Trading is the easiest thing I have done in my life to make money. It feels so easy that some of my fellow traders keep telling me this is too good to be true. Taking a step back and reflecting on why trading seems as easy as breathing this is what I figured out.
I am purely technical trader which means I can have the model coded and running to auto generate signals. I don’t need to physically exert or invest anything more than 15 min a trading day to set up the system.
I have a daily chart based system deliberately done so reduce the frequency of signals and to facilitate pre set orders.
I have a simple naked option buying strategy which makes the execution process super simple.
None of this means that I haven’t been through the grind. There has been several experiments, observations and calibrations with many strategies, platforms etc. Figuring out the market to the point where I could profit from it did take time and effort. All that time and effort went in to create something that was profitable yet simple and consistently followable with acceptable trade off between risk, accuracy and profitability.
A question that can have multiple answers. The moment one makes money consistently without knowing the in & outs needs to consider themselves lucky but does not work in the longer run. Such traders will definitely call it easy.
Someone who’s been through hard work and immense practice will know that being a consistent trader does not come easy. Yes, it is definitely hard. The ease that one gets is not overnight but a result of immense discipline, losses, hard work, and developing your own systems and strategies. Once you are good with your strategy, it is easy for the person who builds it, but for another to replicate the same, definitely hard.
Many of the smartest traders that I have seen admit that they can’t predict the market. In fact they have no interest in predicting the market. They trade their system and follow strict risk management which is key to their success.
So what would you say about that? Traditional definition of “hard work” doesn’t really work in market. No one is lifting bricks here on a hot summer day.
The hard work here is mainly mind based.
Can you read Zerodha Varsity(or any other source) properly without frustration and skimming. Or are you like most traders who just want to start making money right way.
Can you cut your loss at pre defined loss level? Or will you change your sl. Cutting your loss means that day will close negative. Do you have the courage to voluntarily close the day in negative and not take any revenge trades?
Have you calculated max drawdown and done position sizing? Do you have the guts to stick to the system or will you run to another system or do curve fitting at the first sign of drawdown?
These are the things that can be called the real “hard work” in the market. It takes real guts to close a week in negative and not overtrade. It takes guts to stick to a system when it is in time drawdown of a month or so.
But most people think they can solve the market. If they work really really hard they will be able to predict the market. All the focus is on perfect entries and booking profits rather than good exits and controlling losses.
Of course it’s tough. If not, every other person would be doing it. To get to a level where one finds making money to be easy in the market, one needs to put years of learning, practice and patience. Learning and practice still to an extent can be done, patience is what I believe most of them would lack.
Not just another ball game it is, needs skills just like any other business.
Gambling is a term almost synonymous with a Casino. But then Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon, MIT BlackJack team etc showed its not the way to look at a Casino. In the market, the price movements have a sense of probability. Know the odds, place the bet.
It’s not difficult to place orders or adding money to account.
What is hard ?
Handling your emotions looking your account go up and down. Handling the euphoria of high return and need for over leveraging for quick money is hard. Handling DD money balance is hard. getting over this is hard
Being patient during forward testing is hard. Accepting your 1 week backward testing and 5 months forward testing doesn’t work and moving on is hard. Not being tempted to trade money without plan or with half knowledge is hard. Not letting desparation to influence trading is hard.
Sticking with money management is hard I.e not to risk too much or overleveraging. Not being tempted to trade high volumes on news events to make quick money is hard. Being consistent with money management and letting system work is hard because of battling emotions.
If you are trading lower timeframes especially 5 mins and 15 mins, just sitting for so much longer time is hard. Being patient to find right opportunity is hard.
Knowing to stop trading when DD is beyond 50% Is also hard.
Full time trading is hard bro, very taxing. 2022 started off really wild with so much vol and open positions at once. It’s as if I wasn’t even trading. I was both collecting my own thots and trying to crunch huge amounts of data at the same time. Was really fun ngl. But in that span I have smoked ~200 boxes of cigarettes, diet all messed up and my health looks something out of an MKUltra experiment. A lot of stuff including side-projects, unread trading books and accounting is also piling up because of this. So have decided to use put trading on hold for now and catch-up with the rest of the things over the next couple of months. But then again how long can you really stay away from trading. A writer writes. A singer sings. A trader trades™. Anyhow, Dirty Bulk, I choose you.
Update: Just closed down all my other accounts, and will just use this one now going forward. Consolidating. Nothing much, just random scrolling once in a while. Brokers got worried and started telling me to read this educational material, read this blog, see this video, check this person out, maybe you just don’t have information for trading properly. Had to tell them no bro, I already know all the resources you are recommending me. Have known them and followed them since loong back. All this information is already priced in years back. It’s just that AMC and other charges for having these many accounts doesn’t make sense if I’ve decided to take a trading sabbatical. But they got worried regardless and began making assumptions. Anyway, the trading sabbatical still stands as I said. Not everything is about trading, its just an account. sighhh…
I came in to the market in 2007. Thus far I have learnt a lot. Going forward what ever the market has to teach me further am willing to learn as a humble student.
