So, I have been on ET for more than a year. I have been a prolific contributor and have gained a deep understanding of different kinds of people who frequent ET. Some are successful professionals who trade on side, some are independent successful traders, some are fund managers, some are vendors in disguise, some are peddlers and majority are wannabes. My estimate is 95% of posters on ET do not make money from trading consistently and at least 10% of ET posters are broke and are in debt. I just wanted to send this message across to all the prop traders, independent traders, wannabes, broke etc. - Have a TIME stop loss in case your decision to become a career trader does not pan out as expected. You should decide how many years you want to invest in this venture - 5 years, 7 years or 10 years. But definitely decide on a TIME stop loss. Define your goals - what you want to achieve after 7 years from the day you have started. Track performance measures like # months profitable in a year, Net yearly PL etc. Also, have couple life related measures like how many cars you should buy with your trading profits, how is your social standing being an independent trader, your life must be on track so that someone likes you and possibly you can get married, your children don't desert you etc. If you agree in principle with my above prescription and say you have already spent 15 years trying to trade but are still not earning at least 50k per year from trading and you are already 45 years old. Well, don't worry. Best thing you can do is to QUIT - right now, today. Man - if you couldn't hack it in 15 years, then it makes more sense to try your hand at something else. Seek advice, go to community college, flip burgers for 2 years, do 3 shifts per day. Start making some coin and don't get back to trading. Start preparing for your retirement and try to get your life back on track. Believe me - its never too late to ditch this thing if your life is not on track, then try out some other career where you might succeed. I am not being negative here - I am just giving practical advice. Take it as free practical advice from someone who took around 3 years to become successful in trading. Today, I am a successful independent trader but I know the journey was extremely tough and painful. When I started I had a time stop of 5 years, I hacked it within 3 years. Have a time stop. It will be a very important tool that you can employ while travelling forward on the path of becoming a career trader!
I have been at it for 4 years now. Took me 3 years to turn profitable. That is what I meant. Good Trading.
LOL. Actually, I had started this thread on the new website. I just re-posted it here since all that stuff got lost during website migration. I have just recovered from an illness. I have no energy for a debate as of now. If anyone does not agree with what I said, well I am fine with it. I just wrote what I thought is common sense.