To the Career Traders...

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by marketdude, Mar 29, 2008.

  1. 3 years full time , 9-5 pm , sometimes 9-12 AM
    quit almost 4 times during those 3 years,

    finally got it around last year, evertyhing started to click

    stopped trading directional movements ,
    understood the market is relatively random,
    things of that nature, then things started going profitable for me.


    funny , notice when I registered, Jan 05, 3.3 years .
     
    #11     Mar 30, 2008
  2. Exactly! A guy like me with a wife and three kids would really struggle if there wasn't enough $$$ to last several years. That's why I wonder how these guys with $100,000 and less accounts attempt to trade full time and survive. If they are...
     
    #12     Mar 31, 2008
  3. Colombo

    Colombo

    4-5 years sounds about right.... that is if you are dedicating 190% of your time to this. I mean this: You are not going to accomplish anything by going at this half a**. If you just started and are already frustrated, man, I would say hang up the boots and stick to the 9-5.

    This is like anything else in life you are trying to accomplish. You need to have an obsessive, stubborn passion to succeed, to reach your objective, toget where you want to go. Without that passion, you will be dissuaded at the troughs where your instinct will propel you to quit. It will be your Passion for this craft which will determine if you stick around or not. Not your skill (if you have acquired any by now.)

    Passion and how long you can make your money last.... paper trade, paper trade, paper trade (can't say it enough) until you have something down pact where you can determine a clear edge. (Never go into any game of skill to fin out if you can "make money" for you will surely lose it. Go in only knowing you can win. )

    Remember that being succesful is a result of the of two things: 1) making money and 2) losing as little as possible, (Traders who do not lose are like women who do not complain; they do not exist!) The amateur will define success in this business solely by the first and this is where he eliminates himself from the game.
    If you understand this, you have 50% of the battle won. The problem with this is that that 50% of the battle is with your most challenging enemy..... yourself.

    As long as you can survive the drought, as long as you don't cheat yourself, as long as you are HONESTLY putting in the leg-work ( and the right kind of work at that....) ...it will eventually click.

    The road to determining your edge is not easy and once you do discover it you still have to maintain it..... however, the fruit are well worth the pickins.....
     
    #13     Mar 31, 2008
  4. If it were, then...

    Everybody and their mother would be doing it.

    Welcome to "trading" bro. :)
     
    #14     Apr 1, 2008

  5. I can;t see how a married guy with expenses could possibly learn to trade having a financial burden on his head. it seems next to impossible. I don't see how it could be done.
     
    #15     Apr 1, 2008
  6. I have similar thoughts about the matter myself.

    When push comes to shove, the guys who are footlose and fancy free definitely have a type of edge when it comes to succeeding at this game.

    But then again, maybe having all of those responsibilities will give the trader the fuel that he needs to light a fire!

    Good trading
     
    #16     Apr 1, 2008
  7. it took me about 6 months to really have a firm grasp of what a good setup is; 16 months and my emotions still aren't in check. So after 16 months I'm taking home 25% of my strategy's potential.

    I've seen people take a year to get the setups, which I found easy back when I started (it's harder now, even though I have more experience)... quickest I've seen is a kid who started in August, by the Next August he made 25k that month and around 10 in july, and that was his 4th or 5th profitable month, but since then he's never had a red month and had some really impressive green months...

    it all depends on you, how much training you have, and what products youre trading.
     
    #17     Apr 1, 2008
  8. mrbrinks

    mrbrinks

    2 months
     
    #18     Apr 1, 2008

  9. Started in May, suffered a 50% drawdown by mid July, that August was my first profitable month, made 3k net, and have never looked back since then.

    I was first in, and last to leave. I studied my trades and worked from 5 am to 11 pm, I eliminated what wasn't working, was able to discipline myself to only do that which did, and every stupid trader mistake that cost me money was logged and reviewed every day so that I would never make it again.

    My big breakthrough? I came in to trading after reading a few books and had the Tony Oz model in my mind. It didn't work for me. Once I realized that on a business level, on a professional level, this is a game of cents and not dollars, some good education, and a theory of what works, I was able to find my edge in short order.
     
    #19     Apr 1, 2008
  10. TraDaToR

    TraDaToR

    2 years after I got really implied in it ( first US futures account 2005 ) and 5 years after I started investing in stocks( buy and hold ).

    I've never blown up an account but definitely got lucky at the beginning...

    It really depends on what approach you have on trading in the first place. If you are looking for the right stuff you may succeed in months, if you 're looking for the bad one, You may work your ass for years for nothing.

    I work( intellectual focus ) 1/5 of what I was working 1 year ago to make 20 times more money.
     
    #20     Apr 2, 2008