Well first off: let me say I’m speechless (and that doesn’t happen too often). It’s starting to look to me as though the people with the LOWEST post counts are the ones making the REAL money and not the ones the HIGHEST post counts!!! LOL!!!
I’m surprised (ICT) that other than one post of mine that you ‘liked’ (I don’t even remember which one it was now) that you and I have not even ONCE ‘interacted’. Of course: I’m particularly impressed in the fact that you’re doing this trading spot FOREX (but we’ll not have that argument here everybody so ‘calm down’)!!! LOL!!!
I for one really appreciate the way that you ‘put’ your last post and I know exactly where you’re coming from and why you’re asking.
I (for myself) can only say that with ENOUGH capital I COULD NOW be making your 100K that you’re talking about. But it’s been a very long road for me and it’s only in the past two years (possibly even less but not by much I don’t think) that I can honestly say that given enough capital I COULD be making your 100K (and it took many years worth of losses and then a ‘spectacular wipeout’ for me to finally ‘get with the program’ and ‘do things right’ and the most important thing that I learned the hard way, NOT THAT I WASN’T WARNED ABOUT IT FOR YEARS BEFORE THAT, was this little thing of ‘risk mangement’)!!!
So to answer your question: NO I’m not making 100K per annum. Is it ‘doable’ (for me now)??? I’d be being 100% honest with you and say yes. The point is that it is possible.
BUT LET ME SAY THIS (and that’s why I quoted the above particular part of your post): therein lies the problem!!! This business capitalises on peoples greed and hope. I myself get INCREDIBLY ‘pis*ed off’ when I see the brokers (and I’m afraid I have to include myself here but it’s ‘not my call’ unfortunately) advertising ‘open a live account with only $100 and we’ll give you a 50% bonus’. Stuff like that. It creates the ‘illusion’ that one can take $100, open a live trading account, and EVEN WITH following the ‘generally accepted rule of risk managment’ and a decent trading system, you’ll be able to ‘quit your day job after three months’!!! It’s a ‘hook’. That’s all it is. First: it’s almost impossible (at most brokers) to manage your risk on any single trade with $100. So they know that you’re going to lose that $100 without a doubt (well: there’s a 90% - 95% chance anyway and those are ‘pretty good odds’ from a broker’s point of view let’s face it). Of course: you’ll then be saying to yourself: ‘but if I had more capital then I would not have wiped out’ so you’ll deposit more (and here I’m not referring to you specifically by the way). And so the cycle continues. Most people will eventually give up. A few, like me, (idiots??? LOL!!!) will ‘stick it out at all costs’ (and believe me when I say the cost to my wanting to be a successful trader has cost me in ways you could never even imagine i.e. not limited to money but, let me say, other than the losses, which I still have to cover, I’d not change a thing to be where I am now no matter WHAT it’s cost).
The point I’m trying to make here is this: without DECENT capital you cannot make REAL money while adhering to strict risk management rules. I don’t know how much capital ICT has but I’m willing to bet that it’s a WHOLE SH*TPILE and that he does not risk anymore than 2% of his account on a single trade (and I’m guessing probably less). (Sorry ICT: I’ve, at best, had a ‘quick glance’ over your thread that you host i.e. given my trading career and history and where I’m ‘at’ now I’m too ‘scared’ to even CONTEMPLATE ‘changing something’ the logic being ‘do not try to fix something that ain’t broke’ which is something I spent a good few years doing and, well, as I said, it cost me dearly).
BUT LET ME ALSO SAY THIS (sorry: lot’s of ‘buts’ in this post): having ‘sh*tpiles’ of trading capital can, and WAS, for me anyway, a ‘double-edged sword’. It CAN result in one thinking that BECAUSE you have so much trading capital at your disposal you can take a few ‘odd chances here and there’ (risk FAR more than you ‘usually’ would, ‘second-guess’ your trading system(s), stuff like that) FALSELY thinking that because you have so much trading capital at your disposal you’ll EASILY be able to recover from the ‘here and there’ HUGE loss. It doesn’t work like that. $100 000 can dissapear JUST as quickly as $100 in this business (and this I know from bitter experience as noted). The bottom line of all of this: if you want to do this for a living then you cannot start out without enough capital because, in its turn, it means that you cannot adhere to strict risk and money mangement rules while still making enough money to pay your monthly bills (at very least). And I agree with you: while those spreadsheets that demonstrate the ‘power of compounding’ are ‘alluring’ to say the least: they normally assume NO losses (or they normally make the assumption that you WILL at the end of each and every single period ‘make’ a given ROI percentage. In the ‘real world’ thing don’t quite work out that way unfortunately).
Regards,
Dale.
Wait till they start shooting back!!! Unless he’s got a Howitzer up his sleeve besides the $5k… forgive me… I’ll remain skeptical!
