First, don't expect this site to stroke your ego. Try not to take posts too personal or make posts too personal. Learn to realize the truth/reality is the truth/reality no matter what you or others believe. Also, understand humans know the truth very seldom. It is most often a matter of our perception of reality. To complicate things even more, reality changes (changing economy, markets etc. etc.). Take the time to look at the book "The 7 habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey pages 25, 26 and 45. It is an amazing visual illustration of how and why different individuals look at the same information (stock chart etc.) and arrive at completely opposite conclusions. If you don't want to buy the book, go to a Barnes & Noble etc. and look at this. In my opinion, any stock trader who has not seen this, should take the time to look at it. "Story" A young, aggressive, ambitious new MBA graduate was beginning his first day on the job at one of the most successful firms in history. As luck would have it, he was given a couple of minutes in the very successful company founder's office that day. Wanting to make the most of this time and become a success himself, he ask the old man what the secret to his great success was. The old man said that it was a rather easy question to answer and that he could answer it with only two words "GOOD DECISIONS". A bit frustrated, the young graduate came back with, "Yes, but how did you come to make all these good decisions?" The old man said this was an even easier question, he could answer it with only one word "EXPERIENCE". Even more irritated by this time, the young graduate replied, "Sure, but where did you get all this experience which allowed you to make the good decisions". The old man just smiled and said "BAD DECISIONS". My perception is you don't really know yet if you know how to make money or not. Understand I am not questioning whether or not you have made money in the past. I'm just saying I question whether you have enough history (EXPERIENCE) though different environments (different types of markets/different realities) to answer the question, even though you believe you do. The major reason I say this has much less to do with you and your EXPERIENCE than it does with me and my EXPERIENCE. (I have so much experience, I have scars on top of scars on top of scars. I'm such a slow learner it takes a lot of negative reinforcement for me). There is a young man I know very well. He turned a portfolio of under $10,000 into over $600,000 while he was in college during the bull market. He had no doubt he knew how to make money. Today his portfolio is under $100,000. Sorry for the long post, been watching darkhorse too much I guess.
<a href="http://www.naturesongs.com/mftbat1.wav" I keep posting suggested jpegs for him, but... <img src = "http://www.gekkota.org/assets/images/SDtokay015f.jpg"> </img> ></a> Gordon says, "click me!" I keep posting alternative jpegs for him but...
I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to own your own jet. Rich enought not to waste time. 50 - 100 million dollars. Buddy. A player or nothing.
Well the really good ones do claim to lose. That's true. I attended the annual meeting and dinner for our lovely commodities exchange (when I was still a member) and the topic of how much people make came up. One guy talked about how he couldn't make any money and the next person had his tale of woe and so on. As it turned out you had the major traders of the exchange (he ones doing big volume) all pleading poverty. Anyway we all learned never to ask who's making money because you'll never get a straight answer.
A trader with $20K would be considered fairly well capitalized on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. It costs $50/mo to lease a seat and $1.50 to clear a trade. The margins? As much as you can handle. The company you clear with will counsel you. What most of the new traders do is work at UPS or at some help desk during the evenings and trade during the day. It helps if you can have lots of roommates or sleep in your car.
Indeed, why brag. The ones who matter already know the score. I also find it amusing that Soros' original plan was to make a million and retire.