How much do day traders make
- Thread starter newdog
- Start date
I recently met someone who was making 200K a year who quit to become a full time trader, his aim is to make just half that a year as a trader.
He is happy to take a reduced income for the freedom.
However he has been trying to turn a profit for many years now and is not any closer than the day he started.
I told him to give it up, but he wont.
He is not losing too much as betting really small, but living expenses are eating his life savings.
I think it will take another five years of that before he will realise what a mistake he made chasing the dream.
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I would only recommend trading for a living on money you have already from investing & trading while at your job. You can swing or position trade as a hobby while having a full time job.
The only number that matters is how much trading capital you have and how much a year you need to live on. I would say realistically to have any chance at all you will trading capital of at least 5x of your yearly cost of living and should keep a reserve account with enough to live on for 1 year.
The learning curve always takes a lot longer and eats a lot more capital than people ever imagine.
The only number that matters is how much trading capital you have and how much a year you need to live on. I would say realistically to have any chance at all you will trading capital of at least 5x of your yearly cost of living and should keep a reserve account with enough to live on for 1 year.
The learning curve always takes a lot longer and eats a lot more capital than people ever imagine.
Same here. The most profound thing about it is that it's almost impossible to learn from somebody else's mistakes. So, if I were to start from scratch, I would still blow up three times before I found my way to consistent, steady, profitable trading.
Yep, you can learn things from other people but at the end of the day, it's a singular path.
I'm about 10 years in and starting to make some profits, finally, although have done before and blown it before so we'll see, that's how hard the game is, the problem is the rules change and we don't get the memo's 
Okay, you could have an account 10x's the size of mine, I made $400 this week in 4hours total trading time I guess, so you could make $4000 doing the same, which is 200K per year, but trade 5times more and there is your $1Mil.
Mainly Psychological, greed and fear will make you do stupid stupid things, crack that and it's actually an easy game to beat.
10years!!!
Bloke on a TV Show documentary about diy traders, he'd sold up everything, 5years in full time running out of money, shouting at the screen, OMG the market is going up, what do I do, I'll short it it'll come back down, OMG it's going higher, short more, when all he had to do was join it. doh!! it's that simple, but screws with your mind.
( you might have the right mindset from the start, not many seem to )
Okay, you could have an account 10x's the size of mine, I made $400 this week in 4hours total trading time I guess, so you could make $4000 doing the same, which is 200K per year, but trade 5times more and there is your $1Mil.
Mainly Psychological, greed and fear will make you do stupid stupid things, crack that and it's actually an easy game to beat.
10years!!!
Bloke on a TV Show documentary about diy traders, he'd sold up everything, 5years in full time running out of money, shouting at the screen, OMG the market is going up, what do I do, I'll short it it'll come back down, OMG it's going higher, short more, when all he had to do was join it. doh!! it's that simple, but screws with your mind.
( you might have the right mindset from the start, not many seem to )
i slightly and respectfully disagree, it is possible to learn from other peoples mistake if its turned systematic fully and encapsulated, not saying u can make money by copying, but it can contain the mistakes that cause a blow up in the account, u can still be losing, but it could be less drastic, of course this is assuming the person has discipline to follow the most basic rigid rules