Is it possible to become rich by trading? Of course. There are many traders who have become rich.
Is one likely to become rich by trading? No. Between commissions, slippage, realtime quotes and other fees, Traders start off with the odds against them. Only the very best survive, much less get rich.
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/is-it-possible-to-become-rich-by-trading.317686/ 作者: sec2100 時間: 2018-3-24 07:24
Trading the markets is more-or-less a "zero sum game". For you to make money, you have to take it from somebody else. How to you do that? You don't need to be "Superman", but you do need to be smarter and more disciplined... enough so that you are in the "top half".
Scataphagos作者: sec2100 時間: 2018-3-24 08:08
During my first go at trading, I've blew away several small accounts. I mean it never got to ZERO like @Xela said but it was effectively zero since it was not enough margin to trade anything meaningful.
This time around I've gotten better. I'm also a little bit older and wiser and with other obligations. So, I'm balancing my trading with other stable income sources. Right now, I'm leaning toward system buildings and other efforts.
If you read the story of the great traders, then you'll find out that almost every single one of them have blown out their accounts(perhaps multiple times) during their trading career. This is usually early on. Go read the Market Wizards books and it's filled with stories of legendary traders(even Paul Tudor Jones and many others) blown their accounts away in the beginning.
Now, here comes the crucial part. They LEARNED from their mistakes and fixed it. Through persistence they eventually made it. That's the real secret of success to trading and in life.
I came across this old interview of the Dan Zanger, the trader who made like 28,000% or whatever during the internet bubble. He gave back a lot of it during the bear market but then determined to win back. Now he's doing fine again. But his journey was not easy or short.
He started in 1976(way before most of the people here on ET were around) and gave all of his profits up to that point back in 1991! So 15 years of profits gone. Then he finally learned his craft and when the internet bubble came in 1999 he turned $11K to $18M in 18 months. Yes, those were crazy times.
The point I'm trying to make is not the money made. But once you got your technique down and fully integrated your thinking then money in the market will come fast and furious.
Now, for some people that day might never come. For others it will come eventually. But you gotta stop doing what's not working and focus on what is and improve on that..
Can the typical retail trader survive that long of a learning curve? The answer is NO! So go get a job. Full-time or Side job. Start a biz. Or whatever while you learn. The market game is not easy. It takes a long time.