Yamato
Legendary member
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- Status
Yamato
Legendary member
- Messages
- 9,840
- Likes
- 246
Yamato
Legendary member
- Messages
- 9,840
- Likes
- 246
PEOPLE WHO WORK VS PEOPLE WHO HOLD MEETINGS
I am here at work again. As usual. I hear people talking from the other rooms. They're talking loudly, all the time. I know they're not producing very much work. There's one of them who talks louder when someone's trying to give her work to do. Oh, right, I told you about her, the "slut". She used to be in my room. I got along well with her. She's a fine lady. Only problem, like most other people here, she doesn't want to work. Meetings are fine: she goes to those any time. Phone calls ok. But real work on her pc, nope. Like almost everyone here. They don't like to sit down and work quietly, and they have no problems with meetings, talking on the phone. So they're always talking.
I've often wondered how good it actually is for the bank that we all work from here, at the office, rather than from home. If we were at home, all those doing nothing would easily be caught, as there would be no emails or empty emails coming from them. No attachments showing real work. Efficiency in my opinion would improve. Maybe the reason this doesn't happen and we all have to come in here at the office to work, and the reason that almost everyone, except me because I specifically asked to be kept out of meetings, keeps wasting their time at meetings, is that the bosses, the heads of the bank actually are such people: people who do not anything but participating at meetings. These are the people who have the power here, but they are not the people who do the work. These people who take part in meetings, and who are incapable of doing any work at their computer. There's a small minority who does the heavy and quality work at the computer, and those are held in high respect, even if they're not given high-ranking positions, like in my case, partly also because I never kissed up to anyone, nor complained, because I feel that if they promote should only be because they decided to do so, without me pressuring them in any way. If I were the boss, I would fire anyone pressuring me to give them a promotion or a raise.
But the few of us who ever bothered to learn how the procedures, the programs, the software, the hardware works, those few of us are treated with respect. We can even walk out on a manager and go home. Because these same managers keep on coming to us with questions on how things work at this bank, since they never took the time to learn it themselves. Same reason why right now I am in a single, and there's 3 high ranking managers, who make more than twice my salary, crammed in a room, the room next to mine. Actually I have 3 on one side and three on the other side. They are all crammed in there, yelling at each other. And bouncing work off each other.
On the other hand, this is not enough. Being respected is not enough. I don't feel it is fair that they are getting paid more than me and having higher positions just because they go to meetings all day long. It should be the contrary. Those who do nothing, shouldn't even work here. Luckily with trading things work differently. The idiots don't make money, and those who work hard make money, according to how hard they work. Well, with discretionary it's different, because it also has to do with personality, with things, some things you just cannot figure out even with hard work, no matter how hard you try. After 700 posts of discussing it, I can say that discretionary trading is largely psychological in the sense that psychology will stop you not only from implementing a profitable strategy, but it will stop you also from finding a profitable strategy. I say this, because via discretionary, I could never find a profitable strategy. I found it via back-testing, several of them, but even then I never managed to have the needed characteristics to implement such profitable strategy.
Anyway, maybe I exaggerated by saying that these people do nothing but go to meetings and talking on the phone (and long coffee breaks). These people also have learned much more than me about internal regulations. They have law degrees, which I don't have. They have the patience to read those regulations, which are very boring to me. Well, ok, I exaggerated. But at least we should have an equal salary and position. Maybe the guys knowing the laws hold me by the balls just because they know this stuff that seems boring to me. Or maybe the people who can do the work have to work, and those who can't, since they can't do the work, have to focus on giving orders. Maybe that's how it works, and if tomorrow I stop working, they'll come to me and ask me to be CEO of the bank, because I just can't do anything else. I wonder. Parly I haven't figured out how companies work, how people interact, society. I used to have a better understanding of this, but not being touch for all these years has made me forget.
But whether I am happy about my salary or not, my work has never been so satisfactory in my entire life, not even as a student. Look. I am alone in a room, with nobody coming in to yell at me about anything I did wrong. I do everything right and people come in to ask me how to do things right. I even have the luxury of waiting for the boss in vain: I need him to come to do work with me, but he doesn't come because he's too busy. It's just great. I hope it will last for a while.
I am here at work again. As usual. I hear people talking from the other rooms. They're talking loudly, all the time. I know they're not producing very much work. There's one of them who talks louder when someone's trying to give her work to do. Oh, right, I told you about her, the "slut". She used to be in my room. I got along well with her. She's a fine lady. Only problem, like most other people here, she doesn't want to work. Meetings are fine: she goes to those any time. Phone calls ok. But real work on her pc, nope. Like almost everyone here. They don't like to sit down and work quietly, and they have no problems with meetings, talking on the phone. So they're always talking.
