Sorry for being sceptical... Care to share your trading history? You can import via profit.ly. Here are my verified trades http://profit.ly/user/Steoli/chart
I understand that you are sceptical. I never post trades because it brings no profit to me, only risk. All that people know can be used against you. I had bad experiences in past. Maybe I will post something to show how long I stay in a trade and how much of a move I take. I trade ES. In the actual market a few hundred dollars per contract per trade profit. Profit depends also from type of market.
Trying to trade if you don't know what you are doing can be extremely hard, when you know what you are doing it can be challenging , like an elite sportsman/woman you must constantly strive to stay at your peak. On another note, my sister describes my trading for a living as "living by my wits", nothing to brag about here, although interestingly she is a high level manager and I certainly make a hell of a lot more than her.lol Cheers John
Trading can be hard, trading can be easy. That is different for every person. But this is true for everything you do. Sing, swim, play tennis, drink a lot of beer…. It all depends of many different factors: intelligence, thinking out of the box, motivation,personality, emotions……. but it can even be time bound. Did it never happen to you that you did not understand something for a long time, and after a long time studying you finally understood it? In hindsight you awee wondering then: why did i not understand this from start, it was so obvious? So it was difficult and now it is easy. So difficult or easy can be time bound. Each person judges from his own point of view, and they all are right. For some it is easy, for others it is difficult. For me it was a very long time difficult, but now it is easy. Don't understand anymore why people struggle so hard to survive trading.
Again here's the thing though: you don't need to be an elite trader (rimshot) in order to make a living at it, you just need to be better than a large enough portion of the clueless/emotional ones to take some of their money. One increment above mediocre, as dull as that may sound. I agree that the homework never ends though, regardless of level, but it doesn't have to be a 60 hour/week forever situation.
This reminds me of a story: 2 men were walking in the forrest when a big bear appeared and came running to them. The 2 men tried to run away from the bear. While trying to escape, one ask to the other: how quickly can a bear run? The second man answered: I don't know, but all I have to do is run faster than you.
I would equate trading as similar to a mother bringing a new born home. The vast majority of the time it is doing it's own thing but you must be there all the time in order to attend to it's needs when they arise. Every trade is potentially a new lesson. As for learning from books ect, pretty much a waste of time once you understand the basics, there is no substitute to learning from the real thing. Lay your money down and roll the dice, I guarantee that you will pay attention. Cheers John