Good (Thursday) morning everyone.
Derek (midulster):
Thank you for the input. I think you are right. From now on I will post results that detail not only the current capital acount balance (which of course includes realised profits/losses) but also unrealised profits/losses and the nett results thereof. To be honest: the reason I have not done this up until now is to avoid those ‘panic’ situations (by OTHER people) i.e. I’ve found that it’s real difficult to explain to someone that even although RIGHT NOW (at a month end for example) their gains from the previous month may be all but erased BUT it does NOT mean that is the way the current month will close i.e. in the past it’s led to me having to explain the current losses AT LENGTH ON A DAILY BASIS and justify my trading actions and spend much time having to convince someone else of MY absolute faith in Wilder’s trading systems. It can be REAL frustrating!!! But: so be it. At least that way ‘all the cards are on the table’ and if someone (a ‘client’) cannot live with the stress then they can withdraw their funds or close their account with pleasure (and then as you say: go and try to find somewhere else where they’re getting AT LEAST 10% per month return on their money PER MONTH and maybe give us all the telephone number of the institution that they find that will be willing to do this for them)!!!
Anyway: thanks again for the input and insight. Much appreciated.
Randon (randont):
I sincerely hope that you don’t think that my ‘ranting and raving’ posts of yesterday were directed at you. I assure you they were not. I have been wondering and worrying about you though to be honest i.e. always wondering and worrying about how everyone else is doing. Remember one thing: NOBODY is going to be dissapointed in you EVEN IF you wiped your ENTIRE account out!!! I’ll tell you THIS much: the only time I would be disspapointed in you (or anyone else) is if you ‘threw in the towel’!!! Having said THAT I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you that you are not doing this to impress me nor anyone else either (although I do know at least from ‘where I sit’ that it DOES sometimes help to have other people ‘watching over your shoulder’ i.e. from time to time we ALL need a bit of a ‘reality check’ or a stern reminder of what we’re doing wrong at times i.e. it keeps me ‘in line’ when I need it)!!! And also remember this please: we are ALL here to help i.e. that’s what this thread is for i.e. it’s NOT here for me to have a platform!!!
Having said all of that: yes (by the sounds of things) you have indeed found or come to realise that money management ABOVE ALL ELSE is ‘key’. I’ll tell you RIGHT NOW that EVEN WITH these wonderful systems that we have been ‘given’ by ‘the old man’: without good and proper and sound money management EVEN I would have wiped out NOT ONLY my OWN money that I’ve worked so hard to make but ALSO my ‘clients’ money by now!!! How is THAT for ‘telling it like it is’!!! With good and proper and sound money management I have been able to ‘ride out’ losing positions only to have them turn to a nice ‘big fat profits’ ‘at the end of the day’!!!
I don’t normally quote from ‘the book’ but sometimes it’s easy to miss something so in regard to the above let me once again ‘impart the wisdom’ of ‘the old man’:
[I]'The message of this book is that there are three parts to a good technical trading plan:[/I]
I Using a good technical system.[/I]
I Using the system on the right market(s) at the right time.[/I]
I Using a good money management technique.[/I]
[I][B]Of these three the third is the most important, the easiest to learn . . . and the hardest to do.’[/B] (SECTION X, ‘CAPITAL MANAGEMENT’, ‘New Concepts In Technical Trading Systems’ by J. Welles Wilder Jnr., 1978).[/I]
