Does Anyone Truly Make a Living Solely Trading the E-minis???

[Kiwi 16]

When they are arrogant gits from Nottingham or imaginary lands in their heads then it is little surprise.

 

This one stated in his posts that he wouldn't discuss trading methods (and then has the arrogance to give us the old "I tried to help my fellow man" as he takes his unrevealed toys and leaves the sandpit.

 

Even his blog is a combination of "I'm great," "all you retail traders are crap," and "buy my mentoring course.

 

Sending such people away is a service to humanity. Its a shame that some are so close to insane that they continue to build castles here at Traders Lab. It keeps it interesting I suppose and creates liquidity for the real traders.

[AgeKay 10]

Kiwi, I noticed your always quick to come to conclusions like that but if you had checked his blog then you would see that you can actually watch him trade live for a week and then decide whether you still want to take him up on mentoring. He also doesn't sell mentoring course for a fixed fee, but takes a percentage of your profits. If he wasn't a profitable trader and if he didn't think you wouldn't make any money after that mentorship, why the hell would he take a percentage of your profits? If you made nothing, then he would also not made anything. I think that is the only mentorship that actually makes sense. If you think otherwise, well, then you're a retard.

[gandalf33 10]

People are frustrated, humility seen with confidence in one character is a rare thing, with the result being threads filled with accusations, hate and spitting on each other, instead of sharing information we all can profit from.

 

8368838293 was right in a certain way, the acceptance-seeking attitude he wrote about makes sense, but, he should have acknowledged that there's a *lot* of fake in today's trading world in terms of snake oil salesmen promoting their indicators/mentorship/trading systems on forums to make profit from selling those rather than trading, not to mention whole websites selling the newest indicators and similar, trying to convince the losing trader that this is his salvation. And when the losing trading jumps for this salvation - there's no wonder he's losing. 8XXXX should have acknowledged that and take everything with a calm head, instead of writing novels about how frustrated he is... a honest, human attitude accepting others whatever their reactions are, because there's a reason for them, works miracles.

 

Anyway, I wanted to bring the 'To Sim Or Not To Sim' question into light again by sharing my 2 cents about it... I'm an aspiring trader, who has read a freaking lot about trading, recognized his former life where everything he touched turned to an exceptional success as a handicap in trading, has spent around 1000 hours studying the market, done many thousands of historical trades during backtesting, and written a lot, lot of pages describing his trading systems, and from my humble perspective, in the worst nightmare there can be, I cannot imagine risking a single cent of my hard-earned money with not being profitable on SIM first.

 

Yes, I acknowledge the emotions step in big way when people trade live. Yes, I know it's much different from SIM, perhaps even far from it. Yes I'm aware of the fact that I can go and trade 1 contract live and learn. But why the hell would I do that if I have the option to get on the SIM first?

 

To me, it's all about the personal choice of how an aspiring trader builds his learning curve. SIM is a phase for me, like studying the markets was a phase, trying out most of what's out there (indicators, price action, pivots, markets, timeframes, alternative charts, ....) was a phase, choosing what suits best was a phase, rough backtesting was a phase, finetuning the system was a phase, precise backtesting was a phase, final nuances to the memorized trading plan was and is a phase, a SIM is a phase that I choose to go through, with going to live while I'm consistently profitable a few weeks in a row on it will be a phase, then trading 1 contract in live before going to multicontracts is a phase, with many more phases to come...

 

SIM is a huge step towards trading reality from backtesting on historical data. SIM is a place where the base foundation for successfully executing your system can be laid. SIM is the place which allows you to catch and correct flaws that no trader *should* make but they happen - you suddenly realize the difference between LIMIT and STOP LIMIT orders etc. etc. etc. you get used to the fact that you cannot scroll the market price to the right, you just don't know what's going to happen, you see the price ticking up and down constantly within 1 bar, SIM basically prepares you for 99% of what the real trading environment will look like - please notice I'm talking about the looks only. Emotions is a different thing - although I am absolutely certain that SIM will show you the emotional side of you and your trading to a certain degree - perhaps far from live trading, but also far from doing backtests.

 

To me, going straight to live is like being sat in a Ferrarri after finishing the driving school tests without practice, instead of trying to master driving an 20-year old $300 car first. Of course, you can start with very slow driving in that Ferrarri and eventually master it - but I see absolutely NO SANE REASON not to do it, so-called, risk-free first (risk free with SIM, the car analogy fits 90% here, not 100% .

