How long did it take?

How many months or years did it take for you to become a profitable trader?

I am trading live from last six months and I still in learning process but same ways I am making some good profit with my trading platform.

@zianfx

It defintely wasn’t months that’s for sure. I’m embarrassed to say it took 8 yrs.

But…I jumped straight in and didn’t really take sound advice.

I believe for most people it need not take so long if they do what it takes to succeed and learn their lessons well.

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It also took supertrader Buddy Schwartz 8 yrs - or was it 9?

Anyway if you get chance you should read his book Pitbull.

It took him basically all that time to realise he needed a plan.

I admit I have not been consistent with my trading. I just want a rough idea of how long it took for others.

Did you go straight to trading live? If not, how many months of trading demo did it take before you started trading live?

@zianfx

I went straight into live trading - yes I know dumb move.

@zianfx

Here’s what I think about the length of time it takes.

I don’t actually think trading is that difficult - all were really doing is drawing a few lines on charts and adding a few entry criteria.

Rocket science, brain surgery, are much harder!

On a more mundane level many other careers are harder too.

I’m sure most of us have skills that were much harder to learn than trading.

But… because most of us start wrong and have no mentor standing over us, we pick up bad habits and the longer it goes on those habits get harder and harder to break.

As a beginner you’ve actually got no trading ‘baggage’ so to speak.

So it’s possible if your learning approach is correct you can be profitable very early

But it’s extremely difficulty NOT picking up those bad habits.

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I respect your honesty and your grit. After 8 years most people would say trading isn’t for them.

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How long is a piece of string , for me it was a long road of trial and error which took around 5 years to start and have solid returns as a retail trader , the charts were not the main issue it was the emotional side that took a long time to sort out.

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It took some months definitely. Forex isn’t an easy way of making money. Novices need to practice and learn pretty much for becoming profitable. And once they gain experience trading becomes really fun and exciting.
What we must remember in the process is that we have to keep calm and be positive.

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Of course it depends on how much free time you have to dedicate to learning. Most of us started trading forex on a part time basis and learned as we went. I personally did this on and off for many years before feeling confident enough to go full time. Also it helps if you have a large enough bank roll and that can take years to build.

You can’t put an exact amount of time on it and do remember the market is constantly changing. Some methods I learned years ago no longer work or are not allowed by brokers.

Nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact I admire your determination to keep on going. Were you consistently trading during those 8 years?

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So far I was able to get the first results of work - about a month passed 3. Work on a demo, the first non-loan transactions on the main account, and as a result, profitable transactions.

in what way? not accepting been wrong and letting losers run.Or maybe not been able to accept a run of loses and upping size ect ?

Mainly accepting that I am wrong, once I got my head round that the market is better than I am and no matter what I cannot express my will on the market, the profits started to grow by killing the losers as my edge is knowing when to get out rather than when to get in.

cheers,
so did you let them run far too long, losing too big per cent on single trades. Was there specific reasons did not close at the original level like maybe issues around the news at the time

@zianfx

Yes trading constantly - until I was forced to take a break when my capital finally ran out.

Then…after all those years finally traded on demo and when I eventually opened a new account it all came together.

Weird how life works out

Never being a news trader , mainly my ego and holding way to long causing to much damage. but after 10 years later bashed that right out you system and learned the hard way to kill losers.

yes it seems you need an unemotional attitude ,when i mentioned news i was referring to big factors like brexit ,trade wars, pandemic .The tweets what came through during brexit did you head lol