My way to highway

No, they like it out of appreciation for your honesty. You'd be amazed at the length people would go to for lying when it comes to P/L. You are one of the two most honest commercial members at FF, and probably one of the only two profitable commercial members who actually trade.

hi Bubincka,

the update part is in regards of results, and what is going on in general in related things, like darwinex, or axi or whatnot. you are on the discord trading room, so likely you know those anyways, since i am there pretty much every day.

i do understand the losing part. and indeed one way or another every trade hits some losses, or a period of losses, as sure as the sun is coming up in the morning.

Hi David,

thank you!
the "pervert" comment was meant to be understood 'jokingly', since the forum only offer like/dislike feedback, and neither would fit that post well.
the post itself definitely got more than usual amount of reactions. i am glad some ppl pay attention to it, and read the journal.
i know the commercial section is generally full of garbage.

happy trading!
Z

end of July came and gone,
and while the month was considerable better than June, yet July was still a "summer month", with not particularly good volatility ( to my liking) and not particularly large profit.

then came August.
with surprises. as in plural. and it has hardly started!!

the first was Rockypoint announcing that stop updating his thread. being what i consider 1 of 3 useful system threads on this forum that is worth reading, that is a surprise.
and it isn't a surprise at the same time. i totally understand him. and the decision to rather focus on a smaller group of local Mexican traders.

then came the hardly shocking surprise that Thailand extending its semi-lockdown of half the country by another month. not only the swimming pool and the gym is closed now, plus the beach and evening walk or late-night fast food occasionally ( every store- if can be open- need to close by 8 pm; 9 pm-4 am curfew), but even getting increasingly difficult to source my Pepsi Max; the plain is random, the strawberry flavored next to impossible.
healthy or not, my daytime caffeine.

next, today i read my name like 3 times on a thread i cant even post myself!! huh? how is that even possible? not even posted for a full month, anything!
yes, i do read 2 discussion threads, one is Andy's flying dutchmen; the other is the brutal truth of day trading.
honestly, both started out a lot more promising. then one went inactive, the other got by large off-topic, with lots of trolling and irrelevant comments.

i was thinking, that maybe since a lot of you stayed subscribers here, and that i do actually am a daytrader ( scalper, with no trades carried overnight) and a full-time trader as that for the past 4years and some, perhaps at a leisurely space could post a little bit about the "brutal truths of daytrading".
especially the first-hand aspects, and definitely not about how i trade or anyone else's trade, not about myths or BS, not about next 6 months outlooks and not unverifiable "track records'.
really, purely focus on the setting out on full-time daytrading path, the difficulties that may include, the pro and contra, no non-sense "brutal truth" as i see it.
maybe somewhat also a revisit to some of my earlier posts, a couple of years down the road.

typing messages however takes time. considerable time.
so i would do, i would like to know that there are ppl who going to read it.
dont have to agree with me, can like or dislike the posts; it will reflect my take, my opinion, my views bcos will be based on my experience.
but it will be based on an actual, retail daytraders multi-year experience.
so that is the promise.

now, let's make it a fun game: 20 likes to this post.
if 20 of you interested, i would think it may be worth the time.

happy trading!
Z

ps. pls dont like this post. i am a lazy daytrader!!

well, looks like i dont need to worry about a busy weekend typing some longer post/s, barely half the interest i see here.
not that shocked, really, about what i expected.
hearsay and fantasyland is/was/will be the forum popular for most.
but to give a little taste, here is a taste of how i experience things. ( for simplicity, inserted from discord)
and to add an extra notch of clarification, both accts are 5 digits, so it isn't like one is tiny the other not.

Hi Zoltan, I just read the above post. I'm interested to read your take about trading Forex in general and also your experience scalping for a living. If you have the time this weekend do write pls. TQ

Ps About my question on that thread, I was curious so I ask. And now I understand.

