90% traders don't make it???
- Thread starter kalashnicac
- Start date
i dont know what shop you trade at but in my office, almost everyone that i know has at least an undergrad degree.
in fact, they dont even consider any newbie traders into the training program that do not have a college degree.
maybe in the 1998-2000 era trading shops would pluck high school kids but those days are long gone.
people daytrade because they want to trade and they do not have the connections to get a trading job at a big investment bank. afterall, in the corporate world, it is WHO you know, not WHAT you know.
Buying 3 decades ago, doesn't make you a trader...
Who really cares what the percentages of success really is? Most important thing is that the odds of success are low. Also important is that the low odds are based on many suckers jumping into the market and being wiped out quickly. 3rd important point is that rules/markets etc. do change over time, and thus the chances of continued success (over the years) decrease. Fourth important point is that only a hand full manage to adjust (via patience, market feeling, intellect or whatever) and remain succesfull. Since there are only a handfull long-term successes out of millions of traders, I would say a trader has the odds completely against them if they believe they will continue to remain successfull for an extended period of time. In short, if you are successfull, enjoy and make sure you put realized profits into other ventures - whatever they may be. Guys like Borsollino, Buffet, Soros did the same thing. Reduce vulnerability to trading only - that would be my conclusion.
I've been working as a broker, now as a salestrader/prop.
90-95% of the customers are losing in futures trading, 70-80% in stock trading. And the commissions at the company were/are excellent from a customer's point of view.
what time frame are you referancing....last month?...last 6 months??
It usually takes a client 2-3 months to lose all his money - the market phase plays no role in this process.
HOLY COW!!!!!:eek:
Further explaining the following,
During the day, when you trade, you need to trade something that moves, aka volatility.
The average of the range of 30 min bars over the past 5 to 10 days can give you a good idea if there are movements in a stock that are better than the other ones. You can do that as your daily homework, scanning through a list of symbols to look for something that are tradable.
When that average is too large, something you cannot handle with your stomach, you better skip that symbol because you will not be trading it as your emotion overhelm your senses. e.g. you are very comfortable working with 50 cent moves every 30 minute vs dealing with 2 bucks moves every 30 minutes.
During the day, when you trade, you need to trade something that moves, aka volatility.
The average of the range of 30 min bars over the past 5 to 10 days can give you a good idea if there are movements in a stock that are better than the other ones. You can do that as your daily homework, scanning through a list of symbols to look for something that are tradable.
When that average is too large, something you cannot handle with your stomach, you better skip that symbol because you will not be trading it as your emotion overhelm your senses. e.g. you are very comfortable working with 50 cent moves every 30 minute vs dealing with 2 bucks moves every 30 minutes.
Quote from jnhighland:
Sorry for asking but a further explanation will be highly appreciated!
....talk to me in a few years and we will see where you are at...i doubt it will be trading at a large IB, or anywhere else for that matter. The bad news is that it is extremely difficult to get into a top business school that will get you a job trading on Wall St. (there are only about 5 of them that fit that criteria). If u have the board scores, college grades, and work experience to do it then more power to you...but I really doubt it based on your posts. It clearly isnt easy...and BTW I work on the desk at a HF. Even if you manage to get in harvard, Wharton, stanford, yale, or princeton the odds are still long that you ever actually get in a seat on a desk at a bulge bracket investment bank. People trade in prop shops because it is a way to get experience trading...expereince that is in short supply elsewhere.