-like-it-is; to explain how they have reinvented the wheel, and found the answer to the eternal question.

Their advice is a panoply of retail aphorisms and urban trading myths that have been propagated over the years, and regurgitated to the newbie masses. And, it's the same worthless garbage every time. You have to find your edge! Trade your plan! Find what suits you and makes you comfortable. Find a nice indicator you can settle down with and crank out 4 tics at a time. I haven't heard one expert that was offering advice say, "learn how the markets work" before you attempt to trade it.

What's ironic, Is that you'll never see these "experts" participating in threads about the markets and trading, because they really have little knowledge of how markets function, and little idea of what it really takes to make consistent and scalable profits. But they are very inclined to tell a newbie how to trade, and dispense advice with no uncertainty, blissfully ignorant of their own ineptitude. This only serves to perpetuate the cycle of retail mis-information, and re-cycle uninformed, unprepared traders that provide the winners their fresh and unknowing counterparts.

Most people are unlikely to think highly of anyone whose views they oppose. So when the newbie thinks about which person to listen to, whose advice to respect, and where to get his information, it’s likely that he will choose the one that parallels his views, even though it may not be in his best interest. There have been countless times that @Big Mike and I have tried to steer people in the right direction, but people hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. And what's sad, not ironic, is that these words will probably fall on deaf ears, or not really be comprehended nor believed, and most assuredly, they will be ignored by most.

I find it ironic, but not surprising that this thread is currently the most active thread on the forum. In the almost 10 years that I've been a member, (and @Big Mike will attest to this fact) we've gone through many, many, iterations of discussions on this very topic. It's almost a cyclical phenomenon. Another generation of aspiring traders embarking on what they think is going to be a walk-in-the-park, until they discover that achieving success in trading isn't quite as easy as they had envisioned.

Most of them are under-capitalized, and the majority of them don't know the difference between a stock and a bond. A lot of them believe the market owes them a living, and will blame the market for their lack of success, when in fact they lack the self-determination to succeed. There is nothing novel about this phenomenon. And, there is certainly nothing surprising about the response it is generating.

Other aspiring traders are eager to offer their advice. What's ironic is most of these traders are experiencing the same problems, and are incompetent at trading themselves. Incompetent traders are at a double disadvantage, since they are not only incompetent, but they are unawre of it. Almost 1/2 of them couldn't even pony up the $ to become elite members, most are on SIM and have no skin in the game, and I truly wonder how many of the others are consistently profitable to the point, where they can actually support themselves and a family, from their trading. Yet they are crawling all over themselves to tell-like-it-is; to explain how they have reinvented the wheel, and found the answer to the eternal question.

Their advice is a panoply of retail aphorisms and urban trading myths that have been propagated over the years, and regurgitated to the newbie masses. And, it's the same worthless garbage every time. You have to find your edge! Trade your plan! Find what suits you and makes you comfortable. Find a nice indicator you can settle down with and crank out 4 tics at a time. I haven't heard one expert that was offering advice say, "learn how the markets work" before you attempt to trade it.

What's ironic, Is that you'll never see these "experts" participating in threads about the markets and trading, because they really have little knowledge of how markets function, and little idea of what it really takes to make consistent and scalable profits. But they are very inclined to tell a newbie how to trade, and dispense advice with no uncertainty, blissfully ignorant of their own ineptitude. This only serves to perpetuate the cycle of retail mis-information, and re-cycle uninformed, unprepared traders that provide the winners their fresh and unknowing counterparts.

Most people are unlikely to think highly of anyone whose views they oppose. So when the newbie thinks about which person to listen to, whose advice to respect, and where to get his information, it’s likely that he will choose the one that parallels his views, even though it may not be in his best interest. There have been countless times that @Big Mike and I have tried to steer people in the right direction, but people hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. And what's sad, not ironic, is that these words will probably fall on deaf ears, or not really be comprehended nor believed, and most assuredly, they will be ignored by most.

