Why kid yourself?

Many times I see people posting something like this:

"My system is as follows: Enter when 5 EMA and 20 EMA cross 50 EMA. Exit when 5 EMA cross 20 EMA."

Then they proceed to post a successul trade plus profit with a chart attached (see attached photo)

When I see this, I immediately know why 90% of newbie traders fail. They kid themselves. They break their own rules to squeeze out the largest amount of profit possible with an entry. They "establish" new rules in hindsight based on one trade and when a newly established rule fails in the very next trade it will be abandoned and newer rules will be introduced. A vicious circle continues. A search for the Holy Grail continues.

But the true Holy Grail already exists. It's between our ears.

I think you're confusing with the HOLLOW GRAY

.. or the HAIRY GIT

LOL

But quite seriously, what Freebies said is 100% true. Coldn't agree more. People tend to look at systems and setups backwards; find out if they would have picked up some good trades, looking in hindsight. Then the next step is to "cheat" or stretch out entry rules to pretend that you woulnd't have entered into false signal trades within the system of setup. We've all done it in our early days.

Is there a Holy Grail? Don't know. Can there be? Hell yes! Our brain is just a machine; a biological computer. If you can see the data and I can see the data and we can make decisions based on that data and put our emotions to one side while doing so, you bet a mechanical system can do it too. It's just a matter of devising one