Institutional Equivalent Education?

It represents no opportunity for retail traders like us. It is gambling. I am done for now, have to go work on a house i bought, and sell it. I live in Canada, real estate here is amazing. That is what I do sometimes, buy an old house, renovate it and sell it for a good price.

We don't see an eye for an eye and we never will. Trade whatever you want, from my experience in trading, AND watching others trading the news i would not touch the news. I stick to my strategy that has brought me a lot of money and very few losses. Trade safe.

Quoting Techanalyst

Disliked

{quote} I have learned it myself the strategy. And I am sticking to that, as it is successful for me. You on the other hand are a follower of some guy name Ray. Keep following him that is all you are ever going to get in trading. Follow Ray's strategy or whatever you want to call it, talk nonsense here about his useless strategy and make pennies off his website education.

Ignored

It is great to stick to a strategy that works for you.- Congratulations!

But please don't display your ignorance and tell others which strategies work and which ones don't without even looking at evidence or understanding the strategy!
Ray is all about students finding the strategy that suits them. I wasted 2 yrs trading both News and strategies that didn't suit me - go back and look how Samidy told me to focus on the News because it worked for me.

Ray doesn't teach just a single strategy - which is why some people are dismissive!
But all the many styles of trading and the markets he shows how to trade are profitable!
Moreover he teaches us to think like an institutional Quant and an institutional Analyst and an institutional Trader,
so that we know how to trade profitably even without him!

Trading supply/demand with order flows and price accumulating is also how institutional traders trade. But we will not see an eye for an eye we will never agree on anything. Let's stick to trading. Trade safe.

I have worked on trading floors at investment banks and at hedge funds and I assure you they are not trading supply and demand.

I can assure you that I heard that statement that you make here on FF probably thousand times for years. Maybe you did work maybe not, I do not know, and I do not care. It makes no difference to me either way. It does not get in my way in any shape or form. I trade my strategy and that is that. I can also assure you, that i have seen many traders exactly like yourself, that come here on FF, make a thread and talk about their experiences how they trade the best strategy, and they trade news and have information and bla, bla, bla,bla,bla. I can assure you how many times i got confronted by traders here how supply/demand does not work, how institutional traders do not use that strategy. But who cares, like I said, if it works for you great. My strategy works for me and that is good for me.

Here is an example: You claim that you worked as a trader with financial institutions and so on, like i said maybe you did does not matter. Sam Seiden worked for Chicago Mercantile Exchange, as an trader not just taking orders, not just collecting papers and orders. You say, institutional traders do not trade supply/demand/. Sam says that they do. So who's right who's wrong? We don't know. So the bottom line is for me and I am saying just for me, I do not absolutely care what you or Sam says, if you worked for banks as a trader or not. On FF here, we are all just retail traders making a living trading forex. That's it. Trade safe.

Cme represents entirely different markets and perhaps you are right, cme traders trade support and resistance "supply and demand". That doesn't mean traders at investment banks operate that way. They are tightly regulated internally and externally and you will never see them placing a trade without considering the risk horizon. Furthermore, the fx market revolves around central bank policy, which affects all markets with its role managing the supply and cost of money. Why would you toss your money at every occurrence of price dancing on a spot it danced before when all you have to go by is a probability. Banks don't like to operate under uncertainty, its in their code of conduct, I know it I had to be tested on it along with dozens of other regulatory compliance tests and standards. The fact is there is far less risk involved when you can trade the inefficiency in forecasting models and profit from the pricing in of unexpected data. Why do you think every move in fx is prefixed by a data release or major political event. The thing you call shit is the very thing driving the market. Who do you think is better prepared for that battle, the one who dismisses it or the one who embrases it. The one who needs to fire every time to hit probability (which is an ever changing number if you factor in market dynamics), or the one who knows what's going on by keeping informed. Which edge do you think is the closest to the drivers of the market?

By the way I am a software developer by trade and to build software that tests risk models and others like volsurface, linear and nonlinear, to name a few, I have to understand how it all works to build that software.

Anyway, this is getting out of hand now and it is not our thread so good day to you.

Techanalyst to EcoTrader

That isn't what his profile at the OTA says!