I've often wondered how good it actually is for the bank that we all work from here, at the office, rather than from home. If we were at home, all those doing nothing would easily be caught, as there would be no emails or empty emails coming from them. No attachments showing real work. Efficiency in my opinion would improve. Maybe the reason this doesn't happen and we all have to come in here at the office to work, and the reason that almost everyone, except me because I specifically asked to be kept out of meetings, keeps wasting their time at meetings, is that the bosses, the heads of the bank actually are such people: people who do not anything but participating at meetings. These are the people who have the power here, but they are not the people who do the work. These people who take part in meetings, and who are incapable of doing any work at their computer. There's a small minority who does the heavy and quality work at the computer, and those are held in high respect, even if they're not given high-ranking positions, like in my case, partly also because I never kissed up to anyone, nor complained, because I feel that if they promote should only be because they decided to do so, without me pressuring them in any way. If I were the boss, I would fire anyone pressuring me to give them a promotion or a raise.
But the few of us who ever bothered to learn how the procedures, the programs, the software, the hardware works, those few of us are treated with respect. We can even walk out on a manager and go home. Because these same managers keep on coming to us with questions on how things work at this bank, since they never took the time to learn it themselves. Same reason why right now I am in a single, and there's 3 high ranking managers, who make more than twice my salary, crammed in a room, the room next to mine. Actually I have 3 on one side and three on the other side. They are all crammed in there, yelling at each other. And bouncing work off each other.
On the other hand, this is not enough. Being respected is not enough. I don't feel it is fair that they are getting paid more than me and having higher positions just because they go to meetings all day long. It should be the contrary. Those who do nothing, shouldn't even work here. Luckily with trading things work differently. The idiots don't make money, and those who work hard make money, according to how hard they work. Well, with discretionary it's different, because it also has to do with personality, with things, some things you just cannot figure out even with hard work, no matter how hard you try. After 700 posts of discussing it, I can say that discretionary trading is largely psychological in the sense that psychology will stop you not only from implementing a profitable strategy, but it will stop you also from finding a profitable strategy. I say this, because via discretionary, I could never find a profitable strategy. I found it via back-testing, several of them, but even then I never managed to have the needed characteristics to implement such profitable strategy.
Anyway, maybe I exaggerated by saying that these people do nothing but go to meetings and talking on the phone (and long coffee breaks). These people also have learned much more than me about internal regulations. They have law degrees, which I don't have. They have the patience to read those regulations, which are very boring to me. Well, ok, I exaggerated. But at least we should have an equal salary and position. Maybe the guys knowing the laws hold me by the balls just because they know this stuff that seems boring to me. Or maybe the people who can do the work have to work, and those who can't, since they can't do the work, have to focus on giving orders. Maybe that's how it works, and if tomorrow I stop working, they'll come to me and ask me to be CEO of the bank, because I just can't do anything else. I wonder. Parly I haven't figured out how companies work, how people interact, society. I used to have a better understanding of this, but not being touch for all these years has made me forget.
But whether I am happy about my salary or not, my work has never been so satisfactory in my entire life, not even as a student. Look. I am alone in a room, with nobody coming in to yell at me about anything I did wrong. I do everything right and people come in to ask me how to do things right. I even have the luxury of waiting for the boss in vain: I need him to come to do work with me, but he doesn't come because he's too busy. It's just great. I hope it will last for a while.
Last edited:
Yamato
Legendary member
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How great it is to buy things on the internet and have them delivered via FedEx. I would almost feel like ordering things I don't need just to follow my objects in this very efficient Shipment Travel History they have (see image below). Paypal, FedEx, Ebay... thanks for these beautiful inventions. Thanks to all the hard working people like me, those few people who don't go to meetings all day long, and constantly work on making on optimizing everything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Smith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Smith
Last edited:
Yamato
Legendary member
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I am going to sum yesterday's study all up, and apply the synthetic questions WeighBridge and I came up with yesterday to some of these brokers:
http://www.online-currency-forex-trading.com/forex-broker-comparison.html
1) When you trade are you allowed to make prices as well as take them (e.g. you can make prices when trading futures on an exchange); and
2) If you have to take prices, then who is on the other side of your trades? Is it another trader or is it the broker/bucketshop.
3) Which security and on which exchange are you trading? Are you trading securities on an exchange or off-exchange?
These questions are not perfect, especially my #3 question, because what an "exchange" is, could be debatable. I'll look it up on wikipedia because after all this where it all begins. This definition could be the key to understanding all about who to pick to open your account at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_(organized_market)
Uh-oh... pretty good, read here (WeighBridge was referring to some parts of this):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_market
Now... I still do not understand everything. But I am assuming that I am not dealing with any of these two types of retail brokers (retail foreign exchange brokers and market makers) when I am trading futures on the CME exchange, and that I am not incurring the risk this wikipedia entry is talking about. Right?
Now, regarding our brokers comparison, since I finally understood enough of it to see that they can all be comprised within the category of "brokers", I will not need to go to every single broker to see how his services answer our three questions. I will simply go through a lot of comparisons made by others, and I will search on google "broker comparison chart". This is it: the end result of two days of work, trying to understand what a broker is and what types of brokers there are, and what is more convenient. And to understand broker you also have to understand what an exchange is and what relationship the broker has to that exchange, if any.
