FAQ How Long Does it Take to Make a Stable Income from Trading?

In my opinion - and experience so far - it takes at least a year, maybe even two, especially if you're starting from scratch and you know practically nothing about it beforehand. It takes time to accumulate enough knowledge and experience in order to lower the mistakes to a possible minimum. It also depends on your learning curve and on your teacher, in case you have one.

It depends on the quality of your teachers.

satriani said:

It depends on the quality of your teachers.

Click to expand...

it depends on the effort and desire of the person trying to learn too

Indeed, it depends on both. If you don't make an effort to learn and practice what you learn, you won't get better, regardless of how good your teacher is.

it also depends on your own personal character traits and if you can overcome these. I know he is not everyone's cup of tea but Al Brooks said in a recent webinar he took 10 years to get profitable and has now been profitable for the last 10 years. Prior to trading he was an eye surgeon so he was a very smart methodical guy. He openly stated that one of the reasons it took him 10 years to become profitable was he had character traits to overcome, more specifically he had compulsivity. (I dont endorse Al Brooks in any way it's just an example and I dont trade like him.). These character traits might not necessarily be bad in everyday life but they may not be conducive to extracting money from the market.

Personally I think the quickest anyone could create a stable income from trading is 2 years but that is only if they have the right character traits and most people don't - i certainly didnt. For most people we will be talking 5+ years. That's one of the reasons most dont make it they run out of patience, capital and fall by the wayside. GL

I agree. One doesn't learn over the course of a few months. It takes time and patience and, unfortunately, money.

It depends on the person. I think how successful you become is greatly upon your own expectation and intuition. It's just something you naturally have a passion and talent for, and build on it through education. Just because you read a 600 page book on throwing mechanics by John Elway doesn't mean you will ever be a NFL quarterback. It's just something you have to have in you. No matter what education or money you throw at a guy, he will never be successful managing hundreds of thousands of dollars when he gets anxiety attacks over a $10 open p/l.

That said, I guess it depends on what you mean stable income. I know a guy I've shadowed since I begin trading. He was formerly a chemist. Spent 9 months learning about trading through Google and YouTube. He's now been trading for about 5 years. He now makes anywhere from $1,000-4,000 a day. I've only seen him have a handful of losing days since I met him. I've been trading for about 9 months and make or lose around $100 a day. I'm 64% successful.

Some people get it right off, some don't

It helps if you have a photographic memory and a previous background in finance, maths and stats and are not fully dependent on earning money from trading during your first few years.

There is also a correlation - as in most skills - whether it be sports or otherwise on the 10k hours rule.

You don't need 10k hrs just to get there - but I reckon you need 3000 to 5000 hrs of live chart study to actually understand technical analysis in its many formats. Think about it 3000 hrs does not sound a lot - but if you are part time and say only are able to spend 10 hrs a week watching and studying the markets - then 3k hours will take you 6 years - yes 6 yrs.

If you can spend say 20 hrs per week and want to really be at a consistent level etc - then maybe at least 5k hrs are needed and that's going to take approx 5 years and then if you do make it fuil time you need at least another couple of years to get to the 10k hrs level - which means you should be at a high skill level.

Remember its not just being proficient at both Technical Analysis and even the Fundamentals - you have to be able to carry out strict money management disciplines - as well as control the 2 main emotions in trading of fear and greed. That alone might take you 3 to 12 months to master - that's if you can - and then you also need to be able to stand pressure - of achieving - like earning a wage purely based on results via commissions - rather than a guaranteed pay cheque

For me anyone who is trading profitable under 3 years on a consistent basis is really down more to luck than skill and experience. When I say consistent - I don't mean for a month with 5 trades - I mean for 6 months plus with at least 100+ trades Yes by 5 to 7 years - it should have all clicked and fallen into place - and if it as not - then you just have not put the work in and maybe not spent the time correctly.

For every few hundred new traders who start every month - there will be a few who last 6 months or a year and make additional money - but as we all know 80 -90% of all new traders will lose part or all of their start capital - its part the experience - ie like going ice skating and never falling over etc.

Don't let the truth and facts put you off - its just that trading for consistent returns is a lot more difficult and time consuming than the industry wants you to know about.

Regards


F

Like some have said, it takes passion, money, time, I agree.

I also think it takes luck to have the right people to emulate bse believe me there are loads to ideas to filter.

Regarding time consumption, the hardest thing is to find your style with which your comfortable much as you may have pro.s by your side but you need to find your mix ie scalping, swing, position, pure price action, mechanical/discretionary, automatic, name it... the hurdle is to find where you really lie bse all those have professionalism behind them.

answer :-

a lifetime

why ?

because the game doesn't finish until you stop playing

N

ramos04 said:

Like some have said, it takes passion, money, time, I agree.

I also think it takes luck to have the right people to emulate bse believe me there are loads to ideas to filter.

Regarding time consumption, the hardest thing is to find your style with which your comfortable much as you may have pro.s by your side but you need to find your mix ie scalping, swing, position, pure price action, mechanical/discretionary, automatic, name it... the hurdle is to find where you really lie bse all those have professionalism behind them.

Click to expand...

I strongly agree. Find something that you are comfortable doing. If you get all jumpy inside over risking $100, then you shouldn't be swing trading large sizes, etc. I know a guy who has nothing but <$5k in his account, yet he's subscribed to all of these penny stock pickers and educational tools who's purpose it to trade insane amount of shares on very cheap stocks. It's redundant wasting your money on that when you only have <$5k to trade with.

