JJ, anyone who thinks all it takes is a few picks and a lost of the most active or most will need the 4-5 years to learn to trade the right way. Posters on SI have no responsibility other than posting a pick here and there on SI, others don't actually track the picks, they get lost and when one is up.. out of 4 or 5. The lotto ticket is called in "I WON!"... trial and error, trying to stay afloat in a down market, learning how to hedge losses or down markets with a lot, a real lot of puts, shorts, thats what makes a trader. Unfortunately not all professional services fare any better unless you test them out.
My tennis pro wants to be a trader, he asked if my trading forum is good for him, I told him point blank, stay off SI, don't go on the trading forum but read a few basic books, then find a seminar or teaching program that someone else has had a positive experience from. Then take 3 or 4 months to paper trade, then maybe take some trials at various websites. Those that provide eduation, is well done and not in a slipshod way, get a site with a way out if you get in over your head, and most of all don't get influenced by 'claims' of gains made by those who can't or won't back up and commit to their trading system. There has to be a system, a group of strategies that work over and over and backtested through time. Otherwise you are join a fantasy world like Alice through the looking glass or looking for the Wizard of Oz like Dorothy, when he doesn't exist and where nothing is like it seems.
I get scores of e-mails every day of disappointments, euphoria, claims not backed up, picks that backfire, newsletters that disappoint, brokerages that promise, etc. etc. We were all there unfortunately some of us learned the hard way. When your order roofing or a swimming pool you want to check out the other customers and see how satisfied they were and the quality of their work. Cheap is not always mean the worst, and the most expensive doesn't always mean the best... try them all and then decide. Usually but not always you get what you pay for. |
