Interesting comment I got, thought I’d respond:
Often times in educational environments the dominant paradigm of teacher/student is shattere as the roles get reversed. Even the smartest professors can learn from their students…often the professor lays the groundwork but the students expand on it and make it better or bring new ideas to light. I think TimSykes.com is no exception…some of his “students’ are putting on better trades that he is. Is Tim learning that he could be doing better by being more patient and entering his trades later and exiting later? IMO Tim is too risk-averse in his trading…he’s got the mindet of a scalper (get in & out quick with high win probablity), but trades with the frequency of a swing trader (2 or 3 trades a week). If you’re gonna be a scalper, scalp it up as many times a day as possible. If you’re gonna be a swing trader, be patient and hold the position 2-3 days.
1. You’re damn right some of my students are doing better than me–I close out all my instructional DVDs by saying “You can do better than me”…I’m not a great trader, never have been…my contribution is showing what’s made me successful and what you can do better.
2. I don’t have the mindset of a scalper, I have just seen too much crazy stuff so I trade like a scared squirrel. Don’t ever “scalp it up” many times/day, that’s for losers and the majority of your scalps are going to be low percentage trades…my impatience does cut my losses and gains quickly so it looks that’s what I’m doing, but I aim for much much more and then just screw up somehow.
3. Too risk averse in my trading? Hell no, 90% of traders lose $, 90% of people in this joke of an industry are absolute morons, myself included, taking on a lot of risk/leverage is just begging for disaster. I’d much rather be overly cautious then ever risk being too aggressive.
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