I made 4 million dollars plus last year, I made similar in 2016 and I was pretty decent in 2015. My risk management model is very very good, I paid a mathematician to proof it for me. I don't take crazy killer trades. I do however put in the work. In case you are wondering, I have the flu the last few days so time to kill. I normally just annoy people in the politics section. It is a good way to pass the time waiting for a trade to work out or not. Edit: And by work I mean usually 16 hours a day 5 days a week. Plus Sunday evening.
These threads continue to pop up on ET through the years. I suspect many are initiated by those who have not succeeded and look to convince themselves that it can't be done. I have some unsettling news, not only can it be done but it is done by many. It is however a rigorous and demanding path. I always picture people who have dropped out of day trading as having garages full of water filters and other get rich pyramid dream schemes.
Alot of day traders, or traders in general, are nothing more but degenerate gamblers. Looking for that next high, or win. They like to justify and think they have some kind of rational, logical, business-minded endeavor going...but they've got nothing. Vegas, horse racing, cards, sports betting, trading -- all the same thing, to some people.
I co-owned a brokerage early 90s with a once Eurodollar floor trader, he always said biggest mistake he ever did was sell his "deck" of clients on the floor. He would go after day traders and needed $30k back then to open an account as margins for S&P500 futures were $12-25k, and I sought out long term Commodity traders, I also had a large room that I rented out by the desk(computer, data, chair, telephone to the floor)for those who wanted a place trades, it always be 12 day traders and one long term trader. Only owning it one year, I didn't enjoy that kind of work, I couldn't concentrate for my own trading and constant turnover of day traders calling in. Day traders lasted maybe 3 months on their own, eight of the ones who rented a desk lasted the year and broke about even. Those who called in orders for short term trading, I don't remember any of them at end of the year and know my partner recruited over 75 traders and I recruited maybe ten and had all of them after a year and most were up with a couple lost little. Being in trading maybe too long, lol, I have seen much, and I do believe the original poster results. Those who think there are many making millions each year is small percentages. I believe for short term intra day trading 95% lose, 4% make under half a mil, 0.8% make under ten million and 0.2% make over ten million. I come from a huge family from Grandfather on down that was taught almost daily that failures are opportunities to try again another way. Each Uncle had their own businesses and each male cousin likewise, not till 2nd female cousins started businesses. I had a good upbringing base on family and making businesses to support family. People get into trading for 1000s of reasons, and very very small percentage think of it as a business, they have no idea what they getting into unless they get help from family or friends, which I never did, LOL. I had a constant yelling to stop stop, thankfully I lived far far away! Hey, what time is it, yea, it is Starbucks time, you bet I own SBUX. old man got to get some go juice.
It does make sense that psychologists would make good traders. They will rationalize their emotions and try to remain objective. Understanding ego, greed and making honest observations about yourself is critical. Many trading methods are actually very well explained by human psychology, even if arriving at them can be mathematical.