Latest trading poll—will it change the way you trade?

Over two thousand traders entered the poll, making for a meaningful sample size.

I'm confident we can rule out professional PM's HFT's algo's, market markers from participating. So that leaves everyone else.

And with that being the case, the poll results are encouraging—less than 20% of those who participated in the poll trade one instrument.

Why encouraging?

Think of it this way. When travelling overseas to somewhere new, when it comes to receiving the best information on where to shop, places to eat, when to avoid crowds at popular destinations, what's in season, you want to be talking with the locals, as they are infinitely better informed than tourists.

I consider myself a local when it comes to trading the Australian dollar futures (6A). It's all I trade, eight hours a day, five days a week, for more than 48 weeks a year. The poll results tell us over 80% of traders are tourists. So it's no surprise I constantly identify tourists trading 6A.

More specifically, over the last several years, I've focused on spotting how influential players trap non-specialist tourists into trades that lead them quite literally down the garden path. I'm always taking the other side of the tourist traders. Lack of specialisation is why they make the ideal mark.

What does a ratio of 80% tourists to 20% locals mean to a "local"? It means having a sustainable career as a full-time trader. It means taking money out of the market nearly every day. It means very seldom having a losing day, but it's at worst a minor draw when you do.

Here's my first trade of the day, which I include because it's an example of the unfair advantage specialising affords you.