Why not?

There is a little back and forth lately about whether one should or shoult not post entries, targets, and stops on this board. My opinion (Aren't you glad you asked) is WHY NOT? Why would you not post them (if your going to post a trade?) I could only think of a reason not too. It seems like to me the majority of good traders if not all of them have money management systems which include all these things. Why not share yours? Is that part not equally as important as having a system that provides signals? They don't have to be hard stops or targets. It could be an event rather than a number. IE My stop would be a break of the recent lows with a confirmation in internals, etc. Targets could be moved, etc. (Trailing Stops, partial profits) But why would you not post one? I have only been doing this 1.5 years and I can tell you its kind of scary to post them. But you know what?..when I have it holds me accountable and if I am consistantly losing it makes me look a little harder at mysystem. We are not asking you to post size unless you want to. I think everyone is smart enough here to realize that not all systems work all of the time. I think we only care to impress the long termers here anyway. Who cares about Joe Blow who is going to be looking at a different message board next month. Maybe it would help if people would not gloat over other peoples losses. Lets learn from them and show them what you see. Share why you would or would not take the trade. They can use it or lose it. That will make us all better traders. What are your reasons not too? ..maybe I am just not thinking of them. I think it takes a lot of guts to do it and appreciate those who do. Also while I'm on my soap box....No one should negatively critize anyones techniques...why not a civil exchange of ideas/information...if someone does not see it that way you do...so be it....IYB I really appreciated the way you answered an earlier post. Cheers. SL

why not a civil exchange of ideas/information...if someone does not see it that way you do...so be it....IYB I really appreciated the way you answered an earlier post.

Cheers.

SL

Thanks SL - and great post. Frankly I burned myself out in the four years from 2003 to 2006 constantly explaining everything that goes into my analysis of LT, IT, ST, and my trading, and then defending my posts against a litany of attacks and sarcasm. This can all become extremely exhausting - and it did.

I truly have come to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter whether my arguments convince others, or whether they agree or respect what I have to say. What matters is that what I do works for me. Period.

Trading can be a highly emotional business. To the extent that we control those emotions and follow a methodology that works, we put ourselves in a position to win. When we let our emotions take over- for any reason- whether we have personal or family issues, or whether we are on what poker players call "tilt", or whether we get caught up in trying to defend our views here----we we greatly diminish our chances for success.

Ideally, what this board could and "should" do is provide analysis and ideas. If those ideas stimulate my thought and broaden my knowledge, hopefully my trading results benefit as a result. Among the group who reads and posts here are some of the brightest minds in the world. I am grateful to those who take the time to lay out thoughful analysis, ideas, or information, and thus who contribute to that cause.

'Nuf said. Good trading. D

IYB, A little additional thought. I think one problem is people rarely assign a time frame to the trade they are making which confuses people. That may help if people clearly state if they are initially playing the 5,10,15,60, or daily charts etc. When everyone is considering so many time frames it causes confusion. SL

Here are posted entries/picks

http://www.stockta.com/cgi-bin/pick.pl

http://www.stockpick...stock_picks.htm

Here are posted entries/picks

http://www.stockta.com/cgi-bin/pick.pl

http://www.stockpick...stock_picks.htm

That would be real cool if TT had their own stockpick tracker like that! I would use it! How hard would that be Mark and RD? Expensive? Time consuming?

SL

IYB: exactly my experience and thoughts. as it happens, i just posted much the same on a thread before i read your comments. it may be hard for some to understand who have not been there, done that.

Edited by humble1, 16 March 2008 - 04:51 AM.