I disagree completely with your original premise that "Trading profitably is easier than you’re led to believe".
Regardless of what the true percentage of profitable traders is there will always be people who believe they could be in that percentage regardless of what anyone tells them, even if it was as low as 0.001%. Conversely, there will always be people who are actually in the other group and find it extremely difficult, even if the true percentage of profitable traders is 90%. There is no way it is purely a mindset issue. I know this from practical experience, anecdotal and empirical data.
Stories of people trying and failing to make money from the markets are as old as the hills, don't you think the cat would be out of the bag by now if it was as simple as you make out? You can't pull the wool over peoples eyes for that long, especially if they see their neighbour, brother, sister, friend etc driving a fancy new car every couple of years.
Hi new_trader,
I don't state it is 'as simple as I make out', please direct me to where I have stated this if that be the case. You're missing the point entirely and instead putting words in my posts that clearly are not there.
I'm merely stating as I have done in all these posts that it is easier than we are told. Again that its not just a 95% fail scenario but in fact rates more like 24% win (on average over a time period of a year as per the huge amount of data compiled and verified by the sources I mention in the opening post).
Naturally there will always be people that cannot for whatever reason achieve the same success as others and of course it is no way just a mindset issue. But again, I'm not talking the exceptions here nor I am talking about individual experiences such as yours and how you describe them.
There is no 'cat out the bag' thing going on here. If one can trade, then trade, if not find some other vocation in life - unless of course its just for fun then that's totally different. Is it really a secret that you can open a business and be successful financially at it or is it purely down to luck, obviously bad luck has a part to play but in most cases its bad judgement, not luck that plays the vital part in failure - people will not want to hear that as they see it as a personal attack and is why only a few succeed out of the many. People see other people driving fancy new cars all the time but it seldom pushes them to change career or do something different. It rarely even prompts people to say, 'how do I get a job at your place mate' or ask the boss for a pay rise or more responsibility to enable such a rise. Instead I find the large majority of people use lines such as, they're lucky, they work hard etc but yet fail to do or recognise the same. In fact, they are probably working just as hard maybe? In fact some people simply don't want the extra responsibility or change of jobs, they're simply happy where they are and in that instance, its fine. I'm pointing at those that want more and are prepared to give more. Not the ones who want more but can't be bothered. And there are plenty of them around us.
I could work hard all day at painting pictures but I would not (necessarily) be as successful as a painter who could paint well. (I can't paint by the way). But yet I could easily look at the colleague and think it was luck as to why he sold more or that he works harder at it than me. In this scenario that would not be the case, its just simply that I am not as good as verified or described by the public at the time - I won't mention Van Gough here.
So I stand by my original comment that 'trading profitably is easier than we are led to believe'. But I respect that you disagree completely with this statement.
Lets also remember that percentages are a guideline and on average. They don't comply to individuals. Just like when we trade (as I assume you do but I may be wrong), we don't get 3 losses then 7 winners just because our stats say we get a 70% hit rate. A room full of people may produce all failing traders whereas another room may produce several winners. By default some will make it, those who work at it though have a higher chance to succeed.
I look at some people who want to be traders and they put in part time hours or/and half a5sed efforts expecting to 'beat the big boys'. Lets face it, its unlikely its going to happen. (over time of course). But we can understand that the odds are not as stacked against us as we are led to believe. Further info on this will be released through the summer with the recent ESMA rulings on transparency. Although if anyone has any early releases from their brokers, throw them across.