Chicago Mercantile Exchange Floor- facilitating institutional orderflow. i.e. just an Order taker/Filler!

He is a trader. I have watched his videos on supply/demand and adjust it to my strategy. Works great for me.

Here you are a retail trader like rest of us, trying to promote a guy named Ray and searching for Sam to prove that he is just an order filler. He is a trader, he obviously had to understand the order fills and what is going on.

So you are a software developer at that investment firm not actual institutional trader?

I never once mentioned I was a bank trader, you just assumed that, assumption is as they say the mother of all f....ups. Building trading software that price tests or explores deep relationships to uncover risk and opportunity requires a deep understanding else it can't be done. That comes with spending a great deal of time with the traders and analysts on their trades and processes. In other words I have had to pick apart their brains on the subject giving me a great deal of knowledge about their approach, strategies, how they measure risk, how they define opportunities,the works.

Quoting Techanalyst

Disliked

{quote} He is a trader. I have watched his videos on supply/demand and adjust it to my strategy. Works great for me. Here you are a retail trader like rest of us, trying to promote a guy named Ray and searching for Sam to prove that he is just an order filler. He is a trader, he obviously had to understand the order fills and what is going on.

Ignored

Gosh, you don't give up when you are wrong, do you?

You obviously know Sweet F A about institutions

An Order Taker/Filler is the lowest form of life so far as trading is concerned. All they have to do is what they are told to. And if the beat VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price - see 'Volume' comes into it) then they get a bonus. They and their employer take virtually no risk and just uses the customers' orders to move price around.
Sam Seiden worked at that job back when it all the Customer instructions were written on paper, so he split them into two piles in price order, and so was able to use them to push price where he needed it for the next Order etc.
So far as I am aware, he is quite open about that and doesn't hide it unlike some people.

You claimed that Mike R.'s CV was just randomly taken from the internet.
My Skype chat with him when he joined our Self Help Group:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

See the date I got it here (right around Ray's course last August):

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

See that it is actually for Mike R. (he uses his middle name rather than his first name) here:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Ray predicted the Aussie Interest Rate news (4 and a half hours in advance) - easy you may say. But he also provided the plan to trade it:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

No I didn't trade it - I am asleep at that time, but I am sure several of his Aussie students did trade it for a nice profit.

So much for News Trades being gambling - LOL !

I understand. You were/are a software developer for trading firm. So here, on FF you are a retail trade like rest of us. Got it. Trade safe.

Ian don't care about your useless strategy. Trade safe.

Boris Schlossberg has had no time to do a separate email, so has just shared his presentation at FOREX DAY:
https://www.slideshare.net/btrader/forexdayjune2019

Here are the headings (My comments in Blue):
The Only Money Management Strategy That Works in Trading