Jason,
you should ask me about my trading, not someone who doesn't know about it.
but to round out a little your knowledge on scalping question: i am pretty strictly a daytrader, in a sense that i am out of the market before i go to sleep.
so there is no holding and hoping to a comeback to have a W% to boost about. hedging also not my personal go to.
for now, i am afraid you will need to do with the pattern finding on the 2 profit statements above, at ICM "ECN" nor raw spread broker. and a good thought over if ppl look at correctly at their broker when they think their ECN broker is on their side, and mainly looking for the commission and the trader to succeed the long run.
the result is contradicting it. the pattern is not over a week, over months and years, the exact same trend and tendency. must be a coincidence. or perhaps is itsnt.
i wont be arguing over it, for sure. just present some actual hard evidence.

there is a lot more to write about.
but then, 20 likes from supposed 300+ subscribers and probably a total 500+ views/readers per post, that is just a small indication that my time is not wasted.
you know, time is a very finite commodity!
there is 11 so far...will give it time until Sunday...

happy weekend!
Z

ok, that is 20 like...you guys are unbelievable for not reading what i said about being lazy....

anyways, you asked for it!
so here it is.
"the brutal truth of daytrading" as profitfarmer sees it...
part 1.

TIME:
there are more than a few aspects of time relate to daytrading.

time is a finite commodity.

daytrader/daytrading is generally a job like any. i know, ppl often like to over mystify it, like to think about it as something special.
so i may be the bad guy to shatter some of that here, but
in the traditional sense trade your time for money (ideally not only literally), just like at a usual job.
only most wannabe daytraders have a job, and it isn't trading.
thus most will have to make it with whatever time left for them outside their job.
and whatever free time is left over their 8 hours or so work, plus commute, plus getting ready, dressing, bathing, eating, resting, shopping, cooking, running odd errands, and of course sleeping. plus juggling a relationship and/or a family on top.
not only, but usually along some fatigue guaranteed.
what is left a couple odd hours; often not the ideal or optimal hours!
get back a moment where i started: daytrading is a job!
how would your employer/boss be taking if you most of the time show up at odd hours, far from your best conditions, with drifting off focus, tired, stressed out?
probably not too kindly!
if you want to be a daytrader, wouldn't it make sense to be available the best/ideal hours to trade, be your best possible 'shape': fit, organized, focused on the task?
with a 'main' job, it is often simply impossible.
however, it is a must understand that the market isn't there to change to suit the trader's needs.
if the wannabe trader cant trade the optimal/ideal market hours for the approach, that will make trading hard, if not nearly impossible.
if a wannabe trader could trade the optimal/ideal market hours but unwilling to do for whatever reasons, ( too early, too late, need time with gf/bf/family, etc) then there is very thin chance to succeed.
many job takes decisions and sacrifices.
a hospital is open 24/7, a baker works at night to make the fresh bread for the next day, a fisherman may be out at sea for days, there wont be night shift in the kindergarten, a bartender is unlikely to find a 9-5 job, a programmer have to stare at the screen most part of his work, etc, etc.

a daytrader have to be willing and able to work the market hours that suit his trading style the best.
failing that, is a huge step toward failure in trading.
a daytrader needs to have control over trading time.

most wannabe traders have little to very limited control over their trading hours. they have whatever their life circumstances, job and family, left.
ideally, it should be the other way around, for best practice.
this is how i see it.

guys, this is for now.
is it boring? or should i continue?
20 likes?

happy weekend!
Z

Damn good thing that algo trading is available.

Yeah I can't imagine myself trading with any kind of consistency without an EA.

"the brutal truth of daytrading" as profitfarmer sees it...
part 2.

TIME:
(still)

like anything that isn't a born with ability, trading is an acquired skill.
something that gets better with practice.
and practice takes time.
some learn faster, some learn slower; but the more a trader trades, the more situation the trader gets to experience with, the more likely to improve on the trader's result ( until a point).
i don't see learning as magical or mystical a set number of hours, 1000 hours, or 10000 hours, or 40000 hours; i don't see learning like a set number of entries/setups taken.
how i see it is similar to learning to drive a car: learning the basics takes a relatively short time, to graduate to drive alone in traffic. a car can be cheaper or expensive, manual or automatic; the entry barrier to own some kind of car isn't really high. rental many place are more restrictive, need X years of age/length of driving license.
can you see the pattern to trading? demo to live, small or big acct, and the need of a track record to use a firm's funds?
the example is about time, so how time factor in car driving?
if most of us remember back to those first weeks/months starting to dive a car, i am sure most of us would have a memory of not driving instantly as good as confident as a race driver, didn't have all the parking like a breeze, etc.
10 years down the road, it is a much improved experience.
however, someone driving daily many hours, in different conditions, rain and sun, city and highway...will more likely than not gain more useful driving experience and more skills than another driver who drives a short distance every other week, and definitely a lot more than a driver who actually doesn't really drive a car, but plays a racing game on his Xbox.
experience comes from being exposed to different situations, and to get into a diverse variety of situations takes time.
a part-time trader will most likely take a longer time to gain the same experience than a trader who has no other job+other related things.\
the beginner drivers are however the more likely to test their newly acquired skills, first time to drive 200km/h, turn with handbrake, drifting in the snow.
the beginner driver is more likely to live in the illusion that he already knows all there is to know.
"not knowing what you don't know", the blissful oblivion.
the beginner trader is likely to fall into the same trap. i had been in that blissful oblivion at the beginning, for sure.
ready to rush out, thinking knowing enough already. then a brand new situation arises.
while trading is "same same but different", the more one experiences, the less different the new variations are.
but learning takes time.
if accept that a student driver need to learn in the driving school a set number of scenarios to handle; should a trader accept the same?
and if the answer is yes, would we agree that if a student driver has limited time, and can learn 2x a week 2 hours, chances will learn slower than another who has as much time as 5x 8-9 hours?