Now I will list the comparison charts I am finding with the mentioned google search, and only later I will go through them and draw conclusions:
http://www.online-currency-forex-trading.com/forex-broker-comparison.html
http://www.stocksandmutualfunds.com/broker-comparison-chart.html
http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/broker/compare.aspx
http://www.stocktradingtogo.com/stockbrokers.html
http://www.nobletrading.com/online-broker-comparison.php
http://www.forexf1.com/forex-broker-comparison.php
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-brokers
http://www.optionetics.com/brokers/comparison-table.asp
http://www.beginningonlinetrader.com/cheap_broker_chart.htm
http://www.brokerage.com/stocktrading.html
http://www.cfdspy.com/brokers.php
http://www.online-stock-trading-guide.com/online-broker-comparison.html
http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/online-brokers.stm
http://www.thethirddimension.net/stocks/pennystockbroker.html
http://www.noobinvestors.com/?page_id=15
http://www.fxcomparison.com/
http://www.goforex.net/forex-broker-comparison.htm
http://www.marketriders.com/choose-a-broker
http://www.compareabroker.com/compareabrokerchart.htm
http://www.forexbrokercomparisons.com/
http://www.traderplanet.com/library/brokers
http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/discount-broker-comparison/
http://thewildinvestor.com/online-stock-broker-comparison/
http://www.babypips.com/tools/forex-brokers-guide/compare.php
http://www.forex-learning-site.com/forex-broker-comparison-reviews.php
http://www.traderplanet.com/library/brokers
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/3198242
Now. These are just too many, and some of these comparison charts are scams. In my next post, I will exclude the comparison charts with less than 5 brokers being compared because they seem very fishy to me, especially those where one of the 5 or less brokers is "Zecco", which seems to be promoting itself by showing worse conditions than his, and similar situations (e.g.: nobletrading's site comparing nobletrading with other brokers). I am also excluding comparison charts where the info is so little that it's a waste of time to look at them. I am favoring in particular all charts where I see InteractiveBrokers as one of the terms of the comparison, because that way I know the comparison is real.
Then I will come up with the best comparisons and then I'll start drawing conclusions.
So far these have seemed to be the categories of the comparisons as the sites present them: "stock broker", "options broker", "forex broker" but no comparison spoke of "futures broker" and yet my search was for "broker comparison chart". So this could either mean my search is not right, or "futures brokers" are comprehended within "stock brokers".
http://www.online-currency-forex-trading.com/forex-broker-comparison.html
1) When you trade are you allowed to make prices as well as take them (e.g. you can make prices when trading futures on an exchange); and
2) If you have to take prices, then who is on the other side of your trades? Is it another trader or is it the broker/bucketshop.
3) Which security and on which exchange are you trading? Are you trading securities on an exchange or off-exchange?
These questions are not perfect, especially my #3 question, because what an "exchange" is, could be debatable. I'll look it up on wikipedia because after all this where it all begins. This definition could be the key to understanding all about who to pick to open your account at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_(organized_market)
Uh-oh... pretty good, read here (WeighBridge was referring to some parts of this):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_market
Now... I still do not understand everything. But I am assuming that I am not dealing with any of these two types of retail brokers (retail foreign exchange brokers and market makers) when I am trading futures on the CME exchange, and that I am not incurring the risk this wikipedia entry is talking about. Right?
Now, regarding our brokers comparison, since I finally understood enough of it to see that they can all be comprised within the category of "brokers", I will not need to go to every single broker to see how his services answer our three questions. I will simply go through a lot of comparisons made by others, and I will search on google "broker comparison chart". This is it: the end result of two days of work, trying to understand what a broker is and what types of brokers there are, and what is more convenient. And to understand broker you also have to understand what an exchange is and what relationship the broker has to that exchange, if any.
Now I will list the comparison charts I am finding with the mentioned google search, and only later I will go through them and draw conclusions:
http://www.online-currency-forex-trading.com/forex-broker-comparison.html
http://www.stocksandmutualfunds.com/broker-comparison-chart.html
http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/broker/compare.aspx
http://www.stocktradingtogo.com/stockbrokers.html
http://www.nobletrading.com/online-broker-comparison.php
http://www.forexf1.com/forex-broker-comparison.php
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-brokers
http://www.optionetics.com/brokers/comparison-table.asp
http://www.beginningonlinetrader.com/cheap_broker_chart.htm
http://www.brokerage.com/stocktrading.html
http://www.cfdspy.com/brokers.php
http://www.online-stock-trading-guide.com/online-broker-comparison.html
http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/online-brokers.stm
http://www.thethirddimension.net/stocks/pennystockbroker.html
http://www.noobinvestors.com/?page_id=15
http://www.fxcomparison.com/
http://www.goforex.net/forex-broker-comparison.htm
http://www.marketriders.com/choose-a-broker
http://www.compareabroker.com/compareabrokerchart.htm
http://www.forexbrokercomparisons.com/
http://www.traderplanet.com/library/brokers
http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/discount-broker-comparison/
http://thewildinvestor.com/online-stock-broker-comparison/
http://www.babypips.com/tools/forex-brokers-guide/compare.php
http://www.forex-learning-site.com/forex-broker-comparison-reviews.php
http://www.traderplanet.com/library/brokers
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/3198242
Now. These are just too many, and some of these comparison charts are scams. In my next post, I will exclude the comparison charts with less than 5 brokers being compared because they seem very fishy to me, especially those where one of the 5 or less brokers is "Zecco", which seems to be promoting itself by showing worse conditions than his, and similar situations (e.g.: nobletrading's site comparing nobletrading with other brokers). I am also excluding comparison charts where the info is so little that it's a waste of time to look at them. I am favoring in particular all charts where I see InteractiveBrokers as one of the terms of the comparison, because that way I know the comparison is real.
