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

neil,

How many points must price action indicate before such price action "Indicates" the future?

Thanks for your help on ignore.

Have a reason to trade other than just making money
The goal of consistent profitability is common to most traders. However, make sure that it’s not your only goal. If you never achieve it, how will you feel? You don’t want to devote months - or maybe even years to this endeavour - and, if it fails, to conclude it’s all been a total waste of time. Your trading journey should be rewarding in itself, even if you never achieve the goal of making a stable income from doing it.[/QUOTE]

If I never achieve consistent profitability, how will I feel?

I won't feel anything, because I'll be dead.

If I never achieve consistent profitability, how will I feel?

I won't feel anything, because I'll be dead.[/QUOTE]

Actually I find trading rather boring. My only goal is to make a living.

You'll know you are near to achieving consistent profitability when you enter most trades and just set your stop loss and take profit, then walk away. You can sit there and watch it if you want to, but what good does that do? You can't control it. Just wait for the profit, or SL to hit. Then wait for the next opportunity...

If you strive for winning 30% of your trades, and gain 4 times as much as when you lose, then you'll be profitable. It's not as complicated as many try to make it sound...

Biggest mistake is overtrading. Wait for the trades that you are confident enough with, that you can walk away from it and just wait. Again, when trading becomes boring, and you are not spending as much time with it, you are reaching success. If you never feel like you can spend less then 8-12 hours a day trading, more than likely you'll never become profitable consistently...

I'm sure others will continue to present their counter views. To each his own. Whatever makes you successful and you don't have to completely redevelop your "system" every other month, then more power to you...

But if your only goal is to enjoy the "journey" of learning to trade, then that's okay.

Actually, I did enjoy that journey. But when the journey became more painful than I cared to endure, I was ready for that "journey" to end, and move on to the next journey of becoming profitable...

Having said all that, I continue to learn from my mistakes, as I still make them, just not as often. So, my "journey" of learning is still ongoing. Just not as painful

aliasentric,


"You'll know you are near to achieving consistent profitability when you enter most trades and just set your stop loss and take profit, then walk away. You can sit there and watch it if you want to, but what good does that do? You can't control it. Just wait for the profit, or SL to hit. Then wait for the next opportunity..."


Thank you for your insightful responses.

Glad to help...

If you believe it when everyone says it will take you 5+ years to become profitable, then it sure will take you that long. Or longer.

If I believed everyone who says it will take me many years to become profitable, I would have never started trading to begin with. I determined how long it was going to take ME to become profitable. What you believe is possible, you will achieve. What you do not believe is possible, you will not achieve. I think this has been said before, but I haven't heard it applied to trading.

Many knowledgeable traders share their knowledge. It's all over the internet. I appreciate it, since I have learned from what other successful traders have shared FOR FREE. The trick is to learn what will work consistently. AND what will work consistently for YOU.

I have found in my experience, majority of voices in the trading world did not point me in the right direction to become successful. But they did give me enough information for me to point myself in the right direction.

Do you want to make a stable income from trading? Identify what is preventing you from achieving this goal. Pinpoint each problem that recurs. Then research ways to fix each problem. Keep making adjustments until you eliminate the problem, or at least until it's not killing you any more.

If you cannot solve the problems with your trading style, then perhaps you need to change your trading style?

I could go on and on about all of the "assumptions" most traders make, that will make you think it will take way longer than it needs to. For example, some successful traders are celebrating that they can double their account in a year. Not saying this is not successful. But unless you have a whole lot of money to start with, it's not going to give you a stable income any time soon. You determine how much you NEED to increase your account in order to live on the gains, and how long it will take you to do it, AND what you will need to do to reach that goal every week/month. You've got to be goal oriented.

So, how long will it take to make a stable income from trading? How long YOU think it will take you is the most likely answer to this question.

aliasentric,

Thank you for more of your insights.

"What you believe is possible, you will achieve. What you do not believe is possible, you will not achieve."

After considering those words above, this is what I'm thinking. What you believe is possible, greatly increases the probability you will achieve what you believe. What you do not believe is possible, greatly increases the probability of that, too. The effect of belief is addressed in a number of writings (e.g. books of the Bible such as Proverbs, and some secular writings -- "Think and Grow Rich"by Napolean Hill, "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer, "Unlimited Power" by Anthony Robbins, Psycho-Cybetics by Maxwell Maltzand, Wikipedia's "Cybernetics", et cetera.

My current challenge in trading is risk measurement. Trading the means and trading the extremes helped. Moving averges helped. Tradestation's Fibonacci retracement application has helped, also. I'm now working on RSI.

I'm enjoying your feedback.