10,000 hours to be consistently profitable

Beginner Questions
1

I’m still learning but I keep hearing it takes 10,000 hours to be REALLY good at anything; even trading.

Those that are consistently profitable, do you think this is true?

2

Very true %100

3

The 10,000 hours rule is a misuse of an observation drawn from other fields - such as learning to play the violin to world concert soloist standard, or developing yourself into an Olympic athlete. Even the author himself who originated this figure complained it was immediately and widely misused after his book became a bestseller. His work was never applied to trading, investing or speculating and in the context of private retail trading its wrong until proven right.

4

in trading you rather need 10000 $ and more

5

If we need a figure to compete with what I say is the 10,000 hours to trade myth, maybe I ought to put up some alternative number…

Let’s say you’ve already got a live account and a demo account set up and you’ve trialled each so you can use the platforms correctly.

Now need to find a strategy, learn it, adapt it a little as necessary, run it in demo to flag up contingencies that need to be planned for, and then start trading with small positions at first.

Find a strategy - 1 day. The strategy should be simple as its your first strategy, and should have a reputation for reliability.
Learn the strategy - 2 days. If it takes longer than this its the wrong first strategy.
Adapt the strategy to your style etc. - 0-1 day. Maybe nothing will be needed here, but if you have to work on it for more than a full day to make it work for you, again its the wrong first strategy.
Run the strategy in demo - 2-3 days. Its a simple strategy, and you’ve either modded it a little or not at all. Use the demo account to run the strategy in both ideal and stress-testing situations. Find out when you should use it and when you should sit out.
Run the strategy in the live account - 5 days. At first you will still continue to learn about how the strategy works in real time. Experiential learning never ends, but the rate of gaining new understanding of a new, proven, simple strategy tapers off fast.

I make that a maximum of 12 days, though I think most people could shave a third of the time off this. But that’s still a maximum total of only 100 hours.

Let’s face it, how long would it take to learn the Turtle strategy? Or the 3 ducks? Or buy the pullback?

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6

You’re right. It’s not rocket science.

7

I used that line in my interview at NASA! They didn’t think it was very funny! :rofl:

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8

In a real interview once - when asked if I had a criminal record, I replied, “Not yet”.

I got the job.

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