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

I don't believe in a stable income from trading. It's always risky. If you have great experience and knowledge you can decrease level of risk, but it will always follow you while trading.

absolutely.........the trading profession is mercyless and respects no-one......you are only as good as your last trade .........thats it !

and why i love it so much .....I hate the hierarchical nature of many professions where people can bluff and ride it once they achieve a certain grade.....they rarely continue to maintain the excellence of their youth....

N
 
I disagree with those who say that years and years of study, combined with voluminous textbooks, are required. If trading were about knowledge then all the economics professors around the world would be as rich as Croseus. From what I've seen they're always whinging for payrises. Trading to me (although I am not claiming to know everything) is simply about practice. EVERY single trading system works, it just doesn't work ALL of the time. In fact, it isn't possible to create a trading system that always loses. If it were, you would just do the opposite of what your system was telling you and always win!

This clearly never happens. The reason why any system doesn't always win is because the price moves at different speeds. When it's gently moving, your indicators can keep up, and you make money. But then the price moves more rapidly and your indicator(s) can't keep up, you get 'whipsawed' (as they say) and lose all that you had initially made. In my (humble) opinion, indicators are like motor cars. If you were learning to drive, it isn't the type of car that matters, it's the practice required. It's just 'screentime' (as they say) that matters. Those traders who have degrees galore only have more knowledge in WHAT to trade, Options, Futures, CFDs etc. They know HOW to trade these exotic securities and derivatives, but it's their experience that tells them WHEN to get in/out. Their previous knowledge is neither here nor there. I'm not sure about computer algorithms though, computers doing the trading in milliseconds. There may be something in that, but I doubt we pleb traders could afford such technological shenanigans. Best to trade the old fashioned way, by putting in the screentime, practice practice practice. Use just TWO indicators, one to define the trend, one to define a pullback. If you don't get a pullback, don't bother with it, scratched trade, move on. All the indicators repaint, even moving averages, but some repaint less than others and are more stable. Check them out, there's websites full of free ones.

If you're curious, my system uses:
Renko-SignalAM indicator to define the trend.
bbflat indicator to define the pullback (using the 0.00 mid horizontal line).
I only trade the EUR/USD on the 5min timeframe on Metatrader4.
Where to exit is up to you. I don't take less than 10 pips profit, as my stoploss is 10 pips also.
I used to use a Keltner channel as an exit point, but now just watch and see what happens.

I don't see the point in watching silly Bloomberg type TV channels, or listening to anyone. All the world's waffle is contained in the price at that moment in time. It's doing whatever it's doing and that's that, just react to it. I don't consider the price to EVER be ranging. It is ALWAYS trending, it's just the trends can be smaller and more numerous. Just watch the Renko-SignalAM indicator (which looks a bit like the stochastic, moving average type thing) and is easy to watch, and doesn't repaint that much. If it changes against you, just move your SL to breakeven, or get out and look to trade in the opposite direction (waiting for a pullback on the bbflat).

It took me many hours of heartache to cobble this simple system together. It's your for free if you want it. Good luck, Chavtrader xxx
 
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That's a terrible hypothesis. That sort of attitude won't get you anywhere. Giving up or not getting involved because you are guaranteed to make a loss won't make you a good trader, and that sentiment is complete rubbish.

Did you stop trying to learn how to drive a car because of the distinctly high probability that you couldn't master it from the word go? Didn't you have to take several driving lessons in order to be deemed good enough to drive, let alone possess a license? If you had given up, then you would never have known whether you could drive anyway.

Traders need to learn the hard way - end of story. Whether you're full-time or just the occassional sniper/scalper. You're gonna lose money, and you're gonna have to put the hours in.
 
it's the time it takes you to find the right setups and the right softwares that works for you. To me, it took 3 years until I found my software which is Bookmap and another six months until I found my setups.
 
it's the time it takes you to find the right setups and the right softwares that works for you. To me, it took 3 years until I found my software which is Bookmap and another six months until I found my setups.

Well done on finding a set up, that is successful, in a relatively short period of time. I hope that it will produce a positive ROI over many years.
 
It took me a few years to become fully consistent. I would often times ruin my consistency by holding a bag or switching my strategies / asset class too much.

My biggest tip would be to focus on one thing and learn a lot from all your past trades by reflecting your trade journal often.
 
"The first $100k is a real bitch"
--Charlie Munger

That Munger quote sums up a ton to me although with inflation it should be closer to $200k now. Of course, there is a base living expense that decreases as a % of your capital/gains as your capital increases. That is why the idea of starting with $5-10k and thinking you are going to be making a living is just delusional.

Not to mention the only traders that don't have down weeks/months/year is Bernie Madoff and people that make things up online.
If you want stable income you are in the wrong business for sure.
 
i think once you get the hang of it, have a full back tested strategy, know how to work with different time-frames and know which pair to trade in, everything gets settled. might not able to generate heavy profits everyday but, would definitely be able to take out profits from the trades
 
In my opinion, more than 90% lose money and around 80% of the remaining quit forex trading within the two years, so it took a lot of efforts to be among the consistent traders and earning money IMO.
 
I don't think i know to many people who have mastered trading and made consistent profits in less than 2 years.
 
That's a terrible hypothesis. That sort of attitude won't get you anywhere. Giving up or not getting involved because you are guaranteed to make a loss won't make you a good trader, and that sentiment is complete rubbish.

Did you stop trying to learn how to drive a car because of the distinctly high probability that you couldn't master it from the word go? Didn't you have to take several driving lessons in order to be deemed good enough to drive, let alone possess a license? If you had given up, then you would never have known whether you could drive anyway.

Traders need to learn the hard way - end of story. Whether you're full-time or just the occassional sniper/scalper. You're gonna lose money, and you're gonna have to put the hours in.

I totally agree with u bud.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Agreed. It takes alot of hard work and commitment. View it as learning another language completely, within which you must remain disciplined and not get greedy! Trade with your head and not with your heart, and be prepared to lose alot of money in the process.
great advice finding it hard not to go to head strong in to it and let emotions take over.
 
I don't think i know to many people who have mastered trading and made consistent profits in less than 2 years.

ludicrous to even consider such a short timescale ......it takes a lifetime as one must remain the eternal student

N
 
time is never known, it is only a matter of patience and not giving up, since this market is very complicated and most likely it will take a few years
 
Patience is a must, forex trading is boring so if you can not take this then forex trading is not for you.
 
Some may do it in months, while others may take years. It is all a matter of practice, knowledge and hard work.
 
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