Replies to post #279255 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Zeev Hed]

Timing, apparently, it is all in the "timing". That one has been "broken" for some time (#msg-2838279), that was a good time to short.

[Train Guy]

-- but have given up day trading as a bad joke and hence not posting here! --

It's a bad joke when you don't properly manage your risk. It's actually possible to lose on most of your trades and still make money. Part of risk management is proper position sizing. If you risk to much on each trade, you'll probably long be out of the game before you ever learn how to trade or make any money.

Here's an interesting article, #msg-3635342 on how using simple math you can go back thru your trades, calculate your win ratio, and then using your position sizing, figure out the risks you were taking. You'll probably be surprised. Anything to close to 1 in 100 is more gambling than trading. Good traders like to see their risk heading out past 1 in 1000.

And the risk you are calculating isn't the risk of each individual trade, but the risk that you will have a string of losses that ruins you. If you get that risk low enough, it doesn't matter if you have losses or even strings of losses. You can still make money. And the math on it is simple enough that you can easily do what ifs. You can keep changing and playing with the numbers until you find a method that works for you.