I trade equities, and I recommend you focus less on profits and more on money management, execution and discipline. Correctly master these three attributes of a successful trader, and the profits are sure to follow. How long until you become proficient in these aspects of trading has a far greater impact on your P & L compared to the results of any poll. Good trading to you. - Spydertrader
Again, as always on this site, daytraders are being mistaken for active investors and vice versa. A daytrader will know within a few months whether he can make a living daytrading. An active investor may never make it to profitability.
it took me a little over a year to get profitable for me, what helped me get profitable was organization and endless scrutiny of past trades it wasn't until i started getting hyper organized and detailed that i started getting profitable
whats a good living? http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66288&perpage=6&pagenumber=1 sometimes i wonder if these vagaries are deliberate inorder to compete in the 'who can start the longest thread' championships. the answer probably lies in how long it takes to undersatand self-concept. some already have this when they came to the ring so never struggle. some never get it and never will.
Started with 30k. Blew through about half of it. Quit for a few months and started up again. After about 18 mos, consistent, but small profits. Blew an acct in 1997 during SE Asian currency debacle (was trading fx with 10 pip spreads back then!). I throw this in because this was 10 years after I began to trade full time, and I still was stupid with my risk management. Definitely something you have to be aware of more than profits. Consistently profitable since. Its 100% of my income. I don't do anything else. Jay
started in april of 05 with 35k - got up to 46k after taking some profits and learning by failing, then dropped down to 5k end of jan 06 thanks to aapl, goog and my shorts on 15$ natty gas. (ngs, epex) a pearl of wisdom: shorting on margin can kill. real killer is i was right about my natty gas shorts and should have consolidated my open longs around my shorts and gone to hawaii for a month, would have been +60% YTD instead of sitting at 15k right now..... ebb and flow, live and learn..... good luck, krazy
Don't forget those of us who've struggled for a couple years, finally make a living from the markets for a few years more, then had to go back to square one when we realized too late that our edge didn't "apply" anymore. If you think learning to trade was difficult the first time around, try starting all over again after a period of apparent success. We can all learn something from our experiences, but that was an experience I was determined never to repeat again. This has proven to be my overarching goal for all my trading efforts since then, and has guided me well.
Wrong. I've been retail and full time for 10 years. Retail traders, can, and do, make a living. I never had any desire to be a prop trader. An aspiring trader can succeed going either route.