10 Signs Of A New Trader Know-it-All

 

There are signs that an annoying trader online is a rookie and it is highly unlikely they have been profitable long term or a seasoned veteran in the markets. They are usually the loudest and most active, they love to jump in and give others unsolicited advice about a stocks or a markets next move, and are 100% sure of the calls they are making outside any systematic approach. These traders do not worry about losing money on a trade and they odds are that this is becasue they have never traded real money much less any real size of capital. When they are right they will let everyone know, however when they are wrong they are very quiet. They can be an annoyance on facebook, twitter, or stock twits.

Here is how to spot them:

  1. They aggressively give out free advice to others on what to do with their current position in a stock through twitter or stock twits without even being asked
  2. They are very sure of themselves and arrogant in their market calls.
  3. They pretend to have huge returns when they are right because they risk too much and trade too big.
  4. They never post losing trades, when they are asked they make up excuses and blame the market when their calls are wrong or even block you.
  5. They very rarely if ever mention managing risk. Why should they? They are trading geniuses no need to manage risk when they are sure they are right. They probably do not even know what real losses feel like because they are likely just paper traders.
  6. A naive new trader has no need to discuss the importance of trader psychology, because they are so new that they have never had a huge draw down in capital or traded with a six figure account to really test them.
  7. They are all about the trade entries but get foggy on when to exit.
  8. They confuse a bull market with having skills as a trader.
  9. They are not concerned with what the chart is saying, they are too busy predicting what they think will happen.
  10. They do not know what the terms risk of ruin, position size, trading plan, or trading journal even mean.

You may know one of these know-it-all new traders, ignore them.