Meetup Update (Part 3)

As previously discussed, the Tuesday Meetup included some boisterous, opinionated discussion along with a “professional quant” in attendance. Nothing there was actionable.

While I enjoy and recommend the Wednesday Meetup, I did not find that content actionable, either. While the title includes the words “investment academy,” this Meetup is an order of magnitude less specific than helping people to trade profitably. I do not fault the organizers since they cater to beginners. They did say on Wednesday one directive is to foster collaboration among the group, however. I will keep my eyes open over the next few events to see if we move any closer to fulfilling this actionable promise.

I have organized a small option trading group that meets every week. We have roughly six regular participants and a Yahoo! Group. I posted extensively about my losing weekly calendar and one other member posted about a losing monthly trade. Nobody else mentioned any losing trades. I thought back over the last few weeks and realized that while I post about my losing trades often, rarely does anybody else.

At the Wednesday Meetup, Mr. Know It All said he lost money that day in response to my direct questioning. Thinking such a wide-ranging market day would be good for day trading, I asked for details. He spoke for a couple minutes and then quickly changed the subject. Why he lost could have been precisely the kind of actionable information I seek but alas, that was not to be forthcoming.

On Tuesday night, I didn’t hear any meaningful discussion about losses aside from the Forex guy who is on a crusade. Contrary to my thesis, this might not be a reflection of inflated egos but it does make me wonder whether anybody is actually trading. The woman in attendance who I found to be extremely amusing said she was flat right now awaiting further direction by the market.

I will continue with my thesis on losses in the next post.