Then I will come up with the best comparisons and then I'll start drawing conclusions.
So far these have seemed to be the categories of the comparisons as the sites present them: "stock broker", "options broker", "forex broker" but no comparison spoke of "futures broker" and yet my search was for "broker comparison chart". So this could either mean my search is not right, or "futures brokers" are comprehended within "stock brokers".
Last edited:
Yamato
Legendary member
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Best results for "broker comparison chart"
Ok, pretty good, 14 out of the 27 I began with. Here is the final list of good comparison charts, divided by what seem to be the categories compared:
OPTIONS BROKERS ONLY
http://www.optionetics.com/brokers/comparison-table.asp
BROKERS FOR DUMMIES ONLY (OR MOSTLY)
http://www.marketriders.com/choose-a-broker
http://www.traderplanet.com/library/brokers
http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/discount-broker-comparison/
FOREX ONLY (OR MOSTLY) (=BUCKET SHOP OFF-EXCHANGE ONLY ?? )
http://www.online-currency-forex-trading.com/forex-broker-comparison.html
http://www.forexf1.com/forex-broker-comparison.php
http://www.cfdspy.com/brokers.php
http://www.fxcomparison.com/
http://www.babypips.com/tools/forex-brokers-guide/compare.php
http://www.forex-learning-site.com/forex-broker-comparison-reviews.php
http://www.forexbrokercomparisons.com/
COMPARISON OF MIXED CATEGORIES
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-brokers
http://www.online-stock-trading-guide.com/online-broker-comparison.html
http://www.compareabroker.com/compareabrokerchart.htm
(Maybe) I have finally understood that if you say "forex broker" you are also saying "bucket shop", because unless you are trading futures, you can't access that market. Am I getting it right? I mean: whenever I see forex broker comparison charts all that comes up is a list of bucket shops with number of pips in spread to indicate their quality. Not! I am still not getting the full picture. In many charts they list 1-3 pips for InteractiveBrokers as the "spread", so it would seem a bucket shop off-exchange as well. So I still don't grasp the concepts involved, in forex trading in particular.
CONCLUSIONS TO BE DRAWN BY COMPARISON
Ok, this is too much work still so I will now get rid of some brokers: options, and brokers for dummies. I am left with 10 charts, but before going any further I want to do a search on how many clients the brokers have, because that's important in choosing a broker. The more clients it has, the better, for many reasons.
[... researching...]
http://www.finra.org/
...
OK... The ordeal is finally over. How could i not think of this before? Have been writing too much and thinking too little? Why should i build a chart when I can just look for a good magazine article such as this one?
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123698734062425763.html?page=sp#articleTabs_panel_article=1
So, ok, so Interactive Brokers seems to be the best for my needs, according to Barrons.com. Good because that's what I thought to begin with. In the future, I will look for more artcles like this one. By the way, what I called "brokers for dummies" are none other than the brokers Barron's calls "best for long-term investing". Yet, if their commissions are higher, even for long-term investing why would they be better? I know. Because the long-term investors are dummies and these brokers are more user-friendly. Or maybe because they're less at risk of bankruptcy.
I still could not find figures of brokers by how many clients they have. To be noted that Barron's doesn't even mention any of the forex brokers. Maybe because they don't have enough customers or because they are not even considered brokers, or because the article is talking about trading stocks.
While researching, I found this awesome link:
Barron's Market Data Center
I am done with this search. What is sticking to my mind is the on-exchange and off-exchange parameter. That's mostly what I remember from all this work. Also, I remember that Barron's is good. That InteractiveBrokers is good, even though their name is too long for someone who doesn't like to use acronyms as much as Americans do. Yeah, but anyway the big thing I learned is: are you really trading or not? If you're doing everything with the broker, then you could be in trouble. Fewer regulations with off-exchange brokers, and maybe we can't even call them brokers.
More info as of today, November 20th, 2009:
AWESOME LINK: BEST LINK FOR BROKER COMPARISONS ! ! !
