How much should a "good" trader earn?

Perhaps, however after you get there {large fortune} would it be wrong to reduce your trade size and trade for the love of it?
ElectricSavant

No, it would not be wrong.

But good point ElectricSavant. Hell, when you've made your large fortune from trading but just love trading then of course keep doing it. Why give up something you are enjoying so much.

Thing is it seems so many good traders are in an endless grind .. good money management is neutralized by the drawing off 'earnings' for living expenses.

But too .. its your money, so its your choices.
 
Quote from Cheese:


Thing is it seems so many good traders are in an endless grind .. good money management is neutralized by the drawing off 'earnings' for living expenses.
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Yes I agree with you that living expenses will usually eat away "retained earnings" to your account. However, is this any different than a wage slave who spends every dime he makes paycheck after paycheck with the same living expenses, for arguments sake, as the fictional trader here in question. Furthermore, nobody said that growing your account to infinity is the measurement of success for a person trading to make a living. In fact those people are few and far between, but get glorified as being the norm. It is the fact that they are able to trade and pull a living from it consistently year after year that makes them successful. This is where trading is a job like anything else you would do in life. Lawyer, Doctor, postman, McDonalds cashier. It's a job of personal choice and interest, where a person who is passionate about it feels as those his "vocation is his vacation". Is that not enough? How many wage slaves who earn as much as a good trader "die a thousand deaths" each day emotionally because they hate what they do for a living? Now the upside to trading is yes you can make unlimited income but it comes with risk like anything else in life. Do you think a person in a corporate job is not a risk of losing their job every single day? There is risk in both ventures. The thing that trading, in my opinion has over a wage slave job is that I simply enjoy doing it.
 
ChartingMarkets, its very much an emotional 'put down' to call an employed person a 'wage slave'. Hell, I'm a 'breath slave' because I have to breathe all the time and every day.

But yes I take your general point. Trading for the trader is better than being employed.

But the kick is here, when you say, "It is the fact that they are able to trade and pull a living from it consistently year after year that makes them successful." Its such a small distance to choose only to grow your account and make yourself a large fortune holder.

But again, as said, its your money, your choices.
 
Quote from Cheese:

charting, its very much an emotional 'put down' to call an employed person a 'wage slave'. Hell, I'm a 'breath slave' because I have to breathe all the time and every day.

But yes I take your general point. Trading for the trader is better than being employed.

But the kick is here, when you say, "It is the fact that they are able to trade and pull a living from it consistently year after year that makes them successful." Its such a small distance to choose only to grow your account and make yourself a large fortune holder.

But again, as said, its your money, your choices.
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I already have a nice fortune from trading...because I chose to take those risks early on in my career while I worked as a wage slave (trading on the side and both working) and after as I went full time in to trading. As far as calling someone a wage slave, hey call me a wage slave or a trading slave it really doesn't bother me at all.

Really what I'm trying to get across is something I have always found funny. What that has to do with is how a person who is trading is expected to not just make a living but to make a fortune. An amount so much more in excess of their current consumption needs that they will be viewed as successful in the eyes of those who don't trade. However a person in a "career" making 60k-100k is considered a normal and stable person and a "winner"/"success" because they are doing what society expects of them. Even though they are earning just enough to get by and cant save a dime year to year because of current consumption needs, they are never held to the same yardstick of measurement that a person trading, is who is making the same living. What is even funnier is that a trader who is making lets say 200k a year but lives well (high current consumption) is considered a failure by the ignorant masses against a person who is working for a corporation but earning 100k a year. Pretty pathetic but hey its ingrained into society and thats what mass ignorance is all about.
 
Only problem is, that nice 200K home in a decent neighborhood
costs $1 million in southern california :)

So it's all relative. I NEED to be a millionaire to have the
equivalent of what other people can have in other
parts of the country.

Some may say MOVE. But I just love it here.