I find it ironic, but not surprising that this thread is currently the most active thread on the forum. In the almost 10 years that I've been a member, (and @Big Mike will attest to this fact) we've gone through many, many, iterations of discussions on this very topic. It's almost a cyclical phenomenon. Another generation of aspiring traders embarking on what they think is going to be a walk-in-the-park, until they discover that achieving success in trading isn't quite as easy as they had envisioned.

Most of them are under-capitalized, and the majority of them don't know the difference between a stock and a bond. A lot of them believe the market owes them a living, and will blame the market for their lack of success, when in fact they lack the self-determination to succeed. There is nothing novel about this phenomenon. And, there is certainly nothing surprising about the response it is generating.

Other aspiring traders are eager to offer their advice. What's ironic is most of these traders are experiencing the same problems, and are incompetent at trading themselves. Incompetent traders are at a double disadvantage, since they are not only incompetent, but they are unawre of it. Almost 1/2 of them couldn't even pony up the $ to become elite members, most are on SIM and have no skin in the game, and I truly wonder how many of the others are consistently profitable to the point, where they can actually support themselves and a family, from their trading. Yet they are crawling all over themselves to tell-like-it-is; to explain how they have reinvented the wheel, and found the answer to the eternal question.

Their advice is a panoply of retail aphorisms and urban trading myths that have been propagated over the years, and regurgitated to the newbie masses. And, it's the same worthless garbage every time. You have to find your edge! Trade your plan! Find what suits you and makes you comfortable. Find a nice indicator you can settle down with and crank out 4 tics at a time. I haven't heard one expert that was offering advice say, "learn how the markets work" before you attempt to trade it.

What's ironic, Is that you'll never see these "experts" participating in threads about the markets and trading, because they really have little knowledge of how markets function, and little idea of what it really takes to make consistent and scalable profits. But they are very inclined to tell a newbie how to trade, and dispense advice with no uncertainty, blissfully ignorant of their own ineptitude. This only serves to perpetuate the cycle of retail mis-information, and re-cycle uninformed, unprepared traders that provide the winners their fresh and unknowing counterparts.

Most people are unlikely to think highly of anyone whose views they oppose. So when the newbie thinks about which person to listen to, whose advice to respect, and where to get his information, it’s likely that he will choose the one that parallels his views, even though it may not be in his best interest. There have been countless times that @Big Mike and I have tried to steer people in the right direction, but people hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. And what's sad, not ironic, is that these words will probably fall on deaf ears, or not really be comprehended nor believed, and most assuredly, they will be ignored by most.

Because once you find it, its really all not that hard. Not the way some want to make you think. At least no harder than some other degrees out there. IMHO.

I have no edge. I don't know what my edge could be. I'm trading blind. Today I lost $50 by over trading and just being wrong

I started with just $1000 near the end of April. I'm down by $280.

I can't seem to get this right. I go long, I'm down 10 ticks. I go short, then the contract moves 10 ticks upwards. Once in a while I'll get lucky and catch a 20 tick move but then it's back to getting it wrong constantly.

I'm trading the mes contracts. 1 at a time.

Should I just withdrawal and go home or do I keep trying to get better?

It just seems that no matter what direction I choose I have it wrong.



Sent using the futures.io mobile app

I find it ironic, but not surprising that this thread is currently the most active thread on the forum. In the almost 10 years that I've been a member, (and @Big Mike will attest to this fact) we've gone through many, many, iterations of discussions on this very topic. It's almost a cyclical phenomenon. Another generation of aspiring traders embarking on what they think is going to be a walk-in-the-park, until they discover that achieving success in trading isn't quite as easy as they had envisioned.

Most of them are under-capitalized, and the majority of them don't know the difference between a stock and a bond. A lot of them believe the market owes them a living, and will blame the market for their lack of success, when in fact they lack the self-determination to succeed. There is nothing novel about this phenomenon. And, there is certainly nothing surprising about the response it is generating.

