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

[meanreversion]

the good news is they can start small and end up big, but it takes a lot more time to achieve this than those who start with a substantial balance.

Does anyone on this thread know anyone who makes 6% a month or has turned a $10k account into one significantly larger?

(For those who sell options to make 6%/month - have you ever had a blow up?)

 

[alan5616]

If you want to make meaningful money, from trading, you need an account of at least £20k. If you lose 20% of it, walk away and forget about trading. You lost money but, put it down to experience.

The difficulty is that many people start out by opening a trading account with a spread betting company or market maker. Immediately, you are facing an uphill struggle to make a profit. Most of these companies will rip you off on a regular basis. It may be only a few pounds/dollars here and there but, it adds up. I only found one company who I thought were 100% honest.

Over 25 years, I've made a lot of money from trading and I've lost a lot. I used to make 80% per month, on behalf of myself and friends, until the strategy blew up in my face. I still trade but, these days, I prefer the less stressful environment of sports betting.

 

[D70]

Does anyone on this thread know anyone who makes 6% a month or has turned a $10k account into one significantly larger?

(For those who sell options to make 6%/month - have you ever had a blow up?)

I've got an excel sheet of my trades from £483 (starting capital) to ~£150,000 over from '07 to '09. (Personal account rather than work account).

 

[Javawookie]

Hey
Stick with the longer trades. I full time trade and can't make money on Forex. Its just to volatile and unpredictable. Just as a note I start with £200 capital and built it up over 2 years

 

[peterr89]

The thing that gets me the most is that most people expect to make money right away, or if they don't make money in less than 6 months they quit

 

[Vicorka]

Depends, how dedicated you are.

For most traders it take several years.

In most cases a new trader losses his/her first portfolio - do not put a lot into it (not all you have) and be ready to lose it. Then if he/she does not give up in a couple of years of learning and searching he/she usually makes it.

 

[ybfjax]

You can reduce your learning curve significantly by implementing systems in trading. Preferably semi or fully automated systems where you know or control how the system enters and exit the markets.

Focus less on time as an abstract concept (zero control), and instead focus the majority of your efforts on approach and systemic implementation to entering and exiting trades (complete control). Time is really irrelevant, except that you are born into this world and one day you will leave.

 

[FringFX]

The thing that gets me the most is that most people expect to make money right away, or if they don't make money in less than 6 months they quit

do you know a lot of traders who do it for 6 months then quit? that sucks, quitting after spending so little time

 

[Eddie Z]

do you know a lot of traders who do it for 6 months then quit? that sucks, quitting after spending so little time

Time is relative but I think it definetely takes longer than 6 months to learn anything for that matter.
Just think of any other profession. Typically you go to school for at least 4 yrs and then you find your first job and still try to gain experience in the field. How can you expect to become an expert in trading in such a short time?

 

[Alliance01]

10, 000 hours. That, apparently, is the amount of time it takes to become expert at something (assuming you take lessons on board etc etc.) working on your trading almost 5-8hrs as day Mon-Fri will get you there in 6+ years. No shortcuts to be honest! U could probably become pretty competent before then but in reality, personally, I think the more experience of different situations you have the better and cycled can be long.

 

[albinn]

It depends according to the people that have passion, discipline, knowledge, experience etc.

 

[D70]

How long does it take to make a stable income from football?
Same answer applies to trading.

 

[Sir Pond Life Dreg]

Having spent the last 5 years trading full time I can say that it is virtually impossible (for me at least)to make a stable income from trading.

 

[the hare]

How long does it take to make a stable income from football?
Same answer applies to trading.

I suspect that most footballers, as part of their contracts, have some element of consistent monthly income that they can rely on. I'm sure there are random opportunities that arise during the year to supplement that income, but there's generally a base salary.

There's probably uncertainty from year to year as contracts are negotiated, but once the contracts signed, they can focus on playing the game,

Self funded traders don't really have that luxury

 

[D70]

I suspect that most footballers, as part of their contracts, have some element of consistent monthly income that they can rely on. I'm sure there are random opportunities that arise during the year to supplement that income, but there's generally a base salary.

There's probably uncertainty from year to year as contracts are negotiated, but once the contracts signed, they can focus on playing the game,

Self funded traders don't really have that luxury

Agree.
I was just talking about the 'how long' aspect in terms of effort and hours spent honing skills. ie. The 10,000 hours concept. Luckily for footballers, their pay isnt correlated to how many goals / clean sheets they tally up (unlike trading).

 

[Commodity_Trader]

it took me 3 years to reach a consistency in pofits , but to master myself to be patient and have decipline and inner control .the least important thing in trading is a system . say 80 % of success in stable income is psychology of trading and maybe only 10 % is system and 10 % rest is position sizing o money management.while people put 100 % of their efforts on less important part which is system.
while you have a positive expectancy setup and it's tested over at least 100 trades and u have a clear EXIT & STOPLOSS , u can achieve stable income , again most of people look for best entries which is not important.best entry points value is almost near random entries ! instead look for exit points and be happy with a system that win rate is even 20 to 30 % , but on the 70 % rest time u loose minimum and in that 20- 30 % time , u win much more.

it also depends on your timeframe of trading ,although i'm a trend follower in 5 minute timeframe ,i am in profit only 5 months out of 12 months and the rest months i was break even or in a small loss.so if u trade longer timeframes consider drawdawns over different time frames too .

 

[strokey tone]

Stay away from advisory CFD brokers like Logic Investments in London who persuaded me that it was so easy to make lots of money if I trusted them because they were traders and I had to think like them, which I did for 12 months and lost far more in that time than the previous 12 years of doing it myself and even worse I had paid out a fortune on their trading commissions to lose the money and ruined a portfolio!
I won't bore you any longer but trade yourself execution only and do your own research and when you get offers from these brokers offering you their advisory services in order to get rich then ask yourself if they really knew what to do would they not be taking the risk with their own money rather than yours, no because they get commission from you win or lose and they take no risk themselves and after all they can’t get it right all the time, or perhaps they have got it right taking the risk with your money and getting paid for it?

 

[aliasentric]

It depends on how much time you are willing to spend learning, and what sources you choose to learn from.

Someone spending 8 hours a day learning to trade for 4 months may get there. Someone spending 8 hours a week, though, it may take years to get there...

I think most people are the 8 hours a week type, hence the 95% failure statistic. If it will take years to master, how many will actually stick with it?

 

[Babyblush]

This is really very useful articles for the traders. We should not urge ourselves to make money on a faster basis if we do not have the knowledge regarding the forex market, then everything would be waste of time as we would only lose and lose. Thus, gather the knowledge and play smart.

 

[t2w34035]

I've been at it for 8+ hours a day for more than 2 years and I remain inconsistent.

Have post high school formal education, blah, blah, blah.

Learning to trade is tough, tough business.