Mentor wanted

[duncan macgregor]

[QUOTE=Shrewd Crude;240445]hey outspoken,
Give this mackdunk a flick......

he runs this show as if it were an army camp...

his rules are too tough too follow...
pity he does not follow his own advice...
he bought CUE at 14.5cent average, and it fell to as low at 9.8cents (I think)... which would have had him stopped out no prob with his 5% stop losses, which he always implements......
and now he wont tell us his position.... yeeeeezzzz mackdunk......
mackdunk is now in a catch twenty two... hahaha....
hes funked if he does, hes funked if he does not....
SHREWDY, LEts get real.
I have been telling you to get out the market for the whole of 2008.
I told you the market would downtrend leading up to the olympics then crash.
You told me how stupid that was and placed half your wealth on CUE at 21.6c.
I bought a few [ for me at 14.6c] simply because i did not want you to best me no other reason outher than that.
I sold them at stop loss level woopee doo.
You now come over saying how smart you are and how stupid i was.
You will find out one day that the market rules not you or my interpritations of the market regardless of how smart we might feel at the time.
To watch a share downtrend from your buy level to where it is today still bleating on about being right shows me you have so much to learn.
You are turning into another SNOOPY mate stop and think it over first or you will lose the lot. Macdunk

[Crypto Crude]

SHREWDY, LEts get real.
1)I have been telling you to get out the market for the whole of 2008.
You told me how stupid that was and placed half your wealth on CUE at 21.6c.
2)I bought a few [ for me at 14.6c] simply because i did not want you to best me no other reason outher than that.
I sold them at stop loss level woopee doo.
3)You now come over saying how smart you are and how stupid i was.
4)You will find out one day that the market rules not you or my interpritations of the market regardless of how smart we might feel at the time.
5)To watch a share downtrend from your buy level to where it is today still bleating on about being right shows me you have so much to learn.
You are turning into another SNOOPY mate stop and think it over first or you will lose the lot. Macdunk

mackdunky pooh,
hey... chasing that pot of honey mate..

1) Ive been telling you to get out of housing for 2 years... and about fixed interest rates for the best part of 6 months...

2) well you are out of cue at a loss, (which you never disclosed as per your rules)... im holding onto a paper loss, you are holding onto a real loss...
a loss is only made when the position is sold...

3) I never said that... sorry if you think that way...

4) no buddy.... I rule the market when markets are normal...This is a one year in 60 year event... and last year ise caught out which I had no control over...
in all other years I control my buys and sells and all that, and sell when I believe material change effects the future value of the company etc...
No I rule it...
I posted on a few threads my thoughts the market overview,
what is shrewd crude thinking and doing thread, and CUE thread, and here and there....
but in the end I thought stuff it, and bought fully back into the market after selling out completely in 3rd quarter 07... i needed a kick in the pants...

5) if I am a snoopy then so be it... I will not sell my CUE until I see material change which affects the future value of the company... CUE have 57 million barrels of oil In its proven 2P category (which are BOE)...
and the market cap is 80-90 million dollars...less than 2 bucks a barrel of oil in its portfolio mate...
waiting for developmemt of these assets, and current developments going into production, and throw in a few exploration wells here and there for free... and bank on bankables like some of the low risk appraisal drilling coming up...
and being patient because its the only thing I know what to do when im in on a stock, and only selling when material change to the companies assets come forward....

I went large on the stock last year, and its the same company just in a bad market...give me a break...
sure the markets have changed... within the company there has been no real change to its assets...

.^sc

[Phaedrus]

Outspoken, I take it from your chosen moniker that you would appreciate blunt, candid, direct, explicit, forthright and frank replies to your post. In my opinion, you have not had any, yet....

You say that "I'm more interested in Forex......"
Are you aware that the success rate of retail forex traders is less than 5%? Over 95% lose their hard earned money - money they may well never be able to regain. You are most interested in what is probably the toughest trading area of all - harder even than day-trading where the failure rate is "only" about 80%. This is perhaps why most everyone is wishing you luck - you will surely need it.

"I don't know much about fundamental analysis for shares".
So, read some books. You should be able to interpret a balance sheet at the very least.

When AA said "You are a new king to these virgin lands" it was the sort of thing you wanted to hear, saying "that is poetry to my ears". The ugly truth is somewhat less poetic. These are not virgin lands. They are densely populated battlegrounds where you will be engaging in combat with ruthless and experienced opposition. You are not a king, you are a mere serf - cannon fodder.

"I also reckon I've got all I need now, to start with anyway, no amount of reading, learning, hypothetical training, paper trading I'm starting will be as good as chucking some real money at it and experiencing the emotion (fear/greed) and excitement of starting the journey"
Telling words, OS. Here we have impatience, impetuosity and focus on a search for excitement. All bad, if your aim is to make money.

"As long as I implement religiously my rules /system I should be fine"
Wishful thinking. First, you must develop a system that actually works. This is not easy. You don't need programming skills to backtest your systems, though. Most charting software includes this functionality.

"I dont expect to place my first trade for probably another 2-3 weeks".
If you think that it is possible to educate yourself, develop and test a winning system and implement it in just a few weeks, you are seriously underestimating the difficulty of the task you have set yourself.

In short, Outspoken, you hope to learn to swim by jumping straight into the deep end of the pool. The odds that you will drown there are very, very high.

