I am interested in the answers of some of the 19.000 Members here. I don't know the exact numbers but there are always rumors around that only 10 or 20 percent of traders are consistantly successful. The probability of being successful is against you and you are in a battlefield with guys that are very bright, excellent educated and well capitalized. So my question is why you think you can make it? You have to have a dam good reasons to hang out your ass every day and hope that you don't get raped. So what is it? The small size you trade? The small timeframe you hold a position? Your gut feeling? Your connection to god????
Automated systems can make all the difference in profitability if you use them correctly. Take a good strategy, make sure you take EVERY trade, and be consistent.
i have many reasons, but one is knowing i'm never going to quit and i (probably) have a lot of time on my side. can anyone on this site really say i won't make it as a trader by the time i'm 55? i've already come a long way and that's like 30 years from now. to me, it's not a matter of can i make it or not, it's just a matter of how long it takes. i honestly think 1 year from now i will be WELL on my way. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11731
NYSEtradinglog, My question to you...are you a profitable trader or are you a losing trader? Look at it like this...whatever reason you may have to be a trader... whatever reason you have to put a portion of your capitol on the line almost every trading day... others here at ET probably have similar reasons as you do to do the same. My point is this...answer your own question and you'll have your answer. I wish you the best in your trading and remember this... Being a trader is one of the toughest mental games in town... if you don't have the right attitude...your in deep doodoo. Simply...don't worry about what the other trader is doing and why he/she is doing it... worry about yourself. NihabaAshi
How many of that 80-90% attempted to trade fulltime versus tried to trade from their real job, or some other half-hearted attempt? There are a bazillion people with real estate licenses, but a much smaller percentage actually sell real estate fulltime. Placing a trade using an online broker no more makes one a trader than putting a band-aid on a boo-boo makes one a physician.
It is pretty obvious that 80% to 90% of all traders will simply lack the persistence to reach the point of consistent profitability, especially in this instant-gratification seeking world. Probably 50% of all traders never put forth any serious effort to become profitable, they simply wish to gamble. Some admit that, others don't admit it, but still do it. Certainly more than 90% of all humans are incapable of performing most any even slightly sophisticated job. The difference is that anyone can open a brokerage account and start trading. In fact, eveyone who ever comes across a few grand is ENCOURAGED to open a brokerage account. If it was equally easy and encouraged to start studying to become a brain surgeon, lots of people would try, and 80% to 90% of them would fail. Does that mean I couldn'nt become a brain surgeon if I wanted to? And lastly, quite frankly, I am better educated than 95%, faster than 60%, wealthier than 50%, and depending on which test I take, more "intelligent" than 97% to 99.9% of all humans. Therefore, the "odds" are not what scares me. If anything will cause me to fail as a trader, it is my emotional inadequacies. Did I mention I am emotionally less developed than 80% of all people?
I am sure that the statistics show that a majority, or perhaps even an overwhelming majority, fail to consistently succeed in trading. But, think how skewed the numbers are, particularly after the type of markets that existed a few years ago. The overall population of people who engaged in trading exploded and at the same time the playing field got much more complicated. This alone will skew stats immensely. Another relevant stat is the business failure rate. It is also true that 50% of all businesses will fail with a year, proabably 80% will not go 3 years. Again, money and the dream of wealth and independence inflates the number of participants int he population and, at the same time, the complexity of the competition, leaving many roadside causualites. Personally, I believe that trading is viable and making a consistent income from it is not as impossible as the statistic you bing out would suggest. I would love to see how many traders that use systems, use multiple indicators, use stops, are sophisticated enough to understand derivatives and use them for hedging -- how many of these people fail. Those that have a business plan. Best of Luck.
the 80-90% lose number is greatly reduced for the ones that make it 1 year and reduced further if you make it two years. trading can be learned by most. you just have to last long enough to learn the game.
I agree, I was talking to a friend of mine and he was like "Oh I tried trading but got my fingers burnt so never going to do it again." Basically he just put some cash he couldnt really afford to lose in some stocks, lost some money over course of 6 months and thats it. His "trading" days were over. Theres alot in the UK papers just now about home traders coming back into the market now also. Every man and his dog was buying up crap in the bubble and making money, bang, everyone gets out and calls the markets evil, now that they are going up some theres a load more lemmings just jumping on. They dont really understand the markets, they have no real clue what they are doing, they read crappy reports in a local newspaper about x/y/z company and they think they are traders if they put in 5 mins at night after working at McDonalds.