 

I am absolutely convinced that SIM helps. SIM helps big. I'm rather willing to take two transitions, one level 4 and one level 6, than one transition of level 10 difficulty. By the next sentence I'm not massaging my ego or trying anyone to convince about anything - you always have to use your judgement - but I believe anyone who'd try to disprove me of the first three sentences of this paragraph is simply wrong. I won't change my opinion. Of course I'm always open for that, I just don't expect it in my lifetime in this one thing about SIM.

 

The stuff said here about SIM - traders work 18 months in it, then go live, screw up big in two days and return to SIM for another 6 months - it's like blaming the internet for porn on it. Internet is a great thing - it's people who put porn on it, it's not the fault of the internet. In case of trading, I see nothing else in the mentioned SIM behavior than a poorly designed trading plan, improper analysis, trying to work with a system with a negative expectancy without realizing it, or any other "logical or mental error" aspiring traders make which puts them into the 97% category of failed ones mentioned here earlier. It's the fault of traders, not the SIM.

 

You know, some traders here mentioned that they turned profitable with going to live directly, which I never mentioned is impossible, in fact, I believe it's possible as much as with going to SIM first - just covering the possible responses that people might jump into without fully understanding my perspective. Do what works for you, by any means - if going trading live with 1 lot without sim will do it for you, then by all means, do it - it's just that I personally perceive spending a few weeks on SIM first, a much better choice. I don't know how other aspiring traders, but I've sweat blood for my money and I'm willing to raise the percentage probability of my success to the maximum possible before risking my first cent in live trading. That can not be achieved without SIM trading first.

 

I had to share my opinion so newbie traders don't get discouraged to use SIM - it's a great thing if you know what to use it for.

[BlowFish 10]

I love how every time you get a real trader on this forum who's got information to share that is not completely useless, people just chase him away. No wonder, there is so little useful information to find on forums.

 

I'm inclined to agree AK though completely understand where Kiwi is coming from too. I guess no one particularly enjoys being talked down to particularly if they are a peer. You also often see vendors (or someone that even smells like a vendor) driven off. Just because someone is a vendor does not necessarily mean they have nothing worthwhile to say.

 

I guess it's up to each participant to determine an acceptable signal to noise ratio and whether the quality of the signal warrants putting up with noise.

[Kiwi 16]

In this case the drivee has actually stated that he will offer nothing worthwhile. All the scum here are below his level.

 

This board has attracted more than its share of them recently - although this one was one of the most amusing. His actual offer was:

"I am happy to give you a free week to watch my order books throughout the week to see my pnl."

Stinks a little of a vendor drumming up business and that is against the board's rules I think.

 

What's funniest is the people who jump to the defense of these types - its as if they believe that the grail is only one barnum away (note: I don't actually perceive that you're in the "jumping to the scumbag's defense group" Blowfish)

[BlowFish 10]

Hehehe, I am obviously not being gullible enough then

[HighStakes 10]

Those of you who are successful day trading the ES, how many points do you on average target per every trade and how frequently do you trade?

 

While it is tempting to aim for one point winners and increase frequency, my preliminary studies show that commissions and slippage really affects the bottom line when taking small profits.

 

Increasing the profit target to 2 points or even 3 points per trade, drastically reduces the impact of commissions and slippage.

 

So, I guess it boils down to trading style: 1) high frequency taking small profits or 2) lower frequency taking bigger profits.

 

The ideal would perhaps be to scalp for 1 points when the opportunity is there and then aim for larger winners when an opportunity is perceived.

 

Ideas? Opinions? Experiences?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

HighStakes

[brownsfan019 17]

Since you keep bringing this slippage issue up, what has your analysis shown for realistic slippage?

[HighStakes 10]

Since you keep bringing this slippage issue up, what has your analysis shown for realistic slippage?

 

Since I have not traded this contract live myself yet, I do not have any historical data to base it on, but in my simulations I have accounted for a 1 tick slippage on 30% of my trades.

 

That would be $375 after 100 trades. Adding commissions ($450), it would drastically impact the bottomline if one aims for 1 points winners or less.

 

I don`t know if this is realistic or not, but I still think my line of thinking is correct in that slippage and commissions needs to be taken into account if one goes for small winners.

[ZeroDivision 10]

How much time would one need to get himself 'fit' to trade mini futures?

[TMBTC 10]

How much time would one need to get himself 'fit' to trade mini futures?

 

Anywhere from 1 month to 10 years to never being 'fit' to trade mini futures.

