"5 years","thousands of screen hours." That's dead on, also when I quit counting the money and started looking at being right on the trade and the money will take care of itself
Two months is total bullshit. 5 years full-time is grossly over-estimated unless you're retarded... If you haven't started to seriously figure it out after 2 full-time years then you should reflect on whether or not this is even for you... But if you learn how the market works INTIMATELY by: 1) reading a lot of beginner books, buying beginner dvds, going to the trading expos 2) not buying into the hype of revolutionary "platforms" or "ta tools" or "trading systems" or "gurus" 3) taking notes on everything you've learned and formulating an idea of what type of trader/investor your personality is most suited to become, and what your trading styles should be 4) Opening a trading account with a reputable broker with a trading platform that is best suited to your trading style and watching the level 2 screens until your eyes are numb, learning the platform tools intimately (basket orders, trailing stops, screeners, news feeds, P&V charts, etc) and making small ACTUAL MONEY trades (like 5%, maybe 10%, of the size you'll eventually be trading) while recording every relevant piece of information on your results in a trading journal that you study religiously, as you tweek your style by constantly applying and re-applying changes based on what you're learning (by the way, try trading multiple strategies and numbers {at the same time} and see what works best in the different times of the day, days of the week, type of market, market direction, etc, etc) Perfect practice makes perfect. Learn it the right way and you'll cut the learning curve in half. Hint: Pay attention to the general fundamentals of the stocks you're trading short term and try filtering out those with poor fundamentals using screeners. %/$ gains in generally poor performers are typically just "noise", with the moves often reversing quickly or chopping around making short-term trades often pointless and/or randomly less predictable. So you want to be a Stock Trader? http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80319 All that being said, six months (of 18 hours a day of dedication to learning and understanding how it all functions) to two years (full-time) and you'll either be broke and on your way out or successful and on your way up. If you're still stuck somewhere in-between then perhaps it's time for some honest self reflection...
It took me about a year to stop losing money, and another year to figure out a game plan that worked for me and become consistent in my results. This is my third year of trading and I am finally taking home what I consider a good salary (although my idea of what good money is has gone up considerably over the last few years of hearing about other traders). The more I make the more I want to make, but I also love trading and feel very lucky to have found something I enjoy so much. I agree that the most important thing is to focus on risk and minimize your losses as much as possible and dont worry too much about the big days. They add up fast. I used to "go big" a lot more than I do now, and my losing days would cancel out the really good ones. Having said that, after awhile you do start to recognize opportunities a lot better, and you can't second guess your intuition or be afraid to go for it. Good luck and I hope you do great