Given the intense amount of effort, years of struggle, personal sacrifices, thorough research, software development (if you are a systematic guy) that trading requires, if a successful trader does not make "at least" 200k a year - in my book, he is still a piker. Do you agree with this thought or is it too much of a generalization? Btw, I am still a piker. LOL.
I think it matters a lot - your perception might be different. I am just trying to get realistic and ask career traders what is their thought on this topic. For sure, people who are pursuing this career full-time give a lot of thought to this question. Same way if one is in a regular job, one would do his career planning, that will include sitting with ones' line manager and HR manager and do a list of goals for next year and in the end one would expect to be financially rewarded for it. If one is doing trading from home independently, after putting in 5-6 years of effort and putting on stake another career, if one makes say 50-70k a year, his endeavor would be a failure in my book.
why bet when I can tell you if you ask politely I made 6.5k in June and it was a high volla month. You can extrapolate for the year. Have been at this game for 4 years now. Last year was first time breakeven, before that was losing. Have made money 5 months out of 6 this year from Jan to June. Just thought will do a poll asking career guys on their experience and opinion. Why get so negative?
Because piker has a negative connotation, and your question is posited negatively with a heavy dose of judgment...
I d say you need to make 3x your career salary. Si if you can earn 200k, your expected pl for the year should be 600k+
A piker is someone who is fixated on absolute dollar amounts without context. 200k might be a lot to a guy with 100k in his trading account; but it's 1 daily standard dev for a guy with 20MM.