not accepting that learning to trade, confidence, competence takes time, leads to new/aspiring traders to charge ahead too hard into the new situations.
rush it, may crush it!

this post wont go deep into the topic about time spent on learning the wrong things. and not knowing it being wrong. that is, while experience, strictly doesn't equal the experience of learning to trade.
knowing things not to do, while great, still wont be the automatic answer to knowing what things to do per see!!
( ok, translate back to car: learning to drive 200km/h is unlikely to help the coming winter driving. more, knowing not to drive fast on icy/snowy road isn't equal to learning he actually drive safely enough on icy/snowy road per see.)

happy weekend!
Z

ps. will see the likes and dislikes, and decide if should continue on this mini-series of posts on daytrading truths and concepts or not next weekend.

Nice work there profitfarmer. Trading is a job where you have to make the rules and guidelines and follow them. Unlike a job outside of trading, where the rules and guidelines are made for you, and mostly the same pay goes into your acc each week regardless. Hope you keep up this personal insight of your trading journey

Hi Zoltan, thanks for posting your part 2 and I enjoyed reading it. I hope you continue to post all the parts of the mini-series regardless the likes.
If you count the likes that dropped from 20 to ?
You make them reluctantly obligated.
Fark the likes, we are adults, just post as long as people like me enjoy reading.

Btw if you are interested I have posted my thoughts and expectation about forex trading on Andy's thread.

Hi Jason,
Typing a post takes time. Time I am unwilling to spend here if only a few reads it, or worse, literally no one. Apart from commenting there is little way to see if others interested to read my thoughts.
I accept 'dislike' too, still a reaction, as long as someone actually took the effort to read the post.

As I see I don't make anyone obligated to do anything, asking a simple barter, by a free choice decision. A barter that is a lot more easy/convenient than ask to write a reply.
So if no reply to the posts, and these may not induce one, what other way is to measure if they even read, more actually enjoy too, what I am carefully trying to share in regards of daytrading?

There are more daytrading truths. Things i discuss with students, but in mentoring also work on the solutions side as well, of course. I believe highlighting a few can be a useful read for others too, maybe even a small turn in someone's journey.
Don't seem to find your post about expectations, but if will end up writing next weekend the next part, I may write about the expectations myself.

Happy weekend!
Z

I read this sometimes but, why they did FF label you commercial?

in short: bcos i asked them.
wanted to curb the addiction to comment on the forum. frees up lots of time, and saves me from plenty of pointless arguments.
time is a very finite commodity!

I'll probably eventually go commercial too but I'm not sure if FF is the place with large capital seasoned and knowledgable traders to take an interest in my system. Time will tell.

it isn't. for that, there are other places.
live acct is a good start.
you can look into something like AxiSelect; they just made it more appealing recently, with quicker upscaling, and larger max funding.

Good to know, I'll look into it.

About the live account, I do trade it live but my account wasn't dedicated to this strategy so it won't have a clean TE. I'll eventually create a dedicated live account to have a clean TE for this strategy.

best luck with it!

i must say your answer doesn't add up to me, if make very high return in a short time, why wait to "create eventually"...but whatever.
why i repeating time is finite?
bcos that is very important to understand.

anyways, just my final answer on this, not the right place to discuss your trading