[TraderJuan]

Originally Posted by MickMason

Hi Russ

Trading is as hard or as easy as you want to make it!

The 'Can it get any easier' thread is in the 'Charting & Technical Analyst' forum and therefore the 'easier' relates to charting and technical analysis, I don't think it's misleading in the slightest. By the way, trading Fibonacci levels is not a technique I devised, it's been around for a long while and is no secret. I stress many times that accurately predicting market direction is not all it takes to be a profitable trader, there is more to it, but for technical analysis I maintain that simple is best. Anyone who understands trading will know that losing trades are inevitable, it's how they are handled in relation to winning trades that matters. Most lose money in this business because they concentrate all their efforts and energy into looking for a Holy Grail indicator under the misconception that as long as they can predict direction accurately then they will 'strike it rich'. These forums are living proof, the vast majority of posts relate to technical analysis, most of it extremely complex and totally unnecessary in my opinion.

For those who have doubts about analysis being a comparatively minor element of profitable trading perhaps they should read about Jacko the gorilla, here's an excerpt......

Mick



Courtesy of PRWeb:

January 2 2004--Famous gorilla Gorilla Jacko is well known among Dutch investors. His performance is tracked by the Dutch website www.beursgorilla.nl, which stands for “stock exchange gorilla”. Jacko’s portfolio consists of 10 stocks. Twice each month Jacko sells one position and buys a new one. Jacko picks stocks by selecting a labelled banana from 75 bananas which represent different Dutch stocks.
All changes in the portfolio are communicated to all members of the free mailing list of beursgorilla.nl. In 2003 the number of people who actively followed the portfolio rose to over 30.000. Numerous television shows and newspapers covered Jacko’s performance.

Better performance than top analists
Interestingly enough, Jacko has beaten Dutch top analists for the fourth year in a row as well. Each year five well known analists present their top five picks for the upcoming year. The return on their picks in each one of the last four years was lower than the return on Jacko’s portfolio.

Banks interested
A number of banks in The Netherlands have noticed the success of Jacko’s portfolio. One bank mentioned: “beating the major stock index for the fourth consecutive year can no longer be called coincidence.” They are currently looking into the possibility of introducing a new fund based on the gorilla’s picks.

Not the first succesful monkey
Jacko is not the first successful monkey on the stock exchange. In 1999, chimpansee Raven attracted world attention when his portfolio beat the Dow Jones by over 80%. In 2000 however, his portfolio performed much worse than the Dow Jones, mainly because it was based on numerous internet related stocks. Jacko has beaten the market in down- and up markets.

LOL, Great article Mick. Someone has been making a monkey out of me.