1. 1. The Only Money Management Strategy That Work$ in Trading
2. 2. BUT Before We Start...
3. 3. 7 Lies of Trading
4. 4. Lie #1 Trading is Just Like Investing
5. 5. Trading is Nothing Like Investing
6. 6. Investing is just BTFD - I have no idea what that is.
7. 7. The Simplest Way to Make Money In The Market Is....
8. 8. Put 60€ into VTWSX 40€ into BNDW Every Week for Rest of Your Life - I have no idea what those are.
9. 9. EXCEPT...
10. 10. Trading is About Absolute Return
11. 11. Trading is Also About Proper Gambling
12. 12. (More on this Later)
13. 13. Lie #2 Discipline is what Matters
14. 14. No One Could Follow Such Rules Consistently Total Nonsense - The limits of discipline vary from person to person. The key is in limiting the losses from lack of discipline!
15. 15. The Only Way To Create Discipline is to Institutionalize FAILURE Into Your Trading - I think he means accepting some failure and planning for it!
16. 16. Lie #3 Trading Strategies Are Key to Winning
17. 17. There Are Only TWO Strategies in Trading Continuation |Reversal - But there a lots of timeframes which complicate these: continuation on one timeframe may be reversal on another.
18. 18. The Key To Winning Is To Figure Out If the Market Is Lying or Not - The Market never lies, only the major participants try to mislead. So knowing the business plan for each type of major participant is extremely valuable!
19. 19. Good Poker Players Read The Table Good HF Managers Read Market Regime
20. 20. All Winning in Trading: Apply Right Strategy to Market Regime - Applying the right Strategy in the right Style for YOU.
21. 21. Lie #4 Indicators are Unique
22. 22. All Indicators are Variant of Rate of Change Calculations in Price
23. 23. All Indicators are Similar
24. 24. All Indicators Generate Basically the SAME Signals
25. 25. Lie #5 To Trade - All You Need Is Technicals
26. 26. Elliot Wave Fibonacci Gann Haromics = ASTROLOGY
27. 27. Candlesticks Patterns Indicators are Useful BUT...
28. 28. They Don’t Create Price They Only Report It NEWS Creates Price - 100% agree, after all I am a News Trader!
29. 29. Lie #6 Automated Trading Will Make Me Money
30. 30. Why You Can’t “AI” the Market 1.The Data Keeps Changing 2.Data More Noise Than Signal 3.Edge Comes from Nuance 4.Complexity Kills
31. 31. Lie #7 You Can’t Win Unless You Trade 2:1 Risk/Reward
32. 32. The Greatest Lie EVER
33. 33. Backtest Any Strategy And You Will See That 2:1 Trades Occur 25% of the Time
34. 34. That’s Why Everybody Loses
35. 35. 2:1 Trade is a LOTTERY TICKET
36. 36. The Only Way to Capture it Successfully is with Short/Exit Long/Exit Setup -Yes, but much better with 3 units than with a 2 unit version like the one shown here!
37. 37. What is R?
38. 38. R = Stop (i.e. 30 pips)
39. 39. Strategy Trade 2 Units 1.Short Exit->1st Unit @ 1R 2.Move Stop to Breakeven 3.Long Exit-> 2nd Unit @ 2R
40. 40. EXAMPLE 1 52% Win on Exit 1 28% Win on Exit 2 +4R on Exit 1 +8R on Exit 2 (56-48) +12R per 100 trades
41. 41. EXAMPLE 2 48% Win on Exit 1 32% Win on Exit 2 -4R on Exit 1 +12R on Exit 2 (64-52) +8R per 100 trades
42. 42. NIRVANA 55% Win on Exit 1 35% Win on Exit 2 +10R on Exit 1 +25R on Exit 2 (70-45) +35R per 100 trades
43. 43. NOTE in None of the Examples do You Need a Big % Edge to WIN - Agreed, take a small edge and compound it !
44. 44. Takeaways 4 Real-Life Trading
45. 45. #1 Judge Results in 100 Trade Batches - Agreed, although this misses a crucial point, judge a trade by how well you traded it - NOT by the profit or loss!- Or alert with Algo, enter with discretion, use dynamic trade management!
46. 46. #2 Enter with Algos Exit with Discretion (Adjust 4 Regime)
47. 47. or #2 Use Algos to Signal Use Discretion to Enter and Exit
48. 48. #3 Machines Only Give Signals Regime Wins Trades
49. 49. #4 Trade 3 Pairs Only Per Strategy (Less is More FX Highly Correlated) - My maximum is 2 pairs (or 2 markets), ALL markets are correlated!
50. 50. #5 Diversification in Trading Comes from Strategies NOT Instruments
51. 51. #6 Trade ONE Times Equity Per Trade (i.e. 10,000 Units per Trade for Every €10,000 in Account - Caution is required, but I think this is too cautious!
52. 52. 1 Million Years of Evolution: I Want To Eat NOW! I Want to F NOW!
53. 53. #7 Understand Why You Will Never Be Patient (Build That Human Flaw In Your Trade Plan)
54. 54. Have FUN In What Other Business Do We Look Forward To Mondays? - If at the weekend, you don't look forward to Mondays then you should not be trading!

I would just like to expand on Trading versus Investing, because depending upon how you interpret 'Investing' and 'Trading' I don't agree with Boris that they are utterly different.

 

1. 4. Lie #1 Trading is Just Like Investing
2. 5. Trading is Nothing Like Investing

If you define 'Investing as buying a Good or a Stock, Bond, Commodity , Interest Rate or Currency with the intention of holding it for a few days or weeks or months before hopefully selling it on at a profit. - Then that is trading- just on a larger timescale!

