Anyone not making 200k a year from trading is a piker

Serious answers please - A successful trader is a piker

  • if he makes less than 100k a year

    Votes: 38 52.8%

  • if he makes less than 200k a year

    Votes: 7 9.7%

  • if he makes less than 300k a year

    Votes: 6 8.3%

  • if he makes less than 500k a year

    Votes: 21 29.2%
  • Total voters
    72
Quote from gmst:

These numbers are very useful.
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No they are not. What if I live a perfectly happy life on 80K trading income? Would you put me down in your arbitrary "piker" category? And some people are not happy with even half million profits...

A college degree will get you a job.
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Please link me to any university that gives such a guarantee... :)

I have a degree in women's studies (well, for the sake of argument) you tell me just how good a degree it is for getting employed...

Here is the list of the 20 most useless degrees:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/04/27/20-most-useless-degrees.html
 
Quote from Pekelo:

Oh boy, this thread is the king of arbitrary statements, like 200K a year or 3x the average alternative jobs. Who the fuck comes up with these numbers anyway?

By the way being a piker is more a state of mind then a certain amount of profits...



Why not? If I have been trading for 5 years and it costed me 100K, that is exactly the same cost and time what a college student has invested in his future. Time will tell which one of us is going to be more successful. Just like his degree is not a guarantee of employment and success, my 5 years of trading experience also not guarantee of future earnings...

So stop throwing silly words around without clear definitions, and don't make up arbitrary numbers either.
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After 5 years learning how to trade you have nothing. Even if profitable, you have no transferable skills to anything. So unless you get rich, once the market changes again you are screwed. However a college degree is transferable to many professions and you learn something. surf
 
Quote from NoDoji:

My wording was misleading. Technical analysis of price action allows one to develop a business plan for trading with positive expectancy, which is what an edge is.

The only way price action stops occurring is if the markets cease to exist.

The way price action is an edge for small retail pikers like me despite the fact that everyone sees the same thing, is that the big institutional traders (fund managers, investment bank traders, hedge fund speculators, hedgers, etc.) have to move sizable positions around and they leave really big footprints, footprints that all of us pikers can see, but that only a tiny handful can trade, because most pikers trade what they think not what they see.
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Technical analysis has nothing to do with a business plan. I wish I had such creativity! Not to mention, how do you trade what you see, when you can't see it untill it has already happened? You need to trade what you think , as its too late once you see it.
 
Please link me to any university that gives such a guarantee... :)
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Real colleges/university don't guarantee anything except that you'll owe a lot of money when you're finished...

A lot of the for-profit "universities/trade schools" like the U. of Phoenix imply you'll get a job with a degree in your field of study. They won't guarantee it because they don't want to get sued by ex-students or attacked by the FTC for false/misleading promises.

I have a degree in women's studies (well, for the sake of argument) you tell me just how good a degree it is for getting employed...
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Good if you want to become an untenured college instructor for 10 years, otherwise very bad if reasonable monetary gain is the goal.

Here is the list of the 20 most useless degrees:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/04/27/20-most-useless-degrees.html
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Interesting that they find chemistry to be useless. I'm pretty sure the highly-paid workers in the energy and biotech industries would beg to differ....

I figure that most of the degrees listed are obtained by people actually more interested in the challenges offered by those fields than the money. Otherwise, they would've chosen something else.

Or would they? I don't recall picking my major based upon how much money I'd make once I graduated. Don't know about you, but in my late teens/early 20, I never thought about my life beyond college. Perhaps because it was too unknowable...
 
Quote from marketsurfer:

However a college degree is transferable to many professions and you learn something.
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Or not. One big difference is that chances are during the 5 years of trading I lost my own money, but most students take out student loans, so at the end of their 5 years, they have debts.

But again, plenty of degrees around that are worthless and you learnt very little practical knowledge.... Just google the problem...

And anyhow, the NSA will employ you with a GED, no college education needed and you still get the 200K per year job. :)
 
Quote from marketsurfer:

Technical analysis has nothing to do with a business plan. I wish I had such creativity! Not to mention, how do you trade what you see, when you can't see it untill it has already happened? You need to trade what you think , as its too late once you see it.
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I see support and resistance.

I see a level where price might go if another level breaks.

I see ways to participate with low risk relative to potential reward.

I see the action of price sweeping me into a position.

If "it" doesn't happen, I see a small payment to the market.

If "it" does happen, I see a paycheck!

:D

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=276076&perpage=10&pagenumber=13
 
Quote from Pekelo:

Or not. One big difference is that chances are during the 5 years of trading I lost my own money, but most students take out student loans, so at the end of their 5 years, they have debts.

But again, plenty of degrees around that are worthless and you learnt very little practical knowledge.... Just google the problem...

And anyhow, the NSA will employ you with a GED, no college education needed and you still get the 200K per year job. :)
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Did you learn those critical reasoning skills while losing money trading?

Comparing having a 100k to piss away in the markets vs borrowing a 100k to get an education as apples v apples.
Comparing trading to an obviously unmarketable degree as apples v apples

Are you saying your only two options were to lose a 100k trading or to borrow a 100k to study Mesopotamic pottery from an online college?
 
Quote from gmst:

why bet when I can tell you if you ask politely :)

I made 6.5k in June and it was a high volla month. You can extrapolate for the year. Have been at this game for 4 years now. Last year was first time breakeven, before that was losing. Have made money 5 months out of 6 this year from Jan to June. Just thought will do a poll asking career guys on their experience and opinion. Why get so negative? :confused:
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gmst, what are you trading btw for 4 years?
 
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