Other aspiring traders are eager to offer their advice. What's ironic is most of these traders are experiencing the same problems, and are incompetent at trading themselves. Incompetent traders are at a double disadvantage, since they are not only incompetent, but they are unawre of it. Almost 1/2 of them couldn't even pony up the $ to become elite members, most are on SIM and have no skin in the game, and I truly wonder how many of the others are consistently profitable to the point, where they can actually support themselves and a family, from their trading. Yet they are crawling all over themselves to tell-like-it-is; to explain how they have reinvented the wheel, and found the answer to the eternal question.

Their advice is a panoply of retail aphorisms and urban trading myths that have been propagated over the years, and regurgitated to the newbie masses. And, it's the same worthless garbage every time. You have to find your edge! Trade your plan! Find what suits you and makes you comfortable. Find a nice indicator you can settle down with and crank out 4 tics at a time. I haven't heard one expert that was offering advice say, "learn how the markets work" before you attempt to trade it.

What's ironic, Is that you'll never see these "experts" participating in threads about the markets and trading, because they really have little knowledge of how markets function, and little idea of what it really takes to make consistent and scalable profits. But they are very inclined to tell a newbie how to trade, and dispense advice with no uncertainty, blissfully ignorant of their own ineptitude. This only serves to perpetuate the cycle of retail mis-information, and re-cycle uninformed, unprepared traders that provide the winners their fresh and unknowing counterparts.

Most people are unlikely to think highly of anyone whose views they oppose. So when the newbie thinks about which person to listen to, whose advice to respect, and where to get his information, it’s likely that he will choose the one that parallels his views, even though it may not be in his best interest. There have been countless times that @Big Mike and I have tried to steer people in the right direction, but people hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. And what's sad, not ironic, is that these words will probably fall on deaf ears, or not really be comprehended nor believed, and most assuredly, they will be ignored by most.

I find it ironic, but not surprising that this thread is currently the most active thread on the forum. In the almost 10 years that I've been a member, (and @Big Mike will attest to this fact) we've gone through many, many, iterations of discussions on this very topic. It's almost a cyclical phenomenon. Another generation of aspiring traders embarking on what they think is going to be a walk-in-the-park, until they discover that achieving success in trading isn't quite as easy as they had envisioned.

Most of them are under-capitalized, and the majority of them don't know the difference between a stock and a bond. A lot of them believe the market owes them a living, and will blame the market for their lack of success, when in fact they lack the self-determination to succeed. There is nothing novel about this phenomenon. And, there is certainly nothing surprising about the response it is generating.

Other aspiring traders are eager to offer their advice. What's ironic is most of these traders are experiencing the same problems, and are incompetent at trading themselves. Incompetent traders are at a double disadvantage, since they are not only incompetent, but they are unawre of it. Almost 1/2 of them couldn't even pony up the $ to become elite members, most are on SIM and have no skin in the game, and I truly wonder how many of the others are consistently profitable to the point, where they can actually support themselves and a family, from their trading. Yet they are crawling all over themselves to tell-like-it-is; to explain how they have reinvented the wheel, and found the answer to the eternal question.

Their advice is a panoply of retail aphorisms and urban trading myths that have been propagated over the years, and regurgitated to the newbie masses. And, it's the same worthless garbage every time. You have to find your edge! Trade your plan! Find what suits you and makes you comfortable. Find a nice indicator you can settle down with and crank out 4 tics at a time. I haven't heard one expert that was offering advice say, "learn how the markets work" before you attempt to trade it.

What's ironic, Is that you'll never see these "experts" participating in threads about the markets and trading, because they really have little knowledge of how markets function, and little idea of what it really takes to make consistent and scalable profits. But they are very inclined to tell a newbie how to trade, and dispense advice with no uncertainty, blissfully ignorant of their own ineptitude. This only serves to perpetuate the cycle of retail mis-information, and re-cycle uninformed, unprepared traders that provide the winners their fresh and unknowing counterparts.

