trader99- no offense, i don't know you...but since you asked "what do you guys think?" I wouldn't want to be in your shoes...you shouldn't say 'NO ONE can do $4000 consitently'...first of all you don't know what other people are doing... and personally I feel that by you thinking that will always keep you from getting there. when I was a broker , about 3 months into my start, my firm took the minimum assets required to stay employed after 2years from 3million to 10million....thats peanuts in a big city, but in a small town its not easy...a lot of people complained about it...and in a meeting one person was dumb enough to say "raising 10million in 2years is impossible" well that was his last day...the manager fired him...and then explained that the reason ws because he had a negative attitude...once our manager explained the psychology behind it I started pulling in accouts twice as fast.... anyway, you get the picture...just look at my signature. so stockbrokker- just set 1 mil as your goal, figure out the #'s , and go for it! If you fall short, big deal.
I just remembered the example the manager gave us....Roger Bannister! A free month of my website to the first person to say why and who Roger Bannister fits in to this.
Roger Bannister was the first person to run a four minute mile, which some people said couldn't be done. I remember seeing him do it on TV just after I came home from school in the 50's. It was a little contrived, with the other runners acting as pacemakers, rather than trying to win the race themselves.
thats right dufferdon! and after he did it...people all over the world started doing it....he broke the psychological barrier as well as the 4minute barrier. If I had a website you'd win a free month! but I just have my little homepage, which is free to everyone!
When asked how he did it he said; "It's the ability to take more out of yourself than you've got." MINT PEACE and good trading; Commisso
uptik2000 I think you MISUNDERSTOOD my post. I DID NOT say that $1M/yr is impossible. It's quite possible. In fact, I hope to achieve it one day, but not now. I'm far far from it. But it's a worthy goal. What I'm getting at is the distribution of winnings isn't uniform so to speak. That is I would guess the majority of traders(though I'm sure there are "super consistent" traders though they are more likely less than .001% of the population) winners aren't consistently exactly $4000 every single day. There's more dispersion. I.e. the variance/std dev. is higher. If you read Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, then you'll noticed that a lot of these so called "supertraders" have winnings that's not uniform yet still manage to pull in millions a year. That's when they win, they win really BIG. And when they lose they lose small. It's just a matter of statistics. In fact, Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Mgmt in the Stock Market Wizard(new book) said that less than 25% of his trades are winners. Yet he is consistently generate over 50% return a year in his hedge fund. So, to get to the million dollar/yr, you can go many different ways: 1) do exactly $4000/day every single trading day(this is very very very difficult I would say) 2) maybe some days win $5000,$2000,-$500,$7000,$10000, -$3000,-$1000, $500,etc. Or some other distribution. I think that's a more likely scenario for the 99% of traders out there. that's my point uptik2000. that's it. I'm a big dreamer/believer in making it big in the market otherwise I wouldn't chose this difficult career path... Just hope I'll get there before going broke.. hehe trader99
trader99- I have read both Market Wizard books, and now that you put it that way I do see your point. And I did misunderstand it. Again , I hope you realize I wasn't trying to put you down in anyway...just trying to motivate ...... I really hope that most of us will be million dollar traders ...because even though people say $ doesn't bring happiness, it sure allows you to throw bigger parties!
On a side note. I know of a number of market players who make 1m a year. I know one who had a streak of million dollar months that spanned like 4-6 months or something. I know it isn't impossible. It is quite possible. You just need a large enough account to achieve it. I think that if you had a half mil, it's not too hard to make 200%. With a mil, doubling your money is a sinch.
Let's say I day-swing trade 100 000 shares positions in CSCO. You just need to make a buck a share in a month to make seven figures a year. Doesn't sound like a problem technically. The only complication is being able to handle the size. Am I wrong??