Successful Traders, How Long Did it Take You?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by smallfil, Mar 5, 2006.

  1. I guess that if you ask George Soros if has has made it he would answer NO.

    I have just moved to Connecticut and commute to the City every day and I agree with you, $100,000 is not enough, Manhattan is damn expensive. Even though I make decent money I travel with my own food, to lunch every day in Manhattan can kill you faster than drinking Drano.
     
    #21     Mar 7, 2006
  2. 10 months here. I have not yet made it.
    I need to work on it to make it happen soon, otherwise trading will be a part-time thing.

    I'd say an average of 2 years to possibly become consistant is a good average.

    No big deal though, just stick with it!

    :)
     
    #22     Mar 7, 2006
  3. greddy

    greddy


    2-3 years sounds about right.

    It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to make it in trading.

    Trading what fits your personality is also important. Chasing moving Nasdaq stocks just was not my thing, and started to trade Dow mini futures recently.

    I have not "made it" yet, but already feel the stress level going down by trading the dow. Just waiting for the setup to come to me instead of chasing around different Nasdaq stocks like a wild chicken.
     
    #23     Mar 7, 2006
  4. well,

    in all honesty, I was highly successful,

    then I joined 1 prop shop after the other...and ruined my track record trying to make their false perspectives on the marketplace work....

    I might add, I saw more carnage and lost accounts from honest people during those years than I care to be haunted with....

    I am a highly successful trader, yet again without all those chop shops and thieves....the worst of them being the one that Gary Mednick ran and was associated with. To think that that man lives in a $3million house on Long Island, NY, and faithfully goes to Temple and has stolen and never returned hundreds of thousands of dollars from dozens of client holder accounts baffles me why his narrow ass isn't in jail today.

    It generally takes close to 3 years to be consistently profitable, just to get back to your question....


    ----------(humor)--------------
    Two Bear Hunters went Upstate to hunt some bear....
    they came across a (road) sign that said: Bear Left,
    --- so they went home.....

    -------
    A Rancher put his Donkey in his pickup truck
    --- so could it be said: "he was hauling ass?
    -------
    A Pharmacist picked up his watch
    --- so could it be said he had time on his hands
     
    #24     Mar 7, 2006
  5. I think you need to separate "mastering trading/trading well" from "making money".

    I suggest you focus on trading well with small size (100 shares or one contract) until you consistently can make money with that. When you have learned to "trade well", you can slowly scale up size until you make substantial amounts of money.

    If you can break even in 6 months doing it full time, I think you're doing very well.
     
    #25     Mar 7, 2006
  6. duard

    duard

     
    #26     Mar 8, 2006
  7. KK70

    KK70

    Hi mschey,
    Regarding this post and your previous one, how did you find a mentor? And how did it take you only 4 months to frame a profitable strategy; did someone give/sell you a strategy or was it something you developed on your own?
    TIA
    -kk70
     
    #27     Mar 8, 2006
  8. Fyi, ET is full of fucked-up losing bluffer. Just may be under 1% here can make "consistently" profit. Guys here don't know what is takes to become consistantly profitable

    Here is the formula
    consistently profitable= Access to huge risk capital

    Most consistant profitable guys are seating in wallstreet, operating some kind of online trading service, runing Investment management,....They are not here and don't have time to post in forums and not seeking attention from others

    According to Mark Fisher, Trading is like doing your MBA, and it takes several years or more to know these market

    http://www.clicklive.com/NYMEX/symposium_2003/fisher-1.htm
    http://www.thelogicaltrader.net/mplayer01.shtml
     
    #28     Mar 8, 2006
  9. it takes about 2 or 3 minutes for the experts to develop their skills....to type the crap....to get rich trading on paper..........until reality slaps t hem on the head.........
     
    #29     Mar 8, 2006
  10. The more important question is:

    "How many false starts do successful prop traders have before becoming consistently profitable?"

    It's not uncommon for a trader to have 2,3 or more false starts. They get involved, lose, and then return to work to save to put up again. Rinse and repeat until they either give up (fail) or become profitable (succeed).
     
    #30     Mar 8, 2006