I've taken another look and found much more material, which I may talk about in future posts as it won't allow me to edit this for longer than 24 hours. The guys at consumersearch did an excellent job at collecting online brokers reviews by other magazines, such as Barron's. Here's that very very precious link:
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-brokers/reviews
Now these consumersearch.com guys are really really good, because they list a bunch links of broker reviews and they even comment on the quality of these reviews. These guys really did a lot of work. Very useful especially, regardless of how long it took them. Very intelligent way of working. They definitely maximized their profit based on what they invested in their research.
There's a world of things to look at, which may take another day to process. Let me just quote one of the first link they provide: another similar article to Barron's review quoted above, but now with a more complete chart:
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB120554254483438485.html
Now, to be noted is that none of these brokers in the above charts are bucket-shop off-exchange forex retail brokers. This must mean something. They are simply not considered "brokers".
One last word about InteractiveBrokers, which is probably the best broker around (besides being my broker):
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-brokers/interactive-brokers
Consumersearch.com says this of them:
Now, when, among the CONS, someone writes "may offer more than the average investor wants", that's when you know they're good.
And with this I am pretty much done with this subject, because when you put together what you know, plus what consumersearch.com and barron's tell you, there's not much more to find out.
Ok, pretty good, 14 out of the 27 I began with. Here is the final list of good comparison charts, divided by what seem to be the categories compared:
OPTIONS BROKERS ONLY
http://www.optionetics.com/brokers/comparison-table.asp
BROKERS FOR DUMMIES ONLY (OR MOSTLY)
http://www.marketriders.com/choose-a-broker
http://www.traderplanet.com/library/brokers
http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/discount-broker-comparison/
FOREX ONLY (OR MOSTLY) (=BUCKET SHOP OFF-EXCHANGE ONLY ?? )
http://www.online-currency-forex-trading.com/forex-broker-comparison.html
http://www.forexf1.com/forex-broker-comparison.php
http://www.cfdspy.com/brokers.php
http://www.fxcomparison.com/
http://www.babypips.com/tools/forex-brokers-guide/compare.php
http://www.forex-learning-site.com/forex-broker-comparison-reviews.php
http://www.forexbrokercomparisons.com/
COMPARISON OF MIXED CATEGORIES
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-brokers
http://www.online-stock-trading-guide.com/online-broker-comparison.html
http://www.compareabroker.com/compareabrokerchart.htm
(Maybe) I have finally understood that if you say "forex broker" you are also saying "bucket shop", because unless you are trading futures, you can't access that market. Am I getting it right? I mean: whenever I see forex broker comparison charts all that comes up is a list of bucket shops with number of pips in spread to indicate their quality. Not! I am still not getting the full picture. In many charts they list 1-3 pips for InteractiveBrokers as the "spread", so it would seem a bucket shop off-exchange as well. So I still don't grasp the concepts involved, in forex trading in particular.
CONCLUSIONS TO BE DRAWN BY COMPARISON
Ok, this is too much work still so I will now get rid of some brokers: options, and brokers for dummies. I am left with 10 charts, but before going any further I want to do a search on how many clients the brokers have, because that's important in choosing a broker. The more clients it has, the better, for many reasons.
[... researching...]
http://www.finra.org/
...
OK... The ordeal is finally over. How could i not think of this before? Have been writing too much and thinking too little? Why should i build a chart when I can just look for a good magazine article such as this one?
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123698734062425763.html?page=sp#articleTabs_panel_article=1
So, ok, so Interactive Brokers seems to be the best for my needs, according to Barrons.com. Good because that's what I thought to begin with. In the future, I will look for more artcles like this one. By the way, what I called "brokers for dummies" are none other than the brokers Barron's calls "best for long-term investing". Yet, if their commissions are higher, even for long-term investing why would they be better? I know. Because the long-term investors are dummies and these brokers are more user-friendly. Or maybe because they're less at risk of bankruptcy.
I still could not find figures of brokers by how many clients they have. To be noted that Barron's doesn't even mention any of the forex brokers. Maybe because they don't have enough customers or because they are not even considered brokers, or because the article is talking about trading stocks.
While researching, I found this awesome link:
Barron's Market Data Center
I am done with this search. What is sticking to my mind is the on-exchange and off-exchange parameter. That's mostly what I remember from all this work. Also, I remember that Barron's is good. That InteractiveBrokers is good, even though their name is too long for someone who doesn't like to use acronyms as much as Americans do. Yeah, but anyway the big thing I learned is: are you really trading or not? If you're doing everything with the broker, then you could be in trouble. Fewer regulations with off-exchange brokers, and maybe we can't even call them brokers.
More info as of today, November 20th, 2009:
AWESOME LINK: BEST LINK FOR BROKER COMPARISONS ! ! !
I've taken another look and found much more material, which I may talk about in future posts as it won't allow me to edit this for longer than 24 hours. The guys at consumersearch did an excellent job at collecting online brokers reviews by other magazines, such as Barron's. Here's that very very precious link:
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-brokers/reviews
Now these consumersearch.com guys are really really good, because they list a bunch links of broker reviews and they even comment on the quality of these reviews. These guys really did a lot of work. Very useful especially, regardless of how long it took them. Very intelligent way of working. They definitely maximized their profit based on what they invested in their research.
