Originally Posted by Wysiwyg
First of all your friends have to be supportive of the ideas you have.They can affirm success with their words and help with observation and knowledge.
When does a broker push a stock for or against you??
Why??
Humans have a greater success rate when in a group working toward the same goal.They can affirm success with their words and help with observation and knowledge.Sure, there are a few individuals who don`t need anyones support.
I would just like to tip this train of thought a bit.
Does anyone consider that the financial system you are dealing with `determines` the amount of success or failure?A trading method and the individual trader has to be accepted by the system for the trader to become financially successful.
First of all your friends have to be supportive of the ideas you have.They can affirm success with their words and help with observation and knowledge.
Secondly the brokers you are dealing with have to want you to be successful.They can push a stock in your favour or give you truths.Your success is the brokers success.
Thirdly the market you are in determines profit or loss from a trade!Not your method!The epitomy of vanity is when you `think` you are in control.We are all players in the game to serve someones purpose and to have our purposes met.
This might apply to other goals in life, but it positively does not apply to trading. As has already been pointed out, to succeed in trading you must normally do the exact opposite of what the crowd is doing. This is hard enough to do on your own, much less with the weight of a crowd bearing down upon you.Humans have a greater success rate when in a group working toward the same goal.
C'mon, surely you are not that naive? The big money controls the markets. You think they're going to take advice from their commissioned salesmen? Brokers are merely salesmen, often of very tatty second hand goods which the big money has given them to sell to the unsuspecting masses.When a brokers report or a buy/sell/hold recommendation is pushed toward financial institutions (retail funds, hedge funds etc.)Churning a stock, pump and dump.
Brokers do have weight.
Brokers are merely salesmen, often of very tatty second hand goods which the big money has given them to sell to the unsuspecting masses.
That said, is testing the be all and end all? I've seen plenty of traders who claim they use nothing more than their own intuition
Reason I'm asking is that I'm still trying to 'find my style' and am open to investigating all options and strategies.
Obviously intuitive trading sounds attractive - less dry reading, more edge-of-your-seat decision-making, etc, but also a bit more prone to emotional involvement at the expense of rationality.
I consider myself a fairly stable and rational person but I admit that I have made some bad decisions before, having held onto a stock for far longer than I should have.
I suppose I'm answering my own questions here. Different styles of trading for different people - all have the potential to work and the potential to fail miserably.
Testing to me is the holy grail there is really so much behind testing that isnt appreciated.
Sure you are trying to prove a method but its so much more
By testing you begin to train the mind what behavior is required to trade markets successfully.
Ask any mechanical trader how by back testing it open their eyes to how you really make money from markets, what works and what wont, by testing they start to understand what the parameters are when the system isn't working rather than waiting to lose a packet before coming to the same conclusion.
The penny drops simply by working on the process not throwing money at the market and learning bad habits
Trading markets is like any other enterprise in as much its all about the processes, work on and understand the processors and the profits come as a consequence
As for Systems trading and Developement 101
Howard Bandy Quantitive Trading Systems is a good place to start although you'll need a mathamatical bent--- lots of time and patience.
When that profit % is reached I am invariably out there and then.Greed has no say in my trading plan.
I am quite happy to let the next trader have his share of the profit.
I'm still not convinced with profit targets.
I'm still not convinced with profit targets.
Even though I currently trade high frequency, short-term (in which I believe they work the best), I personally, have missed out on quiet a few capitulations in my favour right after taking profit at a target. I prefer now to simply tighten stops.
Not that I have the largest sample (only a few hundred).
Just one opinion.
Of course you're going to miss out on the occasional big move if you use profit targets...
It's absurd to draw blanket conclusions about profit targets because they don't suit a particular style of trading - the exit needs to suit the method and the personality of the trader.
Besides, the goal isn't always to maximise net profit. I could show you many, many systems that show much larger net profit without any stops...is it wise to trade systems with no stops ? Probably not...
Make that two opinions. I have yet to find a profit stop that improves expectancy. It can certainly improve win % though.
If I had to be brutally honest I would guess that the real cause is from two things or a combination of the two.
1. You have a small capital base that you NEED to work hard. Lets face it if you are swinging $500,000 you don't need much of a gain in your odd picks to make some good $$ as long as you have some sort of favourable R:R. Even a small expectancy you will be happyish with. But if you are swinging $50,000 every loss is a step closer to failure and every winner NEEDS to be a good one. On top of that every one that gets away is another lost opportunity and further reason to beat yourself up over. Not to mention the need to be "in" the market in case you do miss the next big one.
The answer is unfortunately have a huge capital base. If you don't have that then you MUST remove the $$ goals and shift your focus to expectancy. Which ironically is harder to do the smaller your capital.
Of course. But as Alter Ego says, those big runners make a HUGE difference. You need those outliers IMHO to make great money.
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