200K would buy you a 500 square foot falling apart
piece of shit in the hood here :)


peace

axeman



Quote from Lobster:
Once you have a nice house, a car, and whatever you need to be happy, for some it's a boat, for others music, etc, why would you want more? Would you really be 100 times happier in a $20M mansion than in a $200k single family home in a decent neighborhood? [/B]
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I have far more respect for a trader that makes 50K a year,
trading fulltime, than your average joe making 100K a year
in the corporate world.


peace

axeman




Quote from ChartingMarkets:



I already have a nice fortune from trading...because I chose to take those risks early on in my career while I worked as a wage slave (trading on the side and both working) and after as I went full time in to trading. As far as calling someone a wage slave, hey call me a wage slave or a trading slave it really doesn't bother me at all.

Really what I'm trying to get across is something I have always found funny. What that has to do with is how a person who is trading is expected to not just make a living but to make a fortune. An amount so much more in excess of their current consumption needs that they will be viewed as successful in the eyes of those who don't trade. However a person in a "career" making 60k-100k is considered a normal and stable person and a "winner"/"success" because they are doing what society expects of them. Even though they are earning just enough to get by and cant save a dime year to year because of current consumption needs, they are never held to the same yardstick of measurement that a person trading, is who is making the same living. What is even funnier is that a trader who is making lets say 200k a year but lives well (high current consumption) is considered a failure by the ignorant masses against a person who is working for a corporation but earning 100k a year. Pretty pathetic but hey its ingrained into society and thats what mass ignorance is all about.
More...
 
Quote from ChartingMarkets:




Really what I'm trying to get across is something I have always found funny. What that has to do with is how a person who is trading is expected to not just make a living but to make a fortune. An amount so much more in excess of their current consumption needs that they will be viewed as successful in the eyes of those who don't trade. However a person in a "career" making 60k-100k is considered a normal and stable person and a "winner"/"success" because they are doing what society expects of them. Even though they are earning just enough to get by and cant save a dime year to year because of current consumption needs, they are never held to the same yardstick of measurement that a person trading, is who is making the same living. What is even funnier is that a trader who is making lets say 200k a year but lives well (high current consumption) is considered a failure by the ignorant masses against a person who is working for a corporation but earning 100k a year. Pretty pathetic but hey its ingrained into society and thats what mass ignorance is all about.
More...


Actually it has been my experience that traders themselves feel inadequate for making a a measly $200k, not the "ignorant masses". I personally don't know anyone in the outside world who would think $200k is a failure ESPECIALLY for someone working for themselves whenever or wherever they want, and only using $50 or $100k in capital!

Mostly I hear traders (specially the newbies, or some prop managers) who say $200k in coin is nothing! Granted.....there is that animal with the hands of stone who can press and has the confidence to make the really big numbers. But take it when you can....cause that doesnt last forever!

Trade because you love it, not cause of the bucks you can make. Be prepared to evolve with the market and not so entrenched with easy money fads....bullets....internet hypermania, etc.....sure ride those damn waves but don't be a one race pony.
 
Some say that a person who stays with a job and a career is the most successful, when compared to a "flash in the pan".

Character and "living within your means" is perhaps a more stable approach to the very flamboyant lifestyle that being a trader can bring.

I have been on both sides in my life and personally I believe that for me it is best to stay stable. Perhaps, I am a control freak and look at the "life of probabilities" as "waves of opportunity". But these waves would never effect my lifestyle. I find myself slowing down my thoughts and forcing decision through time... verses quick emotional and reactionary "tides of change".

We all will die, this is a probability that is 100%....remember every second that goes by is forever gone and cannot be taken back. We have the rest of our lives to hone our skills and share with others....make it count!

Michael B.
 
ChartingMarkets I don't call you 'slave' anything .. 'slave' is your term, remember.

I have no idea why you keep wanting to make a comparison with an employed person. Early days for me, I ran and rebuilt a futures commission house for a bank .. classy corporate winner but still employed. After that I moved on with my own businesses and have never been employed since .. personal choice thats all.

All I'm saying is that in trading its a short route to get where you're going if you keep all your gains and keep accruing as you pro rata keep increasing your staking play.

But by all means its open to anyone who trades to dick away all their gains on living.. its your choice, your money.
 
Firstly, any statistic is only meaningful in a specific situation. My situation is that of a position trader in commodities.

That said, my target is to grow my trading account by 50% each year. Some years I manage this, some years not.

As others have said so eloquently, part of the appeal of trading is that of controlling our use of time - all we get in life is time and it is how we spend our time that determines the quality of our lives.
 
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