I am trading for a living. My brother is trading for a living which is more successful than me I think. But both of us managed to survive till today.
I cannot say I am a great trader. I am just an opportunist in the right place and right time. My brother on the other hand is a true trader. I think his trading style more like modern day's Jesse Livermore which take lot of guts and courage.
Trading is not for everybody, just like other profession. Hard work won't pay in short time but probably will pay in long term. Trading in my opinion is more like gambling. Hard work will not guaranteed you to succeed. If you are a hard worker and want to make money, you better choose different job.
Trading needs patience. Building bricks by bricks until the foundation is strong enough to withstand the windfall. When you are strong enough, 3 years of bad trading will not do you harm. Trading just like other business have busy day, quiet day, good product, bad product, new product, outdated product, and so on. If you open a store let's say a liquor store. You will expect good business day during New Year, Independence Day, or other holiday. Just like business. You will expect good profit when there is Brexit event, President Election, or other World event. In other word, you expect market high volatility especially for day traders.
I am not a believer of loyal to just few symbols to trade, Just like good product or trending product may become outdated or expired. I believed in one thing. Every product with big volatility is good. Stock Traders do that all the time. They will look which stocks is in spotlight today and trade the hell of it, Expert in one product is very difficult. The product may have some bad time, low volatility or small volume. Like S&P in my opinion is very difficult to trade. Small range, low volatility, and so on. It has its time and probably will become great again in the future. But it's much easier to find other product and applied your trading system at it. Price pattern can change but high volatility will always give higher chance to profit.
A good trader will not affected by day to day performance. Bad trader will be affected by few bad days and changing system all the time. The key is patience. Waiting for the right moment to trade. When market is quiet, good trader will trade low or not trading at all. Trade low is not for profit, it just a way to keep intact with market flow. Good trader with good foundation aka. money will have the money works at other place when market is bad. They will use their time to screen other opportunities or other symbol. The skill to screen hot volatile product is more important than the trading system. But when the time comes, good trader will use all his assets to maximize the profit. It is not uncommon if traders only make big profits just 2 months in a year that enough for 10 years to live.
There you have it. My wisdom I like to share with you all. Predicting market movement is stupid. Market can overbought or oversold for eternity. Trading is about yourself. Look inside and be honest with yourself. Are you sure you are in the right track?
