A response to taradiddle

Beginner Questions
1

Taradiddle, as my trusty thesaurus tells me, is an ‘untruth’ or ‘piece of fiction’ or ‘deception’, which in my humbliest opinion could easily be terms used to describe the seemingly endless stream of dream peddlers we have in our own profession.

I feel a part of me wants to rant and rant about the global commercial Forex band wagon that promotes itself as this ‘rags to riches’ ‘never work again’ dream cop out story, and rant some more on the fact that it is so blatant in it’s promises which are quite frankly unobtainable by most people and certainly create false hope among the mentally vulnerable ie: all of us.

But a rant is a quick personal fix, a blow up and a mere fulmination at the ability of some to exploit us barrel fish to such an extent that we just disconnect totally with reality and fly off with the piper in joyful innocence.

My question is, is this just the way it is? are we going to have to just accept living with the flashy neon light around us and tripping over the ‘lemmings this way’ arrows?

Don’t get me wrong I realise and acknowledge that many people are actively promoting correct meaningful ideas about this line of work and I applaud loudly their efforts. This is by no means a last gasp post about the ‘end is nigh’, it’s very much trying to erect new signposts, bigger flashy neon arrows that point the inexperienced towards that stuff, the good stuff.

As I am but a twinkle in this forums eye, I don’t want to do something I’m not allowed, but my suggestion is to try and create and collate a list of links which contain key information for a novice trader to get their head around.

Now I have an idea for this that I’ll throw out there to see if anybody is interested, but if this seems slightly more boring and pointless than drying paint don’t worry I can handle rejection :stuck_out_tongue:

Do you think it would be possible to create a very tight list of links that you could trust because they have been verified and reviewed by other traders? A sort of mini consensus on some helpful ideas, an antonym to humbug and hoax. A signpost that points in the right direction of great education material with which you make your own bed.

Could this be done by the polling system on these boards and personal reviews?

2

Admirable idea, but it’s pretty hard to teach common sense and discipline. Especially when everyone assumes they have both! :stuck_out_tongue:

I don’t want to be greedy with the links, but here’s one I’d vouch for. Applicable to any trader of any market of any system. His advice borders on life lessons it’s so good! The blog is closed (cause he got a job at a hedge fund) but he keeps his archived posts up, what a guy! I think he mostly traded stock indexes, but it is his background in psychology that helped me so much…

TraderFeed

3

Also we all have our own preferred strategies and styles, so there will be disagreement, even between sincere and well-intentioned traders with no personal agenda, so I think it would be difficult to decide what went in, although I agree that the concept sounds good. Some of the ‘humbug and hoax’ to which you refer has its supporters among traders on here, who do not consider it humbug (such as a recent debate on whether training courses are a good idea, for instance). So in practice I don’t see how the filtering would work, the advice in there could just become as unwieldy and conflicting as the main boards and end up confusing people. At least humbug that hits the main fora is generally well-debated and challenged, which acts as insurance for newer traders?

4

it’s pretty hard to teach common sense and discipline. Especially when everyone assumes they have both!

Totally agree, which is why I prefer to just point in the direction of the good teachers, and let them take over from that point on.

Your link is a mighty one, and is just the kind of important professional advice and information that I would personally like to see gathered together for the greater good.

I’m aware of Mr Steenbargers work myself and reference his ideas on trading psychology often, thanks for putting it out there.

7

You make as ever some very interesting points.

The judgement is I realise the very tricky part, but I hope it’s not beyond the impossible to try and confront this problem and at least try and gain consensus on certain subjects, as I said I would envisage the list to be a very tight rigorous affair.

8

You’re right, of course, I must be more optimistic. I would support the initiative, certainly. And thank you for the feedback!

9

As an example of what not to put in this type of list is the link that a member has PM’d me with and a few words…

“Hi Forexdawn, Have you tried this website? They have Forex bets and $100 free bet upon sign up Have a nice day”

… as you may imagine the link is the absolute antithesis of what could be considered an exceptional source of knowledge.

I think we can do better… :wink:

10

Hello,

I have to admit that it was the title of your thread that brough me here!!! LOL!!!

And I agree with you on everything too i.e. I too am sick and tired of the ‘bling’ advertising that goes on. I tried to set up a small ‘school’ earlier this year and my aim was to introduce trading to some of our ‘previously disadvantaged’ people (as well as to anybody else that was interested of course) and literally ‘give’ one or two trading systems away (that I myself am now confident in) and to provide support to them. But you know what??? The MOMENT that I mentioned to them that if they could average gains of between 1% and 10% per MONTH on their capital then they were doing VERY well as new traders (MADOFF only ‘guaranteed’ 1% or 2% per month if I remember correctly and the investing community was ‘up in arms’ about that ‘supposed’ performance annually): they suddenly simply lost interest right then and there!!! Had I ‘promised’ 500% per DAY: I’ll guarantee you that I’d have a few hundred new, but very dissapointed, clients by now!!! LOL!!! It’s absolutely ‘sick’ in my opinion!!!

