If your dead set on trading, get a trading account together. Bankroll yourself and go for it. Don't worry about trading now, use this time to study the market and absorb all the information that is out there. The best teacher is Live trading and nothing can replace that, but work on a back up plan, work on getting your trading account together. Once your ready, go for it. good luck. The market will always give you opportunities to trade, you have time.
Very good advice. There are a lot of people here who say stupid things like - "6 months to 1 year to become profitable" as if it is only a matter of a time. Most people I know who are successful paid their dues "tuition" and spent years before they arrived. There was even a guy recently here on ET who thought he had arrived, after 6 weeks! The reality is, most people will never become profitable: o They will chase every system, service, plugin, seminar that pops into their email. o They will prostrate themselves on Fibonacci, Gann, Elliott Wave and other highly questionable methods. o They will hear "you need thousands of hours or screen time" but will prefer to any possible shortcut instead. Anything more than a couple hundred hours is annoying. And a few months later with their $3000 wad exhausted, we never hear from them again...
The success rate for someone in your position is very, very, very low. It is higher than 0, but not by a lot. I personally have seen dozens of traders with many years of market experience and a capital base with another zero on it attempt the same thing and fail. The deck is stacked against you in every way imaginable. The markets are by-and-large efficient. There are many inefficiencies left, but most take very large capital accounts to exploit. Your brain is naturally wired to do the opposite of what you need to do. You will follow your instincts and buy tops / sell bottoms. The places you are most likely to end up want your commission dollars, first and foremost. They of course want you to succeed, as that will generate more commission dollars. But the most likely outcome, by a very large margin, is you make $2k trading, lose $19K in commission and $8k in expenses. In searching for 'the answer' you will explore every system, buy every book and listen to every guru. It will take you a long time and a lot of $$ to really realize there is no 'answer.' Most successful traders I know have a 'feel' for the tape. My best guess is getting a 'feel' takes somewhere between 2-3 years and forever. I suggest this- Look for a trading position where you get paid- you don't pay them. IE- a job. Good ones are not easy to find or get into, but if you are smart enough to be successful you should be able to pull it off. Think of the job as paid training. Learn / absorb everything you can. Live frugally and save every penny you can. In a few years (at the earliest), once you have at least two years living expenses plus at least 100k in excess cash, find a reputable prop trading firm and try your luck. On the other hand, what's the worst thing that will happen? You buy a $25k lottery ticket and you have some (very stressful) fun. There are certainly people around who will tell you how they or someone they know started with $5k and now has tons of cash (most are full of shit, but I am sure it has happened). The other plus of doing it now is you have nothing to lose but $25k. In later years you will have a mortgage, car payments, family, etc.. which make trying this much harder. In a nutshell. Don't do it. You are sure to lose. But if there is ever a time to try it is now.
An excellent description of the reality of trading. Much better than those who say "You need 6-12 months of screen time. That is how I became a very successful trader and you can too."
Let's say you make it, what's the usual amount that proprietary traders make at these places? I'm talking an average prop trader? How much does the top prop trader make? I know there are ranges, but I would like to know? 100k avg?
There are no averages, obviously. It would be meaningless. If you have an edge, you'd only be limited by liquidity/risk, everyone's edge could be very different.