Am I Wasting My Time?

SimpleMeLike said:
I would spend more time seeking quality trading training,
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i would not.

i would spend time watching markets.

you only need basic trading training and that you can find in any good web site....chart school in the website stockcharts .com comes to mind.

but whatever you do not try to scalp!!!! IMO
 
BlacknBlue said:
What is wrong with making $200 a day?
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My apology if you think I was making fun of your comments.

$200 a day with a $100K trading capital base, you are looking at an annualized return of 50%, which I don't think too many trading wizards are able to achieve. I have been at it since 2010 and my CAGR is far less than 50%.

I think even the best among us like @destriero was only able to achieve ~30% CAGR for a 20 year span. Your 50% would make you the top ET trader if you can do that consistently every year.

Have a good day and best to you.
 
Thor said:
It was my path to success, however still takes time and can be expensive.
Most people want it free :p
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Hello Thor, I can completely understand. I have spent money on trading training material. It is worth it to me and I will continue to do so. And it does take time.
 
deaddog said:
You have been at it for 5 years, where do you find quality trading training?
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deaddog,

Yes, 5 years part time and I maintained a full time career high paying job and family and my hunting outdoors hobbies and my dogs and playing videos games. Trading is part time business for me. I would never make trading a full time job, it is too complex to earn a living, best for me to do it part time.
I bought trading training material online from different sources or recommendations from friends , I have not even finish studying the material yet. It takes time, but I be bullshitting some times not wanting to study on most days. I be too tired. lol

You research and ask questions to people and buy trading training material online. Start a thread and pose the question.

I am not one of the people who trying to learn stuff for free, I did that for about 2 years and a waste of time. Best to pay for what you want.
 
What type of trader are you or would like to be? What type of chart do you look at, if any? What kind of TimeFrame or timeframes you look at? Do you have an edge? What are the characteristics of this edge? How fast can you identify this edge once you have open up your charts. How much are you willing to lose daily? How long are you willing to wait for a setup? When losing real money, how would you react to it? What are your daily goals? Exclude profits. What are you weekly goals? Include profits. What market condition are you most comfortable with?
Hope this helps.
 
No. You are not wasting your time. You are learning. Like you, I always wanted to be a trader. I moved to Chicago, later to NYC to find a way to accomplish my dream. I leased an options badge in Chicago and found a prop outfit in New York. Both were disasters.
Later, when I was working as an IT Contractor, I had no time nor funds to trade. My daughter was just born and when I traded or played poker, I usually lost. I had to stop.

Now I am retired and on Lithium. I have a publishing business that runs by itself and an IRA account that I can play with. My goal is not to lose too much, nor to be eaten alive by inflation. I just cannot park my money and earn nothing so I have moved from Vanguard to ToS platform. This way I get up in the morning and I have a reason to get up in the morning. I am not motivated by money or "making a living" trading, yet some funny way I have achieved my dream! - Bipolar Trader
 
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Tall Mike said:
I wanted to post this question here. Might be a stupid question, but just trying to look at this from a realistic perspective.

Am I wasting my time chasing the "trade for a living" dream?

I've done countless hours or research and it seems that the only people making real money in this industry are selling their systems or selling their mentoring and coaching services.

Additionally, I took a step back and thought about the potential outcomes and none of them really seem to add up either. The best-case scenario to me would look like I make several thousand for all the time and energy put into it, and that might not even be realistic.

- Trading with only $100k of capital is not even close enough to potentially trade for a living
- No path to raise real money from outside investors in the US with all the SEC red tape.
- No track record
- Lastly and most importantly, I feel that there is barely any edge out there for the retail trader. With all the competition in the market, I find it very hard to believe anybody out there truly makes an income from just trading for a living.

I started my trading education path back in 2011 up until about 2016 then life came around, but recently I've been coming back to the drawing board but this time around knowing what I know now, I am wondering if this is even a realistic path to go down or if I should just stop now and focus my time on something that could pay off more instead of going down the rabbit hole.

Again, this might be stupid, and I am sure I will get a lot of "noob thinks he is going to make millions overnight" or "haven't even traded yet and is already going to quit" type replies but I'm just trying to look at this from a realistic and logical path this time around.

Thanks!
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Only 10% makes it and 1% or less are making the big money. You have to touch your heart and ask yourself if you can be one or them.
 
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