how long does it takes to become a successful trader?

Hi all,

1.i have heard a lot of rumours about how many people make money in forex, some people said only 10% some said that only 3% or 1%,
but i would like to hear correct truth, where can i find it? The next question is what does it mean "earn", so i define it: how many people are profitable more than 1 year?

2.how long it takes to become successful trader (successful trader = any positive %/month more than half year), so i would like to know your stories, how long time it taken you? because i trade live third month already but i am still loosing :-/ i am desperate...

Losing at the start is part of the learning process so don't dispair... You need to develop realistic expectations of the market and get the get rich quick mentality out of your head that we all come in with (most anyway). If that means blowing an account or 2 so be it. The main thing is to learn learn learn.

Your shittiest experiences in the market will likely be your most valuable... As long as you choose to see it this way and stick to your objective.

Make no mistake its a tough, long ass road but a satisfying one all the same. See the positives of this sentence not the negatives... The weak will quit before they get there

Ask yourself questions, and go about finding the answer, over and over again. Don't believe anything you see or hear at face value, this is very important (this goes for the market itself as well). no one really knows much and if they do they won't be telling you.

Dont get me wrong there are some good threads and ideas around but you need to learn to discover for yourself if it is relevant to you. Most of it wont be.

As for me it took a very painful experience to get me straight. Everyones different but the general concensus is 3- 5 years.

I'm still getting there but feeling closer everyday. I guess if when I started I was getting the results I am getting now I would be ecstatic... But experience has grown wisdom and I'm not foolish enough to think that I could retire on what I know. there is still much work to be done

Become an independent learner and not a sheep and you'll be fine.

And the most important thing... People like myself here replying to your post are probably just bored and stroking their own ego - so listen with closed ears and validate with your own mind.

About 10000 hours of screen time.
And ditto to all the above in CindyXXXX's post.

As said above. It takes about 10 000 hours to get good at something...

Trading is what u want it to be, some people consider it as an extra income, but if u want trading to be your main source of income then you have to put a hell of alot of time in. You will make many mistakes and if your a quick learner you wont repeat them. The hardest part isnt mastering the many different strategies, the hardest part is mastering yourself, your pyschology, your emotions.

If you're losing trades then ask yourself where are you going wrong, is it wrong direction/wrong entry/too tight a stoploss/too big a stoploss/not taking profit...

my advice from what iv learned and im still a newbie:

1) everything strategy works but none are infalliable
2) following indicators does not work, they work in a rangebound market but in a trending market it wipes you out
3) elliott wave is too hard to keep track of
4) take trading seriously, if your position is open then watch it, dont go for a 30min break, or start playing video games, you should always be watching your position
5) set a stoploss and stick to it, you got the trade wrong, deal with it rather than blowing more money to maintain a losing position
6) never trade against the trend
7)if you cant see an oppurtunity, then dont trade
8) this is the most recent thing iv learned...you cannot predict what is going to happen, best thing is to follow wherever the price goes

hope this helps in someway

Six months of profitable trading (per original post) might display short term consistency but says nothing of sustainability in a method. In my earlier years, twice I made good profits for around to 6 months (thinking I had it nailed) only then to give back most of those profits to the market. Why? My execution of the plan was fair (just), but my trading plan was full of assumptions that reflected only the short term and recent tendencies of the market. I was not prepared for the majority of market conditions and also simply lacked experience, hence my method was flawed.

My hat would go off to anyone who became consistently profitable with a sustainable method in less than 3 years. I certainly took longer than that.

desparate at 3 Months ? crazy...be prepared for 4-6 years before you can make it ...gotta adapt to all paterns and feel it. get rid of almost all indicators..I have not seen one yet that works worth a darn. They just tell you were things have been, not were they are going... folks that want the holy grail on as platter...good luck.. its a tough market.

I would say that all depends on the individual trader. This is a process that lasts a life time in my opinion, it is common to hear advanced traders say how they learned new things everyday as they continue to improve their trading by adjusting details and learning about themselves.

There are various stages to a trading career and some of this stages include but are not limited to (this are from personal experience):

Stage 1: This is when a trader is introduced to trading and begins to learn the basics things like, how to read a chart, what moves the market, what is a pip, what is leverage...etc

Stage 2: In this stage we have an overall knowledge of the market and what it is. We start adding indicators and lines to our charts and begin looking for ways to make the charts tell us what we want to see by adjusting indicators and hoping to find the right combination that will make us rich.

