MightyMouse

Jerry, If you turned 2800 into 500 and then 4800 into 16500, your risk management might be askew. It's easy to look at the growth from 4800 to 16500 and say that you did something right; however, the practices that got your account to 16500 might be the same practices that takes your account back down to 4800 or less. I am not saying that you did something wrong, and I hope whatever you did continues for your sake, but it appears to me that a lot of things worked out in your favor and they didn't work out in your favor when your account lost 80% of its value. MM

Volatility is not bound. Not using stops is an incredibly dangerous approach if you are trading.

I agree too tradewinds. We need more traders to make the ultimate sacrifice for the benefit of others.

Russel, Trading is negative sum when you add in all costs. As a trader you have to to do significantly better than 1 to 1 in order to overcome the costs and the obstacles that you are pointing out to make it worth one's while. It is very difficult and leads many hedge fund managers to lying, cheating, and stealing to post quarterly returns that are better than returns that would be earned by the randomly chosen hedge fund. MM

Can I guess that your period of intuitive realization involved great entries or great exits? Such spells of "intuition" lead to great trading streaks since the phenomenon helps you build confidence in yourself. Such periods also lead to over trading and giving it all back and leaving you with the realization that the period of intuition was really just a good and welcome run of luck.

If he exited, he certainly picked a really poor exit. If it was a bet, he should have bet the other way. Black and Red

If they could trade, then why would they vend? Is it that they like writing code, marketing, and selling better than they like trading? I suppose that could be. In general when it walks like a duck... Also, I wasn't specifically speaking of anyone in particular

You categorize yourself as a seasoned trader. What is your annual return on capital from trading?

The 90% number is just an industry guess. It would be very hard to compile the data unless you tracked social security numbers and measured the gains and losses over time on tax returns. Those numbers you can also assume can be fudged, but if anything they would be fudged downward. Personally, I prefer there to be a high loss rate. If it were lower, trading would be far more difficult than it is. I think the larger misconception is the amount of money or the percentage gain that one can make. I believe this misconception leads to the high loss rate of the average trader.

Thanks for being a wet blanket. I was looking forward to some really hot blue or green chicks and you are suggesting I will get pneumonia or some flesh rotting disease.

Learn how to hold em learn how to fold em. Learn when to walk away and learn when to run and don't count your money while you are trading. - thank you kenny rogers.

Ingot, At some point we are going to have to all band together to fight invaders from galaxy UDFy-38135539.

What are the fears that everyone has? Fear of loss? Fear of failure? Fear of success? Fear of having to back to a 9 to 5 job? Fear of death? What else? Personally, I have narrowed it down and the fear I have can never be realized in the market. I therefore do not feel fear in the market when I trade. Early on I was duped into feeling fear when I traded, but how many times can you hear "BOO" and be startled before you begin to anticipate the "BOO" and expect to hear it?

Smoke and Mirrors. The only way that we can default is if the FED ceases printing money. They remain committed to doing whatever it takes to keep the economy on track. It's a silly notion designed to weaken support for the democratic party and at the same time stall until the last minute to quickly push through new spending measures with little time to read the details. The fact is that the US does not intend on meeting any of its obligations. If your country sells goods and services to the USA, then consider the money we owe you as a future discount on purchases we make today.

When you don't do what the market says and the market does what you say, you can do as you please.

Anything that makes you trade far too much or far too little is a problem that has to be overcome. Your list of concerns have to do with market forecasting. It's not a problem if you can't forecast the market. It is a problem if you think you can.

There are only several instances in human history where sovereign debt has been paid back. Every other instance has ended in some form of default, restructuring, bankruptcy, etc. But, no matter what you want to term it, it ultimately it means a country is broke. It is exactly why the currencies get devalued asymptotically. Its not a question of if a country can pay its debt back; instead, it is a question of how slowly it can go broke.

If you were a a trader who sat patiently and took the opposite side of his trades even on his good days, right now your account would be swollen by some pretty decent number. It tales a real man to do that. So, it would really pay to have followed him.

Fear is cancer to trading. Egoism is probably exactly opposite to humility which is the virtue you practice in the market. Ego probably doesn't come up much because those with egos fade away quickly. Try a search on humility or humble.

If you are aware of the late day pitfalls, why don't you simply take advantage of them instead of avoiding them altogether?

Tim, The graph looks like the more trading knowledge you have, the higher the profits. At some point your profits increase geometrically compared to the additions of knowledge. If, as trading knowledge, you are including inside information, I will agree; otherwise, acquisition of profits won't be as attractive as the chart makes it appear. I am more likely to agree that trading success has more to do with your ability to execute than trading knowledge. But, execution alone won't do it. You can execute your account away if you have a poor plan. MM

If you are expecting that curve to ever materialize, don't waste your time trading.

melanzana might work, but I don't think you can use that either.

Rules are important but mistakes are to be expected and you can still make money even though you make mistakes.