The Trader Meetup Dilemma (Part 2)

Continuing from Part 1, I wonder whether I would have any compunctions about organizing a Meetup at personal expense and freely sharing everything I have learned were I to have no ego involvement whatsoever. I do think this is setting the bar pretty high. Even the organizer of the most successful options trading Meetup I know does not do this. Big kudos to him for donating extensive personal time organizing meetings, finding speakers, communicating with members, and maintaining the website content. He has built an automated backtester that he does not share with others, however. He also shares few details about his own strategies. I know he has a separate, full-time job, which I would assume may limit the scope of his trading.

In spite of the fact that my strategy is hardly unique,* I certainly have reservations about sharing the specific details. This also manifests as reluctance to approach financial advisers in hopes of forming some sort of partnership or gaining employment. Short of an audited track record, which I do not have, one thing I believe would be expected is full disclosure of my trading strategy. I worry that such transparency would allow them to bypass me and simply trade it themselves regardless of how reckless that may be due to the lack of my extensive trading and backtesting experience (it’s one thing to see it on paper and quite another to manage the drawdowns accordingly when they occur).

I am also hesitant to disclose trading performance to others partly because in most cases, I do not think people should believe such claims anyway. I regard performance claims offered by random individuals as being different from those offered by registered investment advisors and other entities that likely pay hefty annual fees for compliance.

I hesitate to organize a trader Meetup because I am not convinced sharing everything that I have learned should be free. I have written about this here in addition to the “Giving Back” mini-series. Because I have paid dearly for the lessons I have learned (catastrophic losses included), why should others get my lessons for free? I debate whether these are legitimate reasons to reject the possibility of organizing or simply rationalization to cover up repressed ego.

I will continue next time.

* What may be unique is the way I implement this strategy or the fact that I implement it at all.