 

As far as time spent, it's about quality, not quantity -- and often times as an aspiring trader, especially with no guidance, it is VERY hard to distinguish what is quality and what's not.

[brownsfan019 17]

How much time would one need to get himself 'fit' to trade mini futures?

 

There's no way to possibly give you a reply that would accurately provide you an answer.

 

Some 'get it' after a few months/years and some never get it. Some treat it like a hobby and others treat it like a business. Some are here purely to gamble and others are here to take calculated risks...

 

There are so many variables that your learning curve could literally start at a couple months to never. Most probably end up somewhere in the middle that actually make it and the rest eventually die out.

[minoo 11]

Interesting Article and Stats on Daytraders

 

Wall Street Warzone Day-Traders Lose Big, Still Live in Denial: 77% of American Traders are “Losers” While 82% of Day-Traders in Taiwan-China Are Bigger “Losers” Print

 

I wonder, what's percentage of actively trading/contributing daytrading SID's there are in eminis ?

 

Enjoy

Minoo

Edited May 29, 2010 by minoo

[Ants88 10]

Exactly what i was talking about in one of my previous post, the milk of human kindness soon turns sour in places like this. The witch hunts begins and why so, and for what need? The only outcome being the OP topic getting completely de-railed.

 

So i make a post, you see something that you don't like, and so what? All of sudden it turns into a look at me i'm right, i'm sherlock holmes, please everyone give me brownie points for me uncovering the devil that lurks amongst us....

 

Like I say, this is one of the aspects that I find interesting about places like this, and as mentioned earlier, you can see all types of human behaviour here. Decades ago two sociologists Berger and Luckmann introduced the concept that successful socialization occurs when an individual internalizes a given groups beliefs and values to such an extreme extend that it becomes 'reality for them'. Basically anything that goes against the norm for the group and you get an automatic impulse that it is wrong, regardless, and that to realize the true fact you have to fight to realize it. Politics is a fine example of this.

 

In experiments that have been carried out by leading ivy leauge universities in the states, they hooked people up to an FMRI machine and the people listened to something that was true, but challenged their personal belief. The outcome was that when such a thing happens, it actives a part of your brain that is responsible for detecting errors and you instantly get an automatic impulse from your brain that basically prints out 'error!'. Now this backs up research done by princeston universtiy that shows that people see their own beliefs as less baised than others. In other words, you're just automatically thinking you're right and will try to disprove anything that goes against your personal belief as you see it as a threat to you in some way. Which goes back to the Berger and Luckmann theory that we all do live, in some sense, in alternative forms of reality. Like we all know that 1+1 = 2 and that 2+2 = 4, but if something goes against your 'alternative reality' then you will just automatically reject it or do anything you can to disprove it. A good example here would be religion and science... how was the world made?

 

Now this leads onto the next part which is misperceptions in intergroup conflict... The unviersity of Florida carried out studies which examined misperceptions of disagreements in partisan social conflicts. The research basically concluded that those who disagree with the adversaries tend to exaggerate the differences of opinion. They also concluded that the people disagreeing with the adversaries were also inaccurate in perceviing the opinions within the debate. This is in a nutshell what you have done in this post.

 

Now as mentioned before, what is happening in the post is fine example of what i've explained above. You've picked up on something irrelevent that you don't personally agree with, yet it has sent an impulse in your brain to bring it up as issue because it goes against the norm of the group that you feel that you belong too. The pack animal effect kicks in as you scramble to seek approval from your peers within the group which is this community, which in turn, makes you feel like you have a more crediable role within the communtity. For example, when checking up on this thread, you'll feel a sense of approval from the community if you have a couple of 'thank you for this post' attached to the post that you wrote. Once you have finished making a couple of pointless pokes at me, you and the others will just go back to fighting amongst yourselves as the power struggle contintues for the dominant role of the group that is this communtity. All I am to you is an unknown threat as you fight for your place in the pecking order

 

It's really interesting to watch. I'm sure all of you will agree with me here, even if you don't chose to voice your opinions, that 'trading communities' like this with their monderators, thanked post counts, number post contributed are basically an online hierarchical arrangement of individuals into divisions of percieved trading credibility, which is just social stratification. As mentioned above, this just causes a power struggle as people fight for their place in the pecking order because people want to be 'the one'...that trader in the community that people acknowlege as being successful and who's opinions are worthy. So as the majority of people fight it out for their place, and just look around this forum, you can find plenty of posts of people fighting amongst each other, trying to disprove other people, and the various witch hunts that have run rampent within threads.... it's clear to see that the original conception and ideology of the group which was to help share information and education about trading has just taking a complete back seat as people fight for their place in the social order.

