Mike, I've found out to my detriment, that short term sclping simply does NOT work in the long run!
I'm probably going to take a break for awhile, then look at what Itchymoku as advised- Looking at longer term swing trading trading. Just place the trades and walk away for two to three months with a 500 pip SL. Probably more my style!

Thanks for your advise guys, but the stress of trading and loosing just lately is just simply killing me.
Best I just walk away for awhile and engage my brain in doing something else. The markets will always be there if and when I decide to return.

A man can only take so much kicking before he has to put put his hand up.
A trader said to me awhile back that it is no shame if you have to take a break!!

The figures come from brokers, actually the figures for those that make money for more than a year are 98%/2% according to a CBOT lecture I was listening too ... and they should know.

Yes, how it works, is the professional traders, get there money from the newbies, and there is a constant supply of newbies into the market convinced by the marketing of the educators (who also feed on the newbies) that they will be able to make a living using their $5000 account. The market works by offering Hope, but not delivering what was Hoped for, that is what keeps the market moving.

The problem with making a living out of it, is the amount of capital you really need to have to handle draw downs and to give yourself the leverage you need and that's assuming you know what your doing (which takes years). When your under capitalized you have scared money, so you run tight stops and make poor decisions.

If you can make 2% per month consistently, then you are up there with the best traders.

And no, I don't make 100K per year from trading !

There are much easier ways to make money than from trading.

This makes sense because a small account always forces traders to overtrade in an attempt to get meaningful returns.
When you have a sufficiently funded account, it's easy to be patient and disciplined, because you know that one good trade is going to pay the bills. When you have a small account and you see you only made $100 for all that hard work, there is immense pressure to continue trading... often giving back most of your profits.

The reason hardly anyone has posted is because many are loosing their accounts including myself.
After 8 years of trying this, I'm about to call it a day!


This market is simply rigged against day traders unless you can take longer term trades with a minimum of 500 pip
stops.It's simply no point in even attempting to be involved in this so called day trading pipe dream that most of us are lead to believe will give you consistent returns.

The market was NOT made for us small boys.
Unless you have insider info, you are going to struggle.

There may be traders here making money but they are but a few!!

I have about 1200 hours of screen time. I think its more but not really sure at this point. A lot of it was spent jumping around from trading room to trading room and trying different indicators. This means that of the 1200 hours of screen time, I really have only about 200 hours per method. This is not good. However, I dumped the trading rooms a month ago, got down to business developing my own methods and now have about 200 hours on my OWN method. i am getting comfortable with it.

As to the money part, I have not made any money yet. But I have not blown up an account yet either.Yes I've lost money but not enough to get me out of the game.

I know the odds are against me, but in business, the odd are always against you. I came from an industry where even in the good times with money growing on trees, the wash out rate over 5 years was 95%. I managed to make it into the top 20% of all performers in the country. It took me 3 years to do it but I did it. And I will do it again with trading.

I too like Sharky, paid thousands of dollars for training and mentor-ship in my previous career. It paid dividends like I never imagined it would. In trading, I am getting my education by reading everything I can get my hands on, participating in forums like this one and spending as much time in front of the market as possible. In the end, like every thing else that has enormous profit potential, trading is simple, not easy. I am trying my best to simplify everything I have read and learned into a simple (not easy) to understand and execute trading methodology.

Hello all,

1 - No, but the true answer is: I would like to be a good trader, lets say earning enough to live from it.
2 - No I never earn anything from real trading, I am mostly on SIM and looking for a new strategy. I try more times real money ( 3 times) but each time that I had a lost of money, then I was feeling not good. I think all of you know this strange feeling. Now I will trade without any feelings, meaning my strategy is there, i go into the market, CAUSE i know i can trust the strategie.

I trade something like 8-9 months now on SIM, trading the ES but now I will change it to the YM. I do not trust the ES anymore, and I feel better in the YM. I started to trade with indicators, a lot of them, so much that i can not see the market anymore. but now i deleted all and i trade lets say without any. from time to time i look on BigMike forum to see if an indicator can help me but i am not an indicator-freak anymore.

I use also this post to say THANKS to Mike for the forum, but also THANKS to all traders too. I really learned a lot here. AND I hope i will continue like this...

Sorry I continue the post regarding the hours on screen. it is really hard to say. 8 months ca, 8-10 hours per day. week end looking to ananlyse strategie and creating a new one. lets say minimum 200 hours per month, ca 1500 hours in 8 months (i cut holidays day and day i do something else). like i say 200 hours per month is the minimum. But actually it is more 12-13 hours per day on the screen.


Frederic