My story-
I started with 10k in March of '99. Lost $2400 my second day trading. 90% of it in my first three months. Treaded water through most of the summer then things started making sense. Made back all my losses in August, then made 160k+ from Sept-Dec (traded mostly ORCL, SUNW, CSCO, INTC...the tech mega caps slowly increasing my size from 500 shares to 3000 at a time).
I sized up quickly and immensely in 2000 (the jump from 3000 share trades to 10k, 25k and 50k lots was far easier and faster than going from 500 to 2000.)
Made 1.65MM in 2000 purely intraday scalping mega caps after commissions (which as you older guys know were obscene back then. Especially because I needed to use Instinet on 80% of my trades to move that kind of size. Paid over 800k in commish/ECN fees that year).
Not going to get into great detail about the last 14 years, but I've never had a down year (lowest was '99, best was 2008). Made low 8 figures in my trading career thus far.
Now let me be clear-
The late 90's through April 2001 (decimalization) were a trading dream. Literally free money if you just had the discipline to take small losses and size up when the opportunities arose.
Then the relentless bull market from '03-'07 and the crash of '08 were fantastic.
What I did and other guys that I know from the same period (yes, there are a lot of them) CANNOT be done intraday in today's market by a human without taking on massive risk.
It's nearly impossible to efficiently move size without getting absolutely raped by predatory algos.
News trading, which was a goldmine for a number of years, is all but over thanks to news reading bots and the complete vacuum of liquidity on volume spikes.
Earnings season used to be stellar, now stocks move 10%+ before you can see the first word of the press release.
My monthly volume is roughly the same now as an average DAY from 2000-2009, and obviously my trading earnings are down too (I have moved into other investment ventures such as rental properties, restaurants, and start ups so I keep busy).
I rarely sit at my desk from 9:30-4:00 intraday trading anymore, as I feel the risk/reward has been destroyed by the bots.
The old days of consistently ripping out multi thousand dollar days, day in day out month after month are long over. Now you need to have a handful of big trades holding over the course of a few days or longer to put together a solid year...And obviously avoid the train wrecks.
I knew many guys who made MM's over years and lost it all on one or two trades not taking losses, or worse- doubling, tripling down etc.
TAKE A FUCKING LOSS AND MOVE ON.
Lastly- I am fully aware and very thankful that I started when I did and was able to build up a nice bankroll for the lean times (second half of '01 to mid '03 was like watching paint dry).
I have no idea if I would have been successful had I started trading after the tech bubble, but I do know the chances of someone "making it" now are slim compared to 15 years ago.
(Edit- Browse the "Trader P&L" threads over the years and you will see the complete destruction of profits.)
That's as honest a post as you will get on here.
Haters- fire away. I couldn't possibly care less
Best of luck to everyone.
I started with 10k in March of '99. Lost $2400 my second day trading. 90% of it in my first three months. Treaded water through most of the summer then things started making sense. Made back all my losses in August, then made 160k+ from Sept-Dec (traded mostly ORCL, SUNW, CSCO, INTC...the tech mega caps slowly increasing my size from 500 shares to 3000 at a time).
I sized up quickly and immensely in 2000 (the jump from 3000 share trades to 10k, 25k and 50k lots was far easier and faster than going from 500 to 2000.)
Made 1.65MM in 2000 purely intraday scalping mega caps after commissions (which as you older guys know were obscene back then. Especially because I needed to use Instinet on 80% of my trades to move that kind of size. Paid over 800k in commish/ECN fees that year).
Not going to get into great detail about the last 14 years, but I've never had a down year (lowest was '99, best was 2008). Made low 8 figures in my trading career thus far.
Now let me be clear-
The late 90's through April 2001 (decimalization) were a trading dream. Literally free money if you just had the discipline to take small losses and size up when the opportunities arose.
Then the relentless bull market from '03-'07 and the crash of '08 were fantastic.
What I did and other guys that I know from the same period (yes, there are a lot of them) CANNOT be done intraday in today's market by a human without taking on massive risk.
It's nearly impossible to efficiently move size without getting absolutely raped by predatory algos.
News trading, which was a goldmine for a number of years, is all but over thanks to news reading bots and the complete vacuum of liquidity on volume spikes.
Earnings season used to be stellar, now stocks move 10%+ before you can see the first word of the press release.
My monthly volume is roughly the same now as an average DAY from 2000-2009, and obviously my trading earnings are down too (I have moved into other investment ventures such as rental properties, restaurants, and start ups so I keep busy).
I rarely sit at my desk from 9:30-4:00 intraday trading anymore, as I feel the risk/reward has been destroyed by the bots.
The old days of consistently ripping out multi thousand dollar days, day in day out month after month are long over. Now you need to have a handful of big trades holding over the course of a few days or longer to put together a solid year...And obviously avoid the train wrecks.
I knew many guys who made MM's over years and lost it all on one or two trades not taking losses, or worse- doubling, tripling down etc.
TAKE A FUCKING LOSS AND MOVE ON.
Lastly- I am fully aware and very thankful that I started when I did and was able to build up a nice bankroll for the lean times (second half of '01 to mid '03 was like watching paint dry).
I have no idea if I would have been successful had I started trading after the tech bubble, but I do know the chances of someone "making it" now are slim compared to 15 years ago.
(Edit- Browse the "Trader P&L" threads over the years and you will see the complete destruction of profits.)
That's as honest a post as you will get on here.
Haters- fire away. I couldn't possibly care less
Best of luck to everyone.
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