> It took me about 9-10 months straight of full-time trading to finally find something to be consistently profitable. I honestly believe that anyone can find something to be consistently profitable at.. however, I do believe what separates the failures from the average guys from the best, is risk management. The guys who execute their exits consistently, are the ones who are able to beat the 'psychological' barriers to sizing up over time because they do not experience constant black holes in their account. > Dealing with increasing size is a really rough issue. So many people get pumped because they always change their strategy. They think "okay.. time to size up.." and somehow this means they are going to change their whole paradigm of execution etc. There's no easy way to go about it, but there's definitely a logical ebb and flow that I recommend. ** I would not recommend anybody even think about sizing up to new limits/risk until they have 3 consistently profitable months IN A ROW where they hit their target band comfortably. ** Next, you need to keep the same average ratio of wins per day relative to total stop relative to the month. For example, if you had a $5k day stop and you established that, in current market conditions, your average month seems to be around $15k-20k... then you need to replicate exactly this ratio, to the best of your ability, when you have a $7.5k stop and $10k stop. As you approach much bigger 'stops' and risk-per-day, obviously you become less and less efficient but you will adapt to conditions. Anyway it's a very small number of people that need to worry about this part. ** The most difficult part about increasing risk is always psychology. It just comes down to psychology. Honestly, some people have it, and can train themselves to do it, and some others just have too many obstacles to over come. It all comes down to what your 'trading philosophy' is. See, I believe as a trader we take far too much risk, in such a short career span, and I feel my blood pressure rising and stress overwhelm me sometimes... I feel that it takes so much from me, that honestly I should be aiming for $3 million/year at a minimum. This is just me. However, some others are very happy with $20k/month for the rest of their lives. It all comes down to how competitive you want to be. It's not about money, honestly. When I think size, I do not associate the image of "more money!" in my head. Instead, I feel like I'm stepping into the ring with a tougher opponent. The enemies are a little stronger, they try a lot of cheap shots to the kidney, they're more agile and punish you harder when you slip up! If you're ready for the next level, honestly you will just gradually scale up your size as you win, step back when you need to learn new conditions, then jump right back in. But truthfully, I noticed that of the rare breed of consistently profitable traders with less than 6 years experience, about 9 in 10 have a 'reversion point' where they always come back to having around a $5k-10k stop region and they make between $20k to $30k a month depending on market conditions. Obviously it doesn't apply for everyone, but that's just what I noticed. Maybe it's just my part of town, but it's a really common number. Therefore, to break that, I think you need to work really hard and believe in yourself and be really honest about how consistent you actually are. Oh... and make sure you get the f*ck out when you know you're really wrong!
How did I get where I am? I followed Marketsurfer's trading advice!!! Checking Out the Latest PD Signals