I’m a “boomer” (About 1945 to 1960) and all my kids are “millenials” (Gen Y)(about 1980 to 2000) - Between us came “Gen X” (1961 to 1980 ) and before me came the “Silent Generation” (1925 to 1945 ish) I don’t know whether the current generation have as yet been named.
I’m of the '56 vintage. Maybe not unique to that generation but growing into teen years we felt we could do anything. Our parents (in the UK) were the first to become pretty comfortable - with available mortgages, consumer credit, full employment, no more rationing (it only ended here in 1954!), foreign holiday travel, affordable car ownership, no national conscription.
This was an amazing time for them and they passed it onto us. Their parents had come through the First World War and the Great Depression, then WW2 and my parents must have thought they’d had a narrow escape from all that but we were going to be well clear of it.
Myself, my cousins and others of my age in my town were all the first in our respective families to take 3 years out after school to get a degree qualification. The decline of manufacturing, for better or for worse, meant we all were the first to expect white collar employment immediately we went to work, not after 20 years on the tools.
My parents’ generation were the first to be offered early retirement, my generation took it for granted. We all expected to be able to buy a house (not rent it) and run a car (not use the bus) with no help from parents’ bank accounts while we were still single, in our very first jobs - in their time, single men were often paid less than married men in the same work.
But the big change is the expectations of and for the generation coming up now - realistically, these are maybe lower than the last 2 or even 3 generations. Worked out pretty well for the baby boomers but now we seem to be going backwards.
Whilst the old timer baby boomers once read taps on a trading floor, those days are long gone.
So what skills did baby boomers invent that young gun traders should still consider today?
I’m a Millennial’s and am used to the instant flow of information. But it’s impossible for a single trader like me to beat an algo to a news announcement. Whilst HFT trading is still a way to make money, I’ll leave that to the likes of Goldman Sachs.
Old school legends like Jack Schwager definitely honed skills Millennial’s should consider, like a rules based approach to trading.
Who thinks a technical trading plan like the one utilised by the turtle traders would work with solid risk management in 2018? Or in other words, is the edge gained by a technical analysis and solid risk management enough to make you money as a trader?
Absolutely something like the Turtles’ strategy would still work, it has no option but to work. Look at really old daily charts, I’m looking at GBP/USD from 1970. Prices go up, prices go down, and how to recognise a trend just doesn’t change.
Beware of people who say loudly that trends don’t happen any more, they are usually day-traders talking to day-traders.
Hey @tommor. I couldn’t agree more but what trend?
I’ve used these strategies successfully to scalp too. But found the daily trend is completely different to the hourly trend. I believe your time frame also impacts your hold time.
I like using three MA levels:
5 day, 10 day and 50 day.
So long as the 5 and 10 day average is moving in sync, I’ll jump in to try and grab some pips. I gain confidence if everything is moving with the 50 day average too.
The right trend to follow is the one that most fits your strategy. Which sounds trite but its common to find new traders taking a trend direction from the 50 day EMA and entering a position they will hold in this direction for the next 3 hours. Also going long on the one and only EUR-based pair that looks bullish, when all the others are bearish and getting weaker.
For me an uptrend has to have the 20EMA above the 50 and the 50’s slope must be upwards. Hard to think of an uptrend that doesn’t feature these but I insist on both. I try and assess the suitability of different trends by additional metrics which are simple but not commonly bothered with by traders. The criteria do vary a bit but e.g. how many weekly closes in the last 13 above the 50EMA? how many weekly bars does the last one overlap? are all 3 of the last 3 weekly bars above and untouched by the 200EMA? etc. etc.
Some measures are more key than others and they get bonus points. The best trend for me to enter most urgently is the one with the highest score. I also aim to multiple pyramid the best scoring trends.
The surprise I had when I first started trend-following forex was that if you filter too finely to eliminate the weaker targets, your profit disappears really fast, so even a weakly scoring trend is worth a small trade.
There doesn’t seem to be an “official” Generation definition (Somebody will no doubt “produce one” and “Prove” me wrong here ! )
The one I used , I found on a solicitor’s website (I think) and different groups seem to use different changing points according to their own whims.
Here is another one from a “Marketting Group” - If there’s one thing we KNOW about “Marketers” it is that they understand their “markets” so I guess their definition is as good as any.
Interesting set of characteristics they put on each generation - Here is an article on it (written I suggest by a millenial ? )
INteresting that the “marketers” have identified “Eco-fatigue” among the “Boomlets”
I shudder when I hear the “Pink Floyd” words - due to an unhealthy and forced contiuous exposure for a fortnight - to “Dark Side…” at “Peak Volume” in an enclosed space.
PInk Floyd - perhaps my most favourite band. Alongside the Rolling Stones and The Who.
But I don’t really recognise generations as just groups of people at a certain age, afterall, people are being born constantly all through every year. Rather, I see this as a process of social, economic and political change which passes through various stages, many of which can be identified by certain criteria or phenomena relating to that period.
These periods developed as much from technological advances and changing economic conditions as they did from the evolution of social outlooks and broadening of educational opportunities.
It makes more sense to me to think of these generations as just the interwar years, the post WW2 years and the digital era.
The interwar period is perhaps mostly remembered for the “roaring 20’s” and the Great Depression. Family structure and especially the child/parent relationship was clear and rigid.
The post-war period was perhaps mostly characterised by the challenge of youth of all existing bonds and boundaries. They were finding and creating their own identity instead of having it imposed on them by the parent generation. This was greatly aided by increased affluence, secure employment and technological advances in consumer products.
The roots of the digital age are found in the spread of home computers, the creation of Windows and the Internet and the development and availability of mobile communication.
What I find interesting is the general enthusiasm of people nowadays (self included) for TV series which are based in the immediate post-war eras following both WW1 and WW2. Is this an indication of a certain vacuum in today’s sterile, digital world or just a pure romanticism of the “olden times”?
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