Absolutely on the mark here! When the "behavior of price" becomes your best indicator you are well on your way.
I believe your replies are extremely helpful to new traders, because you have provided new traders with HOPE, CONFIDENCE, or A POINT OF REFERENCE, like a light tower to a ship sailing at night. lindq explained a trader's journey very well: "A year in the dark. A second year of some slight enlightenment. A third year of growing understanding. A fourth year of getting it together."
If i knew it was going to be so hard and time consuming at first, not to forget the daily emotional roller coaster, the disappointments, etc, i seriously don't think i would be doing that today. honestly if you come to this business thinking you are smarter then average and it should be no problem for you and you sit down in the morning all happy and confident with your brand new trading system bought off a website, you are in for the disappointment of a lifetime.
Amen. Trading will make you face the most formidable foe you will ever have to deal with in your life..... YOURSELF! If you have a hard time accepting reality and can't put your ego aside, trading is going to be the most difficult and expensive thing you are ever going to do and most likely you will never succeed. In the end only those that master both the craft and themselves win. Too many concentrate on the pure mechanics of trading and never really cope with the real issues that hold them back.... Discipline Confidence Being wrong Accepting defeat persistence Letting go of hard expectations ETC..... Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is any good trader. Good Luck!
....and in the nth year? Exit the business and back to a regular job I'm only stating the path of the typical person entering the business. Everyone thinks that they are of above average or will be when they start. Only in hollywood scripts should you never be a quitter. Be a realist and give it 100% for some period of time. I've seen seasoned and previously successfully traders forced out after years of success due to an inability to adapt to changing regs, market conditions and technology.
I was profitable from the very beginning (based on yearly income), but I was very inconsistent on a daily basis. I've been trading for about 20 months now, and I lost money during my first 2 months but consistently profitable after that. I think the first stage is getting yourself to avoid wild swings in your equity and become consistent. Like what other posters have said, it doesn't matter if it's just a dollar, try to make money consistently. Once you do that, things will start to get better as you develop this "habit" of making profitable trades. Then all of sudden, things will click and you will be able to make much more money. Your profit level will skyrocket. (Again someone else already mentioned this.) So it's just a matter of staying alive long enough and becoming consistent.