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Strategies & Market Trends : DAYTRADING Fundamentals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TraderAlan who wrote (3345)	8/28/1999 2:49:00 PM
From: funk	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

I agree. The quality of a traders' personal psychology and outlook is far more influential than the quality of tools. Obviously, some traders have the ability to succeed without real-time quotes at all. Not me, but that style is viable. As far as Day-Trading Fundamentals go, for me there is only one fundamental truth about trading. You must be confident in your approach. If the psychology isn't there, the market will eat up your account. A 56k connection can be plenty, if the user goes to the trouble to get a proper isp and uses a trading style that leans more toward swing trading and less toward scalping. A trading system just has to be profitable enough, that the occasional internet funk up will not be a career ending occurrence. If you are scalping with a multi million dollar account, then yup, i think a very high end connection makes perfect sense.

To: TraderAlan who wrote (3345)	8/28/1999 2:53:00 PM
From: Cormac	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

Alan - YOU ARE RIGHT Well said, but if you will excuse the poor simile...it is a lot tougher to build a piece of fine furniture with poor tools - there still needs to be a skill level (decision making, execution proficiency, risk management, discipline, chart reading, tape reading, etc.) - of which there is no substitute. tools don't make the carpenter...or the trader It could be viewed as an allocation of resources, if you are constantly having to allocate resources - thoughts, concentration, "brain power" to issues of connectivity, hardware, software etc. - those resources have to be taken from elsewhere...possibly from "decision making" Respectfully, Cormac

To: TraderAlan who wrote (3345)	8/28/1999 3:41:00 PM
From: KM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

So right. It's like sports in a way. Pete Sampras can whip Joe Pretty Good Amateur with a racket bought at WalMart.

To: TraderAlan who wrote (3345)	8/28/1999 3:54:00 PM
From: Threei	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

Alan, totally matches to my experience. Several months ago I tried to sort out my losses for almost 3 years of trading. Results are a bit approximate of course, since I can't remember all the exact numbers and occasions. Anyway, I think it's something of interest: 1. Lack of general understanding of market dynamics and rules (mostly occurred during first year of trading, dramatically decreased later): 20% 2. Lack of discipline, psychological failures (steady decrease as experience grows with some occasional spikes): 44% 3. Deviations from adopted strategy, excessive experimenting (mostly occurred during second year, still "visit" me during current year): 8% 4. "Built-in" losses (stops, in cases when I did everything according to good trading plan but market disagreed with my decision and I applied proper stop-loss; share of this kind of losses steady increases vs all others): 27% 5 Hardware/software/connection related losses: hardly 1%! Have to add: I use 56K modem, I do intraday trades and scalps, most often I sell first weakness... so, style matches to what usually considered to demand high speed connection (although, I play no IPOs or Internet highfyers). Even with all subjectivity of this analysis it intuitively seems to be close enough to the truth. Anyone can share such an analysis for comparison purposes? Vadym

To: TraderAlan who wrote (3345)	8/28/1999 4:08:00 PM
From: nextrade!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

The truth is that most will fail due to lack of skill and/or discipline... The foundation for unlimited success! Regards, nextrade!

To: TraderAlan who wrote (3345)	8/29/1999 2:56:00 PM
From: Bridge Player	Respond to of 18137

<< There's a tendency to believe that better, faster, sexier technology makes one a more successful trader. The truth is that most will fail due to lack of skill and/or discipline, not the lack of a T1 line.>> Well said, Trader Alan. Very perceptive, and oh so true. BP

To: TraderAlan who wrote (3345)	8/29/1999 10:16:00 PM
From: Paul Viapiano	Respond to of 18137

There's a tendency to believe that better, faster, sexier technology makes one a more successful trader. The truth is that most will fail due to lack of skill and/or discipline, not the lack of a T1 line. This is so true...many musicians feel that their playing will be better by getting a new instrument. Well...this only will be true if they are already an incredible player, and usually the difference will be noticeable only to the player him/herself. Paul