How much did you spend in terms of: A. Time - How long did it take before you became consistently profitable? B. Lost capital - How much capital did you lose before you figured it out? C. Educational materials - How much money did you spend on books, courses, seminars, etc.? ... before you became a consistently successful trader? I thought the results might be interesting. -- ITZ
Hello ITZ A 4 months B 2600 Euros in stocks/ about 400 in Deriv. C 0 (I helped a trader to become proficient with Visual Basic and in turn he taught me how to trade). C2
I did ok to begin with, but when the bull turned into a bear, i lost money... but i had made so much in the bull market, that my losses were no big deal... if i had started trading in the bear, i could have gotten wiped out, cos in the bull market, i could take crazy risks and not get stopped out...
i had the good fortune of starting out in commodities (no stocks), and i had to deal with the worst markets for commodities in the past thirty years. i got beat to a pulp and slammed to the mat more times than i could count. in the long run i think this will be an edge for me as i earned my stripes in the most difficult market conditions possible, everything after feels like a cake walk in comparison, and the stocks i am trading now feel like child's play.
3 months, $1800 on a $15,000 account was my initial drawdown, mainly due to one overnight hit during the second week bigger than anything I have taken since. Recovered this drawdown within 3 months and been net positive ever since. However, it was 7 months before I started to make consistant profits. $0 for books related to short-term on-line trading, although I have a few books on the markets in general picked up over the years. I have also read scores of books on investing and trading through my local library. I did all my preparation for on-line short-term trading using free resources on the internet. However, this and other preparatory work represented an investment of several hundred hours.
I had a similar experiance (started in commodities) and got killed. It saved my bacon in 2000/2001 though. It took me two and a half years and $16,000 and a lot of sleepless nights. Brandon
like most people, i made money during the bull dayz without much methodology (cmgi, amzn...) it is only when it got painful that i started trading seriously. however sad, but that was my main motivator - stopping the hemorrhaging! it took me about 6 months to develop some consistency. also like many, i bought a buttload of books (probably around 5K). but i honestly think that the most valuable stuff i learned has come from the web at no cost.
6 mos. 13k lost in the first 3 mos. about 3k in books, computers, online periodicals in those first 6 mos.
If you aren't stubborn, and can come into this with an open mind...., have some discipline and dedication.