Some people think they can just quit their job and start trading when they have 50k. They ask around and some people say follow your passion. How stupid is that! Quitting your job that makes you money and start trading without having a system, is like saying you are quitting your job to become a professional poker player without even knowing how to play poker. If your family member says: I'm gonna quit my job to play poker, even though I don't know to to play poker, you would laugh at his face. But if somebody says hes gonna trade gap-fills for a living that's suddenly normal. No way! Always have a system before you quit your job!! Playing gap-fills is not a system Money does not equal system.
funny how when you start on ET you believe 90 % don't make it after a while you start saying 95% don't make it after you dabble in trading for a while you start saying 99% DO NOT MAKE IT if you are like me you believe 99.9% here don't make it Scary don't you think
never underestimate the stupidity of the mass out there.... the ones following the 'passion' are those donating the 50k's into the pot.... so let them do it.. it's their passion. a couple of thoughts on gaps, and why it's an oxymoron - I can't stop laughing when I read some threads about somebody have been eyeing a year old gap for the past months.... first of all, in this global market, we've got london/tokyo/new york trading around the clock, there is essentially no gaps anymore, at least among the professionals - the big houses all have offices around the globe and it's a 24-hour market. now - for the average investors who works the 9-5 and got stocks in his 401k, gaps to them still exist, as they mainly trade in the US day sessions... now, ask 1000 of these guys, if a 'gap' from a year ago means anything to them, 1000 of them will ask you back - gap? what gap? People fail because they look at the wrong things - 99.9% of the threads on this site talk about the wrong things. It will never change, because suckers born and go in an endless cycle.
Most will fail is by the nature of the market, it is an almost zero-sum game, and participants cannibalize each other financially. It may matter to an individual participant, skill, experience, character, etc, he or she will win or lose; It does not matter to the whole participants what skill sets they bring to the market, the end result will be few left to thrive and most fail by design or by accident. A similar system is the natural evolution of species, the fittest survive; the market is only evolving fast, in electronic speed while the nature evolves in millions of years.
Now Im not making this post to brag or boast, but just to say that it can be done. I dont have a degree from an Ivy League college and just another guy you might see on the street. I do have experience being a little more in touch with my emotions and ability to make decisions which is the most important aspect of trading. I have life experiences in the military and in several different work and social environments over the years. I did do some trading a while back with disasterous results and that was from listening and following messageboards just like this one. However, after sitting down and reading the better trading books by successful known traders I think I have learned a thing or two. There was a post here by the ghost of cutten that seemed to hit the nail on the head. Im not the best trader in the world, but I consider myself a student of the game. So if I can increase my account by this much in a month then you can too. It is a long road and took me about 3 months to read and study all the books out there not to mention a few failed trading attempts in the past where I looked to message boards for advice...a mistake. Well , lets see how I do. Here is a screenshot of my account balance about 1 month ago: Here it is now:
It might not be wise to quit a steady job to START trading ... but it's definitely not wise to think you can be successful at trading by only learning / doing it part time.
Absolute nonesense. I followed my passion b/c I wanted to be happy in life. To tell people not to do that is simply dumb. 99.9% is a little bit of an exageration. Granted I was clueless when I first started my $50k thread under career trader, but that was 2 years ago. If i hadn't quit my real job, I'd never have learned what I did in the market. Granted I lived home w/ my parents at the time, and had no bills or family, so I was young enough to be able to do it. To say that 99.9% fail, I'm going to disagree with that. I'd like to modify it a little. 99.9% fail that are not mentored or taught by anyone. Those that are mentored by a seasoned trader with have significantly greater odds of making it. I was lucky enough to get mentored by someone. IMO, I'd never have gotten some of the concepts of price action in the ES that I do now w/o some of that mentoring.
Lets say I gave you $100,000 for one year of your life, what would you tell me? Thats right, one year of your life taken away for 100 grand. I dont think most folks would take it. Its the same with a steady job. A lot of jobs take your life away from you and distract you from other goals for a humble salary that is sometimes much less then 100k. You also waste the employer's time. They want someone there who will last and grow the company, but your plans may be just to collect a check to survive. I think its smart to quit a job you dont like. You dont want to waste anyone's time...especially yours. Now if you have lots of bills and kids then thats another story. Then you will have to make the best of it in the job you dont like.