Short Term Trading (Australia Day) Weekend Lounge: 25-28 Jan, page-114

Happy Australia Day to you @syzygy and to everyone on the STT forum.

You are right, Australia is well and truly in my soul and I miss you all more with each day I’m away. The Australia Day celebration has brought back memories of the best years of my life. I will return as soon as I can.

I have enjoyed reading and posting on these threads and am indebted to you for coaxing me to step out of my comfort zone. I was instantly reminded of the warm reception I got when I first came to Australia and of why I am privileged to have become a citizen of your fine country.

Australians are a breath of fresh air in an often jaded, cynical world. They are unstuffy, non-judgmental and have a genuine and contagious buoyancy of spirit.

Glad you make this point about your recent winning trades. I tend to become like a stodgy schoolmarm when I see my friends on a real winning streak in large caps much less otc stocks. I get worried that their psychology will become corrupted and so I start preaching about exit points and the virtues of learning to watch the horses run without you after you have obeyed your trading rules.

“Overtrading” is probably too general a word. It could be broken down into a number of habits.

Whether one is prone to post-success euphoria or not, trading rules are a must. But rules are no fun and hard to employ – and “rules were made to be broken”. And they do get broken when you are hopped up on fast money. This has all been elucidated well in this weekend’s thread by these veteran traders – so you know I have not just been trying to keep you from having fun.

Yes, you can continue to win big in the course of over trading or overstaying a trade. But – and take this to heart – it is seldom sustainable. It can’t be reliably repeated. And repetition is what gets us the dependable salary. If we didn't need structure we wouldn't confine stocks behind the prison bars of technical analysis.

Here I go again on my milk crate. This is a blanket statement. Trading is not like investing – for most of us it is a job just like delivering the mail or putting up a roof. Bit by bit, piece by piece, year by year. A person might earn enough through trading alone to become fabulously wealthy, but in most cases where he or she is that skilled, he will maintain and compound that wealth as he begins to parlay his trading salary into long term investments. Trading to me is a very demanding job. Sure, some traders have immense disposable income and virtuosity beyond mortals. But they are extremely rare and we don’t need to employ such capital or take conspicuous risks to prove we are every bit as skilled as they are. After that you will still have to use rules, though.

I will try to elaborate with a proper answer to your question when my brain comes back to life in the AM. There are some subtleties that you have brought to light and this deserves an intensive look and explanation.

Thank you very much for inviting me to here, Syz. And thanks to everyone here.

I hope you and all here have a great time celebrating a well-earned Australia Day.