Successful traders: what were the early days of starting out like?

[austinp]

150% agree with every word from bighog, patrickq and gaj. The path to success is a continual journey, the learning never ends.

My first years were a roller coaster due to market conditions and style of trading. I traded mostly index options from the long side. That means buying calls in a decline, buying puts in a rally. Picking tops and bottoms. Impossible for sustained, steady results. P&L swings were wild.

The corner turned was realization that taking chunks of profit from the middle of market moves with the market's own bias in direction is where low-hanging fruit is. Harness the market's energy like a team of plow horses instead of fighting it like a wild beast.

Trade the extensions... be out with fat profits before the reversion to mean begins. If it ever does.

Trading is no longer work, but it does require effort. That'll never change, not thru the final day for all of us.

 

[Hook N. Sinker]

I started out trading penny stocks. Mostly I bought low and sold high. Then the bull market ended - I did not know it - and I continued to buy low sell high in a bear market and lost more than my profits. My profits were not big because I had no clear idea of position sizing. I'm not sure I stopped losses then.

 

[wickcity]

What kind of bankroll did you start with? 3000 losses per day(60k per month), were you sizing you shares correctly or were you taking on to much risk in the beginning?

Quote from emg:

my first yr was bad. I was a cbot floor trader and was losing an average $3000 per day.

after watching and observing whales on the floor, that is how i develop my system.

It took yrs though

 

[TrueProp]

Quote from gaj:

...and i still feel i'm learning almost every day.

I couldn't agree more. I don't think it ever stops. I guess that's whats so engaging about this career path.

 

[Summit8222]

My first year was crazy. Down 5K in my first 6 weeks, up 15K by the end of my first 6 months. Quit my horrible part time job. Lost the 15K I was up the next week in a blow up. The problem was, I already had spent the 15K I made. That was 60% of my account gone. Needless to say after a few more mistakes I was at 4K of my initial 25K deposit after 9 months.

I knew though that this is what I wanted to do. I talked it over with my wife and she was still on board.

At the end of my first year, I was up 5K, only made 20K (was up 60K and lost 40K at the end of the year) in year 2. The 75K in year 3 helped a lot.

I have always made more money each year after the last. I have started my 8th year and it looks like it will be the same again. I trade a very conservative style, but I love the life style I live.

Good Luck out there.

 

[Went Fishing]

Great Posts Folks,

I'm a family guy, I like the reference to being supported by family (wives).

For me, It's been great to be supported by "most" of my family, especially the one I "sleep with" every night!

Good trading

<*)))><

 

[buylo]

Started in August of 1999. Quit my day job and got my night job of selling shoes at Fleet Feet in Old Town. Was put into trading the Schatz with 1 lots and grew from there. When we hit double digits in size, we were given 11 lots, 22 lots, 33 lots.....etc., because we were still on the Eurex "green screens" and it was faster to hit the same number 2x on the number pad. Also had to share accounts with others in the office so you had to check with the other guy to see what his postion was. Back then 50K a day was huge volume in the Schatz. Systems going down ALL the time and we had to literally call Germany and find out WTF was going on. Kind of glad we missed the dotcom disaster as we were one of the first all Eurex platforms around the U.S., and had no access to stocks. Moved on to Bobl and Bund after 2+ years of Schatz only. Very grateful and it taught me patience and to wait for setups. But of course the first full year was drawdown, drawdown and more drawdown. Good friends and bartenders to pay for a round (s) or buy me dinner certainly helped, as well.

First year was all about learning and losing. Didn't have a chart setup for 2 months, and really allowed me to develop a sense of movement in the market. Logging screen time and trying to apply things that you see (and trust) was the focal point. Sat next to an ex-Lehman floor guy and a nuclear engineer. Smart guys I could literally ask anything about and get an answer (sometimes a little to verbose, but pick and choose out of it). Read some books, but mostly drew on the other guys in the office. How do the good ones handle losers, winners, preparation?? Treat it like a business. Be here everyday.

End of 2000 finally got a check......Woohoo! Quit selling shoes in 2002. 11 fortunate years later (wow, time flies!), still a learning process. Still mainly a Fixed Income trader, but more U.S. 10 year and 30 year. Lots of people think there is a time when you finally "get it." Not so. It is a constant challenge and there are no bags with $ printed on the side that people hand you. 2010 was a struggle (save your money). Many lessons learned, good and bad, and many more to come. I have many thoughts on this business and what it takes to succeed. One thought that will never change - - - Would not want to be doing anywhere else and you will have to drag me away from this job to do anything else.

