How Much Do Folks On This NG Make Trading?

Q: I'm just curious. Also, how much capital did you start with?

A: You are hopelessly naive if you think you can believe anything posted to
answer your question (including my answer here, although I promise you
it is the truth)..


Based on your previous post, I believe you are already trading. Why
worry about what anyone else is doing? Just keep doing your thing and
build your capital slow and stead

y.


Trading is not an endeavor that produces steady income. It has hot and
cold runs (sometimes for long periods of time). Hot traders turn cold
and cold traders turn hot. The market itself is unpredictable and
losses are inevitable, even during hot periods.


So my answer to (what I think is) your question is that it is
unanswerable. If someone tells you he or she earned $100,000 last year
what they may not be telling is that they are now $300,000 in the hole.


There is no easy money to be made trading. It is a difficult and
serious business.


Jane...be careful about getting overconfident because that's when newbie
traders get themselves in a lot of trouble. I've been around here trading
longer than most here (although I rarely bother to post) and one thing I've
learned is that you need a healthy dose of fear and respect for the
market...especially when you're on a winning streak. It's very easy to give
back all your profits in a few bad trades just because you just "know" that
you're right.

Only if you can consistently make a profit month in month out for at least
two years in both up and down markets can you probably be sure that you can
do this for a living.


Another tip for anybody looking to start trading for a living: If you
don't already know how to play poker, learn and try to be a really good
poker player before you trade. This may sound silly...but knowing when to
hold em or fold em is an invaluable quality for a trader. Most of the
really great traders in history have been known to be pretty good poker
players.

Silly? It's one of the most sage pieces of advice on trading I've heard.
I'll keep it in mind. I suppose the first way of heeding it would be to
dump BLS, no? Well, I have an excuse. It's in the process of being
transferred from Schwab to Ameritrade. (I originally went with Schwab
because a long time ago, there were ads on the radio saying that Schwab was
a "bare-bones" broker. Not anymore. And at $30 per trade? You gotta be
outta your mind. But you can trade most mutual funds for nothing. So I'm
leaving those at Schwab.)