But if you define 'Investing' as holding with the intention of holding it for years, perhaps even passing it on to your children. Then that is nothing like Trading!.

The major feature of Investing is that it is all about Value!
You don't need a chart, you don't need to ensure that when you Buy you have identified or will manipulate price such that there will be Buyers at higher prices to Sell to when you want to exit.
You don't need to concern yourself about the actions of Hedgers, or big institutions seeing value and then spreading bad news and selling small(ish) amounts in order to drive price lower so that they can get a large size on at a lower average price, before allowing price to rise.
But in Trading you had better take account of all of those things (including Value) if you want to succeed.
Those who don't take account of all of those may have some success, but they are just reducing their profits and making it harder for themselves compared to those who spend just a little time on the whole picture!

I have been getting some PMs from a guy 'S.' and FF limit me to only sending 1 PM per 24hrs. So I am replying to his latest one in here.
What I will do is post the whole conversation:-

S....: Hi,

I am a beginner trader who is still trying to figure out things in Forex. As an experienced trader, could you please give me some advise on where to start with price action or another strategy that you like to recommend?

Are there any education material here on Forexfactory or somewhere else? Any tips will be highly appreciated.

ianf0ster: Hi S....
I am surprised and flattered that you would ask me ( I am hardly one of the most prominent members of Forex Factory). Unfortunately Forex Factory (although it does have a little decent information for beginners, is full of liars, impostors, braggarts and frauds.
The best source for complete beginner information that I know of is on the BabyPips website (though they too have a lot of people giving false or misleading information in their Forum). www.babypips.com/learn is where their Education section is.
Most of that is good and valuable, but some is things that most Retail traders learn but are less valuable than alternatives (which are mainly taught only to institutional traders). In case you want to see what those are I attach a MS word document (FF wouldn't allow me to attach it - so I posted the main text below my signature.) which was planned to be part of a full documentation of the training course taught by my mentor. The project failed because of too few people contributing, too wide a scope and our mentor constantly improving and extending his course.
His course (Sharp Edge) and a trend Following intensively indicator based suite of courses called 'The MAX' are the only two courses that I recommend. But first you need to learn the basics of trading Forex on the BabyPips site.

Best Wishes,

Rather than reproduce what is available elsewhere, anyone new to trading either Forex or Futures or Options should go to www.babypips.com/school and study the following sections:
All the Pre-school lessons.
All the Kindergarten lessons.
Elementary School Lessons: Grades 1, 2.
Plus read Grades 3, 4, 5 because you need to know of their existence. However the Prop-Time usage of these will be shown later in this document, because they are either avoided or used in a different way to that taught to retail traders.
Middle School: Read all the lessons, but Prop-Time usage will differ.
Summer School: These are NOT USED in Prop-Time.
High School: Read all the lessons, but Prop-Time usage may differ.
Undergraduate Lessons: Study all the lessons, although Prop-Time usage may differ slightly.

Once you have completed all that, you are ready to really start to learn how to trade like an institutional trader but in the retail environment.

S...:Hi Ian,
Thank you very much your reply for my email and that's very informational. Yes there are lots of guys out there however not many people interested in helping others. Also finding good information is difficult in a place like this.
I heard about you when I was reading the thread about "Institutional Equivalent Education? " and thought If I could get some advice from you regarding forex education.

Actually I al glad that the first thing I did in my first 3 months of getting into forex was going through the "Babypips" school. That gave me some sort of a confidence that I have some sort of a basic knowledge of forex. But now I have realized it is just the bare minimum to be a forex trader.

Still I am trying to find what whould I learn in order to get a profitable edge? Please can you help me in this matter?

Also please can you send the word document you mentioned as I can't see it attached?

