Why capital is so important or even critical in successful trading?

You won't be regarded as a success until you make significant gains on an important amount of money.

If you make $500K in a year, that's significant. Not if you're trading with $10 Million, of course.. but you know what I mean.

If you turn $2000 into $5000... while a great percentage gain, it's not significant. Besides that fact that the $3000 gain isn't important, you were likely very aggressive... perhaps even reckless... and got away with it... knowing that if you lost it all it was "only $2000 and therefore no big deal".
 
Quote from OddTrader:

It seems so often people on ET would mention that adequate capital is very important or critical in trading successfully, however without much discussion usually.

Are there any good reasons for that? And what are they? Why?
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Probability

When you understand the answer you'll be a trader
 
Quote from OddTrader:

So your definition of successful trading is always keeping a smallish account! :)
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Not at all, but in the context of this thread my advice is to build a good relationship with your Broker.He/she has a wealth of knowledge and it is your job to encourage them to share it.

For almost all retail Traders lured into the endless wealth of trading it becomes a race, whether they realise it or not.

Running out of money or patience versus lightbulb moments of learning.

When I read some of the Broker related comments here, I shudder.
It is obvious to me that the Poster is completely lost and angry at that their own incompetence and the poor old Broker becomes the bullseye.

So I say good broker relationship first followed by adequate funding. A Broker does not want to see a rising star blow their account.


regards
f9
 
I think there is a confusion related to semantics.

"Trade succesfully"...

Well, this can mean two things:

1) Make a living out of trading .

2) Be profitable at trading.


1) Making a living out of trading requires capital because yes, "it takes money to make money"


2) Being profitable has no special capital requirement as it's only related to performance and it can be measured as a percentage.



Institutional traders trade succesfully on different account levels. There are the ones who trade millions+ and the ones who are lower and trade tens of thousands. Both trade succesfully.

My personal opinion, if you are trading for yourself (as i have already expressed it in another thread) is this:

1) Beat the market (have a positive expectancy strategy)
2) Make money (be profitable on a consistent basis)
3) Make a living (cover costs, expenses)

These are 3 very different things, very different phases through which each trader has to pass. It's the way it is. It's slower but it's safer. Each phase should take about a year on average with the first one and the last one taking a bit longer.
 
From my experience having redundant capital amount available for trading makes it much easier psychologically and also gives the possibility to risk less in % terms while still making good money in absolute numbers (I mean the quantity and quality of misc. goods and services which can be purshased under this term here).

And considering that psychological problems are #1 reason why people fail in trading it is not a surprise that additional comfort factor (enough capital) makes trading success easier to achieve.
 
Quote from gnome:

You won't be regarded as a success until you make significant gains on an important amount of money.

If you make $500K in a year, that's significant. Not if you're trading with $10 Million, of course.. but you know what I mean.

If you turn $2000 into $5000... while a great percentage gain, it's not significant. Besides that fact that the $3000 gain isn't important, you were likely very aggressive... perhaps even reckless... and got away with it... knowing that if you lost it all it was "only $2000 and therefore no big deal".
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Totally agree!
 
Quote from fearless9:

Not at all, but in the context of this thread my advice is to build a good relationship with your Broker.He/she has a wealth of knowledge and it is your job to encourage them to share it.

For almost all retail Traders lured into the endless wealth of trading it becomes a race, whether they realise it or not.

Running out of money or patience versus lightbulb moments of learning.

When I read some of the Broker related comments here, I shudder.
It is obvious to me that the Poster is completely lost and angry at that their own incompetence and the poor old Broker becomes the bullseye.

So I say good broker relationship first followed by adequate funding. A Broker does not want to see a rising star blow their account.


regards
f9
More...

A new thread:

Why Broker is so important or even critical in successful trading? :D
 
Quote from alex.samant:


2) Being profitable has no special capital requirement as it's only related to performance and it can be measured as a percentage.
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Very interesting, indeed very relevant! :confused:
 
Quote from alex.samant:



2) Being profitable has no special capital requirement as it's only related to performance and it can be measured as a percentage.
More...

If this were the case you'd have millionaire paper traders.... capital is numero uno ingridient to scuccessul trading.
 
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