I was getting a haircut a few days ago and was chatting to the hairdresser about trading. She mentions she has a relative that started with a few millions and lost it all day trading. That really shocked me. Being that well capitalized and still losing it all. I've created this thread so people can discuss this subject and tell their story. So, how much money have you lost before figuring it out (and how long did it take)? If you wish, can you tell your story too. If you're still learning, just tell use what you've lost so far (and how long). There's a couple of old threads about this, but nobody bothered to created a poll. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=178055 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=181356 For me. I figured I lost between $5,000 to $10,000 so far. I'm about seven years in. Six years part-time on and off while in school and one year full-time day trading.
I like this thread and the poll. Though, I wish there was a way to ask how much money you had to trade. In other words, if one had $500 and lost it all, they may appear smarter than the person who lost $100,000, because they lost a smaller amount, but in reality, they lost all of it. Another topic of interest, is how much money did one start their trading with at the very beginning. I wonder how many 100K+ to start trading with vs. starting with 1K. Are there rags to riches stories with stocks? I hear many of them in the Real Estate world.
10K to 100K is too big of a Range ..!! IDK, if it helps to break it in half. and create more data points.
Started with 25k. Made about 6k. Then lost 6k in on day. Then 7k in another. Then took another 2k loss. Max draw down - 15k. Based on my strategy and what I know now, I didn't start off with enough captial to trade the style I needed for that market. I stopped trading b/c I can't trade with my current job. But will start again eventually.
I agree. Most people start out around 20k to 75k I think. I didn't think about that, but I can't change it now without a moderator. I think splitting it to: $10,000-$50,000 and $50,000-$100,000 is reasonable. Good idea. I could modify the poll to filter people who lost more than 50% of their starting capital as it's likely this would be most traders. They would calculate that value instead and vote for that amt instead of their total real loss. Traders who only lost less than 50% could either choose not to vote or just assume they lost 50%. But it's too late and it make things more complicated. Who knows how many dumb people are here.
jinxu: "Most people start out around 20k to 75k I think." Gain/Forex.com in 2009 had $146,000,000 client capital with 60,000 clients - capital / clients = $2,433.33 per client account many forex brokers around the world - not the US I think - also offer stocks, futures as well as fx pairs, so there's the opportunity to demo trade most financial products without cost and usually for an unlimited amount of time at Oanda one can trade with as little as $1 and most fx brokers have $250 mini accounts, tho with that amount one's limited primarily to fx trading when I started trading there was no such thing as realtime computer demo trading - paper trading - and it would also be interesting to learn IF demo trading has reduced the cost of 'figuring it out' today with the charting programs that exist and the opportunity to 'back test' and 'forward test' and demo trade plus the plethora of forums, blogs etc discussing trading methods and systems, in theory someone wanting to 'trade' should have more than enough data and information to 'figure it out' without losing any money as a cost criteria of learning to trade
From day one back in 1980, I started profitable in longer term stocks, start of the greatest bull market in history. Lost $105,000 in long term commodities and seven years, been profitable since 1992. Lost $53,000 day trading IBM and five years till 1993 and turned it around. Lost $72,000 day trading Big S&P and turned profitable 1994. Always thought I was smart, being smart is not enough to trade people's emotions, which is price. I honestly think if I was dumber, it would not have taken me so long.
Blew up up a 10k account then a 20k account so 30k total. Now been profitable for 2 years but I trade with fear i can only up size once a year and only if i was positive on the whole year. Sad very sad, at this rate I might make a living out of trading in no less than 2 more years. I'm up 13500 in 2010 this is PRE TAX so very light numbers. However in 2011 I will double the size.