Share your Rags to Riches stories

[ktm]

Like RabidTrader said a few pages back, there's little incentive to open up when you get attacked.

There are a number of guys here that have done quite well over the years. Some aren't as active here or come and go to ET in spurts every few years. I've drifted away for lengthy periods myself.

I've made and lost vast sums, ran a fund and was in the top 10 in the world (total return) for a few years. After a sizable downturn, I closed it and sent funds back. There are a few others here that I know personally - that are amazing traders and make as much they want most years.

If you're looking for incentive, there are plenty of stories out there...but you have to make your own. Patience and persistence are really the two key traits that I think are most needed to reach real financial independence. You need a workable edge, the persistence to tweak it to be reliable and the patience to grow your own money organically into a large pile.

There is so much money out there in the market just lying around waiting for someone to take it.

 

[JTrades]

I met her on a park bench. She had a Husky puppy and a bottle of gin. I was helpless.

And did you discuss investing or trading during this first meeting, on the bench?

 

[Scataphagos]

And did you discuss investing or trading on this first meeting, on the bench?

Not exactly, but she did want to know "what I did for a living" while I walked her home from the park. Apparently she was "sizing me up".

 

[smallStops]

Not exactly, but she did want to know "what I did for a living" while I walked her home from the park. Apparently she was "sizing me up".

You really bagged a winner.
Do you care to describe steps by steps how it took place, just for the example?

 

[JTrades]

Not exactly, but she did want to know "what I did for a living" while I walked her home from the park.

Was this before or after you won the investment championship?

 

[Scataphagos]

You really bagged a winner.
Do you care to describe steps by steps how it took place, just for the example?

Nothing I did specifically, just being my normal "smart ass", charming self. Her friend's husband and I played on the same USTA 5.0 tennis team and were doubles partners that night. At her friends suggestion, they went to the park to watch the tennis matches... her, with Husky and gin in tow (Tanqueray, if I recall).

 

[Scataphagos]

Was this before, during or after you won the investment championship?

Before by a few of years. When I met her, she was just out of her residency/fellowship. Of course she had potential but didn't have $10K to her name. Now she's got enough $Millions she can afford to divorce me. (Irony would be that "I"made her the money so she could afford the divorce, of course.)

 

[smallStops]

Nothing I did specifically. Her friend's ... and I ...

You are confirming what grandparents say, traditional culture say, and what Healthy and Sane Religion say :

- via friend's of ( friend's of) or parent of friend's of or colleagues' of ( friends' of) or complete ( non engineered hasard)
all of these being linked to each other by intense link
- or in extremely adversarial circumstances ( classic example being "I went to his place to beat the shit out of her, and her brother came to separate us", or Romeo&Juliet circumstances)

 

[lawrence-lugar]

Most of this is false.

You are assuming that the person starting out has vast wealth to trade with if you believe you can make trading in a single day more than annually with a website.

Many trading / investing websites earn $5 million plus annually -- to make $ 5 million daily trading ( or whatever the number is) takes vast amounts of capital.

An effective profitable website can be launched for under $500.00. Making it an ideal avenue for non multi millionaires,,

If you give $5K to two groups of people....one to launch a website, and the other to start trading...

It's more possible to become an overnight (so to speak) success in trading, than it is to run a website. Sure, anybody can launch a website for virtually nothing...but for it to produce income...that's another story. It's much easier to produce income from trading.

A website earning "$5 million plus annually" in advertising is a very ...elite club, no pun intended. $1 million or even ...500K is still a Very elite club... I highly doubt ET is anywhere near this after been running since 1997...

...a trader with $5K in 1997...would be basically rich right now -- assuming, he or she knows what she is doing.

 

[smallStops]

You are giving the person 20 years roughly!!!!
I'd say everybody who is not a complete moron should become very wealthy via trading within 20 years.
Precision about "moron" here : in the sense that the person becomes willing
to do whatever it takes ( within the confines of morals and ethics of course)
to get there. If it means checking with a psy, or ironing out their trading approach, they are not completely stupid not to do it, etc. Only a complete moron would not do what they need to do over 20 years of trading.