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

[cytopathology]

I'm not a successful trader, so take all this with a grain of salt...

I know one man who I'm 99.9% sure is a successful discretionary daytrader, primarily of the es. It took him 5 years, he says, to be able to make money and avoid giving it all back to the market. He has now been making a "good living" he says, for over 25 years by daytrading - plus a small trading website with very few customers.

I also know this, I myself am not able to become a successful discretionary trader (of any timeframe) because my nervous system can't handle it. When I put on a position, my heart races, my blood vessels constrict and my IQ drops significantly (due to reduced cerebral blood flow). This "fight-flight or freeze) reaction even happens when I'm paper trading the es. I hear you laughing. I'm laughing, too - or at least trying.

After about 4 years of this misery, I read a book that contained a test designed to categorize people into 4 groups as potential traders: 1) Those potentially capable of discretionary trading. 2) Those capable only of trading an automated system. 3) Those capable of trading a hybird of discretion and computerized systems. 4) Those who are INCAPABLE of any successful trading, but who may be able to design automated trading systems (which they, obviously, can't personally trade). I fell into the latter category.

The book is, "How to Become a Successful Trader, by Gandevani." Please do yourself a favor and read it. :clover: Amazon has it. (I have no connection, financial or otherwise, with the author.)

I hope my honesty is worth something to somebody. I've spent well over 20,000 dollars chasing a dream that, for me personally, turned out to be an expensive education. I know a lot of valuable generalizations about trading the markets, but they have value only to potential traders.

Like athletic ability, IQ, musical talent, show size, and just about all human characteristics, the potential to learn how trade for a living is distributed on a bell-shaped curve with only the outliers on one tail able to put it all together and make it happen. Don't let vendors convince you that this isn't true if you just have the right tools, system, edge, mentor, or what-not.

But, hey, diving into the trading game can be a lot of fun too. So as long as you don't lose too much money, maybe for you the cost is worth the ride - like a vacation or a new hobby. That's how I try to look back at my own trading failure.

Also, I gained a good friend who, I'm 99.9% sure, trades for a "good living." (I haven't seen his tax returns or his trading account, but I've seen a ton of other evidence.)

Again, I hope all struggling traders will please read: "How to Become a Successful Trader, by Gandevani"? :cheesy:

 

[Pipsaholic]

It takes years for some 2 min and others 5 if you havent got trading after 7-10 years quit and look for another career.

 

[kimo'sabby]

With the correct training and financing...3-6 months.

 

[tim3]

Another thing to remember is some traders even though successful will have weeks months or even the odd year when they lose money having the mental capacity to deal with that is a challange!

 

[The Leopard]

I'd say it probably takes about two weeks to learn to be a profitable tarder, if you work really hard at it. I mean really hard - a proper 9 to 5, no looking at porn on teh tinterwebz during the week, and doing a few hours at the weekend.

But if you're willing to work that hard, you deserve teh rewards that being a tarder can bring.

 

[DionysusToast]

With the correct training and financing...3-6 months.

Indeed. All this 5 years, 10,000 hours stuff is overkill.

People tend to forget that prop shops put traders on a 12 week program and expect them to be funded shortly after that. Many fail and don't make it past 12 months.

 

[Big Stones]

Is it possible to make a 'stable' income from trading?

 

[The Leopard]

One thing people should bear in mind is the psychological impact of trading with an account that is large enough to give you a reasonable living. You can learn to be profitable with small amounts risked but everything changes when you move to a large account and start trading even slightly serious money.

There are ways to address this issue, but I found it extremely tough to begin with and still find it tough now when I increase account size by a significant amount.

It is not just about learning to trade, you also have to learn how to trade a serious account.

 

[ybfjax]

whenever I see abstract questions like this, I ask myself "is this person serious about wanting a winning [or working] trading method?" The question does not say: "when using xxx method, with yyy starting capital, how long does it take....." which is much more specific and concrete.

As long as we distract ourselves with these ambiguous questions, why are we shocked when the answers lead nowhere?

 

[thelazytrader]

Lol, how long is a piece of string?

It depends on the size of your trading account and how consistent you are. Consistency is the key. However, even if you are regularly, say, making 6% per month but have a $1000 account then it's not worth your while unless you can verify your results and get introductions to potential high-net-worth investors. In which case, you will have to negotiate a performance fee (these are getting more competitive these days!)

It is when you have bigger money in your account when this becomes more interesting. Anyway, let’s not jump the gun. It's often alleged that it takes 10,000 hours to be "good at anything" and I have met very good traders from all walks of life: some it has taken a year to reach the level of consistency, others up to 7 years! It's a very individual thing.

It took me three years to get to that stage - and my, was it a learning experience - for better and for worse!!

