forgive me but as i read you... you are saying subconsciously in mind that you are a sucker who is trying not be.
take a break from the charts focus on your mind ... because the eyes can not see when the mind is cloudy ... i do wish you luck as i offer this as support
Sound advice.... If you have a losing trade that your market analysis is wrong. It is better to wait it out until you figure out why your analysis is wrong.... Unfortunately, I don't have a mentor that taught me how to trade, I listened to traders on this board and others who had opinions that were backed up by technical analysis and use a mixture of those analysis.
Many traders look at too few charts and miss important signals in the market... I play medium term... I went long almost 2 weeks ago after going short at the beginning of August... Hopefully, I can give some of my wisdom some of the investors here. However, i do have day job that prevents me from watching the market, so I need a trading algorithm that allows me to check charts on a daily basis... Mr Dev is on a little shorter trading cycle than me.... He is right with trading with 2X funds you should be able to achieve 100 - 200% on your money every year.... I'm not there yet myself, but I am marketing improvement I think, but until you can double your money over 12 months of trading ups and downs you can't really say you know how to trade.
Sorry to be harsh, but that's absolutely absurd to say "until you can double your money over 12 months of trading ups and downs you can't really say you know how to trade. The only traders who can do that are the nameless and faceless posters on Internet trading boards who couldn't produce a multi-year real money track record if their life depended on it. Are you aware of the returns generated by the best of the hedge fund managers such as the Steve Cohens of the world and the super star traders such as Soros? Are you aware of the returns generated by Buffett to become a billionaire many times over? Are you aware of the monitored returns by Mark Hulbert of the newsletter writers and advisors including the Rydex and Profunds traders? Are you aware of the real money monitored returns from MoniResearch of the trading advisors or the returns of the CTAs? For a home based trader, 100% per year each and every year is pure fantasy unless you are trading a miniscule account and not compounding it. I know one home based trader who has traded $2300 to over $2,100,000 with nary any drawdown along the way but the only 100% years he ever had was when his account was very small. I do know one trader, accounts statements and everything, who at one time did do 100% per year for several years. But last I heard he was driving a cab and broke. One of the primary reasons so many fail at the trading game are unrealistic expectations by the glut of pie-in-the-sky trading claims from Vendorville portraying trading as a easy way to instant riches.
Gary,
Coudn't agree with you more. The idea of making 100% returns year after year consistently is a pure fantasy. Yes there are years where you could have easily done it, when the market charateristic fits your trading style. But doing it consistently for years, i am still trying to meet such people, whereever they exist.
Thanks NAV. I don't doubt it can be done and is being done, albeit not every single year, and certainly not on a *compounded* basis. And also extraordinary claims that it is being done would require extraordinary proof via real money trading statements. Long ago, I did 86% annualized, but not compounded, for 10 straight years in the stock index futures but it was a very small account and one I kept small by withdrawing the profits each year to parlay into my mutual fund trading account where I could trade in greater size and compound. As an aside, I made a glaring omission trying to downplay my percentage returns in my above post in that while there were no additons to speak of over those 25+ years there was almost $900,000 in withdrawals for taxes, home purchases, cars, a divorce settlement, to get debt free, etc. and the biggie, to pay my living expenses sine 1996 when I went from part-time to full-time. While that may jack up the annualized returns, it would still be south of 45% so nothing of any earth shattering proportions.. My whole point here is (and in this thread I am referring to your typical home-based trader trading their own capital) it's better to focus on being a consistently profitable trader while obsessively managing risk and not worry about pie-in-the sky percentage returns. Over time the money will come by the compounding effect, especially if you trade as much as possible in your tax free retirement accounts such as IRAs etc. Pre 1985, I wasted my first 19 years of part time trading trying to get rich quick and in the process went nowhere.
Edited by Gary Smith, 09 September 2010 - 03:35 AM.
