Profitable active trading is certainly possible. But making a full time living from it as your only source of income is almost impossible if you have bills to pay and mouths to feed. I mean if you have the typical sized trading account that most people start out with then it is almost impossible to beat your own living expenses. People are also right to be sceptical about making 8pts a day (2000 ES points a year), that is way way too much to expect to make every year. But making over a million dollars a year is certainly possible, if you are in a position to trade large enough size, then you don't need to make 2000 points a year, just a small fraction of that will be enough. How to make $1million a year trading the ES by lot size: 1 ES lot, 20,000 points needed (impossible to do in one year) 10 ES lots, 2000 points needed (virtually impossible in one year) (as a day trader) 100 ES lots, 200 points needed (certainly possible but still very hard to do as a day trader, year after year)
I am each time shocked by the ignorance that most people on ET have. Almost everybody is focusing on trading profitable and they don't even realize that trading profitable is just a small part of what you should study. According to you 100 ES lots trading is the only possible solution. Do you realize that you need a lot of money to trade that size? You need hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that. Most people don't have that money, so what's the use of what you propose? For most people it is unachievable. When you are consistent profitable, the stats on your trading should define which strategy you should use. I notice that on ET almost everybody is just busy with making profitable trades. And they don't realize that the real returns don't come from profitable trades, but from the optimal use of these trades. You should make optimal use of margin, frequency and compounding. That's what matters for making money. And then you don't need to start with 100 ES lots, but you can even start with trading the MES on a very small capital (that everybody can afford) and still reach 1MM per year.
Virtusa, you seem to be one of the few people on this site that isn't a complete loser or toxic asshole and if you were cool with it, I'd like to pick your brain for five minutes. This thread is a lost cause at this point, and your profile won't let me view it or start a private thread, so I thought I'd post here again to ask. If not, that's totally fine. I just wanted to ask a few things that I have been thinking about that might help me turn the corner. The original point of this thread was to see if making a good living from trading was actually possible, and I thought I made it clear that I was fed-up with all the nonsense that goes on with this industry in regards to teaching (books, courses, gurus), but people seemed to take it out of context and then try to hang me with it. I have zero patience for this bullshit. I had one guy laugh at me for wanting to take several points out of ES on a daily basis and then recommend I size up and take 0.8 points. ES trades in $0.25 increments so I'm not sure what this guy was smoking or why people like that even bother to leave a reply. Ignorance and arrogance at its finest.
What do you think a "poker community" is? You ever go on a poker site or poker forum? What the fuck do you think it is? If you aren't making huge money and the entire purpose of this thread was to ask SUCCESSFUL traders if this was even possible, why are you even posting here? I'm not looking for a fucking handout. Nowhere in any of my posts did I ask anyone for their trading strategy. I was looking to see if this was possible at all because I have been repeatedly met with failure. I'm not sure why you think that I expect to be spoonfed. My god, the mental illness on this forum is strong.
You understand that medical insurance doesn't pay 100% of the bill, right? You also understand that medical bankruptcy is, according to one study, the cause of 46% of all bankruptcies in the USA: https://www.debt.org/bankruptcy/statistics/ Clearly there is something wrong with the system, or are you just retarded?
You must have been treated for such, as most out of pocket maximums in the US are under $20K for a family. you’re a fucking troll.
Thank you for this advice. I know I don't understand the market, but at least I'm honest with myself. What is saving my ass is that I don't overtrade or take big losses. When I realize something isn't working I stop and re-evaluate. People here mocked me when I said I had discipline, but I'm not sure why holding onto my bankroll and not doing anything stupid is a lack of discipline. I was also met with "trading is all in your head" which I vehemently disagree with. Either you know what you're doing or you don't, and if you don't, then you don't make money. I think this Mark Douglas "Trading in the Zone" psych bullshit is useless. If I'm trying to become a Grandmaster in Chess, I don't need self-help books or a psychologist on call, I just need to get better. Does one begin to understand the market through years of experience, or can it be taught? If it can be taught, how does one go about learning it when the industry is littered with liars? How can one break ground in this endeavor? I have AHA moments as well but they too are short-lived, so I wonder if they all add up to something or if they are just a carrot on a stick.