Best of Luck!

 

[GG1972]

Been trading fulltime 4 years now-investing for over 13 years LOL (investing LOL)

year 1 lost about 15-16k
year 2 slightly over breakeven
year 3 took up a job that allowed me to trade-made everything back
Year4 Quit the job comfortable happy life.

Lots of people say its a boring profession staring at charts but to me its the ultimate game-Me against the world. Learnt a lot especially coming froma financially conservative family. Its funny how people who put you down or doubted you earlier are the ones asking for advice now. Nothing beats doing what you want, pretty much when you want and enjoy life.

Looking at other traders, if you keep an open mind, there is lot to be learned.

 

[TrueProp]

Quote from buylo:

Started in August of 1999. Quit my day job and got my night job of selling shoes at Fleet Feet in Old Town. Was put into trading the Schatz with 1 lots and grew from there. When we hit double digits in size, we were given 11 lots, 22 lots, 33 lots.....etc., because we were still on the Eurex "green screens" and it was faster to hit the same number 2x on the number pad. Also had to share accounts with others in the office so you had to check with the other guy to see what his postion was. Back then 50K a day was huge volume in the Schatz. Systems going down ALL the time and we had to literally call Germany and find out WTF was going on. Kind of glad we missed the dotcom disaster as we were one of the first all Eurex platforms around the U.S., and had no access to stocks. Moved on to Bobl and Bund after 2+ years of Schatz only. Very grateful and it taught me patience and to wait for setups. But of course the first full year was drawdown, drawdown and more drawdown. Good friends and bartenders to pay for a round (s) or buy me dinner certainly helped, as well.

First year was all about learning and losing. Didn't have a chart setup for 2 months, and really allowed me to develop a sense of movement in the market. Logging screen time and trying to apply things that you see (and trust) was the focal point. Sat next to an ex-Lehman floor guy and a nuclear engineer. Smart guys I could literally ask anything about and get an answer (sometimes a little to verbose, but pick and choose out of it). Read some books, but mostly drew on the other guys in the office. How do the good ones handle losers, winners, preparation?? Treat it like a business. Be here everyday.

End of 2000 finally got a check......Woohoo! Quit selling shoes in 2002. 11 fortunate years later (wow, time flies!), still a learning process. Still mainly a Fixed Income trader, but more U.S. 10 year and 30 year. Lots of people think there is a time when you finally "get it." Not so. It is a constant challenge and there are no bags with $ printed on the side that people hand you. 2010 was a struggle (save your money). Many lessons learned, good and bad, and many more to come. I have many thoughts on this business and what it takes to succeed. One thought that will never change - - - Would not want to be doing anywhere else and you will have to drag me away from this job to do anything else.

Best of Luck!

Wow. That is persistence! There are not too many people that would have or could have stuck with it as long as you did. Congratulations man.

One question though, although I am in full agreement that trading will always be hard work, I believe there is a time when you finally "get it". And many friends of mine would agree that there is a time that you "get it". Now if you asked me what "it" is, I would have some difficulty explaining that. Seems like a good thread idea.

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from TrueProp:

One question though, although I am in full agreement that trading will always be hard work, I believe there is a time when you finally "get it". And many friends of mine would agree that there is a time that you "get it". Now if you asked me what "it" is, I would have some difficulty explaining that. Seems like a good thread idea.

This happened to me early this year. So many factors combined to form the "it" that I finally got, I'm not sure it can be explained "in a nutshell".

Factors:

* Almost 5000 hours of screen time

* Repeating mistakes again and again and again and again and again (really) that I promised never to repeat again

* Listening to a long-time experienced trader tell me what works day after day after day and not believing it until I paid lord knows how much tuition figuring out for myself everything he'd been telling me all along from the start

* Geez - http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148752

* Reading "Trading in the Zone", then reading it again months later (2nd time was the breakthrough)

* Al Brooks' "Reading Price Charts Bar By Bar"

* Learning to use multiple time frames

* Saliva's "Unholy Grail to Success"