Actually, it's a constantly evolving process, one which requires constant interaction to continue. In fact a lot of it is actually taking place on a subconscious level, it's up to the individual to bring those thoughts into conscious realization. *** The amount you need to prove yourself a good daytrader is unique to the individual also, and not the least of which is partially determined by where they live, and what their living circumstances are (kids, family members, women) etc. For myself, like I said, 20K Gross a month, and I'm a GOOD TRADER. JJ
I dont think there are any skills or mindset that makes a good trader. There are some guys who seem like complete idiots that make good traders while others who are well spoken with MBAs and golden resumes that make horrible traders. The industry goes in waves. Some years they hire Ivy League graduates for the trading desks and then there are other years where they hire joe off the street. During the 70s and 80s, they were hiring just about anyone for the brokers. Look at the movie where they hired a homeless guy who just got out of jail for one of the brokers. Today seems like a different story where you need the resume of gold to get into a big broker. My opinion is that the business of speculating is for a special breed of person. Education and experience is helpful, but there is a certain mind that makes a good speculator. A good speculator can come from any background or education level.
I believe it would be a safe assumption, that out of the 40K plus members of E.T., less than 1% meet your superstar requirements. I personally believe the measure of a successful trader is any consistent success year after year that suites the individual needs of each trader. Lets face it, we are all different and we all have different needs. For example: Lets take a trader who simply needs to supplement his regular income. He fires off a couple trades a week from his $25K account and at the end of every year he has doubled the account size. He then withdraws the $25K profit and starts over again next year with his $25K account. He does this year after year. That in my mind is excellent success as a trader! Jeff
Why aren't you taking risk into account here? The 100K guy could be a FAR better trader than the 110K guy. To see this concept in action, hop on over to Collective2 and take a look at some of the equity curves over there...
people in this world have hundreds of millions of dollars and billions of dollars for that matter... so ive come to the conclusion no matter how much money you make your still a piece of shit//
Now that was a mean thing to say... At any rate, I would gauge trading success based on percentage gained per year, as opposed to total money gained per year. For example, a trader managing a billion dollars and gaining 1% makes tons of money. However, give me a trader who can bring in 100% profit per year and I'd take him anyday... MrWallStreet
%'s don't matter in daytrading. I'm not referring to large funds of any kind...just day in, day out traders making a living. Bottom line is if you can bring in $100k/yr+ for 5 years you are a good trader. Anything over $250k avg for that period would be a great trader. I use those numbers because after almost 10 years of trading (profitably) I know the difficulty of making that kind of money consistently. Who cares if someone took a $5k to $10k, then to $20k, then to $40k in 3 years? Those numbers are too small to mean anything. Also remember that many of us doing this for a living sweep our accounts monthly. There is no compounding involved. That's an important point when you guys are arguing about the validity of percentage returns.