So It’s the blind leading the blind eh. I question why you would defend someone from refusing to show proof that their strategy is valid, especially when they have a thread dedicated to said strategy (I am doing us all a favor). I am asking the question that we are all thinking at the back of our minds and the question that we ALL should be asking. “How can we know if this is real and what truly is the performance of this strategy over the long run?” I don’t take what people say at their word, I ask for proof.
Most readers read these thread when trying to learn how to trade, but are we expected to just take everything we see with a grain of salt? How do readers know how to separate a good “story” from a good “strategy”?
And, there are plenty of traders that use MT4. Those that do have no excuse for not posting performance especially if they have a thread dedicated to that strategy. Not using MT4 is still not an excuse to not show additional transparency into the validity of your strategy. There are plenty of other ways to do it. So if you are going to try and teach a strategy by posting a thread and then point to it as backup, show some hard data!
I’m not defending anybody mate.
Billybob is big & ugly enough to defend himself bless him, I’m simply pointing out why your ideal world scenario has & never will be a reality or the norm. You can wish all you like but it simply aint gonna happen for any number of reasons.
I’ve personally seen 4 very impressive positive expectancy live broker stat track sheets from punters on here since 2011 (3 of which i help to facilitate) betting off the same generic framework, an albeit small low percentage sample, that you or anyone else will never see.
Why?
Because they weren’t or aren’t here to satisfy your or anyone else’s curiosity or to confirm that something does or doesn’t work. They were/are here purely & simply for their own greedy, self-centred reasons. Funnily enough it’s an oft recurring & quite common trait associated with successful business people.
They’re not interested in anyone else but themselves, which is why, in part they’re successful in the first place.
As I said previously, not everyone is here to prove a point or have their ego stroked.
Talking of which isn’t it about time you actually had some skin in the game?
And I completely agree that transparency will always be an issue on babypips (or any other trading forum). Unless you are looking at audited financial statements, there is no real way to tell. Myfxbook.com is not without fault either, but I think it works towards that goal of providing transparency.
And, the readers of babypips are just as much at fault as the authors in fostering an environment where “we trust, but don’t verify.” The readers are not requiring proof, so the authors of these threads have had free reign. This CAN certainly change if the readers just start questioning these things. Not only would this increase the integrity of the material on BabyPips but it would strengthen the BabyPips community.
When you say you knew 3-4 traders that “betting off the same framework” do you mean my same strategy? And you’re reference to “low percentage” meaning that these strategies are just rare? I am just curious.
I accept that there are many different ways to trade and there are some strategies that truly blow it out of the water. And I am sure there are some valid strategies on Babypips, but we can’t really verify that by looking at one trade to the next. The only proof that is common on babypips is a lot of before and after charts, but this doesn’t mean squat if the overall performance sucks. One trade to the next isn’t going to tell you what we need to know. We need to know the whole picture.
And in reference to getting skin in the game, I can’t help but agree with you lol and I will! Soon my friend…
I don’t disagree, & if indeed every thread starter/author/guru of a specific strategy was required to validate & verify their ongoing live account profitability the forum would be as empty as the Rio Olympic track & field stadium on a dreary, rainy afternoon.
A large percentage of the threads in the strategy section & accompanying sectors on here & similar sites are simply variations on a theme. They’re regurgitated, peddled & copied from one forum, book or article to another, influenced by “educators” most of whom couldn’t trade a pocket money account if their life depended on it & “expert” business analysts & media from the popular press & t.v dream factories.
Brokers add to the merry-go-round by encouraging the dream with their in-house analytical snippets, seminars, trade school programmes & enticing account deals. The majority of participants are well out of their depth from day one & never really recover. They’re constantly fed just enough information to keep them on a string & if/when they wash up on retail forums they’re further brainwashed by half wit ego maniacs, spoof merchants & career trolls.
Know, not knew. They’re still live & kicking.
No, I mean the same [U]framework[/U] or generic [U]approach[/U].
If you choose to apply part of an overall gambling portfolio that adopts a manual/discretionary option comprising a small, logical set of criteria that is based on an unambiguous, non-subjective framework, your chances of progress will be that much greater if you match that criteria up with consistently repetitive outcomes influenced & exacerbated in line with herd psychology.
After all, it’s part of how mass participation markets function. Even (some of) the machines are programmed & primed incorporating a healthy slice of that cake in their computations.
No, the small percentage is in relation to the individuals as opposed to the approach/strategies.
The only ones being lead in these types of places are the sheep of this world, but these character types would experience the same ultimate outcome regardless which endeavour they pursued.
The street smart, more switched on operators, of which in my experience there are few in these types of endeavour beyond industry experienced players, often have a knack of quickly assessing, filtering & successfully side stepping the time wasting nonsense, but it calls for razor sharp intuitive skills & an ability to spot a bull sh*tter from 50 paces.
Unfortunately from my experience anyway, there are precious few who fit that bill.
T’is a tough old playground, especially for the naïve, unprepared newbie but the brokers need a constant trickle of them + a good percentage of low profit/breakeven punters to keep the dream alive long enough to encourage others into the cobweb in the belief they’re only a few tantalising steps away from cracking the code!
Here is some insight into what my positions look like currently. These are all daily charts and even with all of these positions on I am using only 4.38% of my buying power.
Got some real nice consolidation here towards the end of the week. Took profits in the above three pairs. These pictures were taken right before I took the profits off so you can see where my positions were.
Had a great week. Current performance is above. I am currently only using 1.9% of my buying power so I have a ton of powder dry. On July 12th I cut my position sizing in half and changed my way of hedging. Look at how much this has reduced the volatility of the strategy since. From July 12th to present the return has been 8.01% and at this rate this would be an annualized 48%. Not too bad at all.
