Consistantly make 100k+ per year trading futures/options. Not really that hard to do if you put the effort in to succeed and do not expect to win every trade.
name anything in life that you can get good at in a few months that is even half as complex as learning to trade? i just dont understand this mind set. i will always contend that the reason so many traders fail is they don't expect to blow up accounts to learn even though when you read almost any interview with a great trader virtually none started out making money right away and most blew up. So people blow up, think trading is a scam or whatever and move on. have to pay your tuition.
Took me 8 years to learn how to mix and another 4 to get my 1st Gold record... and you wanna be the master trader in a couple of months??? Hell, I lost money for years... experimenting. When I got serious it still took almost a year to get profitable.... What saved me from a blowout the last time was watching my losses like a HAWK... I become so vigilent at that, I actually started making money and didn't even realize it. Finally, Personally.. For me being undercapitalized FORCED me to be smart... When I threw money in the market, basically I was the guy the pro's were cleaning out.... My Painful memory was losing 90K in what seemd to be mere hours.... IT scared the hell out of me, and I left like a wonded dog... But I cam back.. put up less cash and said, "I gotta learn this.... I want it toooooo bad...." SO dont complain, identify your issues, correct them and become a good trader... or Get a job digging ditches (as the guy who trained me as an engineer used to say....)
absolutely nothing in life is mastered so fast. it's a childish/society imposed mindset one has upon themselves. hey guys, do you know i think i'll seriously get some heart problems if i keep up at this rate? i've never felt so much stress in my life on a day to day activity like trading. i actually sometimes miss my old 9-5 days... but i'll never go back to those.. low pay, real hard work, take shit from others, ewww that's sick.
B&B, to expand a little more on what I was saying earlier, trading for a newbie is such a mindf#ck, even if you consider yourself unemotional and in control. Also agree with jdee, once you put in your time you eventually start to trade a lot smarter. You recognize opportunities and pull the trigger instantly and also stay the F away from situations you know you shouldn't be trading. I would take some time off, grab Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by LeFevre and Think and Grow Rich by Hill. Try to get your mind right and positivity up. It can't hurt.
Take some time off. Seriously.. Stop trading, and just watch the market. I wouldnt even paper trade...
For what it's worth (on the subject in general)... There are many types of people in this world. The markets are made up of many different people, opinions, views, emotions, baggage, etc... We each bring something different with us when we enter any profession or stage of life. The problem in trading is that the barrier to entry is VERY LOW and the skills required to succeed are VERY HIGH. Look, when a person enters the military they are broken down in basic training only to be put back together in the manner that is necessary for the unit/company/army to succeed. The same is true for the newly minted college diploma recipient when he/she enters the cubicle for the first time. Why would it be any different in trading? The truth of the matter is that everyone wants it and VERY FEW will ever get it. If it were easy, EVERYONE WOULD BE DOING IT! Tiger Woods wasn't made into a successful golfer overnight. Sure Michael Jordan was blessed with the necessary skills, but he still had to work his balls off until he made it. The funny thing is that the ability to succeed in this game lies within just about everyone. The problem; few will ever discover what it takes to become successful, and of those that do, even fewer will do what it takes. In the end it's more about the self, what's important to the individual and that person's commitment to their own success. The longer I've stuck with trading the more I've come to realize that it is truly a personal endeavor and FEW THAT SEEK WILL EVER FIND. The fact is that there's just a shitload of pain that has to be gotten through to make it. The ironic thing is that most of that pain WE ALL HAVE CONTROL OVER (self-inflicted). It's much more than numbers in time and space in continual motion. That's just the nature of the environment in which the trader lives, it's much more about self-knowledge and actualization. It's the process that's important, not the point from which we start or end. The markets will be there long past your or my existence. 75% of what goes on in this world in the life of the individual, he/she has no control over. What are you doing with the other 25%? Good Luck!