Not necessarily. But the failure rate in nearly all businesses is high. Which is why nearly everybody works for somebody else. Whether you make money at something depends mostly on how skilled, talented, and dedicated you are. Though if you buy a Krispy Kreme franchise a hundred miles from anywhere, you may have a problem.
My thoughts are: you are not acknowledging the inherent risk of your strategy. Like any strategy that works by capturing small gains, there is a risk of a rare but large loss. The trick is to be able to survive the occasional catastrophic losses (with respect to a single trade) that will inevitably come if you haven't seen them already. Hopefully all of your trades are small enough so that it won't hurt you much when one of them blows up. Remember, the reason why people buy your options is because there is a very small chance they'll make a lot of money. It's a usually a sucker bet, but only in the long run. If you care, you can search on ET and find stories about guys blowing up doing what you are doing, because they were too big. E.g. the guy who received $x for his puts and ended up having to pay $40x dollars. (Unfortunately, in his case, x was 5000, and he didn't have 40x).
Well, when I started trading, I got to a point that I started to think that nobody could actually make $ consistently at this. If I were to have seen a statement from someone at this early point in this venture it may have inspired me and given me some additional confidence. Thankfully my sheer passion gave me the drive. Oh, and the fact that I had cash. I guess I can see wwatson's point if it has something to do with being inspirational.
tradersaavy That is exactly my point! You go on and on about this and that but not one person can post an original account statement of a good living. I will give The first person to show me proof the remainder of my account "$5357" Have a holiday!! It's worth it just to see proof!!
How about this for inspiration. Take a look at F from yersterday (one of the shittiest trading days for NYSE). 12-1:30 stock made a 25 cent move. Let's say 20 cents able to be captured. It was exteremely liquid, safe and had large sizes in Open Book. Who says you could not flip 3000-5000? I know it wasn't hard since I was trading it with 1000-2000 share lots. Not only that, but even when on the wrong side I was able to get out with only commission loss. Opportunities everywhere and I know there are many traders capturing them. And this is just from NYSE, probably the most inferior and worst market to trade.
What do you consider a good living in order for me to get that $5357? I'll go to my firm and get you ALL of my statements starting from March 23, 2003 when I went live. This way you can see me hit profitability for inspiration. Deal?
Hello: I was just on my way out to have a life, when I saw this thread. I want to mention a couple of things while you still have an account to talk about. First, the idea that no one, or very few people on this site are profitable is incorrect. There are profitable traders, the number is unknown. Second, the idea that only a small profit can be made trading is also incorrect. Risk and reward are tied together, and there are traders who are very good at managing risk, and as a result can obtain big rewards. In my experience, these are ALWAYS educated professionals who have given a lot of thought to the subject of risk managment and have planned very carefully for the day when they will have to bail out of a bad situation. third, selling premium is high risk BUT the risk is camoflaged by the steady small gains that you are (maybe) making. For the small retail trader, it usually takes only one adverse market event to blow up your account. Finally, I have noticed in past that when someone mentions this type of risk, the options traders who post disregard or mimimize the risk, indicating that they know all about it and have it taken care of. That may be true. What I can tell you for sure is that the risk you aren't aware of is the risk that will do you the most damage. I will give one example and get the hell out of here. Just a few years ago, I had a significant profit on Doubleclick put options. I put in my order to liquidate through my broker at the time (ED&F Man in Chicago). As the market moved against me, I waited and waited for the confirm and finally called to find out what happened. The answer, "nothing done"!!! I asked why, and the broker called down to the floor for a report again. This time he informed me that there was "NO BID" for the order!!! When the market had moved away from me by fully half my profit, mysteriously my offer was hit. Lesson learned. You have to have someone to sell to. Now you are selling out of the money options. In an adverse event large enough to put you at risk, what will you do if there is no bid? You may want to give this some thought. Good luck, Steve46
I have ten years experience on the institutional side of the markets (mutual fund manager and structured products in London and USA). Through all that time I saw trades and strategies that could make oodles of cash, but since we oversaw "regulated" client money, we could never take advantage. I now want to get into trading, but I want to make trades that hedge funds would make (holding positions in different markets for a reasonable length of time to capture inefficiencies). I'm looking for a prop shop that is advanced and will allow traders to access ALL markets (USA & Europe, ..... Futures, equities, options on both) in their efforts. I can fund my account if I get paid a salary, but am looking to trade firm capital and share profits while living off of my savings. Does anyone know of any shops that fit these parameters? Mighty appreciated!