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

[cmb]

Quote from Pekelo:

I live in rural Kansas with a dog and 2 cats and make 50K, you live in Manhattan with a wife and 2 kids and make 100K. Now who is the piker, if you got my drift????

I love when people are speaking in absolutes without adding more to the picture...

Or if you make 100k a year and live in Malaysia, Egypt, Turkey, serbia ETC...

.However, I will agree if you can make 10k consistently a month, unless you are trading really illiquid products, you should be able to up your size pretty easily after 3 months, therefore you would make 15k for the next 3 months before trying to up your size again.

so yeah, 200k should be pretty easy to make, even if you are trading with a 15k account.

 

[burn8]

Quote from ammo:

part of your detective work in trading is to eliminate the imagination,easier to trade only what you can see,patterns, supp,res, descending timeframes

In my experience having a great imagination and open mind keeps one from being surprised by unexpected market moves. The move that nobody expects can be huge.

"Visualization and imagination is not a widely discussed topic but I don’t think its value to a trader can be overstated." -James Dalton

-burn8

 

[bwolinsky]

Two hundred thousand!

You're not making shit unless you're making two hundred thousand!!

--

The reality is any ceiling is somewhat of a limitation so if we ever say we'll stop at some point means we're prepared for failure and the extent of our limitations are dependent on this.

I've tipped good chi stylists telling them how much I make but when it comes to clapping there's only the whine of a dying hard drive over here now.

 

[wrbtrader]

Quote from gmst:

...Lets talk about 3x being a good benchmark. Say, one can make 80k per year in a job, if you make 240k per year from trading over a 5 year period - you will have a million in your account. Even if trading profits stop for a few years after this, you will be ok...

You're math is incorrect for the typical career trader. Traders have a life and pay bills. Thus, a career trader is most likely purchased a condo or own a house (mortgage), pays taxes, hired a tax accountant, pays private medical/dental insurance (expensive), sets up self-employment pension plan, travels (vacation)...

Throw in the a girlfriend/boyfriend or family/kids, your 240k per year benchmark won't get near a million in 5 years.

In contrast, lets pretend your mom & dad decided to let you live with them rent free, you have no girlfriend/kids, your parent pays your bills including medical/dental under their insurance plan, you lie on your taxes, stay in perfect health...

Yes, 240k per year will give you over a million within 5 years.

Lets get a little more realistic about typical life situations. Pretend you meet someone wonderful, get married, have a few kids and that wonderful person then divorces you. Your 240k per year is nothing when you start paying child support and/or alimony payments.

That's the problem with guys/gals that want to be a career trader, most don't realistically look at the numbers. These are most likely the same traders that aren't able to adapt whenever market conditions makes any small changes that will impact their bottom line...their too fixated on hypothetical situations.

By the way, I have a close friend that makes 390k per year as a private consultant in the oil industry. Got divorce two years ago, 3 kids in private school and one about to start college at an ivy league school. He's now dating a women with two kids of her own and they're considering moving in together. He joked with me a few days ago that he needs to find a higher paying job.

 

[chimera]

i think anyone saying this is an idiot, ok?

 

[chimera]

yes there are far better paths to chose i.m.h.o.

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By the way, I have a close friend that makes 390k per year as a private consultant in the oil industry. Got divorce two years ago, 3 kids in private school and one about to start college at an ivy league school. He's now dating a women with two kids of her own and they're considering moving in together. He joked with me a few days ago that he needs to find a higher paying job.

 

[wrbtrader]

Quote from chimera:

yes there are far better paths to chose i.m.h.o...

Exactly.

If folks put in the same effort in keeping most of their money as they do in making money...they'll have a better chance in reaching their financial goals. Yet, with today's global economies and high household debt ratios, the odds of folks learning how to keep their money aren't very good.

 

[MrN]

Another serious issue that few consider is health, including mental health issues. Most jobs you can just kind of "sleep walk" through and get by OK with even if you are not close to 100%. That does not work very well for most traders.

This is a big part of the reason why I think that If you want to trade, your goal should be to get rich, not to make a professional-type income as if you were a dentist drilling teeth. Seek to be a capitalist not a careerist.

 

[Pekelo]

Quote from chimera:

He's now dating a women with two kids of her own and they're considering moving in together. He joked with me a few days ago that he needs to find a higher paying job.

Good point. Instead of trying to increase profits, one can much easier eliminate unnecessary or avoidable costs of living....

Quote from cmb:

unless you are trading really illiquid products, you should be able to up your size pretty easily after 3 months, therefore you would make 15k for the next 3 months before trying to up your size again.

In theory yes, in practice, there is such a thing as psychological barriers. One can be perfectly fine trading 5 cars max. but be out of his comfort zone trading 10-15 and suddenly he is cutting winners short and such. In short, upscaling doesn't always work, otherwise everybody would be trading 100s of cars...

 

[wrbtrader]

Quote from MrN:

Another serious issue that few consider is health, including mental health issues. Most jobs you can just kind of "sleep walk" through and get by OK with even if you are not close to 100%. That does not work very well for most traders...

Mental health issues is an enormous problem in the work place today but most have been able to "hide it well" and get by.

In contrast, in reference to retail traders (trading from home), trading exposes any mental weakness a trader has. Thus, any trader that doesn't have private insurance that covers these problems via allowing them to get professional help...that trader is a walking time bomb or will most likely self-sabotage any potential of being a successful trader.