There's a world of things to look at, which may take another day to process. Let me just quote one of the first link they provide: another similar article to Barron's review quoted above, but now with a more complete chart:
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB120554254483438485.html
Now, to be noted is that none of these brokers in the above charts are bucket-shop off-exchange forex retail brokers. This must mean something. They are simply not considered "brokers".
One last word about InteractiveBrokers, which is probably the best broker around (besides being my broker):
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-brokers/interactive-brokers
Consumersearch.com says this of them:
Now, when, among the CONS, someone writes "may offer more than the average investor wants", that's when you know they're good.
And with this I am pretty much done with this subject, because when you put together what you know, plus what consumersearch.com and barron's tell you, there's not much more to find out.
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Yamato
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Ouch... that hurts... -1000, lost by automated systems on GOLD. Now I'll have to resist the temptation of trading discretionary to make that 1000 back.
In the end, I should treat my trading systems just like every system that I follow in living my daily life, every method I use, every habit I have. For everything you do, there's a method you consider convenient and optimal and there's situations where it doesn't work: that's the drawdown. You don't stop using the optimal method just because once it doesn't work. Yes, sure, it hurts when the method doesn't work, but you don't start doing the opposite. Yes, you do question your method, each time it fails, just like I do with trading. But you always end up following the method that seemed the best working method in your whole life.
So I should treat my loss. My method is totally sound and I should keep following it: let the system trade, regardless of its losses. The extra problem one has with trading is that you didn't follow that back-tested method your whole life, even though a back-tested method might actually be even more reliable than any other method or habit you follow in your life. But you do no trust it as much because everything is new, and you are tempted to keep on trying newer things, instead of following that method you back-tested and that seems optimal. You're tempted especially when that method fails. And with my systems that happens once every three times, so that's another reason why I keep on questioning my systems so often. Because the drawdown happens that often.
Methods followed in life have much higher success rates. Take the method of being polite. Being polite usually is the optimal method in life, at least in the society I live. Yes, occasionally, once every twenty times, you'll find someone rude who will take advantage of your being polite and offend you. With those people, it would have made sense to be cold, but you didn't know it from the start. And therefore those few rude people do not make you start treating everybody rudely. That won't work: it would produce overall worse results.
But maybe the best method here in Rome is not to be polite, but rather to be rude. Maybe being rude works best. I am not even sure anymore. Or rather... for me being polite feels better, so that's the best method for me. Here in Rome there's a higher percentage of rude people, so ever since I have been living here, I've been tempted to change my mind about the optimal method and behavior. And today I am saying this because I met yet another rude taxi driver, and he made me wonder if my method of being polite actually is convenient. It is convenient though, I know it.
That's the beauty of riding cabs. You get to experience a lot of different people for just 10 minutes. You make a lot of experience, without having to live with these people for the rest of your life. Without real risks to yourself except maybe losing a few euros to a dishonest cab driver.
In the end, I should treat my trading systems just like every system that I follow in living my daily life, every method I use, every habit I have. For everything you do, there's a method you consider convenient and optimal and there's situations where it doesn't work: that's the drawdown. You don't stop using the optimal method just because once it doesn't work. Yes, sure, it hurts when the method doesn't work, but you don't start doing the opposite. Yes, you do question your method, each time it fails, just like I do with trading. But you always end up following the method that seemed the best working method in your whole life.
So I should treat my loss. My method is totally sound and I should keep following it: let the system trade, regardless of its losses. The extra problem one has with trading is that you didn't follow that back-tested method your whole life, even though a back-tested method might actually be even more reliable than any other method or habit you follow in your life. But you do no trust it as much because everything is new, and you are tempted to keep on trying newer things, instead of following that method you back-tested and that seems optimal. You're tempted especially when that method fails. And with my systems that happens once every three times, so that's another reason why I keep on questioning my systems so often. Because the drawdown happens that often.
Methods followed in life have much higher success rates. Take the method of being polite. Being polite usually is the optimal method in life, at least in the society I live. Yes, occasionally, once every twenty times, you'll find someone rude who will take advantage of your being polite and offend you. With those people, it would have made sense to be cold, but you didn't know it from the start. And therefore those few rude people do not make you start treating everybody rudely. That won't work: it would produce overall worse results.
But maybe the best method here in Rome is not to be polite, but rather to be rude. Maybe being rude works best. I am not even sure anymore. Or rather... for me being polite feels better, so that's the best method for me. Here in Rome there's a higher percentage of rude people, so ever since I have been living here, I've been tempted to change my mind about the optimal method and behavior. And today I am saying this because I met yet another rude taxi driver, and he made me wonder if my method of being polite actually is convenient. It is convenient though, I know it.
That's the beauty of riding cabs. You get to experience a lot of different people for just 10 minutes. You make a lot of experience, without having to live with these people for the rest of your life. Without real risks to yourself except maybe losing a few euros to a dishonest cab driver.