Most people are unlikely to think highly of anyone whose views they oppose. So when the newbie thinks about which person to listen to, whose advice to respect, and where to get his information, it’s likely that he will choose the one that parallels his views, even though it may not be in his best interest. There have been countless times that @Big Mike and I have tried to steer people in the right direction, but people hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. And what's sad, not ironic, is that these words will probably fall on deaf ears, or not really be comprehended nor believed, and most assuredly, they will be ignored by most.

I know the effort in which I am putting forth will inevitably give me a result, will that result be that I become a consistent trader, (I leave profitable out because that is not the goal) "Consistent" is, that's the plan

The profit part, is kind of the whole idea. Consistency is important, especially if you are not well capitalized. But , you don't want to get in the habit of trading for average, or maximizing the chance of gain, by playing it safe. You want to maximize the gain. It's nice to say I make money on 80% of my trades, but how much money? It usually means you are not taking enough risk, not letting your winners run, and not trading enough.

@tigertrader If you are trading ES for max gain, one will have more risk with a higher percent profitable by mean reversion. You can get and 80% win rate and low risk by trend trading it, but you will not be taking many trades and likely struggle to pin point these entries.

Its always fun to ride the long waves, but the big boy will kill you in the rough spots. JMHO.

Everyone is giving plenty of advice here that you will likely find more confusing. You need to take more than a couple of steps back and do some real work on documentation. To find an edge you have to document all your trades on paper; not sim or live, just look at the right edge of a chart....pick an entry, a stop, and a target. (Each choice is independent of the other), then run the chart forward in time to see what the result was. This will allow you plenty of time to define your decisions in advance. Then write down why you made those choices and record the P/L stats, what went wrong and what was right. You need 100-300 trades with the same rules to be statistically significant and confident in your choices. If you can, put the rules and trades on spreadsheet to calculate an accurate p/l and ensure your rules work. If you change an entry and exit rule then redo another 100-300 "trades" to ensure your new rules work. This will take time but saves you money and builds consistency and confidence. You are now building a foundation of rules (ie system) that you can hold on to over time rather than just guessing.

I really like this system of resetting, finding your ground and system and then building your operation and rules. I’m going to employ this in my studies as a way of controlling my impulses. Buying too early, did I g down then riding up with the the market. I usually end up with a smaller gain than could hav sheen if I was able to wait for a lower support area. Always ending up with 75 percent less that I should have. Like buying Gold as 1707, riding it down to 1701, riding it back up and selling it at 1711. I could have bought it at 1700 which was institutional support and sold it at resistance which was around 1712-1714. Made this mistake two days in a row leaving 20 to 50ish ticks on the table. This will help me cure this impulsive patience-less act which is an abomination. Thank you for this.

The profit part, is kind of the whole idea. Consistency is important, especially if you are not well capitalized. But , you don't want to get in the habit of trading for average, or maximizing the chance of gain, by playing it safe. You want to maximize the gain. It's nice to say I make money on 80% of my trades, but how much money? It usually means you are not taking enough risk, not letting your winners run, and not trading enough.

Big names have shown up, and I dont feel I have much to offer next to them, so I will just say what I have ''learned'' so far in this last 14 months of studying...

What you are going through everyone has passed (or still passing). Have you learnt why markets move? Have you studied price action, volume profile, risk management, harmonic trading, chart patterns, etc or are you solely depending on indicators someone said it is good?

I am not saying any of these is the Holy Grail (actually I dont think there is one), but studying these will help you develop a “feeling’’ about what is going on.

One day in business school my teacher said: ''everything we want to learn has been probably written in a book, but your generation is too lazy to read and you want someone to show you the way.''
That’s why when I began to study the markets, I was willing to read books from the authors and not only watching youtube videos (that’s the problem with our generation, including myself).
If someone is teaching on youtube or charging for a course, you can probably learn from the author himself.

I would say, stop trading live, go back to the basics, learn first, try in demo account for some months your strategy and then get ready for the emotions when trading live.

