So for those consistent money-making traders on ET, how long did it take you to learn the market and start being profitable consistently?
There aren't any profitable traders on ET. All traders here are just wannabees on their computers at home. All dream of becoming big shots. The vast majority break even at best, some loose steadily, some may make small gains (but not enough to justify the 100's of hours spent pouring over charts and forums.
I doub't any talented and consistantly profitable traders would use ET.. Why? 1. They are not motivated to give away winning methods 2. Too busy. 3. Pro's will not spend hours talking to people unless they are paid for it. I mean seriously, if you were a trader making some serious money, think of the pressure and the stress from the ups and downs. Is chatting to amateurs, splitting hairs about tiny insignificant details and getting into countless petty arguments going to be a productive use of time?
This place is good for a larf, especially the politics and religion forum. I come here for the same reason I go to peopleofwalmart.com sometimes.
There are proftable traders using ET who do give away bits of their winning methods. There are also proftable traders using ET who don't give away anything. But as always but you have to dig through all the chi-chat garbage to find the gold nuggets. You'll find profitable traders in the ES Journal thread (they are also losing traders, Break even traders, ...), in the P/L thread, some others have their own thread like Neke, etc... A lot of them can still be found using the search feature. I agree that 99% of profitable traders won't share their winning methods (obviously), but they are there... and each of them decides how much information he/she wants to share with others reagrding his methods. This is higly subjective. You can have a busy (profitable) day and still find a couple minutes to post on ET. It is a myth to believe that successful people are so busy they can't do anything else. While you have to put on countless hours if you want to make it, it is important in my opinion to find a balance in your life. Reading/writing (books, on the internet - and not only market related), doing regular exercise, having a balanced social life, etc... Another myth above profitable traders not sharing anything to others for free. While it may be the case most of the "pro's", they are many of them who share freely tons of valuable information about profitable trading. Trust me it's all there on this site. But you have to look for the good posters... The search button is your friend. Hint: start with Acrary's threads. Good luck.
The answer is as complex as personal. As in any other profession or dicipline in life, we all have different learning curve. Of course there is still the possibilty that you will never make it. But let's be positive. If you start from scratch, with no mentor, you will probably spend years losing money or breaking even before you can make it constantly. If you have the chance to have the right mental skills (like being able to dissociate your ego from your trading for example) or if you don't have the pressure of making money to pay your bills,etc... then you might make it before that. Hope that helps.
4 years trading! Would say my first profitable month came after about 6 hard months. Make consistent profits now month in month out. Hope this helps.