How long did it take you to master the markets?

[CaliforniaKid23]

How long did it take you to master the markets? (until you started making money consistently)

 

[NB4ZOT]

7 yrs and almost a marriage. I don't see how some say they did it in 3yrs or less. Maybe I am just slow. Was it worth it? Well, if I lost my wife it sure would not have been.

Trading can ruin your life or it can be the best thing that ever happened. I would never recommend trading to anyone who I cared about. Chances greatly favor you will go down in flames with a blown out trading acct and ruined relationships. Traders have a nasty habit of lying to their significant others about how their trading is going.

Anyway, good luck to all that try.

 

[coolweb]

Around 2.5 years full time.

(my version of mastery is different from others, I just wanted a steady way to invest money for a 20-30% yearly return with low drawdowns.)



Theres quite many things to "experience" before you know what works and what doesn't.


I started with hundreds of ideas

I wrote 150-175 pages of code in tradestation to backtest many things. At the end, All I look is a bare chart with
volume, candlesticks and use radarscreen to scan for entries.


funny, how simple mastery becomes, yet so hard.
Order of competence.

1) retard
2) trader
3) edge trader
4) arb trader
5) simple (yahoo charts trader)

 

[ehsmama]

The Hardest part in getting there is that there is so much garbage to sift through. Everybody seems to be expert in markets ( even the ones like TImmay who consistent losers). So , it is not just "WHAT YOU SHOULD DO". But this was more a process of learning "WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT DO".

 

[PatrickQ]

good input coolweb. i have to say, IMO you do not master the market BUT you become confident in yourself and your belief that IF all of your current strategies stop working, you have the mindset and experience (and saved $) to start over and build. that is why, those your are given profitable strategies (developed by someone else) which eventually stop working have not begun the hard process of doing it on your own AND likely have a false sense of their abilities. i have said, focus on not losing money in your early years and focus on consistent work, methods and trading stats AND eventually the $ takes care of itself.

 

[QuantPlus]

The answer is trading every day for a full market cycle...
Including a bull market and a bear market...
And also including at least 3-4 liquidity crunches like we saw last summer.

It takes about 10 years to experience this.

After 2 years I had made a lot of money...
Was overconfident... but did not know sh*t.

The people who think they are great after 1-2 years...
Will inevitably take a big hit sooner than later...
And will be lucky to stay in business.

 

[CaliforniaKid23]

how could most of the traders keep going even after 3 years without much success?! that's incredible.

but, did u simply not spend enough time studying the markets in the beginning? or were you too distracted from others or your job/education? or is trading really that difficult that it takes more than 3 years to learn to make money?

 

[Avgdownking]

It will take you as long as you need to find an edge and master your emotions in trading. For some it's a couple of years for others a lifetime.

 

[nutmeg]

"how could most of the traders keep going even after 3 years without much success?!"

It is a solitary journey. Anyone could understand why you would quit. Why do you climb the mountain, because it is there.

 

[Spooz Top]

Quote from PatrickQ:

good input coolweb. i have to say, IMO you do not master the market BUT you become confident in yourself

Exactly.........nobody masters the market......the market is always the master.........it`s our job to decipher opportunity from the master/market .....while interpreting it`s intentions through observation.