Wednesday, December 07, 2005
A losers game special post!
I just had a revelation regarding the learning process of trading. I was emailing the guys this AM about Foosers chat room and the revelation just hit me. I have learned a great deal from Fooser in his trading method. It is largely responsible for me becoming profitable.
I was chatting with Foos the other night when no one else was in the room and I was asking him where one of the traders that used to make a lot of commentary was. This trader just vanished from the room and hasn't been there for weeks. What I remember about this guy was that he was very funny when he lost money and he was funny a lot! He may have been the main comic source of the room
Fooser says to me that he just figures that when they no longer show up that they probably blew up there account and quit trading. Says it happens all the time. They will be in the room everyday for a couple of months and then just stop... gone, never to return. Then he adds that the guy that no longer shows up was a counter trend trader and that they rarely survive very long.
Then it hits me. I have seen several counter trend traders all come and go in the room... just vanish, never to return. That's when I realize that perhaps I've learned more from the losers than from Foos! Sorry Foos but it is true.... let me explain.
There are several traders that are always shorting every time the market goes up to the next resistance level and then breaks through, then the market will retrace some (my entry point usually) and then the market will rally to the next resistance level above that, and they will short even more contracts and the process just repeats. Yes, the market will occasional correct and come down and they will occasionally win. More often they lose. The process is the same when the market it going down... they will go long every time the market collapses to the next support level only to see it fall again. The same traders doing the same trades day after day and then they vanish.
Remember my issues with revenge trading? Same thing.
The first month I traded in Foosers room I would try to trade only the foosers trades but sometimes I just couldn't resist and I would follow the countertrenders. After falling into the countertrend trap I would resolve to only take Foos trades. Finally I reprogrammed my brain so that I wouldn't want to short a climbing market or buy a falling market.
It is funny to look back at that now because I see these guys doing the same thing that I did for my first year of trading and my first thought is can't these guys see the market if going up (or down). Are these guys nuts because they are going to lose this trade. Then I will patiently wait for my retrace to enter in the direction of the trend and more often than not I will make money.
Thanks to all the losers out there that have taught me something! This is a losers game afterall isn't it?
Trader X
I was chatting with Foos the other night when no one else was in the room and I was asking him where one of the traders that used to make a lot of commentary was. This trader just vanished from the room and hasn't been there for weeks. What I remember about this guy was that he was very funny when he lost money and he was funny a lot! He may have been the main comic source of the room
Fooser says to me that he just figures that when they no longer show up that they probably blew up there account and quit trading. Says it happens all the time. They will be in the room everyday for a couple of months and then just stop... gone, never to return. Then he adds that the guy that no longer shows up was a counter trend trader and that they rarely survive very long.
Then it hits me. I have seen several counter trend traders all come and go in the room... just vanish, never to return. That's when I realize that perhaps I've learned more from the losers than from Foos! Sorry Foos but it is true.... let me explain.
There are several traders that are always shorting every time the market goes up to the next resistance level and then breaks through, then the market will retrace some (my entry point usually) and then the market will rally to the next resistance level above that, and they will short even more contracts and the process just repeats. Yes, the market will occasional correct and come down and they will occasionally win. More often they lose. The process is the same when the market it going down... they will go long every time the market collapses to the next support level only to see it fall again. The same traders doing the same trades day after day and then they vanish.
Remember my issues with revenge trading? Same thing.
The first month I traded in Foosers room I would try to trade only the foosers trades but sometimes I just couldn't resist and I would follow the countertrenders. After falling into the countertrend trap I would resolve to only take Foos trades. Finally I reprogrammed my brain so that I wouldn't want to short a climbing market or buy a falling market.
It is funny to look back at that now because I see these guys doing the same thing that I did for my first year of trading and my first thought is can't these guys see the market if going up (or down). Are these guys nuts because they are going to lose this trade. Then I will patiently wait for my retrace to enter in the direction of the trend and more often than not I will make money.
Thanks to all the losers out there that have taught me something! This is a losers game afterall isn't it?
Trader X
