Why do really successful traders never share their methods or strategies?

• Don't be superstitious about "strategy"!

First of all, some successful traders will share their strategies, such as the famous public trading system turtle trading method.

All that aside, I believe that those who ask these questions a lot, and those who ask me or my trading friends about strategies, are misunderstood about "strategy" itself. A "strategy" is not a blueprint for success, nor is it a top secret worth a trader's life protecting that will allow a trader to magically "dig" money out of the market.

This is the truth, but some people don't want to believe it.

Traders with a few years of experience don't ask about a strategy at all, they ask more detailed questions like: Which market signals do you believe in? What are the entry/exit conditions? Which order type to use? Why?

Then, they began to ask more detailed questions, for example, how to face the loss caused by the mismatch between trading strategy and market behavior? How to find out the market conditions suitable for a certain trading strategy? When do market conditions usually appear for this trading strategy etc...

Novices need not strategy, but experience. If they find competent people who are willing to provide guidance and help them gain experience faster, they can create or implement trading strategies.

Newbies spend a lot of time asking questions, but I hate to spend that much time on everyone who asks. Don't get me wrong. I am happy for everyone who has found success with my strategy. I'm also proud that the strategies I've shared have improved the financial situation of quite a few traders, but at the end of the day: my job is trading, not teaching.

• "Strategy" is too valuable to share!

There are obvious reasons why most truly successful traders do not share their strategies. It's hard to imagine a skilled professional trader coming home from get off work and teaching people how to trade online. It's even harder to imagine them spending more time teaching than trading.

Traders profit when they have an edge. Imagine if you are a long-term profitable trading master, when you find this advantage in yourself in the market behavior, it is very valuable to you, if it may become invalid after sharing it with others, then you will Wouldn't you share your advantage with others? Neither will you, let alone share it for free, and this advantage is your trading strategy.

It is undeniable that there are also some profitable traders who are willing to share their wisdom about trading and the market. Some of them want to use this to build their own business, build their own brand, increase their career opportunities, some want to sell such strategies to get extra income or make more money to do transactions, and some Maybe it's just because I happen to have a little spare time and want to provide someone with a little value, or just to talk about something they're passionate about. But in any case, it is rare for you to meet a truly successful trader who will teach others to trade.

• The reasons vary from person to person!

A lot of profitable traders have found the knack of trading, but they only focus on making trades for themselves, waiting for profits, and don't think about others.

Greedy traders don't want their strategies to be taken advantage of by others.

The average trader fears that his strategy will not work if he shares it.

Some traders may worry that others can make more money than they do using the same strategy.

Some traders feel that there is some kind of competition in trading, just like in other industries.

• Busy with my own business and life~

There are indeed some professional traders who share their strategies with retail investors. But in general, most professional traders seldom do this, mainly because they are busy trading their own accounts.

Second, they don't want the hassle, and they don't care about the money they get from teaching the strategy. Because there are some professional traders who literally live the dream life. They spend a few hours, or a day trading, and the profits they get can make their lives very nourishing. And dropping all of that in order to teach a group of retail traders how to trade is not something everyone can do.

• Transactions cannot rely on others!

Many traders are secretive and won't tell anyone about their trading strategies.

They spend a lot of time and energy developing their own strategy, if it were you, would you tell the world how you make money? It is not ruled out that some traders will help others and tell them their own strategies.

But most professional traders believe that traders need to do their own trading and analysis, rather than relying on others to easily acquire trading skills.

• A good trader ≠ a good teacher!

I don't know what your job is, but would you spend time every day teaching newbies? Even if you would, most probably wouldn't.

The teacher's task is not easy at all, even sometimes boring, sometimes frustrating. So most people in any field don't want to be teachers. Furthermore, a successful, professional trader does not necessarily make a good trading teacher.

• You are the crux of the matter!

That's not to say they don't want to share it with you. Trust me, they will. They will even write books and make videos to teach you how to trade. But, you are the crux of the matter, and you are the one who puts the strategy into practice.

There is a difference between understanding strategies and applying them, and if they were the same, we would have physics without engineering.

Successful traders share their strategies, and they do so often. But I've found that most of the sharing doesn't tell you exactly how to find the right conditions to apply these strategies. Of course, the appropriate conditions mentioned here do not refer to appropriate platforms and funds.

Mark Douglas (Mark Douglas) said: "Successful trading is 80% psychological and 20% technical".

So, don't worry too much about strategy. I suggest you only master a few. Like I have only mastered 2 and I believe there is no need to master more. Therefore, the most important thing is to grasp the market conditions applicable to the strategy, and do a good job of psychological construction, so that the strategy can work without human interference.

• Why share?

Successful traders are extremely rare, and becoming one is extremely difficult. So why would they give away the keys to their success for free?

90% of trading depends on emotion, 10% depends on strategy, and the other 90% needs to participate in the market, and learn by yourself after losing money. Strategies can be learned, but experience cannot be learned. You need to practice and gain experience by yourself.

• Even if you teach it, you may not know how to operate it!

People tend to look for a "magic bullet" for their strategy and assume that successful traders are successful because they have encountered one or invented one themselves. This is not the case, and no strategy will make you 100% profitable.

Most success comes from experience trading the markets. Successful traders know when is the best time to trade and when to exit to minimize losses. Plus, they have all sorts of other skills that many novices don't have. The above valuable experience is based on their rich trading experience, even including the painful experience of losing their own hard-earned money.

So, even if successful traders decide to share their highly profitable strategies, most novices won't know how to do it. Because they may get out early, they may be overweight, or they will get out as soon as they start losing money, and finally give up this strategy. It's like asking a 10-year-old to drive a Lamborghini - even though they know the basics of driving a car (braking, accelerating, steering), the actual driving process is far more complicated than they expected.

• The little-known "secret"~

Professional traders do not expect most retail investors to become trading experts. Because retail investors provide liquidity to professional traders, allowing them to exit trades when retail investors enter the market.

As an example, professional traders take positions long USDJPY 6-12 months before an event and then close out when the news breaks that they are long USDJPY. Retail traders imitated professional traders and also went long on the US-Japan pair, but by then, professional traders had already stepped out.

This can only happen if the broker provides sufficient liquidity, which is provided in part by retail investors.