Updated Meetup Hopes (Part 1)

In an effort to network with other traders in my new state, I have been messaging people from some [dormant] trading-related Meetup groups. I recently got a response from one claiming to know a handful of potential members who asked me to compose an e-mail describing in more detail what I am looking for.

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Hi BD,

Nice talking with you yesterday.

This message got lengthy!  Please don’t forward the whole thing to anyone you think might get overwhelmed.  Feel free to pare it down or I can write something altogether different.  I would like to hear what potential members might be looking for, what kind of trading they do, what they might be able to contribute, etc.  When I organized that small group 5-6 years ago, I started with a short assessment questionnaire designed to help me tailor the group accordingly (and decide whether it was even something of which I wanted to be a part).

Explaining what I seek in a group is difficult.  What I’m ideally looking for is probably a pipe dream so I’ll start with that.

As a full-time option trader, my aspiration would be to find people with whom to collaborate on trading strategy development.  This is simply stated yet extremely complex because it requires people who are advanced traders, who have studied, who have already put in extensive time and effort, who know some statistics/quant methods/coding, who have unbridled passion…

I’m here to tell you that aside from our discussion about the challenges of organizing a successful trade-related meetup, I have looked high and low over the years for other full-time traders.  On the rare occasion I stumble upon one, I usually find incompatibility because I can’t get behind the philosophy (for a reason, which sometimes makes me question whether they’re even being honest with me), the vehicle, the time frame, the limited sample size, the level of discretion, etc.

It’s no joke when they say the trading strategy must fit one’s personality.

Aside from such a collaborative effort, I would be interested to form a trading team where each member specializes in a particular strategy.  This will be a strategy they track and follow every single day.  If they don’t trade it live, then they will paper trade it.  If they have the tools then they can backtest for a broader perspective.  At every group meeting, time will be allocated for each member to present updates, education, and/or discussion about their assigned strategy.  If this requires too much time then perhaps members present every x meetings; we just need to be meeting enough for this to make sense.  Learning new strategies is very difficult with infrequent exposure—we’ll repeatedly forget before hearing about them again.  
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I will continue next time.