Has anyone here made themselves "rich" or wealthy by trading?

[Steve C]

Hi All,

With all the scams and spruikers around promising the lifestyles we all dream of, I am legitimately wondering can anyone on here say they have made themselves rich or wealthy by trading (or know someone who has). My definition of rich would be enough capital to have no financial stresses, travel the world, buy that Porsche or Ferrari and live in a million dollar + home and I don't mean people that trade a bit and also earn $250 000 a year from their work income.

My goal over the next few years is to learn, save and invest as much as possible and use trading as a vehicle to fund a financial stress free lifestyle by the time I am 40 - 50, hey while I am at it go on lots of holidays, drive a supercar (or if that is to unrealistic, an M3, C63 AMG) etc.

I guess the point of my thread is to align my goal with reality, and to see if many people on here have managed to become wealthy by trading.

Steve

 

[DB008]

George Soros?

 

[Steve C]

George Soros?

I am not talking about extreme outliers, I am talking about your average ASF user who puts in the years of hardwork researching and developing a system that works for them, using capital available to the average person.

 

[prawn_86]

I can only think of 1 ASF member that may fit that category. Even if you are an amazing trader, if you want to drive super-cars you need a hell of a lot of starting capital, and if you are that good a trader you might as well go and do a profit share for a hedge fund etc same as Greg Coffey. Nothing wrong with working for a wage in the right situation

 

[Steve C]

I can only think of 1 ASF member that may fit that category. Even if you are an amazing trader, if you want to drive super-cars you need a hell of a lot of starting capital, and if you are that good a trader you might as well go and do a profit share for a hedge fund etc same as Greg Coffey. Nothing wrong with working for a wage in the right situation

Perhaps I need to pull things back a few pegs, lets change wealthy to having no financial stresses, enough money to do all the things that they please, what is referred to as "well off". I guess the level of finances one step below my initial post.

 

[skc]

Hi All,

With all the scams and spruikers around promising the lifestyles we all dream of, I am legitimately wondering can anyone on here say they have made themselves rich or wealthy by trading (or know someone who has). My definition of rich would be enough capital to have no financial stresses, travel the world, buy that Porsche or Ferrari and live in a million dollar + home and I don't mean people that trade a bit and also earn $250 000 a year from their work income.

My goal over the next few years is to learn, save and invest as much as possible and use trading as a vehicle to fund a financial stress free lifestyle by the time I am 40 - 50, hey while I am at it go on lots of holidays, drive a supercar (or if that is to unrealistic, an M3, C63 AMG) etc.

I guess the point of my thread is to align my goal with reality, and to see if many people on here have managed to become wealthy by trading.

Steve

You can always work backwards. Say you are 25yr old and you want to have $10m cold hard cash by 45yrs old.
Let's say you are a gun trader that can generate 30% return p.a., by the time you pay taxes (asusming company tax rate), business expense, living expense and your drug habit, you probably have ~20% return you can compound with. To get to $10m compounding at 20% over 20 years, you need to start with ~$260k.

So to get there privately you need 20 years of 30% return pa. That's why rich traders are by definition outliers.

Aim a bit lower like starting with $25k @ 25 yrs old and compounding at 15% after tax while keeping a primary income, you get just under $823k by the time you are 50yrs.

And if you want to supercharge this, you need to be trading other people's money.

 

[againsthegrain]

Perhaps I need to pull things back a few pegs, lets change wealthy to having no financial stresses, enough money to do all the things that they please, what is referred to as "well off". I guess the level of finances one step below my initial post.

Drukdealer

 

[Steve C]

You can always work backwards. Say you are 25yr old and you want to have $10m cold hard cash by 45yrs old.
Let's say you are a gun trader that can generate 30% return p.a., by the time you pay taxes (asusming company tax rate), business expense, living expense and your drug habit, you probably have ~20% return you can compound with. To get to $10m compounding at 20% over 20 years, you need to start with ~$260k.

So to get there privately you need 20 years of 30% return pa. That's why rich traders are by definition outliers.

Aim a bit lower like starting with $25k @ 25 yrs old and compounding at 15% after tax while keeping a primary income, you get just under $823k by the time you are 50yrs.

And if you want to supercharge this, you need to be trading other people's money.

Thanks for this post skc - makes perfect sense, I may have overlooked the starting capital and extreme returns required to fund that lifestyle. I am currently 25 and your example is a good one, time to get back to the books.

Cheers

 

[prawn_86]

And just a note on SKC's post; it is damn hard to make those amounts year in year out

 

[Steve C]

And just a note on SKC's post; it is damn hard to make those amounts year in year out

Another way of asking this question - Is the hard work, constant reading, research and risk required to trade profitably worth all the effort or are the other avenues proven less time consuming and more beneficial (buy a few investment property's etc)

 

[young-gun]

Thanks for this post skc - makes perfect sense, I may have overlooked the starting capital and extreme returns required to fund that lifestyle. I am currently 25 and your example is a good one, time to get back to the books.

