To each his own. The way I trade is by having predefined targets and stops. Trading isn't investing, it will never be as profitable as investing. You let your winners run when investing, when trading I see where closest target is and then workout a stop which must be at least 1:3 of target to offset losses.
That's a great question. I think majority of retail traders, me included, do not commit serious capital to trading, small capital paired with leverage. So you potentially can earn a living out of trading activity, but majority won't be making any sort of fortunes.
Your initial statement was a head scratcher,but IMHO this post is spot on and the reality for 90 percent of the people trading.. I am a perfect example... Was a Managing Director of equity derivatives,since retired,but will commit multiples more capital to real estate than trading. Many of my friends who never made more than 250k are multi millionaires from buy and hold/dollar cost averaging..They have bare minimum 50 percent of their net worth in the market..
%% Both capital markets can be very profitable................................................ [Edit, the great thing about Real Estate/not very liquid+ profits can pile up + up] I do like some profit targets; but trend followers make money with trends/profits running. Its hard to lose money in RE , but Interstate 75 ruined Col Sanders real estate.
The more times you trade (when you don't have runners) the more times you have to be right. I'd rather not.
Mark Douglas said that 95% of Dennis' trades were losers, but the winners were monsters. I also have a question of what is a good amount of risk per trade. I have heard from between 1 to 15%. The crazy thing is that the guy I was learning from (on a forum) said to use from 5 to 15% which is way too much IMO. Any advice is appreciated. Also thank you to Buy1Sell2; I have learned a lot from your posts.
Imagine you bought NVDA 290 calls at 0.12 cents and closed it all out at.50 cents. It's now $25 a contract.
this is the definition of a hobbyist investor. i'm the flipside of that, with close to 90% of net worth in the market and managed actively.
It is a relative term. Ideally you should be prepared to lose what you think you will be able to recover in subsequent transactions in case the trades do not go in your favor. Though 2% of your trading capital is enough to proceed with.