I like to keep in mind.... "There are 2 kinds of traders. Those who don't know, and those who don't know they don't know".
3 or 4 times in my trading days I was thoroughly confident I understood something which was very significant. Each time I was wrong and paid a price... not a blow-up price, but I've taken a couple of 25% hits to my trading capital. Now, I always think about "not being too cocky when I think I understand something" I guess that's the difference between "thinking you know" when you really don't.. Fortunately, "knowing" isn't a requirement for making money in the markets...
I guess everything is about a non-stop learning strategy. if you ever feel you know everything I guess you'll never succeed trading Forex.
Thanks to everybody for the replies. By-the-way, what do you think about trading style, which one is better? Daytrading? swingtrade? or maybe options? (I do not consider futures and forex at all). Merry Xmas!
Last year I was up 61% this year I am up 34 % ...before year ends aiming for 35%. You can do futures or forex it is not about the investment vehicle, but your investment/trading strategy. I am not a daytrader but daytrading is the hardest way to do it, ask around.
Many people trade many different ways. I believe many traders fail because the way they attempt to trade doesn't match their personality. I tried several styles of trading. I started with what I thought was safe. I thought I was conservative, and should position trade. Wrong answer. So I tried swing trading, because I heard daytrading was very stressful and you quickly fail. Swing trading may work for some. For me, it was the wrong answer. I took the plunge and started daytrading. As it turns out, it fits me very well. It is not what I had imagined myself doing, but it suits my personality. So for my $0.02, try many avenues and styles. Spend time finding your niche. I think it would be difficult to excel in something you don't enjoy.
Very interesting thread to me as I'm pretty much in the same boat you are in with a few minor differences. I made my first trade just before black monday and it took about 2 years for my walmart stock purchase price to recover. And that was back before online trading and we had to call a broker in the good old days. I've traded a little off and on with good and bad results and have yet to be certain where my edge / niche lies (the one I'm most comfortable with) but i may be getting there. I too have a internet business since 1999 and had revenues over $1 million this year but i know it could all go away overnight. Taxable will be around 23% I'm guessing. I've also worked the same day job for over 26 years and am considering dropping that as it's low pay hourly factory work but does have a 401k and health insurance., so i may stay a bit longer. I'm pretty well captalized and would like to think i could trade full time but I'm not sure. Internet business deals like mine are very fragile and can disappear over night. December revenues are usually off 30% for me and this year are off 65% but i hope they will recover next month. What we should probably do is put half of our time and capital in diversifying our internet business and maybe use the other half to trade. After all, it's the intenet business we know and there are always lots of opportunities there if you don't get burned out dealing with things falling apart. You can buy many internet businesses for 1 to 2 times annual earnings. I major in business end and am lame in the tech end. You have to really know all parts in buying up these websites as many sellers misrep things to make them appear better than they are, so i haven't bought websites but keep doing what i do best. Anyways i suggest you keep doing what you are and develop relationships with a few folks that can help you move into other areas and pursue your trading half time. PM me to discuss the biz, I'll be glad to make a friend and help you any way i can (if i can) --- there are so many things to know and i only know a small part. Peace Birdman
NO, for you it's NOT and your question IS the proof to this fact. There are ways to get 10% Bank Interest Tax Free but NOT available to US Citizens though. Buy, GOLD, OIL and RE. good luck
When I started long ago, it cost $125 to buy 100 shares or one futures contract, so I had to learn long term trading and glad I did, 90% of what I make a year is from long term and I spend 10 hours a week doing it. But it is very boring, but boring makes money. I love to day trade stocks and futures, I spend 80-100 hours a week doing it, it makes 10% of my profits. The fun part of trading is the backtesting cause the actual trading is boring to sit here waiting for patterns to develop. I expect one of a thousand reasons many fail at any kind of timeframe on trading is PATIENCE or lack. Same with businesses, cause if you don't run your trading business like any other kind of business, you will fail. Need a solid business plan, need solid research, backtesting, accounting, it is no different. If you can't control costs, net earnings will be zero or lower. Happy Holidays all. Handle