I'd venture to say that there are plenty of traders, many of them reading and posting on ET, that could retire on $15,000, live above middle class status and expose themselves to no significant risk of ruin...
That's correct. The learning is very easy. If you have the basic ability to recognize a few patterns and can remember a few rules, you can sometimes accomplish the basic learning in a matter of days. You can even keep sample printouts of the patterns (hard right edge screen shots as well as successful completion and failure screen shots) and the rules in front of you at all times. The application of the learning in real time with real money is like some kind of alien force field through which few can pass. I've shared my core strategies/rules with several traders and no one has yet been able to follow them consistently over time. Why? A well-prepared trader can generate a decent income (at least $400/day) trading a single contract of certain futures contracts (CL and 6E, for example). I'm not sure what the exact margin requirements are but I believe that to day trade these contracts requires less than $10K. ADD: A $400K account, if anything, might enable traders to avoid learning how to trade properly because they can trade without having any idea of how to predict directional moves that occur more often than not. Instead they form a bias, pick a direction based on the bias and average down losers until they can eventually exit with a profit, or a "cry uncle" bailout.
Yeah, I've said something similar to this before, but that belief stems from being stuck with a mentality that a trader has to be smart, or right, or good, or talented, or whatever to be profitable. I wonder sometimes, since they believe it's not possible to be profitable, why they trade or even talk on such a forum. Then I realize it's because they probably have a winning system. They just can't take advantage of it because of personal issues like greed or pride which both lead to an inability to follow their system. So the carrot dangles in front of their eyes preventing them from ever throwing in the towel, while the belief that trading is about being smart prevents them from seeing the real issue which is that it's about being humble. It's a terrible cycle to be stuck in; you can't leave, and you can't win.
Yea it is like some alien force field.... But one good thing to do is to stick to your system for a whole month straight without cheating... After that it will become a habit and you will find yourself sticking to your system much better...