Cheers

Your around my age, why don't you jsut get a little bit of cash, and then go for it. Trade risky and very aggressively while we're young, and can afford to. It's what I am about to start doing in the next couple of months, just saving a bit more cash.

No need to bring it back a few pegs, why hold yourself back from what you truly desire? Fast cars big houses etc. Never mind if anyone here has made the money for such luxuries(which I'm sure a few have, but simply don't brag about it or even discuss it) on the market, the fact is it's possible, you just need to find how it's possible.

And just a note on SKC's post; it is damn hard to make those amounts year in year out

You certainly wont make it pumping 100k into bhp or a blue chip and sitting and watching a few measly dividends flow in. There are plenty of people out there making a sh!teload of cash each year. Even in depressed and falling markets, with all the derivatives and options and indices that can be traded there is ample opportunity.

 

[young-gun]

Another way of asking this question - Is the hard work, constant reading, research and risk required to trade profitably worth all the effort of are the other avenues proven less time consuming and more beneficial (investment property's etc)

You won't see the sort of returns in short time periods in IP's as you would in the market, mind you, you don't see the harsh losses either Property is in a bad way at the moment, I'm personally staying well clear of it.

 

[Steve C]

Your around my age, why don't you jsut get a little bit of cash, and then go for it. Trade risky and very aggressively while we're young, and can afford to. It's what I am about to start doing in the next couple of months, just saving a bit more cash.

No need to bring it back a few pegs, why hold yourself back from what you truly desire? Fast cars big houses etc. Never mind if anyone here has made the money for such luxuries(which I'm sure a few have, but simply don't brag about it or even discuss it) on the market, the fact is it's possible, you just need to find how it's possible.



You certainly wont make it pumping 100k into bhp or a blue chip and sitting and watching a few measly dividends flow in. There are plenty of people out there making a sh!teload of cash each year. Even in depressed and falling markets, with all the derivatives and options and indices that can be traded there is ample opportunity.

Great post - cheers mate, I guess the main difference for me is I now have a mortgage so free capital is even more limited, I guess it's better to play with 3k and lose it all then 20k with my current level of knowledge though.

Happy trading!

 

[boofis]

Great post - cheers mate, I guess the main difference for me is I now have a mortgage so free capital is even more limited, I guess it's better to play with 3k and lose it all then 20k with my current level of knowledge though.

Happy trading!

You are correct on one thing; lose as little as possible while you are beginner. This is a world of professionals and anyone will gladly put their hand up to take your starting capital. Learn before you lose anything and you will be far better off in the long run (which is what you're after anyway!)

 

[StumpyPhantom]

Another way of asking this question - Is the hard work, constant reading, research and risk required to trade profitably worth all the effort or are the other avenues proven less time consuming and more beneficial (buy a few investment property's etc)

A good quesion to be asking, Steve C. And the knowledgeable people on ASF are probably the right ones to be asking it.

Most people must dream about the big 'strike', otherwise those Lotto tickets would never sell.

I read a news article a while back about all those 'penny dreadful' stocks that are now worth mega-bucks because they were lucky enough to dig the right hole in the ground (wish I'd bought Buru Energy when I first came across it).

Problem is, there are so many of them that you could spread yourself pretty thin before one of them did something for you.

I know of a (unnamed) business that did some work for this company who didn't have the money to pay them but issued them with hundreds of thousands of their penny dreadful stock. Then the mining boom happened...the rest is history.

 

[trillionaire#1]

Protecting capital is my key now,but im a long way from rich.
when starting to trade i treated stocks as pets and held them in the believe that my research was right
and the market was wrong,the price would turn around eventually.....

 

[Steve C]

im a long way from rich.

don't be modest, you're a trillionaire

 

[notting]

There are plenty of people out there making a sh!teload of cash each year. Even in depressed and falling markets.

Yep their sitting on boards, and running blue chips going nowhere on massive socially reprehensible salaries that are funded by suckers swallowing hear say comments like - the above. When they get caught cheating they resign with dignity and the institution they ran gets a big fine. They then pop up 6 months later on another board with another theiving salarie do it all again.
Then there's those who can sift the trend when it's there.

 

[young-gun]

Yep their sitting on boards, and running blue chips going nowhere on massive socially reprehensible salaries that are funded by suckers swallowing hear say comments like - the above.

ok.

 

[trillionaire#1]

don't be modest, you're a trillionaire

Yes its true,but only steady and sound investing will make me a :Zillionaire