Well, then one is able to sustainable generate $200k annually from the trading. That is what is needed for me to give up my current job to pursue full time trading. There is a lot of factors to consider. You need to have enough capital buffer to survive serval years of zero trading income without it eating into the trading equity. Traders does not make money every month or even every year. You could have a streak of two losing years and you need to support your family (house, three kids, cars) meanwhile by taking money out of your account. Then we have monthly retirement savings of at minimum $1k monthly. I estimate $1.5 million USD would be sufficient capital to get started trading full time.
as we all know, trading is a gambling. if you bring in 1.5m to trade,you will most likely become "sleep on the street" guy if you bring in 1.5k to trade, next year you may most likely become millionaire the reasons are simple. when you have 1.5m in the account, you think it is large enough and you are safe, you will do trading lously, you will easily forget about what trading really means, a couple of trades you are wiped out. the market can take as much as it can, it is a greedy machinc. when you have 1.5k in the account, you feel every trade is risky, so you do trading very carefully, you study throughly, you do whatever you can to make the miracle happen: let1.5k become 1.6k, ... then 1m. you are not making statistical game, you work deligently toward success. we do need some cushion capitals, but should not exceed 6months. if you can not succeed in six months, then trading is not for you.
LOL 1.5m, your kidding right? if everyone waited until they had 1.5 million before they started trading I dont think there would be any traders on ET. Go back to work man
For the 5% of traders who did their R&D, developed a profitable trading plan, and have the mindset to trade it, I believe at least 90% of them are actually making money. The tiny few I've met are able to consistently extract money from the markets. The 90% failure rate is because anyone with a PC and a few grand can go to the casino and blow it.
for the 200K level, as a beginner it takes 3 to 4 months to get the that level annualized. But you go past it quite rapidly. Oh and the initial capital required for stock trading is 27K (An example that just happened with a friend who starte out as a new years idea. None of the above takes any noe than 15 to 30 minutes a day. Vacation all the time.
Switch from shaving to trimming. It is buzzy but you just put on a 4 or 5 8th gizmo and oil the buzzer every 6 months. Oh, scissors for the mustache unless you like strained food.
Of cause you grow your equity up from a smaller size. My point was that you should keep your regular job and trade part time until you have enough to safely make the switch. If you make the switch to early things will go bad and you will be back on the street at square one, less the experience. Well if you look at the majority of the hedge funds and professional traders running CTA programs they don't make money every month or year. All traders go trough periods of draw down, that is just the reality of the business, unless you are Madoff of cause.
Not saying you should not trade until you have that amount. Just that you should not leave your six figure day job prematurely. If you have a nice job paying good amount, why not keep it and trade your capital up faster than going full time to early. The 1.5M is my personal figure related my current situation and standard of life. If you are single and are living in a trailer in the bushes you need a lot less.
Here are the hard, cold facts: as a trader, if you - or your trading system - can make at least 2% a month profit on average (what the pros call ROI or return on investment), year after year, you are more than OK. 2% a month does not seem like a lot at first glance, but compounded it represents almost 27% a year ROI.