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How long to be profitable?

  • #61
  • Oct 27, 2009 9:12am Oct 27, 2009 9:12am
Quoting capitalx
This is an interesting read, but it is getting aggressive and personal. The thread is titled is How long to be profitable. A poster says that he is profitable. That sounds reasonable to me. The alternative is that everyone here is a loser trader.
But you immediately ask him to publish his account statements. Now I am not a friend or foe, but that seems to be over the top. Why are you assuming that every trader here is a loser?
By the way, who is the greater fool - the one who questions or the one who blindly trusts?

No need to do a Freudian analysis on that one, and no, have not been hurt in the past to such an extend that makes it impossible for me to trust anyone.

regards
daytrading
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  • #62
  • Oct 27, 2009 9:25am Oct 27, 2009 9:25am
@dt,

how do u find the time to post extensive and valuable posts all the time ,

arent u supposedly a day-trader ?

I enjoy reading ur posts btw , even though Im not a system trader...
To Live is the rarest thing in the world , Most people exist , that is all
  • #63
  • Oct 27, 2009 9:33am Oct 27, 2009 9:33am
Quoting maheswara
@dt,

how do u find the time to post extensive and valuable posts all the time ,

arent u supposedly a day-trader ?

I enjoy reading ur posts btw , even though Im not a system trader...
Hi Maheswara,

Well technically speaking I am a daytrader in the sense that I am not taking any positions overnight - but I am not trading a) every day any more and b) I am not trading HF any more either...too stressful. Besides, the machines do the stuff much better at times.

I really enjoy reading some of the threads - ever since I have become a member - unfortunately, it is like walking through the jungle nowadays to find something interesting, hahaha.

regards
daytrading
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  • #64
  • Oct 27, 2009 9:37am Oct 27, 2009 9:37am
It is good that your have good concern for others. Readers of this thread or any internet forum in general whether they are new or experienced should not take in everything said by everyone. They should evaluate posts on their own. I think most people will have this attitude, and so I don't worry about it.

Quoting daytrading
There is neither anything aggressive nor personal in what I see as perfectly legitimate questions and comments.

I am not assuming anything with regard to the poster, hence the post script. Further to that, not everything is black and white, i.e. there are neither only losers nor only winners as you chose to describe my views - which you evidently don't know.

To make matters clearer for you, I will elaborate:

Experience tells me when individuals in this business are genuine - sometimes I am wrong of course, but that is very infrequent. I won't...
  • #65
  • Oct 29, 2009 4:51pm Oct 29, 2009 4:51pm
First week. One trade. 130 pips up atm. Profitable
  • #66
  • Oct 30, 2009 12:20am Oct 30, 2009 12:20am
Quoting zarraman
First week. One trade. 130 pips up atm. Profitable
what's your point?
arent u going to trade next week, next year.
it's a long screening process.


Quoting kwcmau
For those trading daily charts - presumably you'll need to play with minimum stops of 100+ pips?
actually depends on how u trade.
btw, i was referring to the currency pair threads here, not the currency pairs themselves.
  • #67
  • Oct 31, 2009 1:10am Oct 31, 2009 1:10am
Quoting supremeChaos
what's your point?
.
No point The name of the thread is How long to be profitable.
My answer was First week. One trade. 130 pips up atm. Profitable
  • #68
  • Oct 31, 2009 1:22am Oct 31, 2009 1:22am
Quoting zarraman
No point The name of the thread is How long to be profitable.
My answer was First week. One trade. 130 pips up atm. Profitable
What meant is: How long did it take you, to become CONSISTENTLY profitable.
So in your case it doesnt apply.
  • #69
  • Oct 31, 2009 8:13pm Oct 31, 2009 8:13pm
Quoting zarraman
No point The name of the thread is How long to be profitable.
My answer was First week. One trade. 130 pips up atm. Profitable
A good start. Lets see you maintain that.
  • #70
  • Nov 1, 2009 7:37pm Nov 1, 2009 7:37pm
Quoting capitalx
A good start. Lets see you maintain that.
I don't expect to maintain that rate, but I do expect to be a profitable trader. This is what I want to do in my life. Be a trader on my own.
  • #71
  • Nov 3, 2009 7:10pm Nov 3, 2009 7:10pm
Quoting zarraman
No point The name of the thread is How long to be profitable.
My answer was First week. One trade. 130 pips up atm. Profitable
good work Z.
I have been profitable for about 7 months. Before that I was trading like a fookin idiot.
You will be profitable again this week, if you are in the trade.
  • #72
  • Nov 3, 2009 11:42pm Nov 3, 2009 11:42pm
Quoting DubaiTrader
As long as he's making profit, should he really care how it gets it?

As your signature says...can't beat them, join them. And no I haven't joined whatever service he's signed up to.
I agree with you DubaiTrader, i will take money any way I can get it. Legally, that is.
  • #73
  • Nov 4, 2009 5:38am Nov 4, 2009 5:38am
Quoting forexmick
good work Z.
I have been profitable for about 7 months. Before that I was trading like a fookin idiot.
You will be profitable again this week, if you are in the trade.
Hi forexmick,

Would you mind telling are you taking signals or making your own decisions?

cheers,

kk007
  • #74
  • Edited Nov 5, 2009 4:49am Nov 4, 2009 11:48am | Edited Nov 5, 2009 4:49am
Hi Guys,
interesting thread so far, have read all responses here.

I have started trading just a few month ago, was interested in stocks for 3 years now but never traded something other then forex.

I funded my micro account with 450 bucks and blindly started trading , had no real clue what im doing there, just traded the trend and boosted up to 1.2k , at this point i became greedy but the trend changed i ended up quitting on exactly 450$ left which was my emergency exit.

