DislikedThere are tons of reasons but I'd like to talk about two that I think cover a lot of ground.
Most traders seem to be very short term "swing" or intra-day traders looking to pick up a few pips and move on. What makes this do difficult is that trying to accurately predict the little 20-30 pip blips and bleeps over and over again on a consistent basis with a long term profit is something I consider to be nearly impossible for the vast majority of traders to do. You'll have some winning and losing streaks but, overall, if you manage to even keep your head barely above water you're probably way ahead of the game.
Most of these very short term traders rely on the technical indicators to set up their trades. Many have "backtested" a system, but I think backtesting is a huge waste of time. To really test a system you need to back your charts up as far as they'll go then slowly move things forward, entering and exiting trades as you go. And if you really want to have a good test, start with $100 and burn it if you lose it. Now do some more testing the same way.
Most trading "systems' are variations of MA crossover systems. Trade "when the little hand is on the 2 and the big hand is on the...". Yes in a long term trend they look OK, but see the above then tell me if they really work. They can't tell you when profits are maxed and they can't keep you out of choppy markets, which is when you'll be giving back all the profits made when you were lucky enough to catch a trend.
Very few traders are long term and there are some very good reasons why. Longer term trading requires a very good knowledge of fundamentals and economics. It takes time to digest all this and most traders probably find it very boring and difficult to follow but, what really makes this type of trading so difficult is that in order to stay in these trades you'll need to be able to ride out the inevitable ups and downs that occur as a trend progresses. There's much less "action" here because longer term trends don't get set up every day (or even every week). These kinds of trades don't appeal to the gamblers.
All this being said, I really believe the long term trader has a much better chance of being profitable. I'll explain this by setting up a few bets on the NY Yankees.
Everyone knows the Yankees are a very good team. Does that mean they'll win the world series every year? No, but here's my long term bet:
I'm gonna bet that the Yankees are gonna win more games then they'll lose this year. That's it. I only have one bet the whole season. Boring, really. What's worse is that they've lost 7 out of their last 8 and they're below .500 for the year so far. I'm losing pips and I gotta stay in and ride it out. Not easy.
Here's the Yankee bet that's like trading those short term blips and bleeps:
I'm gonna bet the Yankees score in this inning. Hey, they scored in the 2 previous innings. Alex Rodriguez is coming up, the short term MA of runs scored by the Yankees has crossed over the long term MA of runs given up by the opposing pitcher...
There's a lot more fun in betting this way. You're gonna have 8-9 bets/day for 162 days. Plenty of action, as long as your money holds out.
I guess i'm a boring trader. Hope I didn't bore you too much.
If longer term trading interests you and you want some help with fundamental analysis, I have several other threads that will help. Just do a search.Ignored
NTFX - your fundamental knowledge astounds me.