I feel like giving up!

[Cache Landing]

Quote from jinxu:

I've read statistics that say new businesses have a 50% success rate. Which is better than becoming a trader imo.

Below is the most accurate representation for success rate of new single establishments over ten years.

The only question is which year are you talking about, and what defines success. I suppose that there are a huge portion that are barely turning a profit of $15-20K annual. Don't know that I would call that a success. But everyone uses their own yardstick.

 

[jokepie]

Quote from Unquestionably:

Went into trading thinking that I'd make millions.

Wasted 4.8 years of swing trading only to find out I'm faring no better than taking up a McJob.

Should I have spent those years building up a business instead.


Trading is a waste of time.

Additional proofs:

Cooweb => Made millions in business. He wanted to make 200K/year and couldn't achieve this goal in 5 years.

Neke => Been trading since 1999 (+10 years; all time equuity high => $800K = <80K/year average).

(If you want the big money, go into business).

So you merely joined ET a few days ago to tell people you are quitting ??
Thanks...dear compulsive blogger.

 

[olias]

Quote from Unquestionably:

Went into trading thinking that I'd make millions.

what was your previous ET handle?

 

[deaddog]

Quote from Unquestionably:


Ten Reasons Why Trading Sucks, and Why You Should Go Into Business Instead

Trading is a business, treat it like one if you want to succeed.

 

[BlackBison]

Well i was a losing trader for 3 years until I found a good system.

I am certainly making the kind of high returns in trading that this guy is claiming is only possible in business.

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=214188

Make sure you scroll down and look at all the pics!

 

[atticus]

Quote from olias:

what was your previous ET handle?

Unquestionably coolweb.

 

[Rickshaw Man]

If your not succeeding you have no plan. Plan your work and work your plan.

If you want it bad enough you will find a way, I know because I did, took 10 years, and a lot of support from my wife who makes 80k per year. Without her I would have given up, just like the 90% who try this.

 

[Rickshaw Man]

When your barrier to entry is small, your chances for success are small, that's because more are competing for the same dollars.

 

[ElectricSavant]

It's interesting to note that when you found something that worked for you that you tested you had forgotten about the journey. I am sure you had spent years searching.

Whether a person is searching still or is overly creative should not be stifled. Harnessing creativity and finding a good fitting shoe as you have Handle123 is really what is important.

I am a believer that if a person has a good fitting shoe he wears it. He must first identify how much time he can spend being glued to the screen and realize the time and effort it takes to manually trade. He must first be able to manually trade to be able to consider automating.

I am sure there are hundreds of traders that do not believe in backtesting. I am sure they never backtested a day in their life. The approach always differs but the end result stays the same. A trader trades what he can do and what is comfortable. Sure he can adjust as he progresses in his journey, but the best way is to be natural. If it were easy everybody would learn how to trade and find what works for them...but it aint easy...

There can be traders that are not profitable...and maybe they are for periods at a time. A trader must be creative enough to know when something stops working and how to tweak it. Backtesting is one way...but not the only way. Learning how to code for automation seems to connotate a trader needs to learn C and become a programmer...How many traders that are profitable do you know that arn't programmers folks?

Anyways this post is from a trader that is not profitable...so throw it out and make your judgments...

ES

Quote from Handle123:

I totally agree, I recently gave someone a method I use to trade Euro, he did very well the first week of real time trading, then he decided to add and take away parts of the method, right into the crapper after that. My method had been backtested over 10 years of data, I have the ability to stick to my set of rules. But any time I even consider changing anything, that means I have to backtest that change going back huge amounts of data.

I see over and over again, too many times traders scan a few weeks of data, saying they don't have the data to go back or they too knowledgeable and know it will work. If people just took part of what they lose in a year would pay for the data, learn how to code or grab a professor at a local college and ask to make one of his classes a school project on your coding, you pick up tab on the pizza party.

You make your money thru backtesting, then just stick to your plan. If you can't stick to your plans, try hypnotize.

 

[jinxu]

Quote from Cache Landing:

Below is the most accurate representation for success rate of new single establishments over ten years.

The only question is which year are you talking about, and what defines success. I suppose that there are a huge portion that are barely turning a profit of $15-20K annual. Don't know that I would call that a success. But everyone uses their own yardstick.

It was from an article on the success rate 5 years in (which is consistent with your graph). By success I meant still in business. That's a nice graph btw. Was there an article that came with it?