Who has started out with nothing, learned how to trade on their own, and now makes $?

Started in 1993, age 25, second year in a History Ph.D. program. Spent two years reading in business school library (when bored with dissertation research) before I made my first trade. Poor graduate student--top earning year before 1998 was 10K a year. Started with 100 shares of BBY at 16 7/8 between Christmas and New Years 1995 while at my parents' house. A lot of money at the time. Account size increased steadily--BBY thrived, split. Added money only once: wedding money. Took money out to buy house. Started actively trading in 1997. Use to download charts via modem hours every night. Made 86% in 1999, 94% in 2000. Figured out that there was something to this trading thing. Work full-time as university professor from 1998 to the present. Trade during breaks from classes and the Hang Seng at night, when I am not too tired. Trade ES full-time when off for summers and breaks. Total portfolio size 235K. Take out money all of the time so wife can stay home with children and so we can stay at nice beach homes for vacation whenever we want. Make more money trading than at full-time job as tenured full professor and department chair.

I keep my mouth shut where I work. Never underestimate the capacity of your colleagues for petty jealousy. Drive an old car. People have NO idea. My little secret. If they only knew.

I have never blown out. I have made tons of mistakes--all of us do. Made trading harder than it had to be. Tried every indicator, every system, every thing under the sun. Learned the hard way, and am still learning!

Yes, it is possible.
 
Im now 19.

I started trading about 9months ago while i was at college, couldnt do it properly as was at college during the days, and i lost over 2k in 3weeks at just £1 per pip. :(


In june i left college, lost my fiance, and had nothing left in my life at all and tried to comit suiceide 2x. :/




I had tried to get even just a weekend job for the last 2years but no-one would even give me the chance of an interview.


I had £759 and that was all the money i had in the world.
If i lost that money i would be living on the streets begging and starving now..

But i took that money into my traidng account and started trading crude oil again, but in my own style, using very very big stoplosses intead of tight 1s.


From June to august i turned that £759into £5,600, all at just £1 per tick.
So about 700% profit in 2 months, from money that if lost would mean homlessness. :)

I then withdrew back down to 2k as used the rest to pay rent inadvance and for fruniture and stuff for my own apartment.

(Rent + living costs is £1,159 per month!!)



From Mid september when i restarted till last week so just under 2months more, i turned that 2k into over 11k!!

So 10k profit in 2months. (500% profit)


And this was all at just £2 t £3 per tick / apart from the last 2weeks when i went to around £6 per tick.
 
Mine is a lucky story...

I started trading my domestic( France ) stock market in late 2002 while I was in my second year at college. I made like 60 % return in the first year on 5K( I didn't used stops, short selling and it was 2003...LOL). I was the king with my cell phone bullshit alerts at college...:D

Second year made little money and 3rd year my portfolio was exclusively made of stocks underwater... I dumped it all to daytrade( on the french stock market, yes, with incredibly high commishs )... Took several beatings and lost almost all I had made in the first 2 years.

In April 2005, I decided to create my first US futures account with 9 K$. I daytraded YM successfully( pure luck ) and then read a book about automated trading... At the time, I thought that trading profitably needed only mechanical, statistical approach and discretionary traders were just dumb fools in my mind... I got trapped in bullshit indicator based trading systems for almost 2 years. In late 2006, I had a drawdown and almost came back to my original stake of 9 K...

I decided that I had to find a real natural edge to survive and came up with one in April 2007. I made 50K in 2007 and turned pro in 2008. I've made 160 K so far this year, on different strategies and am really pleased with the results. I haven't had a losing week since september 2007 so far.

My results are now decreasing and I need to find some new ideas. For every viable trading idea that works , I come up with 10 losing at least. I think you really have to work hard to succeed.

BYE
 
smilingsynic, you're my hero. Did any of your students or colleagues ever catch you looking at charts in your office?

I once shared an office with a professor who received every a mysterious fax and then placed a trade with a brief phone call. Never told me what the system was but he said he had made 3M in ten years like this, spending five minutes a day.

What timeframe do you trade in? I suppose scalping is hard if you are in and out of the office.
 
I guess i can write a few words here tho, since im partly that man who " start with nothing, got it all".

But im really wondering, what exactly do you want to hear-read from such people who make at least sole little but stable succes on markets?

Strategy? SL-TP settings? timeframes? Or just some lirycs about "how hard it was" ?

I guess that most of the storyes from "proffitable" trader will be almost the same really.

A.k.a "i start with 1k usd, have some mistakes, almost got blowout, but push it again and overrun the market, and start to make profits".
-------------


As for me for example, my staory is looking more like " Learn how to NOT to start trade at the market" ))))

I`ve started with 1000 USD on Russian RTSi market. That was almost all the money which i`d have at those moment of life....

