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Just a quick note to introduce myself. I have been trading equities for over forty years and moved on to trading futures three years ago. By far and away the most cerebral thing I ever have set out to do. After developing and building residential real estate my entire professional career, the financial markets as I have learned are far different than I really understood. Put simply, I didn't know what I didn't know.
Forums like this are a wonderful tool to hopefully help develop everyone's skills. The most important things I have learned after three long years of trial and error doing this full time. The journey can be as easy or as hard as you choose to make it, yet for most traders using their money......nothing is sweeter than a winning day, week or month. Your freedom will come from developing a 21st century skill set first and practicing until you think you know it all, but until you are serious and treat this like a real business...you won't really know squat.
Your consistency over time makes you a skilled trader, its your statements...not what you think or what you know. Learning is paramount everyday and that is the coolest thing. Most guys my age sit back in their chairs with their long careers and coast. You young guys.......you coast in this business at any age and some very smart guy or gal from anywhere on this planet will eat you for breakfast. Make sure that's what you signed up for as this is not easy and definitely not simple, but incredibly rewarding.
With all that said, I wouldn't do anything else in the world as I have gotten better every year and yes my 1099's for 2011 were about $6500 positive for my first year......LOL......4000 hours and $6500 bucks in my first year...wow and I thought I would set the world on fire. Mr. Market doesn't care about your past for sure. There is no get rich scheme in this game...don't believe all the hype. Its all about hard work and developing a craft.
I hope to become a valued member of this forum and continue to learn from all of you in my quest to continue getting better every year. Hopefully some of the specifics from the 10,000 plus hours I have invested these past three years might be of some help to you as well.
As I have learned that Tag Lines are limited, I'll share one of my favorite quotes by Steve Jobs speaking at a commencement at Stanford. As we are all in class here...thought it might be relevant.
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”
It looks like you already figured out that trading is not some simple get rich quick scheme, probably for anyone. That is the first and most important lesson, I suppose.
I think you will be glad you joined the community; there are some incredibly talented members here. Almost any topic in trading can be addressed here and there is almost always someone who can give a hand. Big Mike runs a tight ship here to keep behavior civil, another big plus!
I appreciate the response. It is a wonderful opportunity to exchange without necessarily having to empty my email daily of the latest and greatest "power trading schemes" that will give me the next holy grail system.
As a newbie, I'm curious....are there "market profile pros" on here that will answer questions. Like in school, no one wants to appear stupid and in this type of forum, one always wonders...who is doing the responding. I am sure my cynicism may be showing, but I guess in a sense....everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time.
After reading the recent post about concerning the guy who posted a statement from AMP, I felt he took a lot of heat, but your right about Big Mike...his perspective was best. Post a legitimate trading journal. Clearly if someone takes a trade and makes money....great...my guess is that is why we all are in this amazing business and that's our job. But if you can't teach a strategy with why you entered where you did, your exit(s), stops and risk management issues, I suppose its like one of Cramer's patented "cheap shots"...you know BUY, Buy, buy....
Einstein may have had the best advice that can apply to trading. He said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." If you can't teach it, than its not of much value as a trade if I can't learn from it.