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Yamato
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Yamato
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My dad's about to come back home, and I am about to start talking to him, in the living room, and I will then start scratching my head. When I am with him, I always get frustrated and people tell me I look uncomfortable.
Work was great today though. I got a lot done, and my boss said "thanks" repeatedly. I love the way this guy says thanks to me. It's rare for bosses to do that. I feel appreciated. I should have left at 3.30 PM but I left at 5.00.
Work was great today though. I got a lot done, and my boss said "thanks" repeatedly. I love the way this guy says thanks to me. It's rare for bosses to do that. I feel appreciated. I should have left at 3.30 PM but I left at 5.00.
Yamato
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I am about to go to work. I am drying off in my robe.
I've realized last night that to go from 10k to 20k it's taking me months, whereas I know that it would have taken me much less to go from 40k to 80k. This is because I can't trade all the systems that I have. I mean I could trade them all, but with a dangerous drawdown, because I could go down 5k and then be screwed for good. Whereas if I trade them all with 40k, I could go down to 35k, and not be screwed at all.
I could try my luck and use more systems, but I did before with the CL and I regretted it (it made 2000 and then lost 3000). As I said, a few posts ago, things are getting better even if my capital stays still, because my forward-testing data increases. It's best that if I ask for a loan, I first have an impeccable money management and knowledge of my drawdown for all systems.
Also, I am curious to find out tonight if last week's drawdown was just temporary and this week will be positive as usual. I've been getting about one red week every two months so far. With that kind of equity line, I could even take a loan. It'd be my third loan in a year. Each time I take it out, triple my money, pay the loan back, and then lose most of my money again, so I end up getting another loan. I have to be careful because I could also not be as performing next time and get the loan and lose most of the money. And then I'd be unable to trade for years to come.
I've realized last night that to go from 10k to 20k it's taking me months, whereas I know that it would have taken me much less to go from 40k to 80k. This is because I can't trade all the systems that I have. I mean I could trade them all, but with a dangerous drawdown, because I could go down 5k and then be screwed for good. Whereas if I trade them all with 40k, I could go down to 35k, and not be screwed at all.
I could try my luck and use more systems, but I did before with the CL and I regretted it (it made 2000 and then lost 3000). As I said, a few posts ago, things are getting better even if my capital stays still, because my forward-testing data increases. It's best that if I ask for a loan, I first have an impeccable money management and knowledge of my drawdown for all systems.
Also, I am curious to find out tonight if last week's drawdown was just temporary and this week will be positive as usual. I've been getting about one red week every two months so far. With that kind of equity line, I could even take a loan. It'd be my third loan in a year. Each time I take it out, triple my money, pay the loan back, and then lose most of my money again, so I end up getting another loan. I have to be careful because I could also not be as performing next time and get the loan and lose most of the money. And then I'd be unable to trade for years to come.
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Yamato
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...CONTINUING ON DRAWDOWN AND CAPITAL
Back at work. The package is now in Milan, continuing its trip. I should get it today. I'll tell you if that battery I bought for one third what it costs here actually works.
Regarding drawdown and capital. Yeah, it really seems like I am stuck at 10k forever. But it is not just a problem of my discretionary trading, because actually overall it didn't make me lose anything for over a month now. The money doesn't grow because systems are not making it grow. And that happens because ALL of them combined do make a lot of money, but if I only use the safest ones and the ones I can afford in terms of drawdown and max loss, then I may not be selecting the most profitable ones, and ultimately my capital is just not growing. Besides, selecting the ones that have worked so far and excluding those that have not worked may very well be a bad idea, because then those that have worked may stop working and those that haven't worked may start working. I should use them all together just like my forward testing does. And its equity line is increasing whereas mine isn't. I've implemented even a rule that doesn't allow systems to trade unless they've made a lot of money. I thought that all these rules would maximize my profit and limit my drawdown, but it's not happening. I have been stuck at 10k for months. To the point where I'm very tempted to do one of my discretionary stints on the CL and make 3000 dollars in one trade, which usually ends up with -3000 dollars on one trade.
Back at work. The package is now in Milan, continuing its trip. I should get it today. I'll tell you if that battery I bought for one third what it costs here actually works.
Regarding drawdown and capital. Yeah, it really seems like I am stuck at 10k forever. But it is not just a problem of my discretionary trading, because actually overall it didn't make me lose anything for over a month now. The money doesn't grow because systems are not making it grow. And that happens because ALL of them combined do make a lot of money, but if I only use the safest ones and the ones I can afford in terms of drawdown and max loss, then I may not be selecting the most profitable ones, and ultimately my capital is just not growing. Besides, selecting the ones that have worked so far and excluding those that have not worked may very well be a bad idea, because then those that have worked may stop working and those that haven't worked may start working. I should use them all together just like my forward testing does. And its equity line is increasing whereas mine isn't. I've implemented even a rule that doesn't allow systems to trade unless they've made a lot of money. I thought that all these rules would maximize my profit and limit my drawdown, but it's not happening. I have been stuck at 10k for months. To the point where I'm very tempted to do one of my discretionary stints on the CL and make 3000 dollars in one trade, which usually ends up with -3000 dollars on one trade.
