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I dont know where to begin... Let's say you were successfully daytrading for 3 years, making a lot of cash, then all of a sudden your methods no longer work.
I've heard of stories where market changes, and certain strategies no longer work or market simply does not move, and people dont make money.
How do you deal with this? How would you explain it on a resume (in case you wanted to work full time)?
It hasnt happened to me, but i'm scared that everything that works for me no longer will work in the future.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
There are strategies...
for volatile markets or
for non volatile markets etc.
Strategies for long or for short term - they are all not playing well in every market.
In the long term one has to adapt to the pattern(s) and pace of one market to get the most of it. If the
signs are not right there - do NOT trade. Wait for the setup on your own system(s).
I think the key is to realize that no single method will work all the time. Whether discretionary or automated, your system will eventually stop working. It may just stop working during a certain market cycle, or it may be more permanent (if you were taking advantage of an inefficiency that no longer exists).
Traders who make a life long career out of this are able to adapt, grow, learn, change with the market. Traders who are profitable now, but then sit back and refuse to change because they want the market to stay the same for the rest of their life will be job hunting eventually.
Just look at a few of the major market changes that have occurred since the birth of the internet. Before the internet, retail traders had to call in their trades through brokers. Pit traders had major advantages in their ability to trade the spread and be the first to do it. Then screen trading became more predominant. What worked on the floor didn't always work on the screen. Eventually HFT's came into the picture. Anyone who was trading prior to the 90's and refused to change and grow is certainly out of the game now. Anyone trading now, who expects their method to work exactly as is for the next 20 years will likely not be trading in 20 years.
If you trade well for 3 years you will also know what to do when the market changes. You will have built up a cushion of money and also of experience that will allow you to navigate considerable uncertainty.
The first 3 years should be your concern ... not the following 20 !
I've heard on elitetrader about whole prop firms closing up shop because their methods no longer worked.
Then I've also heard it's good to be versed in multiple trading systems so one can be used as a backup if the current one is no longer working.
The good thing about recent HFT news is that HFT is oversaturated somewhat with mulitple competing HFT firms so that the HFT pie is cut in smaller individual slices. So maybe as a result there is a tradeable market again for retail traders in the future.