Now, I will say what has helped me improve (not saying I am good, just better than before):
-I've read 3 books on Elliot Wave, the one I liked the most was from Frost and Pretcher.
I’ve read other books on technical analysis, but for me Elliot wave is what makes the most sense (I don’t know why).
-Read about trendlines, I really liked a book by Jeffrey Kennedy.
-I like Measured Moves (Al Brooks talks about it and there videos on youtube, what our generation like)
-Understand Volume Profile, there many books out there, and I really like FuturesTrader71's perspective. (And I watch his trader bite EVERY morning).
-A book that helped me a lot in the mental game was Trading in the Zone, by Mark Douglas, and I think every aspiring trader should read.

The best analogy for the markets in my head is: I have studied 5 years in a Brazilian Business School, spent around USD30.000 and when I finally finished, there was no job paying more than USD4.000/yr.
Still, I studied 5 years without receiving a penny for my future profession. If I study the markets for 5 years and get it right, my upside is ''unlimited''.
How long does an aspiring lawyer takes studying before he can practice law? Do I expect the markets to pay me in less than a year if I don’t even know how it operates?
For me, learning the markets is like learning a new language, I've spent over 10 years studying English, in my first year I could get by, but far from perfect.
In 2 years I could understand almost everyone, but specific terms used by lawyers, doctors, scientists and American RAP was just impossible (lol). In 3-5 years things got waaaaay easier and nowadays everything sounds easy (and I am still learning new things).

Today, FuturesTrader71 said he trades over 20 years and he still adapts now and then… So imagine me with 14 months?! I liked what @tigertrader wisely said, markets owes us nothing.

To summarize: Just don’t give up! Nothing is easy, but I believe it will be well worth it.

I have no edge. I don't know what my edge could be. I'm trading blind. Today I lost $50 by over trading and just being wrong

I started with just $1000 near the end of April. I'm down by $280.

I can't seem to get this right. I go long, I'm down 10 ticks. I go short, then the contract moves 10 ticks upwards. Once in a while I'll get lucky and catch a 20 tick move but then it's back to getting it wrong constantly.

I'm trading the mes contracts. 1 at a time.

Should I just withdrawal and go home or do I keep trying to get better?

It just seems that no matter what direction I choose I have it wrong.



Sent using the futures.io mobile app

That's exactly it....also, you can't beat yourself up as you are never going to hit top to bottom perfection, "leaving money on the table" means you didn't take a loss on other trades that were profitable and you waited too long; consistency is more important than high per trade p/l, just be happy making a bit of money consistently, and once you're doing it's more fun as you look to the next opportunity as it's easy to scale up. The importance of execution cost vs. trade p/l is important, there is a balance between getting out too early even if it's profitable, and too late...the only reason retail day traders exist is because trade execution cost has dropped so much, but that spread cost can't be ignored either.

@tonybravo, re-reading your post now...do you have a chart of a trade you could post for reference? That might elicit more responses and get more ideas you can work with.
.My first post ever on FIO is this one:

Dissecting this morning's bad /ES trade Greetings, I would like to learn and improve my ability to analyze and dissect my bad trades. I am hoping to learn how to create better set-ups for my trades moving forward. This morning I felt really good about the /ESH9 with all the hopeful news of …

I don't have a clue what I was talking about and I keep coming back to that chart after all this time and I can't figure out what in the world I was thinking. We all start somewhere and I am still struggling.

Hey Tony.

I suggest that you move (back?) to demo mode until you have established a repeatable edge. Sounds like you are the victim of hopeium the same stuff that many of us have overdosed on.

It is good that you are bleeding slowly (MES instead of ES) but I am not sure if you are following a trading plan that produces positive results. Getting "Lucky"is one of the worst things that can happen for it offers a double portion of hopeium and encourages you to trade out side the lines of the Proven Trading Plan. Do you have one, written or thought out? Write it out so that you can reference it clearly and modify it as market conditions change.

Save you capital until you have a good reason to believe in your plan, (repeated success in demo mode).

I am sure that others will chime in with sage advice but that should be a good start.

Hang in there man, it does get better if you put the time in!

I have no edge. I don't know what my edge could be. I'm trading blind. Today I lost $50 by over trading and just being wrong

I started with just $1000 near the end of April. I'm down by $280.

