What do you wish you had been told?

robster970 said:
Do you use Kelly?
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I have used K(YJ)elly in the past.

Kelly will always come up with a number which is far too high for people to trade. Mathematically it might be correct, but in practice you'll get drawdown >70% which probably 99% of traders would not be able to handle.
 
SanMiguel said:
A years worth of demo trading? I have yet to meet anyone with the patience to do that so call me sceptical about that part of your advice ;)
Demo trading will not teach you emotional control, it is only good for practicing a strat and/or money management.
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Maybe your mamma didn't tell ya that Rome wasn't built in a day.

Giving a year to master the skills to make money in this business isn't a large sacrifice if you serious about this business. It can take several years to achieve success. You're foolish to think demo trading doesn't give you emotional control, but then again you seem to think people can hit the floor running from the start so there isn't any surprise there. You clearly missing the point of demo trading as a tool to refine the skills needed. Only morons would look at demo trading as a platform to simply test a strategy. A strategy on its own is merely scratching the surface of the required elements to becoming a seasoned trader.
 
forker said:
Maybe your mamma didn't tell ya that Rome wasn't built in a day.

Giving a year to master the skills to make money in this business isn't a large sacrifice if you serious about this business. It can take several years to achieve success. You're foolish to think demo trading doesn't give you emotional control, but then again you seem to think people can hit the floor running from the start so there isn't any surprise there. You clearly missing the point of demo trading as a tool to refine the skills needed. Only morons would look at demo trading as a platform to simply test a strategy. A strategy on its own is merely scratching the surface of the required elements to becoming a seasoned trader.
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as is trading with real money.
I never said hit the ground running, merely that you can demo trade for months and then hit live trading and suddenly lose your shirt anyway.
 
That if I trade with forex.com, I can trade in my fu**ing sleep.

sleepingu.jpg


And that the highway code doesn't apply to me. "Sorry officer, but I'm busy trading. Did I cause much of a pile up?"

forexcomdriving.jpg


Seriously though. Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one and most of them are full of s**t. Trade your own rules and learn from your own mistakes.

Oh and to make a fortune, start with a fortune.
 
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You will make the same rookie mistakes every else makes no matter how much you've read up on trading beforehand. The aim of the game is to make as many of the mistakes as possible (to learn from them) without losing all your capital. Which is why its always a good idea to start small and work your way up, never the other way round. I learned that the hard way.
 
I wish somebody told me about the retail traders' success rate - less than 3%.
 
bedsit said:
I wish somebody told me about the retail traders' success rate - less than 3%.
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Thats because 97% give up before success. I never stop being amazed at the amount of retail traders in it for riches over night. The 3% aren't extraordinary people, they are people who walked the full journey to success, they are the people that stood up after being beaten down over and over again. The 97% who fail are the ones that give up. I speak from an experience tongue. I still have much to learn but I have a steady growing account.
 
forker said:
Thats because 97% give up before success. I never stop being amazed at the amount of retail traders in it for riches over night. The 3% aren't extraordinary people, they are people who walked the full journey to success, they are the people that stood up after being beaten down over and over again. The 97% who fail are the ones that give up. I speak from an experience tongue. I still have much to learn but I have a steady growing account.
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I still struggle to believe that it's 3%, surely it's statistically impossible that it's that low. Goes to show you how strong our cognitive biases are.
 
forker said:
Thats because 97% give up before success. I never stop being amazed at the amount of retail traders in it for riches over night. The 3% aren't extraordinary people, they are people who walked the full journey to success, they are the people that stood up after being beaten down over and over again. The 97% who fail are the ones that give up. I speak from an experience tongue. I still have much to learn but I have a steady growing account.
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Excellent post.

Peter
 
forker said:
Thats because 97% give up before success. I never stop being amazed at the amount of retail traders in it for riches over night. The 3% aren't extraordinary people, they are people who walked the full journey to success, they are the people that stood up after being beaten down over and over again. The 97% who fail are the ones that give up. I speak from an experience tongue. I still have much to learn but I have a steady growing account.
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I love this post. I think it's a toxic thing to keep having people scaring you off with statistics like 90%/95%/99% of all traders fail. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy for new traders, because they believe it to be their fate. But they do need to know that the success rate is low and that trading is probably the hardest undertaking they'll ever engage in. They need to know from the start that the trader is always the weakest link and that chasing strategies is futile and will wipe out their account.
 
meanreversion said:
I still struggle to believe that it's 3%, surely it's statistically impossible that it's that low. Goes to show you how strong our cognitive biases are.
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I think I recall recently brokers exposing statistical data around this and the numbers were not near as bad as 97% although the longevity of those accounts were not disclosed
 
Just thought I'd do a quick post to bump this thread up again. Thanks a lot to everyone who's contibuted, it has been good stuff.

I just found out I'm invited to a special training webinar with Mark Douglas next month - very excited. Some traders I know saw him speak at an event in the US last year, but unfortunately I missed it, because I live in the UK. I would have liked to get my book signed. The same company may be bringing him to speak in th UK some day, so I'll keep you posted, for any traders in the UK who are interested.

I love the work of Mark Douglas and always recommend all new traders to read Trading In The Zone no matter what else they do, anyone else feel the same?
 
MarketMoverTrader said:
Before you started trading, what do you wish you had been told? - one thing

Or, if you met someone thinking about starting to trade, what is the one piece of wisdom you would share with them?

I'm talking about trading in general, so not market-specific advice.
Try give it some thought.

Thanks ahead of time for your contributions!
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Trading is a business so approach it like any other business and you will be sucessful

you need 3 key elements for success

1) Market Strategy(ies) (Trading - what,where,when,how,why)
2) Operations (implementing the Trading strategies)
3) Finance (funds - sourcing/risk allocation/benchmarking)

Then constantly Review,Challenge,Remove(if necessary) and Improve them all to evolve and succeed

thats it.........
N
 
That the only way to become successful is lots and lots of patience and practise

There's no 'secret' its what you do on the day that counts (especially applicable to day trading)
 
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