to clarify my definition of A legit retail trader who has made it: Someone who started trading without EVER working in the financial field professionally and acquired millions of dollars via trading. I ask this question because I think these guys are always ignored in favor of: PTJ, Cohen, Schwartz, Destriero ( ), etc...and this is only natural; there are more books written about Michael Jordan than 2nd or 3rd stringers who barely played (yet they are still a massive success in the grand scheme of basketball). I have come to the conclusion that the overwhelming % of profitable "retails" fall under 2 categories: 1. They were professionals within the financial realm for years before doing their own thing. These people spent a decade or better in the professional world being mentored and disciplined by real OGs...discovered their niche/edge...and simply exploit it on an orderly basis as an independent "retail". the majority of your profitable traders come from this category...good luck taking money from these guys. 2. They made their money in some other business and can only afford to trade big because they are literal millionaires before even starting. This is more common than you might think...they did not become wealthy via trading. "Im a millionaire trader"...but they were millionaires before even opening a brokerage account. the fact of the matter is...if you are a retail trying to build your fortune VIA TRADING...the odds are so incredibly stacked against you it is painful to discuss. I would venture to bet that the 95% failure rate for traders is low. actual noob retails with no prior knowledge of the industry starting out with their get rich dreams of making it in the market...99.9%. So, I ask for some examples of legit retails by the above definition to study out of curiosity. thanks.
The one that comes to mind from recent times would be Qullamaggie. Swedish swing trader. I'm pretty sure he's legitimate. About - Qullamaggie Maybe the Flash Crash trader Navinder Sarao would qualify as well, although he did start out in a trading arcade. I'm not sure that quite qualifies as a professional trader, though, and none of his peers matched his results. Beyond that, I do agree with your assessment. A lot of successful individual traders seem to have a professional background and/or started out fairly wealthy to begin with. The role of luck is also undercommunicated. For example, some may have made their pile on a few big lucky trades or they started out trading during very favorable conditions.
I've seen Retail Traders consistently make good calls on the longer direction of the Market. But shorter term, I don't think I've seen a consistent non-Algo or non-Scalper successful discretionary Trader. Although I think we've all seen people post Account shots of alleged growing Accounts.
Ken Griffin began trading out of his college dorm room - borrowed from his folks. Stevie Cohan has a similar story. Blair Hull. Just to name a few. A common thread, generally, was the value of what they studied. Many were math jocks. Doesn't it mean it was common or easy. Everybody starts somewhere. I suspect the overall stats would be a rounding error. Kind of like how many kids made it out of the inner city to to NBA of NFL. Read any of the Market Wizard or Supertraders books and you'll see lots of colorful stories. There are lots who also became successful and later gave it all back.
Qullamaggie, Zanger, Griffin et al Come on Guys. I could tell you exactly how Qullamaggie, Zanger, Minervini etc allegedly Trade, as I've studied and summarised them all and I think ZG has too, but does that mean I can replicate them. Aren't we talking real Retail guys, like @maxinger etc