I can't seem to get this right. I go long, I'm down 10 ticks. I go short, then the contract moves 10 ticks upwards. Once in a while I'll get lucky and catch a 20 tick move but then it's back to getting it wrong constantly.

I'm trading the mes contracts. 1 at a time.

Should I just withdrawal and go home or do I keep trying to get better?

It just seems that no matter what direction I choose I have it wrong.



Sent using the futures.io mobile app

I will share with you what it took me ten years of wandering in the woods of futures to learn:

FORGET ABOUT INDICATORS

There, I said it, and probably 95% of the readers on this website are thinking to themselves: Are you kidding? This guy must be nuts.

But from my perspective, what indicators have the potential to tell you is: WHERE HAS PRICE GONE --- NOT where is price going? --- which is what you really want to know --- the future, not the past.

And at least in my experience, the only thing that I've found that has the potential to tell me where price is going is price itself, not some mathematical formulation of where it has been.

And the only way that I've been able to do that is to look at price charts and keep looking at them to look for recurring price patterns. They're there. You just have to be patient and look at lots of price charts and days and days (and months and months) of price charts to find them. And at least in my experience, they will give you the edge that you need to make money in the markets. Maybe not the only way, but at least one way --- and one way is all you need, a repeatable, demonstrable edge. And then, if you can get your emotions out of the way and consistently execute what you have found, you might be able to make a buck as a futures trader.

My best to you however you decide to proceed.

It should be clear the original poster of this thread doesn't want help any extra help. After reading thru the >80% BS posts on here i noted, he likes to like posts, but offers absolutely nothing for anyone to help.

And as far as good advice, the first 2 pages of the thread has more than enough info for this trader to keep him busy for the conceivable future

If you have nothing constructive to say, keep it to yourself.


Sent using the futures.io mobile app

I have no edge. I don't know what my edge could be. I'm trading blind. Today I lost $50 by over trading and just being wrong

I started with just $1000 near the end of April. I'm down by $280.

I can't seem to get this right. I go long, I'm down 10 ticks. I go short, then the contract moves 10 ticks upwards. Once in a while I'll get lucky and catch a 20 tick move but then it's back to getting it wrong constantly.

Sent using the futures.io mobile app

I have no edge. I don't know what my edge could be. I'm trading blind. Today I lost $50 by over trading and just being wrong

I started with just $1000 near the end of April. I'm down by $280.

I can't seem to get this right. I go long, I'm down 10 ticks. I go short, then the contract moves 10 ticks upwards. Once in a while I'll get lucky and catch a 20 tick move but then it's back to getting it wrong constantly.

I'm trading the mes contracts. 1 at a time.

Should I just withdrawal and go home or do I keep trying to get better?

It just seems that no matter what direction I choose I have it wrong.



Sent using the futures.io mobile app

If you do sim trade, take it seriously. If you make 40 sim trades in a day, and end up with a gain of $12.00 you have learned nothing.
Limit yourself to 5 trades per day (for example) and only pick the best of the best situations that fit your criteria. Trade for a week and review progress.

I agree - but some people just 'break it' - get to a point where it's meaningless. They abused SIM trading so much it becomes useless to them.

no edge .. he is saying i can not trade .. every member on here knows that feeling . we also know there is little we can do to help him . it took most of us 5 plus years and we still have losses that are painful . the only advice i can say to help is .... stay away from trading educators ... they can not trade as well .

I would disagree with this admonition to this extent: Adam Grimes is a quant and trader who provides an excellent and free market training series. About 30 hrs of videos, and a large volume of free reference and training materials.

One has nothing to lose, and a lot to gain from at least taking a look. https://www.marketlifetrading.com/course/index

I've been returning to the markets after a 20 year absence, and his materials have provided an effective "on ramp," at least for me. I'm grateful to him for sharing so much information, experience and worthwhile opinions.

his training is indeed very good and i highly recommend it. but trading his approach is another story. i have been looking at his forex calls, i have no further comments.....

