No more BS - What have you learned?

The key thing has been completely missed: The person who wrote it:

'Ponsi' definitely rings bells in my mind...Charles Ponzi

I rest my case.

lol, why, are you planning on trying to get a job with one of them or something?

The zero sum debate I'm not even going to get into, it's the ultimate exercise in futility!

Hey Cindy,

Its been a long time since i posted on here, but your question intrigued me,

to answer it simply what i have learned is me , trading itself is easy, people make it hard!

I trade very simply now, no indicators, just the candles, the market moves in a predictable way, and form a particular set of patterns which follow through most of the time, life is good

Hi Nixie

I agree, thanks for your input. Although I would say its simple! But not always easy for the resons you mentioned

Cheers

Hm in hindsight that bump didnt go too well//// chuckle chuckle

Bringing in the new year and in light of some recent threads which have been real quality stuff I thought it may be a good time to dig up this old number

So.... with that said

Cut the BS, what have you learnt?

Biggest thing I have learned is going against the herd and becoming a contrainian trader and doing the opposite to what the majority is thinking.

Also, learned that as a trader you need to filter out all the garbage from the truth on the net but person observations and experiences in the charts/markets triumph even the top teachers.

You mention to some normal trader if they use Elliot Wave or Gann and they come down on you like a ton of bricks like its evil and crazy if you use it not knowing these people devoted their lives to portraying these theory must have some validity which they do I have seen it.

Elliot Wave is great in a after the fact kinda way, yes people do devote there lives to it, but it literally has zero predictive value.

Not studied Gann so dunno about hat.

I've learnt being a full-time trader is harder than being a part-time trader
I've learnt each trading system has it's own personality that needs to be compatible with your own
I've learnt absolutely no-one is out to get you in trading
I've learnt discipline in life is a pre-cursor to discipline in trading
I've learnt there is no shame in failing
I've learnt trading is not about placing trades
I've learnt my trading desk (i.e. garage) is damn cold in winter
I've learnt as soon as you admit you don't know everything, you've learnt something
I've learnt being a full-time trader is awesome, liberating and worth every bit of the effort you put in it

Old thread, but good questions.

I learned that a trader focus is very important. The areas of focus are very subtle. Ironically enough, these areas are also very simple. I learned that no matter how many times I have failed, if I get up the next day, with a fresh head, and give it another crack - it can only get better, and it has. I learned that everyone is full of opinions, and often very selfish ones - and the key is not not to trust their opinion, but to trust your own... how subtle is that?

I learned that it is not about making a lot of money, but about giving. I learned to give trading a lot, without expecting much from it. After losing almost everyday for years, I learned to stop being afraid of it, and pay attention to what it is teaching me. I learned to stay positive regardless of how many times I blew up my accounts. I learned that there are more important things than wishing to make a lot of money. I learned that in trading time is not important.

I learned a lot about managing uncertanty and risk. I learned that without proper risk management, there is no profit. I learned that the core of a complex systems is a very simple common sense logic -

I learned that understanding is not the same as knowing.

I've learned that I'm a bloody useless trader. I follow my instinct and feelings rather than logic, even then facts are staring me in the face. -This is a consequences of me being human being...

I've learned that I trade on a chart that has a logarithmic distribution. -The average of 1.4 & 0.6 is NOT 1.0, it is 0.91...

I've learned that the most important thing to know before I even consider looking at an indicator is to know what it is that I would like to know. You have to know the question before you can know the answer.

I've learned that most of the indicators out there are useless because:
1) The math is simply wrong.
And / Or ... (mostly and...)
2) They do not even try to tell me what I need to know.

More or less every indicator I have ever posted are just as bad.

.....

This is a great question!

What i've learned in these years, i've learned that the best way to survive is to expect the unexpected, what i've learned is invisible and inexplicable.

Imo the way is not to learn something, but to un-learn everything, you must un-learn everything, so your mind can be totally empty, and with an empty mind without biases without filters without ideas, there are good chances to make some good trading.

You can learn something, but what you have learned will be a static knowledge, the market is not static, it is like the reality, always new, continuously changing, if you stick to a static knowledge you will inevitably detach from the dynamicity of the market, and the consequences are usually ugly.

Cheers!

This old thread... Nice, thanks for bumping pretty much on the 2 year anniversary mark Pipanator.

It's been 2 years since I made this and new revelations:

 

1. I've learned that Trading is a marathon of the mind

1. It takes a certain set of qualities be it circumstance and character to last the distance
2. Traders are a "unique" type of person
3. One small change in your mind set can be the difference between trading like a pro and losing like the rest.
4. Even if you fail in trading the experience is worth it's weight in Gold
5. The markets no matter who you are or how good you are can take your dream away in an instance, external forces rule the realm
6. Unless you are content with all other aspects of your life trading should not be attempted as a full time en-devour, despite what you may think.
7. Money is good but life if so much better.

That's all I have for now. When I made this thread I was pretty certain I'd be rich by now ... I'm not.

1,
99.9% of FX brokers are nothing more than modern day bucket shops, why else would they trade against you.

2,
Forex is a mugs game, the broker can steal your money any time he wants.

3,
Trading currencies with futures is way better than using Forex.

4,
Only a few make enough money trading FX to make it worthwhile, the rest are dreamers.

5,
There are so many liars, not just in FX but in most retail trading.

6,
The FX broker is not your friend, he will trade against you, and run markets up and down to run stops on the "un educated" to empty your account into his pockets ASAP. That's all that matters to the FX broker.

Find a strategy that reduces the frequency of my entries and have you stay in the market all the time. Thus, I am most times than not in - profits; profitable. The challenge then is to take profits most efficiently. So what have I learnt ---?

Trading is most profitable when treated the way you would manipulate to understand a statistical table. You only need to swing and control your risk around the MEAN!! The bigger you make the swing, the better!

the Human mind is full of biases and easily fooled by pattern seeking behavior. Reality is our perception of the world and can be very flawed. we tend to over estimate our abilities, we tend to distort reality in a way where our success is our own doing and our failures are "bad luck".

As such imperfect creatures that want to find the order, structure and purpose in everything we tend to make very irrational decisions. We invent myths and easily believe in vacuous concepts such as God, Destiny, free will, purpose, luck, and so forth.

I have found that the market is overall a conglomeration of interest and it is itself a fractal (in the scientific sense of the word). statistics, mathematics, and a way to challenge our deepest assumptions is indeed good practice.

research, hypothesis, prediction, and statistical performance.... is good step towards success and objectivity HOWEVER one must not let our own tools rule our world.

simple rules to follow at least for me is lose less than last profit, and keep targets according to objective statistical data.

by the way....THE MARKET IS MORE RANDOM THAN PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO ADMIT.

Hi RedLion, nice post thanks for your thoughts. :thumbsup

This is what the masses lead you to believe I found out otherwise the market is a cycle.

The market isn't random it merely appears to be random, it's just the effect of buyers and sellers which as there is no way to know when people will buy/sell it makes it kinda well impossible or very near to predict.

But they create momentum which basically means someone buying creates more buyers so the price goes up until the sellers exceed the buyers then back down again which agin creates momentum.

So devise a way to take advantage of momentum and sorted, easy hey.


Goes in cycles lol that's just bad pattern matching myth sorry!