You Only Need $5000 to Make a Living

Quote from Anekdoten:

4,

I have not traded the Qs or QID in years so I'm afraid I'm not apt to comment on them anymore.

As far as discipline we have a pretty prosaic rule that only works for males.

It's very simple, break a cardinal trading rule and your punishment is to squeeze your balls until you cry. No joke, that's the rule. It works.

Anek
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Anek,

Ouch! Merely thinking of squeezing my balls hurts!:(

I know one day I have to impose physical pain on myself for breaking trading rules. Thanks for opening my eyes about the possibilities of physical punishment. :D
 
Quote from 4DTrader:

I have always been an expert, it's the discipline that I lack. I firmly believe that my trading method is far superior to yours. During the past year, I modified my method every day, sometimes several times each day. As a result, I have a method that every new trader would kill to know. But given your attitude toward me, I doubt I will tell you. You may spend another few years searching for a method.
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<i>"I have always been an expert, it's the discipline that I lack"</i> There is a huge diff between an experienced trader and a successful trader.

You need to look long and hard at your two titles, that one only needs 5,000 to make a living, and the fact that you claim you had to give up.

If you cannot make money from your method, than you do not have one. If you think $5000 is sufficient to make a living, then you likely have not done so for any length of time, and decided to suddenly say something you do not understand..

As to methods, one of us posted that they were giving up. I am quite content with mine. And frankly have no interest in yours. I trade from home, and no longer need to work. Neither do I need to give up out of frustration, as apparently do you.
 
Quote from osorico:

For completeness you should know the 4 Fears too...
http://www.bigtrends.com/document.jsp?documentid=914

4 mistakes AND 4 fears, my brain is overloaded. :eek:

YOU are your own holy grail!
Osorico
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Osorico,

Actually, my 4 mistakes are similar to your 4 fears. I have already sent PMs to some posters about the 4 mistakes. They involve fear and greed, entry and exit. So 2 times 2 is 4. In my opinion, every single trading mistake is covered by the 4 types of mistakes.
 
I can make 500 dollars a week (living high off the hog, I know) off of 2000 principal on forex. I can only achieve this with pretty strict discipline though..

anyway here's my 4 mistakes:
1) trading without reading the news
2) misreading the news
3) betting a double top/bottom will hold
4) not being patient with my strategy

All my losers in the past 3 weeks have been one of these four mistakes. I'd be making a lot more than 500 if it weren't for these..

cheers
 
Quote from magicz:

the best lessons that I learn so far
1. If you haven't blown out of an account you won't know how to trade correctly.
2. If you blown out the second time then you are not trading the right market, leverage, size.
3. If you blow out the third time, maybe trading isn't for you.

I can say I am been in between 2-3 for this decade and i want to stay there until I die.:)
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That's funny. I've blown 2 accts over the years. First was cause I didn't know shit. death by a thousand cuts.

second was 10 years later. got cocky and over confident. Ka Boom! that was ten years ago. no probs since. I trade way smaller than i could.
 
This is probably one of the more confusing threads.


I am thinking if I continue to read I will understand the point..


now is the point here....that all one need is $5000


Or


All you need is $5000 once you have control over the 4 mistakes made


Hmm ? then again...the two should go hand and hand anyway.



but why the secret ?
 
Quote from 4DTrader:

But you have to have the correct method and discipline in avoiding 4 mistakes.
If you are a very very experienced trader, you should know what the 4 mistakes are. If you are very very experienced and don't know what the 4 mistakes are, the number 4 will help you organize and categorize those mistakes into the 4 groups. You don't have to agree or disagree with me on the number 4. If you find it helpful, use it. If you find it senseless, ignore it.

My point here is that you don't need a large capital to make a living.
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don't forget the hidden fixed costs:

platform fees
software fees
membership and licensing fees
ISP (internet service provider) fees
telecomm (telephone, cell phone, DSL) fees

commission and broker fees
MDV (market data vendor) fees

(and one of the most elusive) exchange fees charged within (commodity) commissions

office, electricity, HVAC, cleaning fees
commutation expenses / fees

------

you need these just to be ready to trade, over and above the amount of principal at risk, which is what you focused upon
 
Here are the real 4 mistakes that will make you lose money.

1) Learning a system from someone or some organization who actually does not know how to trade, but makes money or gets some other benefit by teaching you something that does not work. I am sure to some of you here this will sound very familiar.

2) Revenge trading. No matter how good or experienced of a trader you are, when you take some losses, you are going to revenge trade. There is no way to avoid this totally, but you can try to decrease it, by making sure you are trading with your plan, have a plan for losses, and let your emotions cool down before trading with size.

3) Not understanding the concept of risk vs reward for the instrument that you are trading. For example, if you end up being wrong, how bad off are you going to be if the position goes against you. For example, will 1 bad trade wipe out your trading account?

4) Fear of pulling the trigger. This may actually happen at least to me after having a bunch of winners in a row, and you start to fear about having a losing trade, so you trade less. Whereas, if you have some losses, you will trade more to try to get back to even.
 
Quote from oraclewizard77:

Here are the real 4 mistakes that will make you lose money.

1) Learning a system from someone or some organization who actually does not know how to trade, but makes money or gets some other benefit by teaching you something that does not work. I am sure to some of you here this will sound very familiar.

2) Revenge trading. No matter how good or experienced of a trader you are, when you take some losses, you are going to revenge trade. There is no way to avoid this totally, but you can try to decrease it, by making sure you are trading with your plan, have a plan for losses, and let your emotions cool down before trading with size.

3) Not understanding the concept of risk vs reward for the instrument that you are trading. For example, if you end up being wrong, how bad off are you going to be if the position goes against you. For example, will 1 bad trade wipe out your trading account?

4) Fear of pulling the trigger. This may actually happen at least to me after having a bunch of winners in a row, and you start to fear about having a losing trade, so you trade less. Whereas, if you have some losses, you will trade more to try to get back to even.
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(hope you don't mind me adding to these too)

5) Not learning your own temperment and style for both risk and speed of trades. Certain vehicles have their own speed. Options for example are both fast and very slow and ultra-long term slow. Commodities are lightening fast and also slow as longer term investments (read 60mins long). Stocks and Baskets (etfs, etc.) are both fast, and extremely slow as both investments (read: long term holdings) and trading vehicles (read: intraday high frequency trading / scalping).

Learn which chart patterns one is most comfortable taking, such as the slow longterm simple moving average crossover on high volume / low volume hours / days / weeks, and stick with those until you produce regular success.

Not quantifying and then knowing and them practicing which pattern of trader you are (not aspire to be, actually are at present) is anothr reason for failure.
 
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