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Well, I guess we're going to share different opinions on this issue
tonight. Trading IS made unnecessarily complicated--that's true.
Unfortunately that is often due to the lack of education on the
subject.
Learning to trade is a journey from the excitment of thinking you're
going to make a lot of money, to trying to find the grail, to
reinventing every wheel, to realizing that all you're going to find
is something that works some of the time, to creating your own system
and then becoming confident in the fact that you know it works for
you. You can't do that sitting in a room in front a computer screen
playing hit and miss video poker all day, and then watching
television the rest of the night.
Too many people get into this, and then won't bother to learn
anything about anything. They want plug-in play trading. They ask a
few humdrum questions on here about how to program some magical setup
or indicator that they heard was the one that was going to make them
bundles of cash. Oh well.
What the book failed to point out is that all the top traders read
and study everything written by other top traders, and they talk to
each other. They don't ask each other dumb-butt questions like what's
the one BEST book I should read---that's the first question out of
the mouth of someone who isn't going to succeed.
Discipline starts with an education. If you don't have the discipline
to study the business of trading--the whole business, not some guru's
seminar--then you don't have the discipline to stick to a system. A
system is a range of things, including position sizing and money
management, which is the least discussed topic on this website. Those
two things are far more important than what indicators you use. How
many people on here know what optimal f is, how to calculate it, have
a program to calculate it, know the drawbacks to using optimal f or
how to overcome them? Everyone tries to optimize their indicators but
how many people on here know that money management techniques can be
tested just like indicators and that certain types of money
management strategies can impact trading profits from identical
systems by as much as ten times.
There are many, many ways to approach trading, and until you learn
what they are about and find the system that is right for you, you
aren't going anywhere but off to find a new hobby.
KISS isn't a synonym for ignorant. Simplicity comes from expertise.
Great musicians make playing look easy. Great traders make trading
look easy. That simplistic ease they approach their craft with is not
backed by a lack of knowledge.
Basically you formulated your opinion while you were reading a
trading book? I hope that book didn't convince you to stop reading
other books!
And I do agree with Andrew that Van Tharp is not a guru of anything,
but it's a good place to start because he handles a lot of general
myths right out of the box. Don't pick a guru like Elder and think he
has all the answers, or that because his system works for him, it's
going to work for you. Read all the gurus, blend it together,
customzie to fit and then apply the system. After you have your
system, keep reading--not because there is something better and you
have to find it, but to keep your brain alive and thinking.
--- In equismetastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Pam and Ken Johnston
<milocat@xxxx> wrote:
>
> I hate to contradict Superfragalist because its obvious from his
posts that
> he knows that about which he speaks but I have to offer a
completely
> different opinion. Trading is made unnecessarily complicated by
most
> people. I remember reading a book about top traders and one of the
> interviewees made a refreshingly different observation about
trading,
> essentially he said that the good news was that finding a good
method to
> trade that produced excellent results over time wasn't very
difficult. The
> bad news was that having the discipline to stick to any given
method was way
> beyond most people.
> I would forget about 100 different books and psychological
consultants.
> Find a simple method that makes sense to you(otherwise you will
abandon it)
> and resolve to stick with it. Astrocycles-time extraction-fibo
squares etc
> are likely no better than moving averages-the tough part is picking
a method
> and staying the course.
> I doubt that there is any facet of human existence where the KISS
principle
> is more applicable than trading.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "superfragalist" <no_reply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <equismetastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 9:44 AM
> Subject: Re: [EquisMetaStock Group] Should I follow indicators?
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> > Yeah, I have a suggestion. You should read somewhere around a 100
> > trading and systems development books, and then if you plow
another
> > few thousand hours into understanding what you've read,
experimenting
> > and figuring out how to trade with what you've come up with, then
> > you'll be close, really close.
> >
> > There's nothing anyone on here is going to post that will help you
> > more than the above mentioned paragraph.
> >
> > If there was one good indicator--or trading method--we'd all be
using
> > it. We ain't. Indicators fit people and personalities. It's all in
> > what you can use, and no one on here, or anywhere else, can define
> > that for you.
> >
> > Go to amazon buy every book they have on trading and sytems
> > development and you'll be off to a relatively mild start, but
> > generally in the right direction.
> >
> > Read Van Tharp's Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom first. That
will
> > get rid of a lot of your misconceptions like entries are
important.
> > Read the other 100 books next, and then read Van Tharp's again. By
> > that time you might have a prayer of getting it.
> >
> > If you want easy--go bowling!
> >
> > Sorry, but them's the realities.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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