Thank you very much.
Good luck,

ianf0ster: Hi S.....
Sorry about the word document - I though I could attach them to these replies, but I can't.
About Edges, there are lots of different trading styles. If you have read much in my thread you will know that my mentor believes in teaching as many valid approaches as he can, but mainly from the point of view of Value. You must decide how much study and practice you are prepared to do in order to learn sufficient of one or more of these specialities which I list in the order of Long term to short term trading.
The longest term trading is most focused on Value, then Sentiment, then Wholesale Price Levels (often simplified to 'Round Numbers'), Market Structure (which includes Liquidity, Market Profile or Volume Profile), Price Action & Volume Analysis (Which Includes Demand and Supply, Momentum) and finally OrderFlow. But all of them are applicable to all timeframes the difference being their degree of importance. It is relatively common for the longest timeframe traders to only consider Vale and not ever look at a chart, just as most short-term Scalpers only consider the OrderFlow. There are also some time-of-day based edges.

All I can suggest is that you look into several of these subject area and get an idea of what appeals to you.

As I have mentioned in my thread there are only 2 sources of trading education courses that I know work. There are some people who just don't have the personality or don't have the skills for trading. But there are many more who just have not found the right training that matches their own situation : Personality, skills, interests, capital, resources, psychology. -This lack of a match is the reason that most traders fail.
Because there are so many variables that make every trader different, it isn't possible to be 100% sure that even training which seems a good match will actually make a trader successful - even if they work hard, complete the training and do lots of practice!

I know that doesn't help you much, but there is a whole industry selling garbage to newbie traders and the vast majority are just rip-offs. Then out of the better more honest ones, the majority of those think that every trader is just like themselves and so can use their exact trading plan.
Just looking at BK Forex from which I often comment on Boris Schlossberg's emails BK consists of 2 well known traders Boris and also Kathy Lien (who is also a well known Analyst), the two of them trade in very different ways, yet Boris often talks as though only his way of trading works !

Regards,

S....: Hi Ian,

Thank you for your reply. Actually when I coupled indicator system with some of the supply demand concepts I learned (from Sam Seiden videos), I thought that it gave me better results and more clarity of what I should be doing.

After reading your email, I have a better idea of how I should approach my learning process.

In your thread, you had mentioned about Ray in CompassFX? I think it is his course that you like to recommend? There are lots of educational videos there and I hope to check them.

Ray's main course (sharp edge) looks expensive for me at the moment but I hope to take his other course.

Once again thank you for your valuable information.

Take care,

My current reply is: Yes, look at the free videos available. Of course you can't learn everything you need from free videos (unless somebody has pirated a whole course!). But where the main value of good free promotional videos is in giving you a chance to get a feel for the course and either reject it as something that doesn't suit you, or if it is something worth paying to find out more about trading!

With 'Sharpe Edge' as with 'The Max' any cheaper shorter courses should enable you to be slightly profitable, or to trade a subset of the markets. But for both, the longer, more expensive courses teach things giving the potential for a vastly improved profit - BUT ONLY IF THAT TYPE OF COURSE AND THAT TYPE OF TRADING SUITS YOU!

For Sharp Edge Videos go here: https://www.compassproptraders.com/blog/
2 short videos which show how different he is include :
01-08-19 Market Snippet - Global Investments: showing one way that currency pairs and global investments are valued. (There are 2 other major ways of determining 'Value' for a currency pair).
and
01-02-19 Snippet Value: Where he shows the concepts of Guaranteed Premiums (to Sell) and Guaranteed Discounts (to buy).

For The MAX videos go here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3t...AHCGcc94LRxl-w

I hope that Ray and Compass won't be angry at me posting this marked-up diagram (Ray's diagram but with my text). His session today covered this very important point which some newer students are still struggling with:

A simple but important message (source Optimus Futures website) about when to trade, or what time to trade, or what time NOT to trade (underlying principle applicable to ALL markets):

