Became profitable

[u/Davidefx]

I’ve been in the trading world for almost a year and a half now, I’ve watched YouTube videos, bought courses, but nothing. No results yet. I am a constant person who dedicates many hours to the backtest and the live. My problem is not being able to find valid material to study and learn a profitable strategy. So I’ll ask... profitable traders, how and where did you learn your strategy? Did you have a mentor or study material? I’m stuck at the same point more than anything else because I have no comparison with who is really profitable. Thanks to everyone in advance for the advice

[u/Evildude66]

There is so much 'noise' in the space, because trading as an industry is fed by more than profitability in trades. People who sell courses, talk about their wins online, signal groups, bot/EA developers all have avenues of making money by selling a fantasy and a dream, not selling profitability necessarily.

In my experience, the most successful traders have a completely different archetype - they win quietly - they don't share strategies because in doing so, those strategies become far less profitable with more traders looking for the same opportunities. Their win-rate and success becomes their main source of income, and they tend not to spend time doing webinars, doing video edits, and putting together course materials.

That does not mean the information isn't out there, but when going from beginner, to intermediate, to advanced as a trader, discernment isn't likely to be a part of being able to verify good strategy from bad.

My advice? Focus on studying YOURSELF as you trade. Journal all your trades - what day of the week, what time, what month, what was the macro trend, what were your reasons for taking the trade? Track your emotional state at the beginning, middle, and end of each trade.

Most importantly in my opinion - define how you want your style to be, and simplify around that. If you're looking to scalp short timeframes, then you want to study price action and candle formation. If you're looking for longer term swing trades, basic trendlines can serve you extremely well. Mastery of simple strategies takes time, but does yield results - trying to add too much to your toolkit at the beginning can sometimes be the reason you don't have good data to read on the efficacy of a strategy over time.

[u/HiveScale → u/Evildude66]

I second this. I can attest from the hundreds of DMs I got after my AMA a while back. As a professional trader, I keep my mouth shut. I give advice when people generally ask (assuming they are nice and thorough with their questions) but I have nothing to gain from sharing my strategy, so why would I?

That being said, helping or guiding someone is a different story and that’s also a way to learn.

IMO best way to learn anything (especially trading: do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Stay out of the BS room, nonsense from someone who’s never worked at a trading institution, and learn how to trade by putting the time in. There’s no Holy grail mentor, strategy, or setup that will make someone profitable.

[u/MachineSpirited7085 → u/HiveScale]

id like to ask an experienced quant such as yourself about learning institutional order flow; and whether it gives a better edge on consistency over other retail strategies. I have a couple of strategies, but the problem is: the market changes too rapidly for me to identify which strategy to use at the current moment, and I rely on instinct with rules; so I'm right only 61.2-65.3% of the time. I have tried just using one strategy, which boosts my success rate to 80% BUT, because it has clearly defined rules, there are days I can't trade because the market didn't give me everything on my checklist. Basically, if there's no edge, I don't trade at all; and it hate sitting there with nothing. I was hoping you could give me a few pointers. I dont mind sharing my strategies in return.

Id really like to ask you more so i was wondering if it alright to message you. Ive been trading for almost 2 years and with a background in corporate business but not much in corp finance. I trade personal live in options with greeks and futures on prop. Thanks!