successful traders?

Does anybody personally know of full time retail traders that trade for a living for 5 years or more? Not the hedge fund traders or investment bank traders but ordinary folks who trade only for themselves by themselves.

I was just having this discussion with friends and we could not come up with anyone. There were a few who were successful and quit their jobs in 2000 but blew up by 2002 and now are back to the workforce.

I know Cramer used to trade his own account, and also Marty Schwartz, the Turtles, even Tim Sykes but I don't know if he lasted 5 years.

If they are out there, they sure are hard to find.

 

I've traded solely my own account for the past 30 years, but much of that time was spent in the pit. I had good years, I had bad years, but I'm still in the game, still banging out my spreads. Success is whatever one believes it to be. One can be net positive in earnings, yet be unsuccessful. I'd say that while I've enjoyed moderate success in my trading, my real success has been in other areas of my life.

Jeff

 

Well said

 

Most of the guys I know that are trading their own accounts, like to keep under the radar, that's why they trade their own accounts, If they wanted to be famous or known they would be trading OPM.
Some of these guys have been doing it for well over 5 years, very successfully to.

 

Good to see successful traders exist out there. I know some friends who traded for more than 5 years, but they hold regular jobs, so they never made enough in trading to actually quit their day jobs. In fact, my general doctor also traded on the side since 98, loving it and claimed he trades succesfully, comlained about the stress of being a physician instead of trading stress, but would not trade full time.

 

There's a number of successful traders out there. Just go back and flip through the P&L threads.

 

just read the trader 2008 PnL thread and keep track of whos

posting positive numbers day after day.

 

you are a fool, a complete fool

if some internet guy offered to help me and all I needed to do was apologize to the guy

I would do it, its the fukin internet what do I have to lose

maybe this guy really knows something

LIKE I SAID you are a fool

 

Nobody post there for 5 years. They only post when they are newbies or when they are on a winning streak. They stop posting when they flamed out, burned out, or went bankrupt.

I see plenty of good traders on Collective2 for as long as 2 years before their equity curve crash and burn.

 

Almost 10 years here.

I started trading before I got out of High School. Never have worked a real job since.