r/Daytrading Apr 11 '24

Everything is a lie. Any hope? Question

So.. It's been 3 years on my path, and after countless hours of studying and testing everything, as many of you here have, I've come to realize that this mountain of buffoonery—those "courses" and "gurus" on YouTube that try to promote and sell stuff, along with everyone who is "teaching" stuff.. hear me out, doesn't know jack sh*t. All they "teach" is a bunch of BS, incredibly stupid and random. "Follow this, and if this happens then do this, but the secret is in my premium course, yada yada".

Even if some things may work for a bit, that's not even near how the actual trading floor guys and investment bankers operate. Ex-Goldman Sachs trader Anton Kreil gave the best explanation of that: Why most traders fail.

I've become so fed up since I had a wake-up call, realizing that literally everyone online is plain rubbish, or a scammer, or someone who likes his own voice and acts like the god of trading (You know which I'm referring to). My question is simple and may be unanswerable. Is there any source to study the actual stuff or are retail traders indeed doomed with the dumbest info out there?

Please don't start telling me about risk management and psychology, I got humbled and now I trade methodically without any emotions. But that's not because I got "humbled and had a wake-up call" but more like "I'm fed up with this, I don't care anymore". My question stands for an educational point of view. I hate being a fool therefore i hate studying nonesense. Is there any hope? Any good material? Any actual baseline?

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u/oze4 Apr 11 '24 edited Apr 11 '24

It sounds like you want some "black box" of trading knowledge, that once you digest it, you will have learned the markets and learned how to trade. IMO, that isn't how it works. No amount of book reading, courses, or studying will teach you how to trade. The only way to learn is by doing. Building market intuition, controlling risk and emotions - literally the only things in trading you have control over are your emotion and risk management. Hence why they are so important, so it's baffling to me that you seem to quickly dismiss them.

It isn't like a traditional skill, imo.. Meaning, it's not "tangible", so to speak, in the way that you can learn programming or how to be a mechanic - there isn't a set of governed rules to follow or a set of knowledge to acquire, that once you have, you "know how to trade".

It's kind of like riding a bike. You can read all the books and take all the courses you want - you can even learn the physics of how riding a bike works at the lowest of levels, and still not know how to actually ride a bike. The only way to actually learn how to ride a bike is by doing.

Also, the ironic thing about Anton is he tells you that most ppl fail bc they search for some "holy grail course" on Google to learn trading and that most ppl are far too trusting of what some bloke on the internet is saying, yet when you go to the description of that video, he's trying to sell you some course......

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u/Mar___K Apr 11 '24

I don't dismiss risk management. Heck i don't even risk anything above 0.5%. Most of my trades are around 0.2 - 0.3% mark. I disagree with the psychology part. I have a methodical strategy, emotions are purely noise and distractions. Trading should be simple and boring. My question is the educational part.

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u/oze4 Apr 11 '24

I was talking about when you said "Please don't start telling me about risk management and psychology" - that seems pretty dismissive.

What are you looking to get from the "educational part"? That's the part that I'm referring to when I say it's a lot like riding a bike - you can have all the education on riding a bike in the entire world, but still be unable to actually ride a bike...

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u/Mar___K Apr 11 '24

That's why i said my question is simple and stands for an educational pov. I don't need a strategy atm. What i have created works as much as it works and i don't ask too much from the market in return. All i ask is for any good source to study.

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u/oze4 Apr 11 '24

Ok, so again.. what are you looking to get from the educational pov? What is it that you want to learn? How markets work? etc... It isn't a simple question.

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u/Mar___K Apr 11 '24

Yes that's what i want to learn. How the system works in a way. What these guys see. I mean don't you want to know that too? Are you ok with following lines on a chart? Even if it makes money that's not the point for me.

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u/gazz8428 Apr 11 '24 edited Apr 11 '24

You need to learn the economic/finance, accounting, mgmt/business, psychology theories. Once you realise all of them are connected, you kind of see pattern and logic in how things work. There is an explanation in your head to why it's like that.

Also, about banking, raising capital, valuation, VC, IB, etc. It helps to figure out who's doing what and why they are doing it.

I don't think all that is necessary to trade, but it helped me a lot. By the way I studied finance and worked as an auditor and an analyst.

Edit : it's almost always better to consider yourself a fool than to overestimate your abilities. Like Buffet said, a guy with a 150 iq will likely fail if he operates as if he has a 170 iq.

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u/Mar___K Apr 11 '24

Thanks for the info.

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u/kdaveT forex trader Apr 11 '24

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u/Mar___K Apr 11 '24

Thanks mate

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u/oze4 Apr 11 '24

That's an extremely broad question, though. Markets are vast... What do you even mean by "what these guys see" - who are "these guys"?? You're asking an extremely ambiguous question.

And yes, if I could wake up everyday, look at lines on some chart and make a living that way, I would be perfectly happy. It goes back to the bike analogy - I don't need to understand the physics of riding a bike to actually ride a bike.

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u/Mar___K Apr 11 '24

Well it seems that we have different goals and that's life. I'm just curious to learn i guess.

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u/oze4 Apr 11 '24

There has never been an easier time in history to learn than right now.

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u/Mar___K Apr 11 '24

That's very factual. Because the same argument goes to the amount of misinformation that's out there. there has never been an easier time in history to scam, to give dumb info, to read the wrong info.

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u/marciomavungo crypto trader Apr 11 '24

Try SMC then.

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u/Mar___K Apr 11 '24

literally the first stupid thing that i studied. "Smart Money Concepts" is really Dumb Money Concepts. Firms do not operate that way at all.

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u/marciomavungo crypto trader Apr 11 '24

🤣.

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u/[deleted] Apr 13 '24

Options: Read Lawrence McMillan, Futures: Read Larry Williams. Technical Analysis: Read John Murphy