Hi everyone. I thought I might try my hand at a journal. While the purpose is mainly for my own benefit in documenting a montage of thoughts, I'd like to encourage others to join in, argue for/against, or even share your own experiences relevant to a particular topic I've meandered on about. Perhaps my entries will be nothing more than the musings of an inexperienced trader destined to lose what little they've managed to save over the years. But maybe, just maybe, I might provoke thoughts and discourse on topics thought to be taboo.
Subject to change, it isn't my intent to debate the merits and ills the latest indicators or to document specific successes and failures on charts. Rather, I'd like to challenge us (primarily myself) to think outside the box in which we have become (or not become) most comfortable inhabiting.
Please... PLEASE, understand that this is NOT an attempt to tell ANYONE how it should be done. I am inexperienced and still have MUCH to learn. The intent of this thread is NOT to teach, but to learn, hopefully together, things many of you may already find endemic to trading or pure trash. Either opinion is fine and welcome to the conversation as long as we maintain our mutual respect for each other.
Briefly, about me. I am nearing retirement. In the early 90's I was a commodity broker for Dean Witter. I had my series 3 license but was nothing more than a cold caller with no authorization to trade. During my brief stint there, I was mentored by a man who introduced me to tech-analysis. It proved a mere whetting of my appetite that I would revisit a few years later day-trading at home. At the time, I do not believe futures were available to trade at home with my meager assets so, I day traded stocks with my $10k account. I very quickly discovered that there was no way I was going to be able to do much in equities with such a small seed.... unless I shorted. Which I did. A couple margin calls totaling 20k (borrowed on credit cards) on a single trade, wiped me out and broke me of the urge to trade.
That was the late 90's. Now, here I am, older, wiser (hopefully) and slightly better capitalized, though not by much. I have been paper trading full-time for the last 2 months. So, take whatever observations I share with a grain of salt. I'm a proven loser.