Sorry, I edited my post and now yours doesn't make sense. I'm going for it. From now on, I wait patiently and enjoy life as it comes. No more feeling obligated to trade every day. I know my skill can pick between 3 and 6 trades per month, and there's no reason to do 10, 15 or 20 trades.
it's a good question, but your assumption that every year there will be 5 setups that are so obvious you can't lose is a little suspect.
swing trades you mean ? day trades - you may be surprised ... machines make sure there is no such thing.
You make a couple of good points and I followed the same path as yourself during my route to becoming a 'better trader'. To many people enter the markets hoping to win big and win quickly. Those kind of people just like everybody else can evolve into the type of people whom are patient but otherwise, they may aswell go to the casino. We need money to make money and if that means busting balls serving up slop for 3-4 years downtown in a burger bar or factory to build up 10-20 k in capital which will serve as the foundation for the investment in selective trades based upon a patient mindset, then that in my humble opinion is an indication that that person has acquired one of the fundamental elements necessary for success. All they need to do now is create a successful system! If a person doesn't have any money... go bust the balls in a slop house doing all the hours under the sun > save all the spare cash that you can each and every week > prove to yourself that you can consistently select successful trades founded upon patiently waiting for your signal > save your money from these trades in addition to your current line of work > once you have enough in the bank to support yourself for 2 years cut down your hours or find another job preferably part-time > increase your trade size proportionate to total capital > bingo! Finding 5 trades per year that you can rely upon for success is as easy as 1-2-3. Infact, if you increase the number of markets that you monitor, any competent trader should be able to find 5 high probability trades per month. However there ain't no harm in waiting for the super 5!
If it's that easy, as easy as one two three you should be the richest man in the world. Start with 10k, put a 100% on every trade five times a year for ten years and they'd be talking about you. Why quit your job at the slop house? $7.20 per hour invested five times every year on a sure thing would be enough to buy you a nice house with cash in a couple of years.
It's not quite as simplistic as that... What if your first year of profit was based upon 5 trades all within close proximity, subsequently followed by no other opportunities that you were capable of recognising for the next 10 months? How do you know that in your first year of success the 5 successful trades won't occur all within 2 or 3 weeks of each other? You would have to split your capital up if that did occur and therefore your unable to double your account because all 5 trades are likely to overlap each other. I don't advocate risking your entire account to double your capital year upon year although I'm entirely certain that it is possible to achieve that target if you are a very good trader and make the correct decisions... because afterall, its all about making the correct decisions... Patience, self discipline, ordered capital management, appropriate risk management, time served and proven high probability system (which comes with experience) are the ingrediants everybody needs and then success is possible. Year upon year the capital will increase and the more capital you have at the outset (outset of your graduation into the realms of competence) the quicker you will be able to cut your hours down or quit your job at the slop house. Not many 'traders' achieve these heights and that is why most people work at the slop house and just aswell because if nobody worked at the slop house, who would be there to serve our food? Been there, done that.
Daytrading doesn't lend itself to compounding to infinity. But yes I think traders who love to trade think about the money as a secondary goal. The first priority is to play the game. How many of you out there let your best trades fund the not-so-sure-thing n'th best trades? I don't think I'm the only one. But I justify it as tuition, only that I think I allow myself to pay more than what is necessary at times. I remember there was a market wizard interview where a trader knew he was only barely breaking even on his "secondary" trades, but that he needed that freedom to express his ideas or else he'd go crazy. Somehow this makes perfect sense to me. One of the biggest perks to trading is independence, and to shackle yourself for the sake of every last dollar seems against the grain.
We enter the markets to make money and if we lose track of the reason why we are trading then I'd say that something isn't quite right somewhere. Either that or your just too rich!