I have the utmost respect for all my fellow trading bloggers who toil at the keyboard day in and day out, for lots of different reasons, to bring us something to read. Sure everyone is free to post whatever they want for it is their blog after all, but I would like to pose a challenge for 2011.
And that is... Post your Net P/L in dollars on a daily or weekly basis and provide at least a quarterly or yearly recap, preferably as an equity curve.
We all know that the lack of transparency in this industry is shameful. Nobody really knows how anyone else is performing or how many traders are successful. Brokers just won't share this information (for fear of scaring new traders away and losing commissions!). Personally, I read trading blogs for inspiration mostly. Sure some report pips or ticks gained on the day but what really matters is the bottom line. Props to those that already report $P/L: Jules, Sandy, De'Trader, Michael, Bare Bones, etc. (although some lack a periodic recap)
This challenge goes out to those that don't: Austin, Don Miller, etc. (to name just a couple that I know can take this constructive critique). As educators, I guess they have the most to lose (or gain) by showing their real trading performance. Don used to show his performance and Austin does sometimes show his daily ticks.
I do give kudos to Austin if he follows through on his recent announcement on attempting to take an account to a million in 2011 and doing so in public fashion. Hopefully it does not fall by the wayside like his $5000 account experiment in early 2010 did. (Austin, please correct me if I am mistaken about that. Perhaps you still trade that account up but only share details with your clients?)
If anyone knows of any good blogs out there that I don't have in my blogroll that meet this criteria, please let me know. Even the old P/L thread at elitetrader (that I used to post on in 2007) lacks any inspiration these days as it has shriveled up to scant few posts.
No need to proclaim your acceptance or refusal of this challenge but I hope to be pleasantly surprised when I start blog surfing in 2011! :)
37 minutes ago
Posts
This is the best post of the year!
ReplyDeleteI will try to post PnL slowly, begin with a small 5k account :-(
Yeah, IMO the reasons to show the PnL not to show off or something like that. But to show that it can be done, it's possible to make profit consistently and give inspirations to other.
ReplyDeleteTST - in this case, size doesn't matter! ;)
ReplyDeleteDe'T - agree 100%! But perhaps for most/many it is to show that it can't be done easily!
Great... Just when my mind's almost made up that going forward, I want to be ZEN like Long & Wrong and Solfest...
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want to read Don's P/L it probl depresses me more. I think sim trading is not an inspiration benchmark here are sim trades for Nov and Dec
ReplyDeletehttp://screencast.com/t/tOivXdU3 http://screencast.com/t/oLfjhOhMfX what they show is in sim you win no matter how dumb a trade is.
I still follow you, Gearhead. I just have been quiet. I may be able to facilitate your request.
ReplyDeleteJules, you're already ZEN!
ReplyDeleteCory, agree about sim results but those are some nice sim numbers ya got there for Dec. 975 trades though? Whoa.
MBA, thanks for the email. As noted in a recent video, I gave the answer in public before you ever posed the question. imo there are myriad reasons why traders can benefit from a year-long documentary of trading results. Long-term project, not small sample size.
ReplyDeletefwiw you might consider only listing blogs that profile some type of actual trading reports. The rest are just fluff and noise, anyway. As Don Miller so often rails in his site, there is a greater need for clear transparency in this industry. I see no reason to disagree with those words, or yours for that matter :)
Trade To Win
Hello. I think there are so few posting results because very few can maintain results. I have spoken to hundreds of traders in my career and only encountered less than 10 that were actually making a living at this.
ReplyDeleteMany traders attempting to make money via static rules and optimized systems do not know why they are winning when they are winning. Thus, virtually all of them break down repeatedly and start the process over with a modified approach.
This constant modification in approach prevents most from actually learning how to interact with the other players.
I posted live execution charts, live videos, and daily PNL for months on my first blog and found that many were not interested in that level of reality. I am not sure why. That is all I wanted to see when I quit my job to become a trader.
The sites with the big traffic rarely show any results or even screen shots of executions for that matter. It is pure lunacy. My only conclusion is that most who are at this on a daily basis refuse to acknowledge the reality of the learning process and simply want to keep the hope alive that they will suddenly start trading better with little risk or investment in their business. It is frustrating to watch and leads me to write articles with a very negative tone these days.
I am going to start tracking a live account on my site again and plan to also have a couple from the small group of traders I work with also post their results.
I should be unlike anything else out there but I have learned over the past couple years that most want to see gimmicks and canned strategies instead of real trading whether they admit it or not.
Austin - I look fwd to following your journey in 2011 and seeing $P/L and equity curves! :) And I agree 100% about more transparency being needed. I guess Don doesn't want to be as transparent as he has touted in the past.
ReplyDeleteBrian - thanks for comment. You are likely correct that few can maintain results, positive ones anyhow... Let me know when you start posting P/L again and I'll add you to my blogroll.
Sweet post!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delay in commenting but I've been deliberately avoiding any trading blog reading lately for various reasons - some including what you're referencing here.
My main reason for reading trading blogs is for inspiration and the "proof" that it is possible to succeed. And other than the interaction with other traders, my biggest reason for posting charts/stats is to share the experience (hopefully positive) with other traders and (also hopefully) to inspire others.
I won't go into the reasons I think traders succeed or fail right now, but I love it that you've made this post and challenge other traders to show results, good or bad (and I'll be the first to admit that mine are sporadic at best!). It'll be cool to see what comes of it. I know very well that it can be time consuming work to post results every day, but you've motivated me to try to be more consistent with mine.
I thank you for being one of my inspirations as well.
Best wishes for 2011!
-AT