I honestly cannot recommend that anyone develop, or follow up an interest in trading.

Give it up!

JT (and anyone else for that matter), Have you not ever just thought that you're crap and will never be good enough to cut it in this game? (I have often thought this and still do sometimes mate so this is nothing personal!)

At least you can try something else if that's the case and say 'oh well it's not for me, you live and learn.'

I still know how to find ya ;) all the best
 
It can be done..You just need to have the right mentality and determination. Some people aren't just cut out for trading..they dont have the right personality. We cant all be doctors, airline pilots etc..You need to have the bin men and the homeless..The loosers feed the winners...The world continues to go round and round, and the gap between rich and poor gets wider and wider.
 
Unlike many other professions, there's not much in the way of a grey area in trading. Broadly speaking, traders fall into three categories: 1) consistently profitable. 2) the 'slow bleed'. 3) here today, gone tomorrow after a major blow out. The market doesn't really factor in grey areas - you can either do it or you can't. It's black and white - just check your P/L to see which side of the divide you're on. In most other walks of life, one can get by being middle of the road, neither terrible nor exceptional. Indeed, this ground is occupied by the majority of people. That's what makes this game soooo tough, IMO, you really have to be very good just to be able to stand still, let alone make any real money. On that note - best of luck JT, I hope you hack it and thank you for your great input over the years.
Best wishes,
Tim.


We/us/people, have trouble dealing with the harsh environment of trading, because it's unlike anything we have ever known. You can be absolutely bang on about the set up and still come out a loser, in a 'normal' working environment a person can get to the top because thier face fits or whatever, not so in trading. I like the purity of trading in that respect, but i think some people can see what is needed to be seen quicker than others, what i think most have trouble with is cultivating the correct mindset to harness what they see and create the complete deal. It's not easy, because we are used to socially accepted comfort zones where mistakes can be brushed under the carpet, not so in trading.
 
I don't get why you're quitting T2W. How's that going to help?

Fair enough if you had blown up, and said you'd never trade again and wanted complete closure, but this isn't the case.

Ian
 
Trading really does kick you in the teeth at every opportunity - that is the harsh reality.

For me, today has been an absolute freak of a day. Totally disimilar to any other with a similar range and chart formation that i have experienced using my method. A few more like this, and i will have no choice but to call it a day, and cash in what i have. In some ways, such a thing would be a relief tbh.

Anyhows, still doing a post mortem on today, and seeing if/what went wrong, though tbh i really dnt think i did much wrong at all - just freak/randomness made my valid entires turn into losers, and the non-valid entires grab the movement, whereas on another (most) day all my valid entries could easily have been mostly winners, with winners considerably bigger than losers.

Thats the harshness of trading - you follow your rules, and it can all come undone by freakish randomness.

As with life, in trading you never know whats round the corner, and whats more, you have no control over it, all you can do is limit the risk, and hope to maximise profit taking.
 
Unlike many other professions, there's not much in the way of a grey area in trading. Broadly speaking, traders fall into three categories: 1) consistently profitable. 2) the 'slow bleed'. 3) here today, gone tomorrow after a major blow out. The market doesn't really factor in grey areas - you can either do it or you can't. It's black and white - just check your P/L to see which side of the divide you're on. In most other walks of life, one can get by being middle of the road, neither terrible nor exceptional. Indeed, this ground is occupied by the majority of people. That's what makes this game soooo tough, IMO, you really have to be very good just to be able to stand still, let alone make any real money. On that note - best of luck JT, I hope you hack it and thank you for your great input over the years.
Best wishes,
Tim.

You forget employed traders. I know one guy who's been going strong on a 5 year losing streak. Alas he's good at the old BS.
 
I don't get why you're quitting T2W. How's that going to help?

Fair enough if you had blown up, and said you'd never trade again and wanted complete closure, but this isn't the case.

Ian

My reason for exiting forumworld is it is a distraction. My method will either succeed or fail in the long run. I may adapt or i may not. Regardless, posting on forums does not help concentration, missed signals etc. That is why i am banning myself. Removing a tempation. I've already explained all this.......and i'm pi**ing into the wind as it is!
 
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You forget employed traders. I know one guy who's been going strong on a 5 year losing streak. Alas he's good at the old BS.
He needs to be not just good at 'the old BS' but God's gift at it! He ought to turn his hand to sales. Can't quite get my head around the idea of his employer (bank, prop' firm?) keeping him on if he's lost money over that length of time. Very odd.
Tim.
 
Trading really does kick you in the teeth at every opportunity - that is the harsh reality.

For me, today has been an absolute freak of a day. Totally disimilar to any other with a similar range and chart formation that i have experienced using my method. A few more like this, and i will have no choice but to call it a day, and cash in what i have. In some ways, such a thing would be a relief tbh.