At this point i realized that i have to learn or instant quit.
So i started reading, didn't traded for a month then, after endless hours of research i found a guy who has more then 10 years trading experience and i took any advice he gave me, i learned about money management, position size, how to get out of trades, how to take profit, market times (london, ny, sydney) news events, correlations, candlesticks, drawing lines and fibs, resistance levels and so on.

Now im on a point were i read anything about trading i can get, try to be always up to date on the latest news, i never tried to go for a holy grail - i think the only holy grail is knowledge so i go to get the knowledge required to trade profitable, by books (latest 1 was "beat the forex dealer by Augustin Silvani") (next will be "Bollinger on Bollinger Bands"), advice and experience.
im doing quite well now but i expect the unexpected and will handle it if i do some steps back.

If u guys have any advice to me don't hesitate to post it (specially good books) ^^
(sry for off-topic here but i think its highly related to the topic)
Regards
  • #75
  • Nov 4, 2009 12:11pm Nov 4, 2009 12:11pm
It took me about a year to start profiting regularly. This was about four years ago now but it's only in the last year that I've refined my strategies enough to trade professionally.

I think the only reason I was successful so quickly (relative to most) is because I spent the majority of my early time focusing on psychology, RR and MM. I actually read Trading in the Zone before ever placing a single trade (including demo) because that was the first book I saw recommended when I did my initial search for trading materials.

Pretty lucky actually to get the correct mental framework before ever doing any of the damage that so many traders do to their accounts, and their trading mindset.
  • #76
  • Nov 4, 2009 4:04pm Nov 4, 2009 4:04pm
It really depends on the trader. Some people never make it, 5 years later they're still breaking even.

The thing is most newbie trader do not realize it take commitment and dedication to become a trader. They give up because they don't make a million in the first 6 months. It's a little silly really......

Personally it took me 1 year to make it in Forex but I traded stocks for 2 years before that so I had a feel for the markets. I say on average it takes a trade 2 years.

But let's be honest if you take up a trade how long before your a master tradesman? Carpentry for example...... 5 years even 10 years. Great things require great dedication.
  • #77
  • Nov 20, 2009 1:11am Nov 20, 2009 1:11am
How long to be profitable??

Am I allowed to answer this question?? I suppose so.
I went profitable in Forex immediately.

But I also had the advantage of having traded futures markets and stock markets for some 20-25 years ..
Hmmm actually..30 years, now I think about it...Hmm where did all those years go??

But of all the potential markets to trade, Forex is by far the best.
  • #78
  • Nov 20, 2009 8:52am Nov 20, 2009 8:52am
Thanks Jacko,

A few of posters on this thread saying that your method is consistently profitable!

Anyway, this poll is not about Forex in specific, but about trading in general. Have a look at my post #1.

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=199662

cheers,

kk


Quoting jacko
How long to be profitable??

Am I allowed to answer this question?? I suppose so.
I went profitable in Forex immediately.

But I also had the advantage of having traded futures markets and stock markets for some 20-25 years ..
Hmmm actually..30 years, now I think about it...Hmm where did all those years go??

But of all the potential markets to trade, Forex is by far the best.
  • #79
  • Edited 7:32pm Nov 20, 2009 6:57pm | Edited 7:32pm
2 years for me. I got my start by accident, in 1998. It was my senior year in high school then and for one of my classes the teacher entered all of her students (across 6 periods), around 150 students in a ten week trading contest. We weren't given any charts, just newspapers with quotes once a week on Fridays.

Well I didn't even know what a market was then, or that in the late 90s we were in a bull market. I just tried to use reasonable judgement; all I did was pick a handful companies I recognized from the newspapers quotes, like Pepsi that had gone up for that week, and bought those. The following Friday I sold any that had gone down for that week, and held onto others that had gone up for that week. I replaced the ones that had gone down with others that went up.

Well, after ten weeks I was surprised to find out that I ended up third out of 150 or so students. And a 10,000 paper account had turned into a 16,000 paper account. Or it could have been 13,000 on paper, I don't exactly remember. But I do remember that I came in third, and I remember that the majority of students on the list had actually lost money on paper, for whatever reason.

That was what first got me interested, but I didn't trade for years after that, until after college. It wasn't until some time into my trading "career" that I realized that worked because we were in a bull market at the time.

But it took two years because I spent over a year playing around with automated systems. I got caught up in that hoopla and it ended by me blowing up a rather large account. It wasn't until after I took a break and got serious about it, and started keeping a journal, that I put two and two together....I remember when I was still doing system trading (I was trading Emini Russell futures) one day I got sick of running the system and took some rather large and emotional trades, and in a matter of 48 hours lost about 90k, which was the majority of my account. Well that was a major learning experience for me. It was a good experience in retrospect, because that took all of the emotion out of trading for me, and after that I stopped caring about large numbers and my account value, and started caring only about execution, and about making each trade the best possible trade I could make it.
  • #80
  • Nov 20, 2009 9:02pm Nov 20, 2009 9:02pm
Lion,

Thanks for sharing! Interesting story!

kk

Quoting Lionstrike
2 years for me. I got my start by accident, in 1998. It was my senior year in high school then and for one of my classes the teacher entered all of her students (across 6 periods), around 150 students in a ten week trading contest. We weren't given any charts, just newspapers with quotes once a week on Fridays.

Well I didn't even know what a market was then, or that in the late 90s we were in a bull market. I just tried to use reasonable judgement; all I did was pick a handful companies I recognized from the newspapers quotes, like Pepsi that...
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