Anyway: I looked at that blog. VERY nice (although a LOT of reading to be done).

And yes: I TOO received one of the PM’s!!! You now who you are and we’re both ‘giving you a break’ here FOR NOW!!!

Regards,

Dale.

11

Sounds all too familiar. What gets me, though, is how so many people starting Forex trading don’t think that 1-10% every month is enough. As your pot grows, as long as you stay consistent then the big money will come. Without having to work for someone else, according to someone else’s agenda… I just don’t understand why some people think that that sort of return is not worthwhile. Anyway, sorry, don’t mean to rant! I agree with you, and you reassure me that I am not mad.

12

Hello,

Nope: you’re definitely not mad I assure you!!! LOL!!! Look: it’s not to say that it’s impossible to do WAY better than 1% - 10% per month (although I myself am not sure that’s attainable trading FOREX pairs but that’s just me). The problem is being able to do that EVERY month of EVERY year!!! I myself SOMEHOW managed to turn $700 into $15 000 or thereabouts in the space of six months or so about two years ago. The problem??? It took me half that time afterwards to LOSE somewhere in the region of $85 000 (and that was after copious amounts of additional losses BEFORE my $700 - $15 000 ‘luck’)!!! Basically: gains like that are just not sustainable (at least not without having NO risk management, GROSSLY overtrading an account, becoming too ‘c*ck sure’ and overconfident, and, I guess, gambling not trading, although I’m probably going to regret having made THAT statement)!!! LOL!!! And it’s always amazed me too: I think we have one of the highest interest rates in the world and I think the most that you can get on an interest bearing account is somewhere in the region of around 12% PER ANNUM so where I come from anyway 5% - 10% PER MONTH is FANTASTIC even WITHOUT compounding!! LOL!!! And you know: it’s actually really not that difficult either (well not in hindsight anyway). There are just a few very simple rules to follow and ‘there you go’ (although I’ll admit that’s a lot easier said than done).

Regards,

Dale.

13

I just don’t understand why some people think that that sort of return is not worthwhile.

My guess is completely out of proportion expectations of what it’s all about, expectations proliferated on the whole by marketeers of junk.

Any of you guys want to offer up some bookmarks that might put some perspective on those expectations for people. I know Dale you post some very interesting links from time to time.

14

One of the hardest things to circumnavigate in the world of forex is the BS.
I agree a list of verified links would be a good thing if it were properly vetted the problems will probably begin when you try to get everyone to agree what is good information and what isnt.
It was for a simalar reason I started a thread a while back I entitled it mythbusters.
My intention was to work through all the BS and snake oil systems, backtest them and forward test one by one all the indicators and some of the systems often recommended by the experts, to discover which is good and which isnt, with the intention of creating a credible source of information for everyone to start from. The problem arose when I realized how much time that would take. Time I dont have enough of to devote to such a project.

15

Ok, what if we could come up with a list of prime subjects that we could then attribute links to.

Keep it very pertinent and usable, like supply and demand (support & resistance), timeframe, money management, risk, trading psychology etc.

16

OK well here’s one (to be):

Technical Trading Systems

LOL!!!

Hey: EVERYONE seems to have a ‘blog’ except me so I figured I’d ‘better get with the program’!!! LOL!!! (I didn’t know what a ‘blog’ WAS until ‘akeakamai’ posted a link to ‘TraderFeed’ the other day on this thread so I figured I may as well create one. Quite easy actually)!!!

Regards,

Dale.

Edit:

Created another one i.e. I was not happy with the original (I could spend HOURS playing with this stuff but I think I’m happy with the layout and the name now).

17

Bloggings soooo ‘yesterday’ … lol

Looks like this could go the same way as your mythbuster thread SDC. I thought this may provoke interest in trying to create some sort of link library of credibility on this forum, at least a small effort in the right direction, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Might still try and set up something on a web page in another galaxy, far far away.

18

Hello,

Bloggings soooo ‘yesterday’ … lol

What can I tell you??? For all I know the world could have stopped turning sometime in the past five or so years and the only reason I would have known that there was something wrong was if my data feed got stuck!!! LOL!!! I’m now trying to play ‘catch up’ I guess!!!

Regards,

Dale.

Edit: but HEY!!! I’m not THAT far behind some to think of it. I ‘TWEET’ (sometimes)!!! LOL!!!