 

[triggerlips]

My eureka moment was when i threw out ll the indicators , and stopped searching for system after system. I didnt lose any money because i was so busy tinkering about with all the parameters and reading up on everything , then after a couple of years decided it was all just a big scam , the only people making money out of indicators were the people selling them

All i use now is price , a candlestick chart with volume at the bottom
\I only trade double bottoms , thats all i do. Every one that occurs i print off , even the ones which dont quite fit the criteria , and i watch them all develop , even the ones i dont actually trade.
Pick one small area , and study it to death , just one set up , thats it , and ignore everything else. You will find iot makes life much easier . Fags , Pennants , triangles , whatever , just pick one and only one

Im patient , never try to second guess or jump in early , just patiently wait for the best looking set ups , dont chase them after they break out , but patiently wait for a retest and buy when they leave the support the second time.

There is a book called outliers , the author reckons it takes 10,000 hours of practice to be good at anything in life , be it music , sport or whatever , after 10,000 hours it becomes second nature.

In short dont be a jack of all trades and a master of none

 

[lynhappytrader]

In order to have stable income, it takes a lot of hard work, commitment, persistence, etc. You need to be aware of the market, and study everyday. After a few months, and once you have your trading strategy working, you'll be able to have a stable income.

 

[Big_P]

In order to have stable income, it takes a lot of hard work, commitment, persistence, etc. You need to be aware of the market, and study everyday. After a few months, and once you have your trading strategy working, you'll be able to have a stable income.

A few months? lol

People totally under-estimate the time is will take to become consistently profitable. There is a miniscule percentage who will be able to become profitable within a few months.

For the majority it WILL take years and years.

 

[advfntrader]

for the MAJORITY it is NEVER. that is a FACT

 

[justtrader]

The reason the majority will never suceed is because of some hyped up view of what returns one can expect from trading forex.

With a 20k account and decent money management you can make the average uk salary!

 

[Javawookie]

I've been a full time trader for a couple of years never bothered posting as I don't really have the time and most of what you read here is total crap. Trading is a slow business if you want to make big profits, its not an overnight thing. It can take months for postions to run and make large profits. I'm sure some people can make money on forex and scalping but I'm betting they loose as much as they make.

My day goes like this I run sharescope each night for the closing prices, then run a few filters to sift through the numbers looking for potential ideas. I then chuck in SMA filters for 20, 40, 60 90 days and start looking through the graphs might go through 100 looking for trend breakers. Have a look at the support and resistances and trends then sift again until I have maybe 5 or 6 interesting ideas.

Put a small trade on, think of it like buying stock for a shop, its a new product you don't know how its going to sell so you don't buy 50 grands worth you start small and try it out.

Same with stocks, start small see if the trends going the way you expect and add to it, keep moving your stops to lock in the profit but enough for the stock to breath and wait.

Know when to get in and get out before the trade and stick to it like glue. Stick to these simple rules and 50K a month is very very easy

 

[FringFX]

It depends on the size of your trading account and how consistent you are. Consistency is the key. However, even if you are regularly, say, making 6% per month but have a $1000 account then it's not worth your while

That depends on where you live.
6 percent monthly grows to a substantial amount, regardless of starting capital.

 

[ybfjax]

That depends on where you live.
6 percent monthly grows to a substantial amount, regardless of starting capital.

It's more important to have a strategy that you have proven to provide consistent returns (and how it is producing those returns) than to worry about exact dollar figures. The money will grow, especially with compound interest

For income-based trading, a large part of it depends on your target income. The larger you want your income, the larger starting balance. A smaller income you can achieve with a smaller starting balance. How do you achieve a large income from a small starting balance? By taking on too much risk, hoping to get lucky. There are stragegies for aggressive trading, but be prepared for the blowouts.

 

[Javawookie]

If I was starting out again, I'd decide how much real money I can afford to put into this, and this has to be the exact amount no bull****ting yourself. Open a dummy account and open and close a few trades to get the account down to this exact amount.

Now run this account for say 3 months and go through the exact process if it was real money. You'll find with having such a small amount you'll actually be nervous like real trading as you won't want to blow it.

Do your homework on each trade and record the entry and exit points and let them run. Depending on your funds you'll start to see how much money your going be making or loosing. Most of your loses will probably be from stop outs but it will give you a feel of how much money you will actually need.

If you loose it all on say 1 - 2 trades. See why you lost it. Was it a bad trend decision or a stop out. Keep following that chart did it recover and go the way you though if so see how much stop loss you would have needed to keep going.

Add the same funds in but double the amount and try again. Eventually you'll have an account that is ticking over and has enough margin to breath each day.

If your a beginner stick with one type of indicator probably 20 / 40 SMA. Over the past couple of months using this inicator only I've done 35 trades, avg time 19 days per trade. Profit £11211

Hope this helps any newbies out there
Steve

 

[FringFX]

For income-based trading, a large part of it depends on your target income. The larger you want your income, the larger starting balance. A smaller income you can achieve with a smaller starting balance. How do you achieve a large income from a small starting balance? By taking on too much risk, hoping to get lucky. There are strategies for aggressive trading, but be prepared for the blowouts.

if you have a chance to interact with people from other countries, you would realize that many do not have the capacity to start with a large starting balance. for them, a starting account of $500 to $10,000 is already considered, 'large', 'very large' and/or out of reach.
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.