Also: I agree with your ‘lack of responsibilty’ comment i.e. I’ve also ‘been there and done that’. Last year when I was so ‘down’ I blamed EVERYTHING and EVERONE for my losses (and of course told myself what a WONDERFUL PERSON and FANTASTIC TRADER I was on the ‘odd’ occasions when I had INDEED made a profit)!!! It was only when I took responsibility for MY actions and MY trading that I sat down with ‘the book’, ‘coded’ the systems, and, well, the rest as they say ‘is history’. (OK: being down to my last line of credit, last bit of cash, and last few saleable assets also did help to ‘spur me on’ I’ll tell you)!!! It also DOES help to surround yourself with positive people (as I’ve said before this is a VERY lonely business when you’re losing money). There WERE times when I really did wonder if it was possible to make money and be successful in this business and there were one or two people who knew nothing about ‘the business’ but had faith in me. Wanna know something strange: one of them is my ‘69% capital gain’ client!!! For this I thank her (yes I KNOW you read the thread every morning Melanie). And even NOW I have ‘met’ some very good people via this thread via YM who also help ME when I get to ‘feeling down and frustrated’ because I’ve not made 1 000 000% in five minutes. Brian (‘thegeek’) has helped me MANY times through this and for this I thank him publicly as well!!! Yes it CAN and IS a frustrating business. Right now: I can do no new trades because I have open positions, all sitting in losses right now, and I’m at ‘max’ on my money management. So: for the past couple of days I’ve been ‘tearing my hair out’ in sheer frustration because I cannot trade until I’ve made some profits (but that’s ‘key’ and what I was ‘rambling on’ about yesterday i.e. I WILL turn profits on these positions but just maybe not this WEEK)!!! KNOWING that, however, DOES NOT make it ANY easier to deal with on a daily basis. Do you think that I STILL don’t want to just close out a loser because I’m ‘pis*ed off’ and ‘impatient’ and ‘frustrated’??? YES I DO!!! BUT: I’ve at least reached the point where I CAN ‘control myself’ and my ‘trading emotions’!!!
Above all (and this has been MY motto): if this is what you want to do for a living then NEVER GIVE UP!!! It IS possible to NOT ONLY make a living from this business BUT to financially PROSPER and with the systems that have been ‘given’ us by ‘the old man’ there is NO EXCUSE for NOT succeeding AND PROSPERING in this business (subject of course to a few basic rules of thumb)!!!
mastergunner99:
If you give me your email address (by sending me an email to [email protected]) I’ll be only to happy to send you an example of a SIS Excel Work Sheet that I was using whilst ‘coding’ the systems.
Edit:
AND BY THE WAY: I’ve been wanting to post this ‘tidbit’ of encouragement for everyone (and also for ‘self’) for a while now.
One thing you HAVE to also realise is this: WE are NOT trading in ‘normal markets’ at the moment and have NOT been since at LEAST the time when sub-prime ‘hit the fan’ (and the warning signs were already starting to show even earlier e.g. Northern Rock)!!! What I’m saying is this: I truly believe that if you can be successful in THESE markets of TODAY then WHEN things return to ‘normal’ your’e going to do EXCEPTIONALLY well with these trading systems (hell: if you can ‘keep your head above water’ in THESE markets of TODAY you’re probably doing well)!!! I have sat and stared ‘aimlessly’ at the likes of the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq for TWENTY FIVE HOURS A DAY (that’s twenty four hours a day plus my lunch hour) for the better part of twenty four months now (and of course looked at past history). NOWHERE in the past have the markets seen volatility like this (at least not as far back as MY charts go anyway and I can also tell you that the so-called 'October ‘87 crash’ did not even last as long as this and was a mere ‘blip’ on the radar screen compared to sub-prime). Normally: what’s prevailed are these LONG and WONDERFUL trends in one direction or another. Nowadays (UNLIKE in 1978): what APPEARS to be the start of a trend inevitably ‘turns and bites you’ when (and where) you least expect it to!!! So if you think YOU’RE having a hard time and YOU’RE not ‘cutting it’ just bear in mind ONE thing: even the likes of the Morgan Stanley’s, JP Morgan Chase’s, and Citigroup’s of this world (Bear Stearns???) etc. etc. etc. are posting MUCH bigger losses than I imagine you OR I and ALL THE OTHER RETAIL TRADERS PUT TOGETHER (and I’m one of those people who’d like to believe that AT LEAST THEY 'know what they’re doing)!!! Trade through this and you’ll be able to trade through ANYTHING!!!
. The next idea: maybe I just borrow the standard candles for the earlier dates.