Anyhows, still doing a post mortem on today, and seeing if/what went wrong, though tbh i really dnt think i did much wrong at all - just freak/randomness made my valid entires turn into losers, and the non-valid entires grab the movement, whereas on another (most) day all my valid entries could easily have been mostly winners, with winners considerably bigger than losers.


what are you trading mate :?:

I have been loosing consistently lately myself , :mad:
 
Anyway -

a few more freakish days like today and i will quit & find a proper job. That is the knife edge that trading can be. Despite 6+ weeks of massive winning days (potentially, and not just as a result of the double edged sword of credit crunch volatility), a small series of freakish losing days, can set you a long way back, even if you executed correctly.

I thought i had turned a corner, and i expected today to go well, and the plan to work well as per usual , but instead i got kicked in the teeth.
But regardless of how today went, i was always going to start this thread today anyway, to act as a warning to any newbie. I see this as a constructive finale so to speak :)

If i do make a million - I'll pop back to let you know what happened.

If i don't come back in the next couple of years, it is more than likely because i quit trading and wrote the whole thing off as an overall failure & an unnattainable goal.

And a few of you i am in contact with anyways!

Good luck boys and girls. We DEFINATELY all need it, to succeed over the long haul in trading.
:)
 
Anyway -

a few more freakish days like today and i will quit & find a proper job. That is the knife edge that trading can be. Despite 6+ weeks of massive winning days (potentially, and not just as a result of the double edged sword of credit crunch volatility), a small series of freakish losing days, can set you a long way back, even if you executed correctly.

I thought i had turned a corner, and i expected today to go well, and the plan to work well as per usual , but instead i got kicked in the teeth.
But regardless of how today went, i was always going to start this thread today anyway, to act as a warning to any newbie. I see this as a constructive finale so to speak :)

If i do make a million - I'll pop back to let you know what happened.

If i don't come back in the next couple of years, it is more than likely because i quit trading and wrote the whole thing off as an overall failure & an unnattainable goal.

And a few of you i am in contact with anyways!

Good luck boys and girls. We DEFINATELY all need it, to succeed over the long haul in trading.
:)

I lost about 7,000 GBP this year doing a proper job ........8 weeks work in the freezin cold and no pay .

nothing is easy it seams

but can you lell me what you are trading before you go?

All the best mate
 
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J, can' rep you any more, but I most definitely wouldn't worry too much about a single bad day like today, when you've been doing well overall, particularly keeping keeping in mind this:

Trading: Choppiest environment in 50 years !

Best of luck mate !

hope so too.

Scary thing is when i have past days that look more or less the same on the charts but had that bit of luck - maximum SL's not being hit. Today max SL's being JUST hit, then goes straight back into profit etc. Its really not nice.

I'll see how it goes. But it all just goes to show that you really have to live in the moment, one trade/candle etc. at a time to be successful in this game, as in life, never counting your chickens. Take care of the present and the future will look after itself etc.
 
Trading really does kick you in the teeth at every opportunity - that is the harsh reality.

This is only true if you do not live in the "present moment" when trading.


Paul
 
This is only true if you do not live in the "present moment" when trading.


Paul

Maybe. But living in the present moment can also work against you.

eg. How many times could a trader get spooked by slow/stagnant price action, and bail out of their trades prematurely. No sooner have they done this but the trade then goes and makes the profit.
Had they followed their rules they'd have caught it all. By listening to what price was telling them in that moment, they have just forfeited a perfectly good profit opportunity.

Sometimes interpretation/hunches/decisions based on the moment will prove correct, cutting losses shorter, banking a small profit b4 it turns into a loss, maximising a profit take at S/R etc.
Other times, the moment can bite your bum and have a negative impact on P/L.
 
This thread is starting to get depressing. What everyone here needs is a big virtual group hug!
 
Today seems much more regular, but yesterday shot my confidence so have missed the boat twice so far today and seen a big profit develop.

Trading is usually the cruelest of things :rolleyes:. It is a sick joke!

If id entered these 2 trades, i know they made a profit, but had i entered, i think they'd have probably made a loss - somehow - if you catch my drift :devilish:.

:rolleyes:

I know people say, forget the losses and draw a line under it, dont think about the money, etc. but when you suffer a ridiculously bad day, it really does easily damage the soul. If you lose X% of your account value, it is 10-20 times as hard to get it back IMO.
 
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. . .
I now have what i consider to be a very solid methodology, that is as good as it can be, more or less.

This has taken years of painstaking work to develop. And from time to time, my inability to execute the plan correctly, can drive me up the wall.
. . .

Word!
 
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