Stage 3: We now have played with about every indicator so we go to forums to look for systems and EAs that we can obtain to help us in our quest to becoming millionaires. We go from system to system and begin to get frustrated because nothing seems to work, you begin to wonder what the heck are all this people posting systems on forums thinking, don't they know that none of them work? In reality some of them work, we just don't give them enough time and discipline to learn them, or they just don't suit our thought process.

Stage 4: We begin to clear our charts of indicators and remove some of the dark clouds that were covering our mind and charts. You begin to learn price action, support and resistance, pivot points, fib replacement... and that indicators lag. You begin to realize that demo trading isn't a bad idea and that maybe SOME of the crazy lunatics in the forums weren't really that crazy after all. You begin to realize that longer time frames are a little less stressful and more clear to understand but yet the greed and curiosity to turn a $250 account into $100k account in one year or less for that matter continues to roam your mind and you start going back to your old ways; changing strategies, taking high risks, not using money management until you blow jet another small account (for some this blown accounts aren't exactly small)

Stage 5: You continue reading and studding and begin to test price action or other strategy either via demo accounts or with very small accounts with money you consider as training expenses. You then begin to see the market and trading as a business. You continue to learn and make progress, while you raise funds.

Stage 6: You begin to make smarter decisions and begin to break even on your trading account, you win some you loose some. You realize your losses are dues to stupid mental mistakes and could have been avoided have you had your emotions in check and your business mentality in place. You continue on and begin to get picky with the trades your take and begin to use sound money management, you now see your account growing slowly but surely, while taking loses you begin to win more than you lose and with good money management you are on your way to the begging of your trading career.

Stage 7: This stage will be discussed at a later time since I'm not currently in this stage. Perhaps a more experienced member can continue on the ladder.


Best of luck.
Sincerely,
Consilium.

I think it depends on what your studying. If your focus is on finding the perfect indicator combo and/or do what 95% of other traders are doing then you may never be successful. If you focus on discovering an exploitable inefficiency in the market then it might only be a couple of years. I'm not profitable, this is my best guess.

6 1/2 years in, very on and off though, been profitable for 3months area and nicely twice but lost the plot / market conditions ruined this both times.

Could take you months or years or never, treat this like a hobby / personal challenge, a hobby / personal challenge which could make you rich.


So it's worth the time / money expended on it if you keep both at a hobby level

"How long it takes to become a successful trader?"

It is as long as curing an addiction.

6 months to 1 year

Stop! Desperation positions to lose it all. (Unfortunately, I know.)
Try demo or simulator or paper, or at least drop to pennies.

Shouldn't take long; mm and edge are about all you need.

The issue with dropping to pennys is you'll learn to cope with the lack of stress, do great, then go back to losing when it's considered real money to you again

There are so few edges which are worth a damn, brings trading back to a 50/50 game only worse as you'll fall for the lose 20 take 4 game as 4 is better than losing and spreads add up, factoring out spreads over my 2000 trades I wouldn't be down $1500 I'd be up $4500 area approx.

Its a easy game, but it's 1 of the hardest you'll ever try to master.

Any answers you get to this question won't be any help to you as people learn at different rates.

It's like asking "how long does it take to learn to drive" - it is different for everyone!

Some people will say 3 or 5 years or whatever and want to have you believe THAT is how long it takes as they don't like to think someone else can learn it faster than them.

Just my 2p...

Don't impose any limits on yourself.

Another factor is the time frame you trade. For someone trading 5m it should take less time to become successful. Now compare it to someone trading the D1. From a time frame only perspective, it takes longer for a D1 trader (myself included) to have sufficient experience and hence be more successful.

2-3 years for most people:

See polling results:
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...77#post3651077

That is a very well thought out post Cindy and I agree with everything you said.

I am on year 6 dabbling, fourth year of serious learning so I must be slower than most. I do ok now though but it was the hardest thing I have ever done.

Never give up would be my advice. The end result / lifestyle is worth the years of work.

Thanks for your all answers, you motivated me, i am going to demoing hardly untill i will be master in it... :-)