I never said this is success, just making a progressively better living. If you look at the numbers I have plowed less than 10% of total profits back into the account, leaving me plenty of money to live on.
"i would be VERY SURPRISED if anyone, A SINGLE ETer, has made 50K or more for three years in a row, from their trading" I don't want to join the fray other than to make three points: 1. that the ET'er that posted the above quote would most definitely be surprised; 2. many have an exaggerated view of the returns that can be obtained with consistency, and try to make a living from too little capital and too much leverage. It takes a lot of capital, very low commissions, and a great deal of know how to consistently make enough money trading to live off of the returns. If you have satisfied those three conditions, what you can make, on average, depends directly on trading capital, and finally point 3. over use of leverage is the greatest danger, once you have satisfied the conditions in point 2 above.
"what in heavens name do you live on if you pay taxes then plow all your money back into the account? Poverty level shit geez! And this is success????" quote from zentrickster He is trading full time i.e. he owns his own business, his taxes can't compare to a person working for the man; he is keeping most of what he makes.
You can make money trading. I've been doing this "hobby" for ~ 15 years, ever since Internet trading became possible. I had some good years ($30-50k) and some bad years. Was up a bit over the years but broke out a couple of years ago with profits of $152k last year and $374k year-to-date. And trading isn't my real job! One thing that helps is capital. I have a large brokerage account (just went over $1M in this week's run up) that I've set up for my upcoming retirement. My trading (mostly forex) is on margin with essentially no practical limits. My entry sizes are typically $50-500k. Only thing is, I can't really explain how I do it. It's taken many years to gain experience, figure out which markets to trade, work on my money management and psychology, etc. There's no short cuts to successful trading.
Thanks for the encouragement... what market(s) do you trade? I've been trying to specialize in the s&p e-mini and the spot forex. Consistency is my biggest challenge. Everytime I think that a favorable "Price Pattern" is observed, without fail the market reminds me that I was just "Fooled by Randomness" Walt
The ones that claim to, are not. Also those that post frequently, more than 2-3 times a week, do not either. That will pretty much narrow it down.
By Profit do you mean your ending balance? Or are you seriously making over 235% profit at a minimum every year?
good catch. Why these people need to be trading gods on this site without a journal in near realtime bogles the mind. If and that is a big if he is telling the truth. He WILL blow out very soon taking enough risk to generate that percentage returns.