Can YOU make money as a trader?

The account is from 2015, but this specific period started at 18 days.

This forum is titled “can you make money as a trader?” and the answer is a resounding yes. From a philosophical position everything in life is about risk, discipline, confidence and routine.

We all drive, there are huge risks involved with driving and we all have our own style of driving but we still do it and successfully make our journeys every day without incident, of course, yes, there are the odd occasions when things go wrong but in the most part we succeed.

We cross the road often without thinking, we have a routine and normally perform the same checks every time without really thinking about it and it is second nature for us.

Every business no matter how big or small makes mistakes, takes risks and some succeed and some don’t but in the most part the ones who have a plan and keep to it succeed.

Big business have developed manuals, training programs, on the job training all to get their employees proficient in that line of business…. Step 1, step 2 and so on…

Trading is no different for me, in the beginning you must spend the time to learn the profession, develop a style/ technique. Then you must find a system that works for you….i could never trade the 1 min, 5 min or 15 min time frames but the 1 hr and 4hr works just fine and felt right for me. I could never copy someone else’s system because I just didn’t see everything that they were seeing. When you demo trade your system do it for months (6 at least ) and place each and every trade according to your plan. I once spent time with a professional golfer on a practice driving range and he hit every ball as if it was a championship shot to win a tournament…yes it was boring and time consuming but he was of the opinion not to waste a single shot for a chance, a wack or a gut feeling…for him it was all about routine and everything becoming second nature, he did this to remove any pressure that may exist when actually making the shot for real….there is a reason there are more psychology books about trading than actual how to trade books!!

Let’s be honest to do all this requires discipline and most people don’t have it….it is a lifestyle choice that needs to be made, waking up to a fixed time every day, going through a routine every day to get showered, dressed, eat and go to work….we all do it in some form but how many can do it at home without a boss and trade for a living?

I have met and spent time with professional traders and to be honest they are a really boring bunch. They have the strictest of routines and rarely deviate from them, the companies they work for have strict / set in stone ways to trade and read the markets and they follow the system (for the most part) their wives and girlfriends are extremely tolerant of their work schedules and are very supportive but when they take time out they have the best holidays, best parties and spend their money properly, isn’t that what everyone wants? Or some form of success? And unfortunately this is the image traders have (at least successful ones) but where is the story of how they got there and all the sacrifices they have had to make?

Trading is not glamorous or exciting, it might have these qualities in the beginning but that is an emotion based on the principles of gambling…the aim with trading is to get past all the emotions and perform a function (almost like a robot) and execute a trade plan. The challenge here is that we all have to learn this ourselves through our own hard work, of course you can spend money to get someone else to teach you but then you have to learn their system and it might not be the right one for you (we all have different and unique skills and that’s why there are so many different trading styles and systems to follow and read about). Buy a tablet and download every trading book you can get free off the internet, take notes on what you like and build on your knowledge. You will be amazed how quickly you will understand and recognize how repetitive everything is

So my comments are based on the basic principles that:

1. You have to really want to do this for a living, not play at it or mess about occasionally but really dedicate yourself to it
2. Learn, study and practice, as if it was a university course or an apprenticeship opportunity (think how many hours of work it takes to get a degree at university? Or years to become a tradesman?)
3. Understand how your head works and adapt everything to your strengths…..i have never seen a plumber or an electrician nervous when carrying out their work, have you? And this is where you must aim to be with your trading
4. Become boring…….Monday to Friday work, work and work until you get good at it…..i cannot stress this enough, if you go out and have a sore head in the morning or are tired then you can’t focus, simple…it’s your money why waste it!!
5. Demo trade until the emotion is gone, people who ‘blow’ their accounts have pressed the button to early, they haven’t ‘perfected their system’ yet, patience is required all through your trading journey especially in the beginning
6. Keep a trading record / journal…in a book paper form and log everything including pictures of trades (print them out and paste them in)….this will become a major reference book for your trading life
7. Plan, plan and plan …DON’T DEVIATE
8. Trade in pips and not in £/$ work your system to make your planned pips per day/ week/ month not an amount of money, this reduces the pressure and as your account grows you automatically start making more money with the same trading plan pip objectives
9. Accept defeat…nobody likes failing but we need to embrace it in trading, everyone has their own % success rate. There is no other profession were loosing/ being wrong is acceptable. Get over it and move on – this is hard but essential