 

Now this comes onto why I said that 99.9% of people here are not going to make anything of trading, and are not my client target base for mentorship, a subject that is quite irrelvent, but you see it as an opportunity to score some brownie points for reasons listed above. Now if there's something that I say that you don't like, then fair enough, we all have our right to disagree, and the old mantra of if you haven't got anything good to say, then don't say anything at all should be applied. If you don't like that I offer mentorship, then no one is forcing you to look into it. If you don't like my fire, then don't come round. It's pretty simple really. If people are interested in mentorship from myself then they're free to spend a week watching live trading by myself and seeing how much I make or lose for real before parting with any payment. That's fair enough isn't it?

 

Also I'd like to point out, that because of your pointless urge to bring the mentorship issue up to score brownie points, you've just ended up creating more awareness that I offer mentorship. Like I say, if you don't like my fire then don't come round, no one is forcing you, and people are free to form their own opinions if they wish to investigate further after spending a week with me.

 

The main reason why professional traders don't come onto websites like this is because of the witch hunt, and the bickering by people who clearly have no idea about the underlying subject. People forget here that the objective here is trading and helping others achieve their goals. A professional may share some knowledge with the group, but it disrupts the social order or status quo of a place like this, so it ends up just being thrown back in their face. So a lot of us just think, what's the point? As a result, you end up with a community that is filled with the blind leading the blind, who have lost track of the orginal mantra of the community. Anyone who comes along and tries to help is automatically made out to be a crook. No one is here to rob you of your money, you're quite capable of robbing yourself by being delusional that you're going to be a successful trader in a highly competetive professional industy, without any proper training. Why don't you go start an oil company and a space agency while you're at it?

 

Anyway i've ranted on long enough here. I'll end on one last note... When you actually listen you may feel that it is confusing in one or more ways, but that's just because you're not used to listening. If you truly listen, you might find that the person talking is indeed very interesting.

 

Hey 86834, your posts here are so relevant and giving of yourself, We appreciate your personal insight, revelations and time using this forum.

[jthom 10]

Boy you put a lot original thought in this reply. Thank it was the first time i'v ever heard this. Glad I read it. I changes everything. I guess my MD father would have to agree that trading is a lot like medical school and residency. Thanks ditto-head!!!

[tjnoon 10]

This is an interesting topic to me so I thought I'd throw my thoughts into the fray. I host a live trade room and have been doing so now for over two years. I'm proud to say that I have a solid winning record across all the markets I have called, mostly eminis and currency futures. That's not my point but I wanted to give a little credibility to my following comments.

 

I also trade my own account but I find it difficult to manage my trades accurately, 100% of the time while maintaining a level of reliability and quality to the trades I am calling live for my membership. I have a hierchial system of priority that dictates my actions. I always put my tradecalls first and that has hurt my own trading about 10 to 15% of the time, which makes a huge difference to my overall personal trade results.

 

All of you make correct assumptions I believe, as to why traders fail. Here is my opinion. I believe that trading is basically a non-human activity yet, we as humans, make very human trade decisions, which tend to be wrong more than they are right. Often we'll put our personal needs ahead of the needs of our trading. Or, we don't even know 'why' we are trading in the first place. It should be 'to make money' but you'd be surprised to learn that most people haven't given that the thought necessary to fully understand that concept and its ramifications.

 

The best trades, I have found, tend to be counter-intuitive and therefore difficult to pull the trigger on. I rely on my trade system (which is objectively non-human) and try to always remind myself that I am trading the 'edge' that my system gives me over time. My winning percentage is high enough to make a living so long as I keep my risk very small (no more than 2% of my overall trade capital) and, I take the trades according to my tradeplan. The wins and losses will come at a random distribution. We can not control that. We can control our risk and, that we execute our trades correctly, according to a well researched plan. Then I can be non-human about my trading realizing that if I trade my plan correctly, I'll put the odds in my favor on every trade and that edge (like the casino's edge only better) is where I will make my money as a trader. Make sense?