The Best Time versus the Wrong Time to Trade the ES

So, is there such thing as a “best time” to trade the ES? Well, if there is, it certainly doesn’t work for every trader. And if it doesn’t work for every trader, like a clean cookie-cutter timing solution, then you can toss the superlative description “best” out the window.
In other words, it’s a bad question.
A better question would be “what might be a favorable time to trade the ES based on my particularly trading approach?”.
Perhaps the smartest question would be “when shouldn’t I trade the ES based on my particular trading approach?”
Whereas there may not be a “best” time, there is likely to be a wrong time to trade the ES:
This is when the day trader expecting breakouts mid-day encounters a sideways market, when a counter-trend trader expecting to fade highs and lows trades a directionally-biased open or close, when traders of all types expecting a “normal” market fail to take into account fundamental pre-market, mid-day, or after-hours announcements such as the Jobs Report, FOMC announcement, or an evening speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Similar to the parable of Procrustes’ Bed, you don’t fit the person to the bed (by sawing off limbs for person who is too tall, or stretching a person on a rack if he or she is too short), you fit the bed to the person.
The same principle applies to trading times. You don’t trade according to the time, you choose your time according to the trade. Choosing your “time” has everything to do with your strategy and the market dynamics (most often driven by fundamentals) surrounding your trading context.
And if you can’t see the difference, then no matter what time you trade, or how well you time the markets, you cannot say that you truly know what time it is when it comes to your own trading.

Here is the latest email from Boris Schlossberg of BKForex. This time I will place my comments below it:
*****************************************************************************************************************
Trading Both Sides of the Market


Last weekend I was in Madrid for David Aranzabal’s annual Forex Day conference and as always it’s my favorite trip of the year. I love the food. I love the people. I love the city. I love the casual elegance of European way of life. But mostly I love hanging around traders talking markets.

Two of my colleagues Asharf Laidi and Rob Booker were presenting as well. In the heyday of retail FX growth before the GFC we were on the road always and used to see each all the time. Now we are all older, settled with kids and don’t around as much anymore. So it was a pure pleasure to catch up.

Each one of us trades in a radically different style. Each one of us has seen almost every imaginable market possible. And I think it is fair to say that as we grew older, each one of us has become much more humble in our approach to trading. That humility was evident when we sat down for coffee to discuss our specific techniques and discovered that we all do the same thing -- trade both sides of the market.

Ashraf is a classic techno-fundamentalist macro trader who can hold positions for months at a time. Such tactics require not only patience but the ability to withstand being wrong for hundreds of pips until your thesis plays out in the market. Ashraf noted that unlike in his younger days when he would stubbornly hold his view through long periods of drawdown, now he fully accepts being wrong in the near term and actually scalps ⅓ to ½ of his position in the opposite direction. This way he constantly reduces his cost basis on the initial idea making it even profitable when the market finally turns his way.

Robbie has a completely different approach essentially trading mean reversion with tiny, tiny size and a portfolio approach that often puts him on the opposite side of the market with similar pairs. He does not use stops and lets the offsetting trades net out to a positive return. He also does something very clever. He always makes sure that he is on the positive side of the carry. He told us a story of a short EURTRY trade that took 2 YEARS to resolve. During that time he lost 2,000 pips on the position as the lira disintegrated, but at the same time collected 3,000 pips in swap making the net position profitable in the end.

Unlike Asharf and Rob, I am much more of a classic algo-driven trader with exact entry and exit rules. And since I have the attention span of an ADD-addled 5-year-old, I generally never hold my trades more than 24-48 hours so my algos operate on a much shorter time frame. Yet, I too often find myself on both sides of the market. At least once or twice a week, one of my algos will open a long in some pair and when the price action goes against me will open a short in the same pair in a different account. This freaks BK members out as they can’t understand why I do that -- but the fact of the matter is that algos have picked up the signal that market conditions may have changed and while my “wrong” trade will most likely be stopped out -- my offset trade will take some of the string out of the loss by banking pips the other way. This by the way not only works on a granular level but on the portfolio level as well as sometimes Kathy’s strategies will take the opposite side of mine and will mitigate losses as well. It is, I think, the primary reason why the retooled BK service has been so successful lately making 1300 pips in past four weeks as contravening positions keep drawdown to a minimum and overall return positive.

They say that a true sign of intelligence is to be able to hold two contradictory concepts at the same time. There is no doubt that that principle holds true in trading as well where mental flexibility and psychological humility are the two key factors in long term success.
******************************************************************************************************************************

I can see the point of holding (but only for ease of understanding the accounting) 2 trades in the same market, the latter of which is in the opposite direction to the former. But only when they are based upon different timeframes and different trends.
Even then it is sub-optimal! You may feel that the medium term trend is in the opposite direction to the short term trend.
But Boris is talking about 2 short-term Algo trades, which in my opinion is just crazy!WHy not just enter whichever trade reaches the price that would have been the Stop Loss for the other trade and save yourself 2 x the spread! Better still why not incorporate VALUE into your trade considerations, so that you actually have a reason to think your direction is correct and just take that trade.