Yamato
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FedEx rules ! ! ! A package from New York to Rome on the next day
Now, if we set the awesome, efficient, and interactive, "Shipment Travel History" to Athens time (GMT + 2), we can clearly see that my package with the battery is getting to me in less than 2 days from when... "Shipment information sent to FedEx". FedEx rules. What a great thing progress is... and what's even more amazing is that it's costing just as much as it's costing me to get a package sent to me from Milan via TNT and it's taking the same exact time. So from now on I will regard sellers in New York in the same way I regard sellers in Milan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Smith
Now, buying a battery in New York, for one third the price I'd pay it in Europe, is very much like finding out who the best broker is (just like I did recently) and opening an account with them. It's very related to trading. And this part of optimizing things suits me quite well. For some reason I am not as good at optimizing my discretionary trading.
Now, if we set the awesome, efficient, and interactive, "Shipment Travel History" to Athens time (GMT + 2), we can clearly see that my package with the battery is getting to me in less than 2 days from when... "Shipment information sent to FedEx". FedEx rules. What a great thing progress is... and what's even more amazing is that it's costing just as much as it's costing me to get a package sent to me from Milan via TNT and it's taking the same exact time. So from now on I will regard sellers in New York in the same way I regard sellers in Milan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Smith
Now, buying a battery in New York, for one third the price I'd pay it in Europe, is very much like finding out who the best broker is (just like I did recently) and opening an account with them. It's very related to trading. And this part of optimizing things suits me quite well. For some reason I am not as good at optimizing my discretionary trading.
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Yamato
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Ok, got home, found the battery, paid 30 euros of customs taxes: 45 dollars. Still extremely convenient: with shipping costs of 30 dollars, it totals 75 dollars - funny because the battery itself only cost me only 90 dollars. I hooked it to my laptop and now it's charging. If it'll work properly, it'll be the best online deal I ever made. Paid a total of 165 dollars, instead of over 300, had I bought it anywhere in Europe.
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Yamato
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Ok, this is it! The battery officially works perfectly and it says I have 12 hours to go. Not bad. For just 165 dollars now I can sit on my couch and watch tv for as long as I want. And the power outages can last as long as they want to last.
I have to say a nice word about this store again, for not ripping me off and giving me an awesome deal I never would have bought my battery without you guys. Thank you thank you thank you.
http://www.getpartsonline.com/
I have to say a nice word about this store again, for not ripping me off and giving me an awesome deal I never would have bought my battery without you guys. Thank you thank you thank you.
http://www.getpartsonline.com/
GladiatorX
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Why don't you buy the batteries and sell them on ebay for profit ? :smart:
Yamato
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Only because it'd take me a whole week of work to make 100 dollars. It's easier with the markets, even with my discretionary trading. Actually I just made 140 with my discretionary trading.
By the way, I do recommend to everyone by all means to buy, just as i did, an HP 6730B on Ebay, for just 500 euros, and this battery from getpartsonline.com for just 90 dollars. This is so great. Ten hours of non-stop power without having to be plugged to anything. Yes, of course, it wouldn't seem to make any sense since I am home. But the real reason I did all this is for my automated systems: this will work as a UPS when the power will go off. Once every 2 months or less there's some workers that have to disconnect power in the building for 2 hours and the UPS won't provide power for that long, so this is the only method for me.
Yes, there'd be another method: I let my mentor host my systems. I definitely trust him to do so. But I still need to give him the money to buy a nano server and a good UPS to provide power in case of outages. That's gonna cost me about 600 dollars, so it'll be a while before I'll do that. Plus I'll pay him what it costs usually to have a dedicated server. And I will need my laptop anyway, because I'll want to connect to him even when I am on vacation (I can't run my systems on my laptop while traveling, nor leave it at the hotel).
By the way, I do recommend to everyone by all means to buy, just as i did, an HP 6730B on Ebay, for just 500 euros, and this battery from getpartsonline.com for just 90 dollars. This is so great. Ten hours of non-stop power without having to be plugged to anything. Yes, of course, it wouldn't seem to make any sense since I am home. But the real reason I did all this is for my automated systems: this will work as a UPS when the power will go off. Once every 2 months or less there's some workers that have to disconnect power in the building for 2 hours and the UPS won't provide power for that long, so this is the only method for me.
Yes, there'd be another method: I let my mentor host my systems. I definitely trust him to do so. But I still need to give him the money to buy a nano server and a good UPS to provide power in case of outages. That's gonna cost me about 600 dollars, so it'll be a while before I'll do that. Plus I'll pay him what it costs usually to have a dedicated server. And I will need my laptop anyway, because I'll want to connect to him even when I am on vacation (I can't run my systems on my laptop while traveling, nor leave it at the hotel).
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GladiatorX
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$140 discretionary trading;
What did you trade Travis ?
What did you trade Travis ?
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