There seems to be an impression in the Markets that Trading is very simple and making Money from the Markets is a piece of cake. Spend a few years developing a system, backtest it with a few years of data to ensure it works and voila- you are set for life
Unfortunately Trading live Markets is far more complex than that. Times change, Markets change and systems that minted Money start giving back all of it and more. This can happen overnight. Also there is a lot of talk about 'non discretionary' Systems
As if that's a panacea to which will allow you to leave your brains and emotions at home! Read book on Jim Simons- perhaps the most successful Systems Trader and you will find that he overrides his system often and continues to harbor doubts on whether it will continue to work
The very idea that a static system can permanently work in a constantly living, evolving organism that the Markets are is ludicrous. My personal experience is that over the last few years I have had to regularly modify my Systems to keep up with the Market
My post painful period was from June-Oct this year where I found that what had worked so beautifully for the last few years, lost me a lot of Money. I had to go back to the drawing board and rethink my methodology. I don't believe that this experience is any different from others
What eventually works is the ability to adapt to changing Markets and to realize early enough that they are changing. In the last year I have attended at least 10 workshops- most of them fully paid for. Tomorrow I am attending the Market Profile one by Shai
The reason that I attend these is not because I want to abandon my own systems and copy paste someone else's system in the hope that it will work for me. The idea is to try and gain some insights into how successful Traders think about the Markets and how they apply this
Occasionally I get something that resonates with me and can be applied to my own Trading. 1-2 good ideas is sufficient to recover the cost of these workshops many times over.
So my suggestion for those who are attending Seminars is not to think of them as something you can return from, use the systems you have learnt, or thought you have learnt, to immediately start making Money.
Rather try and understand how a Professional Trader works. How does he think about the Markets, how does he prepare for the day, when and how does he take the Trade and with what expectation. How does he Manage the Trade. How does he deal with the inevitable losing Streaks
If you are attending a workshop to learn basic TA- which is unfortunately what most of them are about- or worse to learn a few setups touted as 'Systems' you can apply from tomorrow then I would advise you to skip it.
There are many books and free YouTube videos out there by some of the world's greatest and most successful Traders which are far better. The setup you learn today will have a very short shelf life and without the skill to adapt, you will find yourself up a creek without a paddle