I have been in for 23 years since I opened my first self directed account. Still lose money as well as make. I estimate it took about 10 years to get comfortable with the loss side and there could be two reasons for that
1. Just grew confident that ultimately I had an edge in what I was doing
2. I got more wealthy and had more disposable income so the loss had less of an impact on my immediate standard of living.
Really not sure which as beyond a certain level of earning the incremental increase has less relevance to how you live day to day.
I do not think there is a normal time for people to make it in this game. If you are lucky you find a clear edge from the start and do not have to work to find it. I have seen traders make a fortune in their first year. I never understood exactly how anybody who made such outside returns actually did it as they were not so keen to share the details. One has to find their own way and comfort zone. Everybody talks about this and it is probably frustrating to somebody coming into this game who has no clue where to start. I suggest you first work out how not to lose money. Always know your outs..always. That means where to cut the losses.
As I progressed I found the timeframe of trades also increased. I met very few day traders, other than the locals of old or the hFt's today who made consistent money day trading. Actually spend more time understanding how things are than trading. The trade goes on only when the arguments against having it have been well explored. I very much like Ray Dalio's approach to ultra realism and for him it has paid off extremely well.
One thing is clear, once you get bitten and find your way, I do not think you ever stop.

TWI said:

I have been in for 23 years since I opened my first self directed account. Still lose money as well as make. I estimate it took about 10 years to get comfortable with the loss side and there could be two reasons for that
1. Just grew confident that ultimately I had an edge in what I was doing
2. I got more wealthy and had more disposable income so the loss had less of an impact on my immediate standard of living.
Really not sure which as beyond a certain level of earning the incremental increase has less relevance to how you live day to day.
I do not think there is a normal time for people to make it in this game. If you are lucky you find a clear edge from the start and do not have to work to find it. I have seen traders make a fortune in their first year. I never understood exactly how anybody who made such outside returns actually did it as they were not so keen to share the details. One has to find their own way and comfort zone. Everybody talks about this and it is probably frustrating to somebody coming into this game who has no clue where to start. I suggest you first work out how not to lose money. Always know your outs..always. That means where to cut the losses.
As I progressed I found the timeframe of trades also increased. I met very few day traders, other than the locals of old or the hFt's today who made consistent money day trading. Actually spend more time understanding how things are than trading. The trade goes on only when the arguments against having it have been well explored. I very much like Ray Dalio's approach to ultra realism and for him it has paid off extremely well.
One thing is clear, once you get bitten and find your way, I do not think you ever stop.

Click to expand...

great post TWI. For me I had to get to the point where making or losing my daily profit/loss had no emotional meaning for me so only the long run result mattered. This for me came as a few things wealth wise lined up for me and I no longer had to worry about whether I hit or missed my target on any given day/week. This lack of emotional attachment then allows you to take trades with impunity, no hang ups.

The more experience you gain, the better Trader you become.
Every day some new lessons are learned while trading in Forex, further it depends upon person to person also how they are learning & trading.
One has to find the own level of Confidence & Comfort before becoming a master money maker in Forex.
Instead of just hitting the head direct in market you should start from basics in Forex & then grow on your knowledge.

Just making money in Demo accounts would not make you a Perfect trader, even human sentiments are involved while trading Live Forex with real money so eventually one can become a Forex master on his own without any help from others. :smart:

Hopefully sooner rather than later!

this is my 10th year.... i can see the light but yet to reach it. here's been some nice very nice patches over the 10 but I'm still more of a consistent loser then winner, being totally honest with you all.

what i do know is this. it's my bad trades that are holding me back. as i make a lot of wins just my poor discipline holding me back.

it's a real test of yourself than anything else.

TWI said:

I have been in for 23 years since I opened my first self directed account. Still lose money as well as make. I estimate it took about 10 years to get comfortable with the loss side and there could be two reasons for that
1. Just grew confident that ultimately I had an edge in what I was doing
2. I got more wealthy and had more disposable income so the loss had less of an impact on my immediate standard of living.
Really not sure which as beyond a certain level of earning the incremental increase has less relevance to how you live day to day.
I do not think there is a normal time for people to make it in this game. If you are lucky you find a clear edge from the start and do not have to work to find it. I have seen traders make a fortune in their first year. I never understood exactly how anybody who made such outside returns actually did it as they were not so keen to share the details. One has to find their own way and comfort zone. Everybody talks about this and it is probably frustrating to somebody coming into this game who has no clue where to start. I suggest you first work out how not to lose money. Always know your outs..always. That means where to cut the losses.
As I progressed I found the timeframe of trades also increased. I met very few day traders, other than the locals of old or the hFt's today who made consistent money day trading. Actually spend more time understanding how things are than trading. The trade goes on only when the arguments against having it have been well explored. I very much like Ray Dalio's approach to ultra realism and for him it has paid off extremely well.
One thing is clear, once you get bitten and find your way, I do not think you ever stop.

Click to expand...

LuKa12 said:

this is my 10th year.... i can see the light but yet to reach it. here's been some nice very nice patches over the 10 but I'm still more of a consistent loser then winner, being totally honest with you all.

what i do know is this. it's my bad trades that are holding me back. as i make a lot of wins just my poor discipline holding me back.

it's a real test of yourself than anything else.

Click to expand...

good and generous post....

I remember once it took me about a good 2 weeks to make constant profit nearly every day just to give all and more away in one day.....emotions and my Ego came to play.

Nowadays if I have 3 consecutive trades I turn the pc off and go to do something else......and do you know what? I have not had a day like that for ages.....

LuKa12 said:

this is my 10th year.... i can see the light but yet to reach it. here's been some nice very nice patches over the 10 but I'm still more of a consistent loser then winner, being totally honest with you all.

what i do know is this. it's my bad trades that are holding me back. as i make a lot of wins just my poor discipline holding me back.

it's a real test of yourself than anything else.

Click to expand...

Sorry if this sounds a bit disheartening but if you are in the negative after 10 years then you are probably better of stopping. I doubt someone who has not been able to achieve success in 10 years will make it.