Are you a successful at home day trader with no other source of income who began with modest means?

DHOHHI said:
Well it's worked for me. I have 85 - 90% winning trades in a given year. And before I get questions on how I can have that high of a percent of winners it's what I alluded to earlier .. not going for home runs and taking small profits.
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I appreciate your willingness to contribute here. I get the impression others often can't be bothered, especially given the backlash discussion of personal success attracts.

There may be a misconception about what is achievable as a win rate. 50% and 55% gets quoted quite a bit, as if it's the maximum possible.
 
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DHOHHI said:
Well it's worked for me. I have 85 - 90% winning trades in a given year. And before I get questions on how I can have that high of a percent of winners it's what I alluded to earlier .. not going for home runs and taking small profits.

And the fallacy in your statement above is that you're insinuating that the losing trades are apparently larger losses that would more than offset profits. If one has discipline then they exit with small losses when they realize they were wrong on the trade.
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I have the same high rate of profitable trades, but that is not true for the majority of traders. So you cannot generalize by taking your or mine specific situation. There are very, very, very few traders with more than 80% winning trades.

Most people have around 50% or even more losing trades. So for them the result of taking profits is completely different from what you and I have. And many of them don't cut losses which makes it even more problematic.

Each trader should analyze for himself:
  1. Number winning trades and number of losing trades
  2. What is the average win and what is the average loss per trade
  3. How much is my drawdown
  4. And maybe how much from my total profits do I give back in losing trades

If he has all this information he can see when he can take profit or not. Some systems can work with taking 100$ profit per winning trade, other systems might need 1.000$ per winning trade to make an overall profit.

What worked for you or for me is irrelevant. All depends of the specifics of the tradingsystem that is be used, that will define when profit can be taken.
 
http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?posts/3801212/

Don't post here much, by chance stumbled upon this thread. FWIW, posted the above anecdote of my trading career a couple years back. I suppose the title of this thread doesn't apply to me as I had a bit more than modest beginnings given the income from my first job & temporary loan from family about 1.5yrs after starting out. But, I've had strong success ever since that era on the intra-day time scale, with a record career yr in fiscal 2014.

One thing that really fascinates me are the assumptions that because "I don't know, or have not read about someone that has done xyz," that these people must not exist. Such blanket assessments are obnoxious in such a large, anonymous, and diverse sample pool. "If I can't do it, no one or very few people can do it" attitude is inherent for many as we want to protect our psyche and self-confidence. We are all guilty of it to some degree, including myself. This exists in many lines of profession.
 
marketsurfer said:
No doubt about it. But the opposite is also true, you wont get wealthy without taking big risks. These risks mean you could wipe out --- that potential is critical to large gains.
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True. I think each trader has a level of tolerance for risk. When I traded in an office in the late 90's we had one guy who would be trading 5K or 10K shares of DELL or any other tech stock. He had the stomach for wild swings and didn't flinch whether he made $40K in a day or lost $30K. I could never do that.

Regarding wealth ... I ask myself "how much is enough"? To me wealth goes well beyond $$$. I look at health as my most important attribute in life. For if your health fails all the $$$$ in the world may not save you.
 
marketsurfer said:
No doubt about it. But the opposite is also true, you wont get wealthy without taking big risks. These risks mean you could wipe out --- that potential is critical to large gains.
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Surf,

that risk is only temporary dangerous. If you start to trade this risk might and will endanger you. But if you can survive some time and can build up enough capital that you DON'T use in trading, then you will always survive it. Diversify!
I put away enough money to wipe out my trading account 10 times in a row, and still have enough money left to start trading again. But I limit the amount I use for trading. I will never go broke from trading because of this and secondly I will never use my strategic reserve when all the rest is gone in trading. And that strategic reserve is big enough to live a normal life.
People have to live with danger but take precautions. Everything you do can be dangerous or even kill you, does this mean that you should not move anymore and wait till you die? If yes, then it is better to kill yourself now because life will be a nightmare.
 
DHOHHI said:
True. I think each trader has a level of tolerance for risk. When I traded in an office in the late 90's we had one guy who would be trading 5K or 10K shares of DELL or any other tech stock. He had the stomach for wild swings and didn't flinch whether he made $40K in a day or lost $30K. I could never do that.

Regarding wealth ... I ask myself "how much is enough"? To me wealth goes well beyond $$$. I look at health as my most important attribute in life. For if your health fails all the $$$$ in the world may not save you.
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No question about it. Health is the only true wealth--- money comes and money goes.

Death is the great equalizer. As my 90 year old father says, " all those billionaires and i are the same in the end".

surf
 
i am nobody said:
Surf,

that risk is only temporary dangerous. If you start to trade this risk might and will endanger you. But if you can survive some time and can build up enough capital that you DON'T use in trading, then you will always survive it. Diversify!
I put away enough money to wipe out my trading account 10 times in a row, and still have enough money left to start trading again. But I limit the amount I use for trading. I will never go broke from trading because of this and secondly I will never use my strategic reserve when all the rest is gone in trading. And that strategic reserve is big enough to live a normal life.
People have to live with danger but take precautions. Everything you do can be dangerous or even kill you, does this mean that you should not move anymore and wait till you die? If yes, then it is better to kill yourself now because life will be a nightmare.
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Yes, very true. My experience is that if you start small, taking big risks is key to reach critical mass. This churning for a living is no way to live as you will likely lose in the end anyway. surf
 
marketsurfer said:
Yes, very true. My experience is that if you start small, taking big risks is key to reach critical mass.
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For me taking big risk was not necessary for a long period, big returns can shorten the dangerous period considerably. And enables you to continue trading with a relative small account. Which leads to the advantage that for starting again you only needs "small" money.
 
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marketsurfer said:
Good to hear--- you were fortunate. Im talking in generalities---
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You are right, I should try to talk only in generalities too. Sometimes forget it. :)

But sometimes we should not speak in generalities , just to show the theoretical possibilities.
 
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