|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
Linda Swope wrote:
> I'll agree with both posts. I have failed at my day trading so far, but I
> failed at my photography business in the beginning too. That was 25 years
> ago and I'm a successful portrait and wedding photographer because I never
> gave up. I don't intend to give up on my daytrading either and I plan to
> succeed again. The key is learning from your mistakes and trying again.
>
> She who never tries never fails... or triumphs. I want to triumph all over
> the place!
>
> Linda,
I don't think your analogy between daytrader and photographer holds.
Daytrader is a very specific type of trading style whereas photography is a very
broad category. A better analogy would be if you
compared your quest to be a successful daytrader to trying to become a
successful still life photographer. As it may have turned out, you may have
failed at still life photography only to discover that you are an excellent and
successful baby photographer. That in no way detracts from your success as a
photographer, you just don't capture bananas on film as well as you do babies.
In the same vein, you may not find your greatest success in daytrading but
rather in some other style of trading. Out of all
successful traders, only a very small percentage are consistently successful at
daytrading. Of these successful daytraders, I bet in the long run that they
don't produce a better rate of return than do longer term traders of comparable
status and capital in their field.
The bottomline is that the daytrader must undergo many times the stress
than does a longer term trader in quest for a return on capital that is attained
by very few and that probably more likely would be attained if they lengthened
their time horizon. Additionally, if one has a successful long term trading
strategy, there is no reason that one couldn't keep another job or profession,
entering orders before the market opens, and therefore maintain another income.
So the cost of daytrading is potentially loss of an income from another job,
business, or profession, paying high fees and commissions for quotes and
brokerage, and unknown and unlimited personal and health costs due to the very
high stress.
I was a floor trader in Chicago for 12 years, so I know about
daytrading.. It was alot of fun when I was in my 20s. It was less fun in my 30s.
It was then, in anticipation of where I wanted to be in my 40s, that I started
to train myself to trade from off the floor and started a long journey toward
learning how to trade on a longer term basis. I had studied many traders and
money managers and concluded that the really big money was made from off the
trading floor on longer term positions. I don't think George Soros or Warren
Buffet do very much daytrading. Yet, they both started with relative small sums
of capital and have built up their capital far beyond what most daytraders would
ever dream.
I have spent the last dozen years on a path that has taken me from holding
positions for as little as a few seconds to a few hours to now taking positions
that I sometimes hold for weeks or months. I am very happy in my current trading
and life style. I am now away from the trading floor, the high stress of short
term trading, and I live in a paradisic part of the world. I find it very ironic
that the rest of the world seems to be rushing in the opposite direction. They
remind me of the moth wanting to fly toward the flame, a brilliant but short
existence.
Relaxedly,
Norman
>
>
> linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Climb the mountains & get their glad tidings: Peace will flow into you as
> sunshine into flower; the winds will blow their freshness into you & storms
> their energy, & cares will drop off you like autumn leaves. John Muir 1838 -
> 1914
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dtrader <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: RealTraders Discussion Group <realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Thursday, April 01, 1999 12:19 PM
> Subject: was [Bull Market]
>
> >
> >
> >on the other hand, so do 90% of artists, musicians and most new businesses.
> >
> >i'm not real sure this statistic has much relevance.
> >
> >dan
> >
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Norman Phair <ericrogers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >To: RealTraders Discussion Group <realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >Date: Thursday, April 01, 1999 1:59 PM
> >Subject: Re: Bull Market
> >
> >
> >:I have heard figures as high as 90% of the people that do day trading
> >:fail. No work, no reward.
> >:
> >:Norman E,
> >:
> >:> "Peter M. Beckwith" wrote:
> >:>
> >:> Great post, Ira.
> >:>
> >:> Not only are there more on-line trading commercials than beer and auto
> >:> commercials, but the content and substance of these commercials is
> >:> completely off-line. The firms that sponsor these commercials hire
> >:> teams of lawyers to settle suitability of investment lawsuits and
> >:> arbitration suits all them time from people who lost their shirts(not
> >:> to mention their homes) after daytrading on the internet for a couple
> >:> of months. You would think that after all of the horror stories out
> >:> there about people who didn't understand what margin was or that if
> >:> the stock goes against you x percent you have to meet the cash
> >:> requirement, the firms themselves would take a more responsible
> >:> stance. Instead, most of us who keep CNBC on in the background have
> >:> to watch an Ameritrade commercial about a mom and housewive who can
> >:> take the kids to school and throw some money in a biotech company to
> >:> the tune of $1700/day or the guy who owns his own island, etc...
> >:>
> >:> I don't know what we are going to see with this market, but one day(I
> >:> hope) we can look back and just laugh at how absurd those commercials
> >:> really were. I am hoping it is sooner rather than later and then
> >:> maybe, just maybe the public will understand that trading is a
> >:> profession, not a hobby that you take up in your spare time...
> >:>
> >:> Pete Beckwith
> >:>
> >:>
> >:
> >
|