I would disagree with this admonition to this extent: Adam Grimes is a quant and trader who provides an excellent and free market training series. About 30 hrs of videos, and a large volume of free reference and training materials.

One has nothing to lose, and a lot to gain from at least taking a look. https://www.marketlifetrading.com/course/index

I've been returning to the markets after a 20 year absence, and his materials have provided an effective "on ramp," at least for me. I'm grateful to him for sharing so much information, experience and worthwhile opinions.

i would agree Grimes is one of the few good guys in trading education . i have taken his free course . it would help him I.D. brake out failure , trend continuing , and a other core material. however Grimes is not an expert in day trading . that is a different ball game. most folks on here are wanting to do that.

What do you mean "abused SIM trading"? It only becomes useless if people don't know how to test their ideas and trading setups. And that's a huge problem with 90% of traders - they don't know how to test. If pilots, surgeons and companies who design cars and aircraft didn't test their skills and products, we would have a lot of dead bodies around as a result.

If wannabe traders don't know how to test, they may as well give up the ship.

being new to this game i have to wonder about all the free training material out there. i think i'm reaching the end of free youtube content on the subjects of day trading & technical analysis.
I even started a Kindle unlimited subscription and while it is not exactly free, not every trading instructional book is included. is this the best quality or even comparable to the textbooks that are not included at this price level?
and whats the alternative, pay these trading "gurus"?

Back to the title of this original post, i have no edge, i feel like i could spend as much time learning terot cards and apply that to technical analysis as an edge with as much success.....

I mean that some people go through that whole process of becoming a SIM millionaire, then blowing SIM accounts, then shooting for SIM stars so many times that SIM becomes meaningless for them.

Sometimes you break something beyond the point it can be repaired.

....

You could put a 21MA, 50MA, and 200MA on your chart. A lot of low latency algos incorporate these averages (especially 50MA) and you would be surprised by how often they signal moves. They also help, to put the market in a directional and timeframe perspective...

I think it goes much further than just abusing the sim account. Sim is like practice, but what good is practice if the method you are practicing has components that are just wrong? Then all you're doing is ingraining bad habits.

....Oops -- I just told you all their secrets! Now you owe me $5,000. Oh, I forgot one thing... at least look at the ~next larger scale to make sure you don't go against the trend direction, and/or also look at the dominant scale's trend direction. And signals use a smaller scale than the setups. Uh oh, now you owe me $10,000.

That is very well stated! Hyper, Thank you. Now if I could just find that edge. I have spent years looking at this and looking at that. It will work a bit and then not, I must say I have loved it and have no regrets although it has been a great time waster. Hope springs eternal.

Always keep in mind that selling the idea of trading and making money is where the money is! Sell the sizzile and not the steak. Any time you see boats and fast cars in the ad you know its sizzzzl.
Others try other sales methods, its all the same. They need you to cover their losses.

Trading is very personal I think and does not pass to others with much ease. Bottom line is that nobody is going to let just any swinging dick just come and take the money you have to very very clear to make any money in this market place.

Interesting viewpoint on becoming a programmer Hyper. Do you think Bloodhound and Blackbird could be a subsitute for learning a programming language?

I have no edge. I don't know what my edge could be. I'm trading blind. Today I lost $50 by over trading and just being wrong

I started with just $1000 near the end of April. I'm down by $280.

I can't seem to get this right. I go long, I'm down 10 ticks. I go short, then the contract moves 10 ticks upwards. Once in a while I'll get lucky and catch a 20 tick move but then it's back to getting it wrong constantly.

I'm trading the mes contracts. 1 at a time.

Should I just withdrawal and go home or do I keep trying to get better?

It just seems that no matter what direction I choose I have it wrong.

Sent using the futures.io mobile app

Yours is a very common situation with beginning retail traders.

A couple of questions to ask yourself:

1) Do I really love trading?
2) Am I willing to put in a ton of hard work to find an edge?

If your answers to either 1 or 2 are no then quit trading and find something that 1) you love, 2) you're good at, and 3) can make decent money.