Are you a profitable trader ?

You're going to get all sorts of answers here, none of them will be what you want. Best thing to do would be to go back through the old P/L threads, you'll soon work out who's for real, go and read their posts, most of them have posted their back stories at some point.
 
I am down slightly from where I started this game a little over 2 years ago. I am the only member of this board who is down. Everyone except me is an ELITE trader and very profitable.
 
Quote from mm2mm:

If so how long did it take you to be profitable?
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My very first trade ever was profitable. It took a couple days.

Quote from mm2mm:

Was it hard going where you are now?
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No. The halfway house had an opening right about the time I was ready to move out of rehab.
 
Quote from mm2mm:

If so how long did it take you to be profitable?
Was it hard going where you are now?
More...

As Craig66 stated, just read the Trading P/L threads here and then contact via private message to talk to anyone you're interested in. You can also review many other types of trade journals. Trading P/L threads and trade journals are all @ http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=29

Also, you should do the same at other forum locations, free real-time chat rooms on the IRC networks, follow traders on stocktwits network and so on.

Yet, I'm not implying that if someone is profitable...they will post real-time trades or brokerage statements. The fact is that most profitable retail traders are not going to post trades or brokerage statements. Thus, you're never going to know whom they are because they are not going to respond to your simple question and say "I'm profitable and it took me X number of years".
 
I was a broker, so I could trade corn spreads on zero margin

my first account was started with less than $400

when my uncle with no children died, he left me 4k

I gave 2k to my wife

so that's 2k plus about $375 initial investment

I made some commissions along the way, and sold some managed acccounts and traded a litle opm

but for 13 years, my main source of income was trading

raised three kids with a stay at home mom and got them all off to college

then I went into a death spiral

fell in love with a trade

closed out my winners to fund my true love loser

and it finally brought me down

and there I was, completely broke, zero dollars in my account

took 9 years of working a real job (in business for myself) just to get back to trading

and that was just a 30k trading account with about two years living expenses in the bank

after 2 years, the trading account was 28k and the money in the bank was about gone

then I discovered es and globex

and I'm still living off that money

but it took one hell of a kamikazie trade to get here

like the man said, "Even if you try, you can't always be wrong."
 
after I saw what a good deal globex was for the little trader

I switched to www.interactivebrokers.com

and started trading ES exclusively

it certainly wasn't a straight road up

but I got into a groove as a scalper

it was very stressful

especially days when you would get stuck with contracts on the close

and I would stare at the ceiling all night thinking, "Now what the hell am I going to do?"

some of them turned out horrible

but I saw how much you could make or lose by holding a few days

and eventually I became a position trader
 
Quote from oldtime:

I was a broker, so I could trade corn spreads on zero margin

my first account was started with less than $400

when my uncle with no children died, he left me 4k

I gave 2k to my wife

so that's 2k plus about $375 initial investment

I made some commissions along the way, and sold some managed acccounts and traded a litle opm

but for 13 years, my main source of income was trading

raised three kids with a stay at home mom and got them all off to college

then I went into a death spiral

fell in love with a trade

closed out my winners to fund my true love loser

and it finally brought me down

and there I was, completely broke, zero dollars in my account

took 9 years of working a real job (in business for myself) just to get back to trading

and that was just a 30k trading account with about two years living expenses in the bank

after 2 years, the trading account was 28k and the money in the bank was about gone

then I discovered es and globex

and I'm still living off that money

but it took one hell of a kamikazie trade to get here

like the man said, "Even if you try, you can't always be wrong."
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life story in 2 min , I like it, thanks for sharing.

What were you trading those two years where you ended up basically BE? Corn spreads?, then you went to ES, now you're at forex? How's FX treated ya thus far?
 
Quote from Zr1Trader:

life story in 2 min , I like it, thanks for sharing.

What were you trading those two years where you ended up basically BE? Corn spreads?, then you went to ES, now your at forex? How's FX treated ya thus far?
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yeah, mostly wheat, corn and beans, (some currency futures) Cattle, feeders, and hogs. No pork bellies, never traded them even once, in my whole life. Everything outright, no spreads.

fx was great in 2012
beginners luck

very difficult so far in 2013
switched strategies many times
can't find my groove
very worried

just trying to protect my profits

everday it looks more and more like gambling, and less and less like trading

but I like it, very comfortable over there in forex
 
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