I’m not looking to get rich. Just make a living in the markets. I’ve been trying this for about five years. I’m still flopping around like a fish. I’ve tried to educate myself, but there’s so much BS out there I don’t know what’s real and what’s not. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on trading systems that turn out to be scams. Can you give me some guidance?
I don’t know what you do for a living now, but the question that pops into my mind is why do you want to make a living trading markets? Ponder this, especially since you have given some of your life over to this for the last five years. As well, think about the fact that you have spent thousands of dollars on “systems” that promise positive returns, yet turn out to deliver nothing. These are realities for you, and, as I have found, each of us needs to both recognize and respond to the realities in our lives. Delusionary behavior gets us nowhere but to a land of fantasy.
You are absolutely on target with your statement “… there’s so much BS out there …”
I clearly remember in the mid 1980s, as the global real estate markets were filling with air, seminar after seminar promised “systems” that would produce unbelievable returns in the real estate market. One couldn’t do anything in real estate without hearing “flip this, remodel that, rent it out, speculate here, and speculate there.” People everywhere bought into Limited Partnerships, “spec” housing, dilapidated houses, duplexes, and on and on, only to find out the reality of investing in real estate is just like any other investment – it takes work to make money, unless of course, one is lucky, which happens now and then.
Today’s trading world reminds me somewhat of those “greedy” real estate times – there is so much BS out there. The reality for all of us, and we need to both recognize and respond to it, is that for most of us, hard work is the path to getting us what we want. Educating oneself is part of that path. Consider the “spiel” in a trading system seminar as educational. Consider a newsletter promising “10-baggers” as educational. You should even consider those with impressive financial resumes telling us the sky is falling as educational, but don’t confuse, even for one minute, these aspects of the trading world with the very real and necessary education you need to become a successful trader. The BS out there is designed to fool you.
Guidance? Go back to the basics. Learn about economics. Learn about the markets. Learn about trading methodologies. And, most of all, learn about yourself. Look inward. Are you ready to commit to reality?
Trade in the day; invest in your life …
