Because since 2009, the market has only gone in one direction: UP. As @dozu888 said, any "strategy" that bet with the market will have positive expectancy. Until the market changes, I have no way of knowing if I am a real trader. We have more in common that you realized, I have real estate holdings too. And by the way, I never paper-trade or sim-trade but always tried things out with lots of very small positions. Good luck to you.
That is one of my primary concerns. And I want to clarify that the "1M" and "12 years" was simply an example upon which to anchor a conversation. It is the time that I'm investing that is most important to me. I want to believe that it will be worth it. That's a tricky question. On one hand, I am totally unwilling to continue losing $6k per year for 12 years straight. I'm struggling to find the words to describe what kind of a failure of a person I would have to be to do that. On the other hand, I can envision no amount of failure that will prevent me from continuing to try. Specifically, I've so far lost roughly half of the portion of my account that keeps me above PDT. I started with 30k and am currently around 27.5k. I've been breaking even for the last month, right? Well, what happens if my downtrend resumes and I lose another 2.5k? At that point I will stop trading live and move to a simulator. I will continue in the simulator until I have conquered whatever it was that was tripping me up. If I can prove that I am able to consistently execute in a manner that was previously lacking, then I will resume live trading from funds that will be acquired through side jobs / bonus money, etc. I will not re-fund my account from our family budget. So I build up the 5k necessary to give another 30k account a go and I blow it down to 25k again. Well dog-gone it I still have some more learning to do. Yeah, I could keep that up for 12 years. Would my wife let me? That's an entirely different question.
I do? I guess it depends both on what definitions of "needs" are, and also depends on how many assets someone has?
True. How much do you have you don't need? Give some away, since you don't need it . Or simply burn it , use it to start a bomb fire, light a bbq ...lol Oh, you need it for investing ...
You don’t have a full grasp on a true EDGE. Risk management will keep you in the game to fight another day. You can do that until your money runs out. Lol.