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Article:
Copy Cat by: Al Thomas How many books have you read about successful traders? How they did this or that and made a fortune and are still doing it. You say to yourself, 'I'm going to follow his method and get rich'¯. So you subscribe to his newsletter (they all have one, $250) and buy his course on CD Rom ($495)and next time he is anywhere near you attend his seminar with a $500 discount for only $2495. You do understand you must do exactly as he does and you try your best to follow the directions, but for some reason you still are not making money. At least you are not losing as much as you did before (I hope). Go look in the mirror. You are not Richard Russell, Richard Wyckoff, Bill O'Neil or any one of the great gurus of the market place. Each one of them has devoted every minute of his life to understanding the market. Each one is very successful and each one has a completely different way of approaching trading. Can you copy any one of them? It is very doubtful. These great teachers can help you, but you have to develop your own method and style of investment. Whether it is long term or short term it must be something with which you resonate. When I was a floor trader there were a thousand guys trading and I know there were a thousand different guide lines. No one had the same buy or sell signal. If they all followed a pat program they would all be buying and selling at the same time so it could not work. I have stood in the pit and watched the same person offer to buy and when there was no seller he would then offer to sell usually at the same price. Yes, he was scalping for one or 2 ticks, but he knew what he was doing even if it looked strange. A friend of mine could arbitrage by standing in the middle of the gold pit and hit buys and sells that were off by one or two ticks because they could not hear each other due to the noise of other traders who were shouting their offers. You can look at the basic trading style of one of the 'greats'¯, but you must adapt it to your method. I have not seen anyone able to successfully copy a trading program exactly. You will improvise and find a slightly new approach that becomes 'yours'¯. It then becomes part of your cellular being. It works for you and probably won't work for anyone else. If the programs the hype masters are selling work so well why aren't there more rich traders? And if the programs are so darn good why are they telling you? To be a successful trader you can't copy cat an existing program, but you can take a basic trading vehicle and modify it your own plan. Turn that cat into your own tiger. About The Author F*R*E*E investment letter www.mutualfundmagic.com Author of best seller 'IF IT DOESN'T GO UP, DON'T BUY IT!' Never lose money in the market. Copyright 2004 Albert W. Thomas All rights reserved. Former 17-year exchange member, floor trader and brokerage company owner. al@mutualfundmagic.com This article was posted on January '09
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