Now, before anyone jumps down my throat on this, I realize this might seem a little extreme but let’s be honest unless you win the lottery everybody who has money has had to earn it the hard way, you only get a promotion at work if you have earnt it and deserve it, there are no handouts in life and you have to get up and get everything yourself. Trading is a profession and one that can make you a living but you have to deserve to be successful through hard work

Personally, I am a dedicated day trader, for just over 4 yrs now, Monday to Friday at my desk for a working day every day, I have a family to support and this is my only source of income and not only do I enjoy it but it has proven to meet and exceed my financial requirements to live and enjoy life and the above is my personal opinion.

[quote=bespoke;10802345]This forum is titled “can you make money as a trader?” and the answer is a resounding yes. From a philosophical position everything in life is about risk, discipline, confidence and routDON’T DEVIATE 8. Trade in pips and not in £/$ work your system to make your planned pips per day/ week/ month not an amount of money,

A good post but i rather think no one will actually understand that this is what you must do to succeed.

Only concern i see is, i prefer to see wins in percentages not pips.
i think a lot of people lose because they use small lot size so if they lose they say oh it was xxx amount then do a second stupid trade.

If they win they may say i only won a small amount,,, But if you look at it in terms of percent it is far better....

Trade well

I`ll add, if you run a tight system on a low time frame, you drawdown will never be above 20%, ever. So keep 40% to be safe and reinvest the other 60%... i did it with crypto and oh man when a coin jumps from 0.002$ to 4 cents... you will be screaming.

Or anything else really, the point is, once i realized i don`t need to hold the other 60% of the money there, it felt like i instantly got rich and once i got some success reinvesting, even better.

Also, out of the people i told about FOREX, literally none made it.... not sure why but they were all programmers or above so not stupid, probably lack of discipline? I ended up not telling people about it anymore as i started feeling guilty they lost whatever they put in FOREX, hope it wasn`t much.

Programmers tend to think in concrete forms. They have difficulty understanding systems where the code can't always be elucidated into a formula. Even a dynamic formula with variables is still based on concrete relationships. I think all the numbers goads them into thinking it's just about the numbers and there's nothing else at play. So, when the numbers begin to lie they don't notice.

and Max DD is the most important piece of information hehe

..

Max profit/Max DD*

Only half of the most important information.

maybe to you not to me, to me Max DD is the most important piece of the puzzle

...

Wont write a whole long post but keep it simple.

Simple price naked action and a plan and good risk management; all you need really. Being full time and practised proper on demo is another advantage. Start with $100 and grow that first; its easier psychologically and will ease you into bigger amounts.

GL

Newbegger, time to solidify some of your earlier thoughts and beliefs about trading. All success in the markets is based on "YOUR" understanding of it. If people believe they've figured it out, their accounts should reflect this. Any of the following beliefs, eventually solidify and become reality only when "YOUR" understanding of the markets is solid! So:


. It's easy to make money trading, yes, with a solid understanding of the market
. It's hard to make money trading no, with a solid understanding of the market
. The market is predictable yes (ditto)
. The market is random no(ditto)
. The market is like a casino and my broker is the house no(ditto)
. My broker is trying to run my stops yes and no but still(ditto)

Sorry Dukascopy. You are not on topic here and just flaming now, posting argumentative rubbish with nothing to do with trading.

So...where do we go from here? Without dukas posting his long, mentally disturbed diatribes, we will all have more time to read actual useful stuff, so someone throw out a topic.

Consistently make money is the problem, anyone can click and be see a profit at random, but try it a few times and it becomes a gamble unless a way to be consistent is developed.

Pre Raphelite Art

Nice to hear you making it as full time trader. 6 years is solid proof that you can do this full time. When I first became a full time trader I was a scalper. I think this is the safest way to trade and great to build a small account while limiting exposure to black swan events. It does take a lot of energy and patience to scalp so lot of down time is needed.

Yes, well said