Advice to make $3K/month trading

[Evermore2017]

Nobody said skills were the only thing you need, but their relative importance certainly eclipses the other things you asked about, because without them one gets nowhere.





Well, let's take a look at those assertions. My guess is that you're dismissing them from a sarcastic outlook, but that might be unwise because a couple of them are actually pretty valid, overall ...

"Instrument": there are people making steady monthly incomes from trading a huge variety of different instruments, each according to their own skills, knowedge and experience, so in that sense it isn't really highly relevant to what you wanted to know. Your own circumstances and starting capital can make it relevant to some extent, though, it's true: for example, if you're underfunded to trade futures (a sensible ball-park starting figure for that might be in the region of $25k, after you've developed all the appropriate experience and skills), you might want to exclude those from your consideration?

"Strategy": again, there are people making steady monthly incomes from trading with a huge variety of different strategies, each according to their own skills, knowledge, availability, interests and experience, so in that sense it isn't really highly relevant to what you wanted to know. Your own situation, education, interests, background and financial orientation can make it relevant, of course, but you told us absolutely nothing about any of them, so that makes it hard for us to advise you on that front, too: we'd really be guessing, more or less randomly. And I think you probably wanted more helpful answers than random guesses?

"Starting capital": ok, this is obviously relevant, but still hugely variable ... one way of looking at it would be to start from the assumption that you're gradually going to become one of the most successful 1% of retail traders. It's a hell of an assumption, of course, but for the sake of offering a more concrete answer to one of your questions, let's assume that, for the moment? In my estimation (and I can't prove this, and neither can anyone else), fewer than 1% of retail traders, eventually, after years of education and skill-acquisition and thousands of hours of screen-time practice after mastering all the basics, eventually earns a steady-ish 5% monthly return on their capital. The $3k/month average you're asking about is 5% of $60k, so that would put your starting capital for that kind of average monthly income at about $60,000. It's vague, it assumes a lot, and it's open to discussion, but it's a ball-park answer, if you're (eventually) among the most successful 1% of retail traders.

Personally, I think you'd be well advised to be thinking about how to become among the most successful 1% of retail traders.

If it helps/interests you at all, there's a description of how I started off in this post.

I hope you find that a more practical and helpful reply to you than my response above.

thanks for the extended post, I will review the recommended books.

 

[El OchoCinco]

Based in your experience:

-Minimum capital
-Instrument
-Strategy (daytrading/swingtrading, etc)

You need $2,400,000.

Invest in 1.5% Municipal Bonds and hold and make $3000/month.

 

[Evermore2017]

If all u want is $3k a month, why not just get a job that pays $50k a year....why bother trading?

$50K jobs are very rare in my country, most of the people fight for $20K jobs or less.

I have no job, I like to travel and I have other sources of income, so $3K extra from the markets will be nice. I started trading stocks 11 months ago with real money and small account, I am testing the waters on this.

 

[comagnum]

The reason we are ragging on you is the get $ fast crowd churn & burn at an alarming rate. Traders that make it have an unconditional persistence. There are some shooting stars that have some good luck early on, they always end up giving it all back and than some, ending up mentally devastated.

Now if you are talking about making a commitment to put in work every day to learn all you can about trading/investing and can be content doing nothing but treading water while on the long & challenging learning curve than you have my respect.

 

[CALLumbus]

If all u want is $3k a month, why not just get a job that pays $50k a year....why bother trading?

Trading is more fun, you can do it from home, sit in your shorts, drink beer and watch porn !

 

[lovethetrade]

All three are irrelevant if you have not developed the prerequisite trading skill.

Agree

Read books, attend free seminars/ webinars, find a mentor

Market Wizards outlines my response to this well.

What are these basic concepts?
I believe that developing a trading methodology that fits your personality, as opposed to seeking someone else's approach, is an absolutely critical element to succeeding as a trader.

Why do most traders fail?
There are many reasons. They seek easy answers. They listen to "experts" and chase trading fads instead of doing the hard work of developing their own methodology. They listen to other people.

 

[tickmagnet]

You don't need much money to make 3k , look at this.

 

[DeltaRisk]

The markets transfer $ from the many to the few.

Becoming a profitable trader always takes a lot longer and costs a lot more to make it through the learning curve than few could have ever imagined, let alone endure. Someone stepping in to the arena expecting the markets to gift them with $3k monthly are far more likely to be paying the markets their monthly salary with their mounting loses.

Bingo

 

[murray t turtle]

How does knowing the answers to these questions based on my experience help you? How you can do it depends on your experience and skills, not on mine.

(By the way "swing trading" isn't a counterpart to "daytrading". There are plenty of intraday swing traders, too. "Swing trading" is a style of trading: the term isn't related to time-frame. This widespread misunderstanding is generally cleared up on page 1 of swing trading textbooks such as Alan Farley's authoritative one, The Master Swing Trader, if you want to take a look: you'll find the relevant explanation in the part of the text available to inspect in the free preview on Amazon. I'm specifically mentioning it not to criticise in any way, but to illustrate an example of the reality that learning from good books tends to be much more helpful and promising than depending on forum and other online chat as a "source of materials" for the reason explained in this post.)

%%
Great book,XEla ,far as charts. Marked+ colored mine up like a kid's coloring book LOL . BUT do not expect to make much sense of many of his words; but his charts are like= a picture is worth 1,000 words.
BUT i showed my CPA a chart of one his favorite profitable stocks- he did not like charts- he enjoyed simply doing a study of huge numbers of data, in a row, like US Tax forms , which he worked with for many years.. So for those who may not like charts ;skip that book i say......

 

[Xela]

So for those who may not like charts ;skip that book i say......

I'll be honest: I hate the book and found it unreadable. (I don't suggest it's a "bad book" in that its content is "wrong" or "misleading" - I just dislike it a lot and think it's neither well written nor well edited.)

I'm glad you posted, because you've given me the opportunity to point out that that wasn't in any sense a "book recommendation": I mentioned it only because you can read the first few pages of it free, at Amazon, and it does - just like many other "swing trading" textbooks, admittedly - clearly make the point, right at the start, that swing trading is unrelated to time-frames. (Call me pedantic, but it pains me to see "swing trading" differentiated from "daytrading", in forums, in terms of the duration of the trades: it's a seriously misguided perspective.)