The Relative Distribution and Utilisation of Precious Resource

Purple Brain

Experienced member
Messages
1,613
Likes
180
Absolutely no disrespect to anyone – quite the opposite, but I get a sense that the majority of active members on this site at any given point in time are not part of the 2% of retail traders who are consistently profitable in their trading. That there appear to be a very few who are, has obviously been my significant good fortune - though little of their good advice has apparently stuck, unfortunately.

Whether those successfully profitable never think to join sites such as this or once becoming successful, feel no further need to participate I can only hazard a guess, but given the seemingly endless cycle of similar content suggests inexperienced types such as myself arrive at a fairly regular rate and ask the same questions which get answered by a core of well-intentioned and experienced traders who exhibit enormous reserves of patience and fortitude. (Perhaps the hallmarks of good traders?) What possible gratification they get from explaining the most basic and simple concepts for the umpteenth time to, it has to be said, a generally inept and clueless bunch of dimwits who seem to be largely ungrateful for the effort s expended on their behalf, is completely beyond me.

Apart from the frequently refreshing tranche new starters and the incredibly outnumbered core of solid and experienced pros, the rest appear to be either Walter Mitty types, deluded ‘experts’ who have yet to actually trade live capital, great new (and yet to be properly tested) discoveries, selling something, hiding something, arrogant blowhards, trolls, technicians so far up their own esoteric back passage they see patterns in everything – except the next bar, conmen, superficially convincing poseurs and hyper-sensitive dilettantes. You reading this post are none of these poor creatures of course and are one of the few worthwhile and intelligent members, thank goodness.

I’m just wondering if involving myself in all and everything that’s going on here when I have so little to offer in terms of experience myself is actually taking energy and resource away from where it should be directed while offering no benefit, and quite possibly the reverse, to anyone else anyway. An archetypal lose:lose.

So a couple of questions.

1. For those of you who arrived at this site as raw, fresh-faced trading tyros and eventually mastered the art of becoming consistently profitable, did you at any time find your continued presence on and participation in the site was proving detrimental to your endeavours, and did you cease participation for a time? If so. What was the event the caused you to take the decision to stay away?

2. Assuming my hypothesis is correct on the relative success quotient of active members on this site: Where do the majority of retail traders who successfully crack the trading puzzle find their answers if not on trading sites such as this?
 
1. Yes and yes. It wasn't one event, but I'd rather not think about it, as it was an unpleasant time.

2. I only knew one way to tackle problems without a clear or known solution - the scientific approach. This required having a well defined problem that needed answering, having some hypothesis and testing it. There were many questions. I was able to find some useful info related to some of these questions on this site when I had filtered it down to specifics and when I was ready for the penny to drop. Some traders have also been generous with their knowledge in private messages over the years. It took a long time for many pennies to drop because I had a lot of crap to unlearn. There are some good trading books to help too, but most of those that helped me were written before the 1960s.
 
I'm kind of with Shakone
I started looking for a strategy, I was never going to find one here. It did indeed take time away from what I was trying to achieve however one member helped with regard to point and figure. This has been my turning point. Its nothing unique that hasn't been done for hundreds of years but its my turning point.
So to summarise
I managed to get the good advice from a member here.
Ultimately the knowledge was in a book...just one book and lots and lots of practice as that book is so limited in many many ways.

I now have what I was looking for, partly from this site. I guess there must be nuggets around
 
I had a lot of crap to unlearn.
Aha! That gets a 100% confirmation from me. Not that I've managed to un-learn it yet or even been able to confidently identify it all - just that it registers as an issue and possibly a biggie.

Thanks for the response. Helps a lot.
 
This has been my turning point. Its nothing unique that hasn't been done for hundreds of years but its my turning point.
I'm getting that too. There have also for me been a few that have been standout helpful.

Nothing unique. And nothing complex or complicated either.

Thank you for your comments.
 
Top