 

Think of your trading like a forest. Each tree is a trade. Most traders get lost amongst the trees and lose sight of their forest. Trees fall and they begin to make bad trade decisions. This is very human. The forest is your equity curve though. The line that successful traders cross is when they are at peace with sacrificing about 1/3 of the trees in their forest if it means growing their forest 2/3rds larger as a result. Think about it. A beautiful and realistic equity curve gives you that nice stair stepping line, 45 degrees up and to the right. Right? Two steps forward, one step back. Two steps forward, one step back. 1/3 of the trees fall, allowing for 2/3rds to grow back.

 

A trader needs to take a higher perch and maintain a bird's eye view on their entire forest and not worry about the trees that fall so long as the winning edge remains intact. My results and equity curves prove this idea over and over again, over many thousands of trades, called live over the past two + years. I have attached to this post, recent equity curves to the two currency futures markets I have been recently calling over the past couple months to prove my point.

 

Please notice that on my Euro trades, had I been a normal human being trying to trade this market, chances are I would have quit as my trades actually dipped below zero and produced a negative result to begin with. My backtesting and longer term view though, kept me taking my trades as they set up each day and you can see how the forest then grew like crazy. Same thing with my British Pound trades. In fact, this curve reveals the type of dynamic that kills traders success. Notice around mid March to the first week in May how the results were flat. Yet by taking the trades, we were able to hang out just below our equity highs. Then, the winners began to come again and a breakout to new equity highs occurred. In fact, we hit new highs again today. Many traders quit during that time and went off to chase the "already happened" performance of some other untested market and strategy, but that's another reason traders fail and I'll stop here now, hopefully making points that the readers of this forum will find useful.

[SIUYA 11]

tj a quick question you write..."I also trade my own account but I find it difficult to manage my trades accurately, 100% of the time while maintaining a level of reliability and quality to the trades I am calling live for my membership. I have a hierchial system of priority that dictates my actions. I always put my tradecalls first and that has hurt my own trading about 10 to 15% of the time, which makes a huge difference to my overall personal trade results."

 

I dont know how these trade rooms really work, but I would like to know how this occurs. I would have thought if you are making calls live they are off your actual trades. If your calls are correct, why not just trade those? thanks.

(I understand that as an individual trading making calls and then not sticking to their plan/calls makes sense, but I would have thought a trade room was different)

[MightyMouse 12]

This is an interesting topic to me so I thought I'd throw my thoughts into the fray. I host a live trade room and have been doing so now for over two years. I'm proud to say that I have a solid winning record across all the markets I have called, mostly eminis and currency futures. That's not my point but I wanted to give a little credibility to my following comments.

 

I also trade my own account but I find it difficult to manage my trades accurately, 100% of the time while maintaining a level of reliability and quality to the trades I am calling live for my membership. I have a hierchial system of priority that dictates my actions. I always put my tradecalls first and that has hurt my own trading about 10 to 15% of the time, which makes a huge difference to my overall personal trade results.

 

All of you make correct assumptions I believe, as to why traders fail. Here is my opinion. I believe that trading is basically a non-human activity yet, we as humans, make very human trade decisions, which tend to be wrong more than they are right. Often we'll put our personal needs ahead of the needs of our trading. Or, we don't even know 'why' we are trading in the first place. It should be 'to make money' but you'd be surprised to learn that most people haven't given that the thought necessary to fully understand that concept and its ramifications.

 

The best trades, I have found, tend to be counter-intuitive and therefore difficult to pull the trigger on. I rely on my trade system (which is objectively non-human) and try to always remind myself that I am trading the 'edge' that my system gives me over time. My winning percentage is high enough to make a living so long as I keep my risk very small (no more than 2% of my overall trade capital) and, I take the trades according to my tradeplan. The wins and losses will come at a random distribution. We can not control that. We can control our risk and, that we execute our trades correctly, according to a well researched plan. Then I can be non-human about my trading realizing that if I trade my plan correctly, I'll put the odds in my favor on every trade and that edge (like the casino's edge only better) is where I will make my money as a trader. Make sense?

 

Think of your trading like a forest. Each tree is a trade. Most traders get lost amongst the trees and lose sight of their forest. Trees fall and they begin to make bad trade decisions. This is very human. The forest is your equity curve though. The line that successful traders cross is when they are at peace with sacrificing about 1/3 of the trees in their forest if it means growing their forest 2/3rds larger as a result. Think about it. A beautiful and realistic equity curve gives you that nice stair stepping line, 45 degrees up and to the right. Right? Two steps forward, one step back. Two steps forward, one step back. 1/3 of the trees fall, allowing for 2/3rds to grow back.

