This past weekend, it rained for two days. Let me tell you, almost an inch of rain is more than abnormal June weather for the Central Coast of California. Just thought I’d tell you …
I received the question below, and although I don’t have a direct answer, I thought someone out there might. If you do, send your info to me and I will post it.
My buddies and I – between the ages of 45 – 60 – have spent the last 2 years learning about futures trading. We have paid for some systems and tested our own – all to no consistent profits. Fortunately, none of us lost much either. After 2 years, we have not discovered a system/strategy with consistent winners (although we read about people who sell such strategies for 1000s of dollars). We have realized that none of us know anyone who has consistently made money day-trading futures and our brokers can’t actually give us a name (or have a person contact us) who actually makes money consistently. Approximately how many people do you know (aside from those stating they do as they try to sell their system to others) that actually have made money day-trading futures?
In my experience, true traders love talking about trading, trading strategies, or a “system” they use for trading success. Rarely, though, will real traders actually say how much money they make or don’t make. If they are mentioning money, (you are correct here), they are probably trying to sell you a “surefire system.” For me, then, longevity in the game is a metric for quantifying success. TraderPlanet has a number of contributors who have been trading for decades, so you might ask one of those folks, since I don’t trade futures. In fact, one of those traders is Jim Wyckoff. Ironically, his column today focuses on the “Top Ten” futures trading mistakes. Learning to avoid these will help any trader log the years one needs to claim success.
1. Failure to have a trading plan in place before a trade is executed.
2. Inadequate trading assets or improper money management.
3. Expectations that are too high, too soon.
4. Failure to use protective stops.
5. Lack of “patience” and “discipline.”
6. Trading against the trend, or trying to pick tops and bottoms in markets.
7. Letting losing positions ride too long.
8. “Over-trading.” Trading too many markets at one time is a mistake
9. Failure to accept complete responsibility for your own actions.
10. Not getting a bigger-picture perspective on a market.
By the way, kudos to you and your buddies for your solid and careful approach to learning how to trade futures, a difficult thing to do, no doubt.
Trade in the day – Invest in your life …