Almost 1 year ago( from today). Got blown 3/4 of my account in about 1 month. Then i`ve make the most freakiin rediculos thing which ever i could make, i`ve secretly take the money (which wasnt belong to me, but my a friend of mine. And he didnt know that). I`ve put them on my account.

Luck was on my side, i`ve get back my money back from the market, withdraw that friends money back from the market and started to trade with my 1000USD again.

Atm i`ve disclosed my trading on Russian market, and trade ES/YM/Crude on US market for the last 4 month.

Got 2 accounts now. One for intraday, and another one for swing trades. from 1000 usd onto almost.... hmmm..... do you really care how much i`ve got from trading on 1 year? I dont think you do.

I have enough.



But, i guess the same thing as for the most traders, the real mistery belongs not in these words "i`ve starded by XXX and now i tradex XX and have XXXX on account"....

the REAL mistery mostly layed somewhere "between". What exactly ppl did to get to that "proffitable" point?
How hard was that way?
---------------------------------


As for me really, the most interesting thing was, that the answers "how to trade proffitable" is the most ever simplies answers which you can find on the net... on each trading forums ppl post them everyday. Everybody read those dozens of times....almost everyday.


But yet again, i guess to be proffitable, and find your edge, ppl just NEED to make a full learning cycle to get back to these simple rules and finnaly understand them.

At least that situation happened to me, i`ve make a full cicrly from basic rules "how to trade" - i was a scalper at the beggining of my trades - then goes to intraday and "news trading"- then i`ve traded S&R leves - then goes to 7849184 indicators trades - then goes to swing trading- then to Automated trading - an then.... to the market BASIC RULES again.

again, as for now, i have 2 account now, with 2 robots on each + 2 instruments to make my own trading on each accounts.

1)
a)automated robot onto NQ.
b)my own scalping on ES.

2)
a)automated swing robot onto YM
b)my own swing on CL (mini).
----------------------------------------------

as for now I DONT:
trade news no more.
trade S&R levels no more.
(Of cause i trace them, to be on "alarm", but i really dont give a **** about them really.

+ i donw watch any kind of bloomerg or CNBC (As i`ve did at the start). I really dont care what ppl write-show there. I dont read any kind of "strategyes advice" or "stocks to watch today" articles on any web-site.

...and i still dont understand what ppl mean by the word "price action". Its still some kind of mistery for me really. Basicly because i didnt hear at least one exact explanation WHAT IS "price action" for sure.

All my trading atm is about MA`s. I use 2 MA for swing trades and 3 for scalping and intraday.


I guess each trader must find some uniq way to trade for himself, but, for me that way was in about "turn trading in some kind of game".

Learn the rules and play. End of story.

Overwhelm your trading with 50 indicators, 20 S&R levels, start guessing the "price action", start to watch CNBC and bloomberg, and ofc read all "analitics"... and you will fail.

Keep it as much simplier as only you can. THAT IS MY ONLY ADVICE. You may trade any instrument with any king of strategy, but yet again, keep it SIMPLE. Dont overhelm yourown, or your brains will got overheaten and blown :-)



PS: Excuse me for my English. Im a lazy bastard, and that is not my common language at all.
 
started back in the late 90's when i was a college with 500 first stock i bought when up 3000% in a few wks and rode all the way back down to delistment a few months later.. Learned from that and started again with 700 about a year later got up to about 50k then got my masters then started trading again part time in 03 while i was working fulltime. Went fulltime about a year later trading otcbb/pinks till about early 08. Pretty much everything i've learned from trading was from either trial and error(screentime) and reading, but mostly screentime
 
Quote from cstfx:

You wait tables. You drive a cab/car. You tend bar. Not meaning to be flippant. But all three cater to late, 2nd shift hours which frees up the morning/early afternoon to "learn" the markets under live conditions.
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Exactly, you do whatever you have to do and also realize your not a trader just because you can open an account so don't live like one. Small house/apartment, shitty car, old clothes, cheap food, save save save...
Don't get married, don't have a kid...
Get a good data feed and charting software and watch the markets move for 4 or 5 years with a simple chart and time & sales. During that time comb over everything to know what not to know.
Most people will fail at this though out of boredom or jumping off the cliff before they can fly.
 
3 years solid trading to make 6 figures a year. starting base was 30k. No mentor, no trading job, just a few decent folks with good advice on forums and discussion boards. period.

biggest problem was letting losers kill previous gains. get a grip on that and don't worry about being "wrong" on a trade. Just get out based on your strategy.
 
Quote from MrBean:

smilingsynic, you're my hero. Did any of your students or colleagues ever catch you looking at charts in your office?

I once shared an office with a professor who received every a mysterious fax and then placed a trade with a brief phone call. Never told me what the system was but he said he had made 3M in ten years like this, spending five minutes a day.

What timeframe do you trade in? I suppose scalping is hard if you are in and out of the office.
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Yes, but no one knows they're charts. To outsiders, charts look like test patterns.

If I get busted, I already have my excuse planned out.
 
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