I know it is more difficult to find Value lines and strongly correlated markets if you are trading the Spot FX only, rather than the Contracts For Difference or the Futures.
Here is a diagram of how the institutions trade in such situations This is true Hedging rather that taking opposing positions in the same market!

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

The latest email for Boris Schlossberg has him going back to his theme that human traders have no discipline and that MT4 EAs are better.
As usual, my comments are in Blue:

**************************************************************************************************
Does Anyone on YouTube Really Trade?

I just have one question for all the Internet trading gurus out there. Does anyone actually trade? Because I see lots of Lamborghinis on Youtube. I see private planes on tarmac that can be rented by the hour. I see champagne glasses, I see guys jumping out of parachutes, or looking pensively into their laptops at some sandy beach bar with fruity drink by their side - but you know what I don’t see? Any trades.

You know why? Cause trading is not easy and it doesn’t make you money every day. Real trading is incredibly lumpy. Make one stupid mistake like I did this week and the market makes you pay.

I kept my algos on into the Fed meeting and got annihilated. - Wow, that really shows how great Algos are ! And also how overconfident (or just plain dumb) Boris is- LOL !

We are still up +942 pips (or almost 10%) for the past five weeks running but this week’s mistake shows just how challenging real trading can be. - Sorry, but for a retail trader, who trades 'full-time', teaches others and has such long experience; 10% over 5 weeks is an utterly garbage profit!
At BK we don’t talk about your “inner child”. We don’t endlessly discuss the need for meditation or exercise or bran in your diet. All those things are certainly nice but they have nothing to do with making money in the market. Unlike endless hours of advice by internet trading gurus on the need for “discipline” and “finding inner peace” or “getting in the zone” or “developing a warrior mindset”. At BK we just trade. - Oh really, so in light of your poor results, why don't you use some of that time to finally learn how to trade properly?

Because all discipline is 100% unadulterated bulls-t. if you rely on mental discipline to trade you will blow up your account as surely as day follows night. You can make 100 trades that are proper, You can make 1000 trades that are pitch perfect. Hell you can make 10000 trades in a row that follow your rules. But somewhere along the line you will lift your stop, you will keep adding to a loser and you will let the position float into a margin call. - Not if you design your 'trading business plan' and 'trade management plan' specifically to compensate for your psychological weaknesses! Imho 'trading psychology' is all about your 'trading business plan' and your 'trade management plan'

At BK I don’t use discipline when I trade. I use robots. Robots can be unbelievably stupid. They can blindly take you into dumb trades. Robots don’t know from Fed Day to Friday.
But....
Robots.
Are.
Far.
Less.
Stupid.
Than.
You.
Are.
Undisciplined.

They will always take a stop. They will always control risk. They will always get you out so you can trade another day.
- Yes, yes, yes, but the ones written for MT4 are far too primitive to trust your account to. They are not flexible and they can't take account of changes in Value, changes in Sentiment or even changes in Orderflow.

Which brings me to my final point. Not only are all the YouTube gurus full of s-t, but they don’t seem to know much about markets. Five will get you ten that most of the people pitching ersatz trading profits on the Internet don’t know who Jerome Powell is or why he is important to your trades. - I suspect that many retail traders don't either, because they have been told that 'technicals' are all that matter!
So before you let them convince you that their little squiggle on the chart will make you a billionaire by Tuesday you need to realize that you can’t trade for life until you trade for love. If you don’t love the markets first, foremost and last you can’t trade for real.
- I totally agree, but for different reasons. My reasons being that A). There is a lot of pre-trade research and planning required befor you can take a trade like an institutional trader, and B). Trading is not something that you learn in a 30 page PDF - it is something that takes months or more likely years to learn and is an on-going educational process. The day you stop learning about trading and the markets is the day you invite the markets to start taking your account profits and then capital away!
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