Traders - How long until you turned a regular profit?

[MRC & Co]

Sounds like you could do with adding some shorts to your portfolio JTLP, especially if the lower timeframe charts turn back downwards.

Don't think you can do this through Commsec however.

F/A and T/A both have their place, as do inter-market analysis, sentiment indicators and seasonality. Just have to work out which fit into your trade plan and how you are going to incorporate them, I currently use peices of all 5 in my trading plan, some hold far more weight than others.

 

[Julia]

I never said i was going to live off my trading with a start-up capital of $40 000 with no other income. I said i have a trading capital of $40 000 and i have reduced the work load of my 'normal' job from 5 days per week to 4 days per week. So in effect i still have 4/5 of my 'normal' income and $40 000 to use for trading. I then went on to say i believe i could make 50% on that 40k over a period of 12 months with the help of The Chartist set ups. Only time will tell if i am good enough to do this. A large proportion of the time i no longer spend at my 'normal' job is now spent learning about trading and developing a plan.

Jersey10

Haven't I clarified this? Although I'm not sure why I should need to, really. The only connection was the arbitrary figure of $40,000. And I said "$40,000 or so". That's the sort of figure which is frequently mentioned by people as they ask the question so often asked before of 'can I live off trading.......' etc.

I simply don't know why you and MRC take a general comment as being personal.

 

[professor_frink]

Ah, the wisdom of grandmothers.

Anyway, Frinky, you really are the archetypal true grit real life hotshot, aren't you? Don't tell me you have been fooling me all this time.

Dunno bout that one Julia! I'm getting through the current market alright, so things could be a lot worse. But thank you anyway

I think i've been a pretty unlucky kid. Got into the markets in October '07, and saw a 15% increase in my holdings pretty rapidly. Started to buy and sell (thinking I was it and a bit and going on rumours, ramps etc) and got burnt pretty badly. My losses for the year are about 2% of my income (which may not seem a lot) but that 2% is priceless to me in the lessons learnt!

If there is one thing that life teaches you, is that you never stop learning.

I am currently only turning a profit off 1 of my stocks (out of a total of 7). My losses range between 4% and 60% (wish I knew about stop losses!). Hopefully I can start to turn a profit next year (ableit a small one).

This site has been invaluable with all the technical skills learnt. I work full time and imagine trying to DT with Commsec & your boss walking past every 5minutes

One last thing I have learnt the hard way...sometimes the fundamentals are just not match for the technicals...

You are most likely luckier than you think, bullmarkets can breed bad habits. I think learning to trade in less than ideal conditions is going to be of more benefit to you than if you had of started back in 2003/4. If you can survive the current market, then you'll be in a good place to prosper the next time we have a decent run.

 

[stevo]

It's quite easy to make a small fortune trading - start with a large one and work your way down

I don't trade for a living so I didn't respond to this poll. But it's certainly a serious business for me, but it's not my only source of income.

stevo

 

[jersey10]

Haven't I clarified this? Although I'm not sure why I should need to, really. The only connection was the arbitrary figure of $40,000. And I said "$40,000 or so". That's the sort of figure which is frequently mentioned by people as they ask the question so often asked before of 'can I live off trading.......' etc.

I simply don't know why you and MRC take a general comment as being personal.

Hi Julia,

Not taken personally by me. No offence taken by me.

Jersey10

 

[trishan9390]

I started trading in August last year, a great time to learn. My aim is to beat compounding interest rate of 7.25% on my starting captial. More of a hobby for me and is something enjoy doing in my spare time.