On paper, that's good advice. But in reality, it's not likely to happen. Compounding for 30-40 years is great but those that attempt to achieve it are generally long term mostly buy and hold investors who participate in the bear markets as well. And then along comes a verrry "special" year like last year that brings them all the joy of Pepto Bismol and a 201K plan.Quote from Tom1am:
I have clients that have become very wealthy by saving/investing a few dollars per week over a long time, 30-40 years and let compounding do the work. Time is your best ally..and capital preservation. Stay out of bear markets and you should triple the markets return.

Quote from spindr0:
On paper, that's good advice. But in reality, it's not likely to happen. Compounding for 30-40 years is great but those that attempt to achieve it are generally long term mostly buy and hold investors who participate in the bear markets as well. And then along comes a verrry "special" year like last year that brings them all the joy of Pepto Bismol and a 201K plan.
Staying out of bear markets is good advice for investors but a dubious reality, for most. However, for traders, it''s the "bestest" time ever because markets don't melt up and they sure go down a lot faster than up.
Quote from coffee898:
A large part of trading is finding what suits your personality/ trading style. Some folks do very well day trading but being in front of the screen all day might not be for them or other time constraints rule this out. I believe not getting greedy and sticking to a good trading plan you can make respectable returns in most trading strategies. Respectable in my opinion is in the 30% yearly rangeâgive or take. I agree with the other posters that yes it would be nice to start out having a huge account but if you consistently make decent returns and have discipline the account will take care of itself - over time.
I have been doing credit spreads for a number of years with success and have documented my trades over at collective2.com with a trading system named: Index Spreads, for almost 2 years now. Returns are: 2008 +62.60% ROI and +31.30% on entire account and so far in 2009 +64.80% ROI and + 32.40% on entire account (I only use half of my trading account per month) I do have a website that has a much easier to read track record than the Collective2 site etfcreditspreads.com.
So even in this wildly volatile environment, of the past couple years, this strategy I believe is still viable.
Dave
