It looks like I’m not the only one to be thinking of the Virtue of Integrity in trading. Today from Dr. Brett Steenbarger:
But there’s an easy way to identify those who offer goods and services with integrity and those who don’t: Go to their websites or blogs and measure the ratio of self-promotional posts/articles to the number of substantive, informational posts/articles.
If you have substance, showing it is your best marketing strategy. If you don’t have substance, all you can bank on is hand waving.
We all put our best foot forward when we first meet someone we want to know. What vendors of goods and services put on their home pages represents their best feet forward. If there’s no substance there, caveat emptor.
Read his whole post, and the older one which started it all. It is destined to be a classic of righteous outrage.
Trading From Your Gut
Way of the Turtle
Inside the Mind of the Turtles
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I’ve kind of had some fun with all this. Somehow it got out I was a trader and doing well, with a decent stake. All these guys come out of the woodwork wanting to “help me” and “trade my money” spouting this and that, some of which as an actual trader I knew to be un factual, as I’d been watching those issues all along.
I’ve been doing pretty well, actually, whether it’s just luck or skill time will tell, but doing good. And these guys of course, they’re going to do better than that (not even knowing that it’d have to be really good to beat me).
So I ask them — OK, if you’re that good, really good, why the heck are you interested in my paltry millions, why not trade your own account instead and be rich beyond the dreams of avarice? And keep your mouth shut about it, because as Curtis once pointed out — any trick everyone knows no longer works. The usual response is that sweet “click”.
Lately it was guys wanting me to go long gold at 4::1 leverage. This was just before the big pullback….I think at the depths of dishonesty, they were simply trying to dump their own bad bets on someone who didn’t know better. That didn’t turn out to be me.