Confessions of a wannabe
professional stock trader
I started with CSCO and JDSU
and some tech ETF my broker talked me into. I was new to the market. I think it
was around 1996. Back then, it was coming up on the end of a boom in the market.
911 made sure of that. I don’t know when I first wanted to be a wannabe professional
stock trader, I just knew I did. Being a professional stock trader looked
pretty cool. I knew I had a lot to learn, so I had no time to waste. And I knew
all professional stock traders know what the market is going to do.
I had researched it on the Internet. From all
the photos I saw, the one thing in common was a lot of computer monitors. Ok
easy enough. I made room on my desk and set up 3 - 24 inch screens and my
laptop next to them. I also hung a 36 inch LED television on my wall. Nice!
Over the years, I subscribed to multiple
social stock news feeds, multiple trading e-newsletters with hot stock tips
every day or so they promised and joined or subscribed to several chat rooms.
Having my ear on the pulse of the market was a sure way to know exactly what
the market was going to do.
I had all my screens buzzing with charts and
social feeds and chat rooms. Some days I wished I had 7 more screens. Maybe if
I got bigger ones I could hang them on the wall and I could see them.
This certainly was going to help me become a professional wannabe and know what
the market was going to do.
There were some really big wannabe
professional traders on these chats too. I mean they were on all the major news
networks all the time. How come every time I blindly followed them into a
trade, I lost? Oh well, maybe they were having bad day.
Over the years I have traded stocks, every
type of option known to man, bonds. Futures, forex and more. If it was legal. I
have traded it. I had learned about a zillion different indicators too. I just
never could figure out which was best. But knowing how to use them was what
counted. Right? Yep. I had arrived. All of these indicators would surely show
me what the market was going to do.
In the chat rooms and watching the gurus on
the television, every day was a new challenge for all of us. We worked as a
team, stirring up fear of a market crash and we better get out of everything or
on other days the market was going to rally and we better buy, buy, and buy.
Most days it did the opposite of what everyone was screaming, and we would lose
or break even, but we were all wannabe’s and that’s what counted. We knew what
the market was going to do. Right?
The problem was I never really got a head.
With all my bells and whistles I thought I knew what the market was going to do
along with everyone else that wants to be a wannabe.
A few years ago I remembered this. Buy low,
sell high. Buy at support, take profit when you got it. Where did that come
from? No professional would keep it that simple.
When my father traded in the markets. He made
millions. I remember him sitting in his room with one screen. Before computers
there was a television and a phone and he would call a broker and before that
for him there was the morning and evening paper. He made his millions. But why?
He wasn't a professional and he did not have enough information flow to know
what the markets were going to do.
Over time we have filled our screens with so
many indicators, we can't even see the price action. We look for that one trade
that will be our pot of gold while we think we know what the market will
do.
Recently I turned everything off. On one
screen I have a webcam of a beautiful beach I want to move too. On the other
screen I have streaming music. On my last screen, I have charts just in case an
alert I have set goes off telling me buy above, sell below or close the trade.
And I place the trades from my smart phone and don't pay commission. It’s
really simple.
I gave up trying to know what the market was
going to do a few years ago and they have been my best trading years ever. It
really is amazing what you can do, when you don’t know or try to know, or care
what the market is going to do!
Does that mean I'm not a professional wannabe anymore?
I really don't care. I am having some of the happiest trading ever. Me, my
phone and my one screen.
And my biggest accomplishment was I discovered
a really easy way to trade earnings with a very high success rate. It’s amazing
what you can do, when you turn everything off and get quiet.
Trade
Happy my friends and have fun, not stress doing it. You will be a success.
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