Why the hell most people think you can't be a profitable full time trader? I mean come on now, is it that hard to believe a person can't figure out how to trade the market? Of course most people will fail, but that doesn't mean you have to be in that group.. Most people fail at all things so it's not just traders.. This is for all the traders that are having a hard to time right now.. Just hang in there and don't give up..
Yes, "Most people fail at all things so it's not just traders" All things are in fact just selector that chooses some people to stay or leave. Never too insisting on anything or "must" hang in there, because something maybe doesn't choose you, and if you make a final decision to hang in there, it will never be good for you. Maybe you see somebody who hang in ther for long time to win a big surprising success which I believe is just superficial phenomenon. How do you know why he/she insists on doing or what support his / her insistence. I mean when you are doing something, you must communicate with this thing, and you can get feedback from it. If you really be choosed by this thing, you can receive "your" feedback which match your "principle" for that you will insist on absolutely, which is good I think. If not, you insist on just for the "big words"--"you should hang in there", which is very bad I believe.
This is a predator/prey arena. The predators, are big, faster, and have deep pockets. Therefore the prey shouldn't anything that moves. From what I read on here, it appears they do. Also addicted to short term gratification. More interested in being "right" than making money.
Perhaps most of the people you surround yourself with are not good for a trader to have as friends. Or just not good to talk with about trading.
I was actually talking about people on here... But I do agree with you about surrounding yourself with good traders or positive people... Most people on here think the markets are random and think it's impossible to be a profitable trader.... And when someone say they are a profitable trader people say it's because of luck.... smh
Here's your answer .... To be a successful, therefore profitable trader is POSSIBLE, very much so - but only for 5% (or less) of ALL who try. 95% fail and the same universal statistic applies here too at ET just as it applies to Hedgefunds, this fund and that fund. They all follow the same LAW. But at ET a new reader could easily get the impression that here and only here it is the opposite - i.e. 95% are successful and only 5% fail and that these 5% failures are the whiners at ET. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Law is firm and irrevocable and universal and embedded deeply in the HERD implant ... all one needs to do is to apply it with confidence ... and doing so gives the following result for ET ... the 5% successful trader are GONE partially - they don't post but come back to see what's going on once in a while .... 95% or therefore 100% of the people who are still here are LIARS and CHEATS and playing videogames - some who can't trade for themselves, look for clients aka victims - these are called Sponsors, but this is a twist of the Senengetti, an unnatural collusion that is doomed from the getgo.
Maybe true, at least for me. I come back once in a while to see what people are doing and to get some ideas. ET is a good source of ideas. Do not discard everything; there are some good people here. Two years ago I literally begged someone to help me with my trading. He is not a mentor and he is not advising people. I had to contact him many times and ask him for help. I offered him an amount of money he accepted for 3 days of mentoring at his location. He told me 3 things about trading, two of them quantitative facts and one other thing I have signed a non-disclosure agreement to ever reveal in public. Since then I have never lost money in the markets and I am steadily becoming profitable as I am applying what I learned in practice, something I must tell you is not that easy. I am sure there are other people like the one I got the advice from but not regular mentors selling courses. You just have to find them, approach them and get the secrets from them. Trading is all about some secrets that go from mouth to mouth, more or less like secrets of old societies.
Americans thru last 30 years have slipped into a microwave speed of world, go to a restraurant 2-6 times a week and almost all expect their food in fifteen minutes whereas in the 60's, going out to eat was a special occassion and there were courses and one would be there a couple of hours. You can't expect to pickup a "Daytrading for Dummies" book Friday and compete on Monday, yes trading is competition, trying to get that one extra tic, one extra point. It is like one is going to go to a runner's track and compete against the world's best runners and you have never ran before and thirty pounds overweight. You want to bet where you will end up? Going at it alone is so damn hard, I have done well in my three decades plus of trading and I have had help here and there, and countless people who taught and had no clue how the markets run. So not only is one stepping into arena of folks who will bite off snake's head, you can't trust 95% of the vendors, and books, videos are no different. It takes years of constant study, backtesting, forward testing, takes thousands of hours of screen time. So most people are bored after a few hours of not showing millions, and those who be trying for years would give up their first born to pull out $100 a day. Unless you have a death wish, or enormous amount of passion for life in the challedge with money being a result of this passion, people fail. Hell, people can't balance their checkbook, they expect to learn to day trade? I never recommend anyone to learn how to day trade, too long to learn and reward to risk too low, long term trading provides much higher reward to risk, learn to trade off weekly bars. When you add up all the RISK on each single trade one takes in a day of daytrading to the reward, it mind blowing amount. If you risk $100 per trade in ES on 10 trades that is $1,000, how much have you made on ave for that $1,000? Just saying most people don't have the dedication to what it takes to run with the fastest.
There is an almost unbelievable lure to daytrading. This is examplified by a daily volatile market (eg CL) where the maximum reward is so high. Then add the fact that there is no barrier to entry other than a modest amount of money as your margin to allow trading at least one contract. Ok, so we've got a huge reward available and no barriers. That is a very powerful lure for daytrading set against any other way of trying to make yourself rich. So why is there any problem? Its this: there is a failure rate which includes most of those that try to make a success of daytrading. The reason is that amateurs bring an enormous array of defects to the task of making yourself rich. These are the litany of faults that prevent most people everywhere from reaching a very high level of success in anything to do with making a lot of money for themselves.
Sorry, focusonmoney this really isn't the issue or the core issue. It is but its not. The real claims or difficulties are: Few can produce worthwhile risk-adjusted returns Fewer can produce such positive net returns using very active (day trading) strategies Fewer still can generate significant absolute and consistent returns from active trading Fewer still can trade for a living (or trade for a living on a tiny to small account) This isn't about the difficulty in becoming a good/solid trader which is very difficult and requires a different cognitive outlook and skills that most amateurs don't even have. This isn't about becoming a competent trader. It's about becoming one of the best and most elite traders in the world because that's what one must be to trade on a tiny account with significant leverage. To summarize it, you need about $400,000 to trade for a living (without taking significant risks) and to be a good trader on top of it. Last I checked 400k wasn't easy to come up with.