a lottery ticket if purchased rarely in a contemplative time is a good cheap dream. Unfortunately, I had to meet with 3 of my daughters for a funeral last week and just to lighten the mood I bought us 4 powerball tickets with the idea we would split it 4 ways. After cash option and taxes it would have come to about 25 million a piece. Then I asked them what they would do with it? 2 wanted to start philanthropic foundations, the other gambler and me said we are already doing what we want and it would only be more of the same. When the numbers didn't hit the philanthropists said, "We lost but you didn't." I told them, "You know, you don't really have to hit the lottery to start a foundation."
They say the odds of hitting the numbers are less than the odds of getting struck by lightning. Well let's think about that. As a gambler I will bet every penny I own that you will not be struck by lightning. But when it comes to laying the odds, I'm not so sure I would bet it all just to win a two dollars from you. And if you had a billion dollars, I may even take those odds. Two of mine against a billion of yours on me getting struck by lightning? Yeah I might take that, just for something to do and think about. Where else can you buy that kind of a dream for $2?
I'm not buying any tickets so my chances are as good as most other people. I think if I came into a large sum of money like that I would keep trading. I would do it just for fun keeping it under a 10 lot.
I've been struck by lightning before. You know what? I am not going to be struck again if I can do anything about it so you can keep your billion dollars. Pretty funny story. I was 12 years old at Boy Scout camp. It was a rainy day but no thunder that anyone noticed. We were all sitting under a tarp at a picnic table with metal legs. It was right next to a large tree. I happened to be sitting on the bench where the wood was bolted to the metal leg. My foot was in a puddle. All of a sudden there was a bright flash and smoke. When I "came too" I was laying in a tent 15 feet from where I had been sitting. Lightning went up my leg and out my butt cheek. Got third degree burns on my toes and butt cheek. It was the most intense thing I have ever experienced.
The probability of becoming a successful trader is likely more favorable than the probability to win this 1.3 billion. Statistically at least it is better to invest in trading and not in this lottery. How many hundreds of millions of combinations were sold since the 40 million did not go out and grew to 1.3 billion? Hundreds of millions of combinations and nobody was able to catch the money. Lottery clearly is gambling, trading is not.
What is your idea of "successful" (trader) in monetary terms (objective)? Hard numbers for accumulated trading profits (pretax) & trading income (pretax) per year? NO %ages Everyone on ET slings around the word "successful" which is subjective but can mean anything from "having clean water" to "freedom from the boss blabla" to MCD wages to $100 MM (talking about private trader. No OPM)
Traders who can make consistently money are successful traders to me. The amount of money they make is irrelevant. Successful means that you can beat consistently the unpredictable markets no matter what happens. The key is consistently beat the markets. If you can do that you will of course raise the invested capital as you know that the longterm result will be profitable. So automatically the profits will become substantial or even huge. There are different types of successful traders: For some making a few thousands a month is enough For others it needs to be a few million a year. And some will even ruin their own life by trading 24/7, spent no money and reinvest everything they have and die rich after a poor life. They all are successful traders, but especially the third group is not what you might call successful in having a good life. Find your personal balance once you are profitable (successful), that's more important than making a huge fortune. People who starve from hunger will say: if I find food I will eat 24 hours a day. But if they manage to have enough food for normal daily portions, they will change their opinion. They will not be obsessed by food anymore and change their priority list. The same applies to wannabe traders: if I become consistently profitable I will try to make billions!!! Once they make substantial profits , they will change their opinion too. They will change their aims in life (change their priority list). So those who always think about making lots of money, in fact show by their behavior that they are still unsuccessful in trading. This situation applies to most people on ET, and for most of them it will unfortunately stay like that. When I started to trade I wanted to make billions too. Once the money started to come in I realized two things: You don't need billions to have a good and comfortable life Trying to make billions can ruin the quality of your life Why ruin the quality of your life for making billions you never need? To have this on your tombstone: I am the richest dead man on earth and had the poorest life.