 

A trader needs to take a higher perch and maintain a bird's eye view on their entire forest and not worry about the trees that fall so long as the winning edge remains intact. My results and equity curves prove this idea over and over again, over many thousands of trades, called live over the past two + years. I have attached to this post, recent equity curves to the two currency futures markets I have been recently calling over the past couple months to prove my point.

 

Please notice that on my Euro trades, had I been a normal human being trying to trade this market, chances are I would have quit as my trades actually dipped below zero and produced a negative result to begin with. My backtesting and longer term view though, kept me taking my trades as they set up each day and you can see how the forest then grew like crazy. Same thing with my British Pound trades. In fact, this curve reveals the type of dynamic that kills traders success. Notice around mid March to the first week in May how the results were flat. Yet by taking the trades, we were able to hang out just below our equity highs. Then, the winners began to come again and a breakout to new equity highs occurred. In fact, we hit new highs again today. Many traders quit during that time and went off to chase the "already happened" performance of some other untested market and strategy, but that's another reason traders fail and I'll stop here now, hopefully making points that the readers of this forum will find useful.

 

Tj,

 

As an FYI, your shameless plugs, display of equity curves, and etc. you wish to share are securities law violations without the proper disclosure and adherence to protocol.

 

Also, you may want to edit your post and clean up some of the really obvious BS and accidental contradictions. Review the posts of other vendors who are more experienced at plugging themselves. I think you might pick up a tip or two learning some of subtleties of their approaches.

 

For example, a lot of people here are going to struggle with the idea that you are so dedicated to making your trade calls and nursing new traders along the way, that you neglect your own account. Others may call into question why you do anything but trade when you can produce the unaudited equity curves like the ones you have attached. I can go on and on, but my coffee is finished.

 

In any event, I hope you find some of the information in this post useful to your business.

[Tams 20]

This is an interesting topic to me so I thought I'd throw my thoughts into the fray. I host a live trade room and have been doing so now for over two years. I'm proud to say that I have a solid winning record across all the markets I have called,....

 

Equity chart tells only part of the story,

The chart I am interested in is the Intraday Draw Down chart.

 

To give you an example why I am interested in the draw down,

attached are the calls made by a "profitable" trader; he often invite people to join him in the room.

 

This is how he makes a 1 pt profit,

you'll be the judge if intraday draw down is important.

 

Edited June 2, 2010 by Tams

[macdfx 10]

Tj,

 

As an FYI, your shameless plugs, display of equity curves, and etc. you wish to share are securities law violations without the proper disclosure and adherence to protocol.

 

Really. You could make this argument about ANY such tout posting on TL, IMHO, whether licensed or not.

 

#FAIL

[MightyMouse 12]

Really. You could make this argument about ANY such tout posting on TL, IMHO, whether licensed or not.

 

#FAIL

 

 

It doesn't apply to the general population of traders. A trader who is not trying to solicit funds or fees, can lie all he wants, and doesn't need to disclose anything.

[gandalf33 10]

This is how he makes a 1 pt profit,

you'll be the judge if intraday draw down is important.

 

Isn't adding to a losing position one of the major issues why a traders fail in the long run? ..

[MightyMouse 12]

It could be one of the reasons for some. The main reason traders fail is that they set unrealistic goals for the capital they have. Basically, undercapitalized.

[gandalf33 10]

It could be one of the reasons for some. The main reason traders fail is that they set unrealistic goals for the capital they have. Basically, undercapitalized.

 

While I agree with that - this definitely is a reason for trader's gravestones, I personally don't think this is the main one - undercapitalization and making expectations realistic is rather 'easy to spot' before you even begin trading, so you can prepare.

 

I believe the inability to perceive losses as part of trading is the #1 (something you can't prepare for) - this single reason causes hope, changing the system (re-working it and starting anew while the previous one was profitable), taking trades out of plan, etc.

[MightyMouse 12]

While I agree with that - this definitely is a reason for trader's gravestones, I personally don't think this is the main one - undercapitalization and making expectations realistic is rather 'easy to spot' before you even begin trading, so you can prepare.

 

I believe the inability to perceive losses as part of trading is the #1 (something you can't prepare for) - this single reason causes hope, changing the system (re-working it and starting anew while the previous one was profitable), taking trades out of plan, etc.

 

Sure. Bad trading takes the best and worst capitalized traders out of trading; however, not having enough capital will keep the best traders from trading since they need to apply their time to other endeavors to meet expenses.

 

Good traders know what to expect from a market and know they can't earn an income if they do not have enough capital.