Good luck in your search for a mentor. You may find one - it's a hard world out there, though. You may well come to the realisation that no-one, but no-one, gives a toss whether you win or lose in the market. That you are totally on your own and cannot rely on anyone other than yourself. It seems to me that you are looking for soft options when you speak of either looking for a guru to follow or paying $10,000 for a course.

Knowledge is hard won.

[peat]

yes I'd agree with Phaedrus that forex is really hard... I've blown two accounts and on this third one I'm starting to do a bit better, but its truly amazing how quickly and easily the losses rack up to destroy the wins.

In forex money management is absolutely critical.... each trade itself should be relativly insignificant to the overall account - you will experience many losers in a row sometimes and this must not either destroy your capital or your faith. Each win must really count so that it can offset a number of losses. A saying such as 'cut your losses but let your winners run' really does have TWO aspects to it both of which you must adhere to if you wish to be profitable. Believe me neither is easy emotionally.
A saying such as 'nobody ever went broke taking a profit' doesnt work because your winners have a lot of work to do.

But the reason I chose forex is because it is a 24 hour market which allows you to trade outside of the day job, AND because I wanted to give myself the hardest challenge so that when I succeed I will be able to cut it in any market anytime - this goal is also why I chose to become a purely technical trader. Forex teaches you to play both ways too which I think many share traders are uncomfortable with.

here I launch into an old Bowie song that goes

It ain't easy, it ain't easy
It ain't easy to get to heaven when you're going down
Sometimes it'll take you right up and sometimes down again

[Mick100]

If you want to see if you can make money in FX you can open a game account on the OANDA site. I ran one of these game accounts for a couple of months and ended up back where I started. I don't know what it takes to make money in FX but I havn't got the skills to do it.
.

[outspoken]

Outspoken, I take it from your chosen moniker that you would appreciate blunt, candid, direct, explicit, forthright and frank replies to your post. In my opinion, you have not had any, yet....

Thanks for what you've said Phaedrus, I'm not going to argue with any of it.

What I am going to do is sit back, take a breath, read what you've said, truly understand the warning.
Then I'm going to re-examine my reasons for wanting to do this, examine the rules I'm starting to establish, decide if I can take or mitigate my risk anymore.

The one thing I will disagree with you on is: I'm not looking for an easy way to do this, I really do understand that it will be hard work and could end in tears. You've given me reason for pause.

I'll come back to you.

[shasta]

Thanks for what you've said Phaedrus, I'm not going to argue with any of it.

What I am going to do is sit back, take a breath, read what you've said, truly understand the warning.
Then I'm going to re-examine my reasons for wanting to do this, examine the rules I'm starting to establish, decide if I can take or mitigate my risk anymore.

The one thing I will disagree with you on is: I'm not looking for an easy way to do this, I really do understand that it will be hard work and could end in tears. You've given me reason for pause.

I'll come back to you.

You have done pretty well with your initial post.

The advice given from the likes of Phaedrus, Peat & Mick100 should be taken onboard, they are 3 of the more respected members on this site.

You have some seasoned traders/investors telling you how hard it is.

If it seems like people are trying to scare you off trading, it's for your own benefit.

Just remember alot of people on this site are sitting close to 100% cash, & for a good reason.

[outspoken]

You have done pretty well with your initial post.

The advice given from the likes of Phaedrus, Peat & Mick100 should be taken onboard, they are 3 of the more respected members on this site.

You have some seasoned traders/investors telling you how hard it is.

If it seems like people are trying to scare you off trading, it's for your own benefit.

Just remember alot of people on this site are sitting close to 100% cash, & for a good reason.

I agree shasta, I've done very well with my asking for information. I didn't really expect to get a mentor overnight, just some contacts and pointing in the right direction.
As I've said, I now have some good material to read, some friends to ask questions and a healthy dose of "this ain't gonna be easy"
For that I'm grateful, and now I'll be patient.

As a side note, cash is a dangerous asset class to be in if that cash is devaluing isn't it? :-) Guess it depends what currency you're in.

[shasta]

I agree shasta, I've done very well with my asking for information. I didn't really expect to get a mentor overnight, just some contacts and pointing in the right direction.
As I've said, I now have some good material to read, some friends to ask questions and a healthy dose of "this ain't gonna be easy"
For that I'm grateful, and now I'll be patient.

As a side note, cash is a dangerous asset class to be in if that cash is devaluing isn't it? :-) Guess it depends what currency you're in.

If your bullish the time to buy could be "soon"

[Placebo]

I don't know why anybody in their right mind would want to be a forex trader. These are truly the people for whom the saying `how do you sleep at nights' was created. At least with equities markets they close. Forex never closes. Catch your 40 winks, lose a few million. Oh well, them's the breaks.

OS I was a bit perplexed about your comment about not knowing much about fundamentals. I find this a bit odd. As Phaedrus says, you should at least know the basics about how to read a balance sheet. FA is all about the strength of the balance sheet, the quality of management, the company's track record, debt to equity ratios, plus a few associated things like the company's relative strength to others in its sector (is it the `only bridge on the river'?) and how it's performing compared to macro-economic condition. Pretty straightforward stuff

I think that, even if you see yourself as a TA trader, you need to get a grasp of the basics of FA. They really are two sides of the same coin (and never the twain shall meet, as you see by the frequent stoushed on the boards). I knew very little about TA before coming on here, now I use my rudimentary knowledge to check whether what I have identified as a `good buy' using basically FA techniques stacks up.

And remember this - knowledge is like money (and cars - you can never have enough of it.