Do you have a hard time making consistent profits from trading despite knowing how to trade? You understand technical analysis, and fundamental analysis and know how to apply them to your charts but still can’t make enough money from trading to support your life?
I’m right now one of the traders who have the knowledge of trading but can’t make enough money. If you’re in this boat pls let me know too I started learning how to trade earlier this year and just focusing on Dow Jones and Nasdaq. I find the indices more volatile for day trading.
I wonder how to go from not being profitable to being profitable. The traders that have been in my shoes, how did you overcome this What was the thing(s) that you added or removed that changed the game for you?
There’s a glaring conflict between the two statements above and I would respectfully suggest that it’s possible the first may be slightly less accurate than you imagined. That’s not a criticism! Nobody who started learning to trade earlier this year could possibly have the trading knowledge, experience, skills and understanding to be steadily profitable at this stage.
From the educational perspective, for your long-term prospects the “steadily” part is actually what matters, not the profits.
And of course, exactly as Greg rightly comments just above, your expectations may well be exaggerated.
If you can trade for a few months without any losses, that will be a huge achievement at this stage, and better than 95% of Babypips members managed to do at an equivalent stage (probably better than 99% managed to do, really!).
I very strongly suspect that that’s a big part of the problem.
Exactly right. They’re overwhelmingly more volatile (especially those 2 indices), and that’s exactly why you might want to avoid them.
"It’s easy to catch a jackrabbit when it’s a brass ornament sitting on your mantelpiece, not so easy when it’s a live jackrabbit running around a field"- Al Brooks.
I feel you. But sometimes, I wonder if it’s also because I only trade part time. Anyway, I’d like to think I have enough knowledge to trade, but not enough knowledge to become consistently profitable just yet. If you don’t mind, do you have a particular goal that made you say you’re not making enough?
Ooooh. I think that’s pretty up there for starters. But I hope you get there eventually!
Hmm. I think it also has something to do with my trading discipline and consistency. I’m struggling to be consistently profitable because I also struggle to be consistent in trading.
so, you want to earn 50% each month, 600% per year. There was a guy called “A man who decrypted the markets”, unfortunately past away this year, Jim Simons. He and his specialist team earned average 60% per year from last 30 years, so do you think you can beat him?
Daily targets are unhelpful, misleading and a very bad way of trying to work it out.
Monthly average targets are far better.
Your +$100 per day is about an average of +$2,150 per month (there are 21.5 trading days on average in the month).
There are two big things you need to understand very clearly before you start:-
An average of $2,150 per month won’t be $2,150 every month: it will have a results-range from (maybe) -$550 to (maybe) +$4,850, averaging out at +$2,150. Don’t imagine that you’ll never have a losing month!
Very few people ever get as far as averaging 5% per month, only a tiny proportion who learn, and to be one of those, making an average of $2,150 per month, you would need (apart from your well-proven, reliable, tested, robust system of course) about $43,000 trading capital.
Sorry that my answer to this question is unhelpful to you, but I very luckily learned under direct personal daily supervision from people already making a living.
5% of that would be an average of $300 per month. $15 per day. Not $100 per day!! Sorry, but your expectations are hugely unreasonable!!
Did you mean me?! Sorry, only by posting here, and I reply if I think I can help. I have no teaching skills anyway!
My own opinion is that you don’t need a mentor; you just need to learn from some proper books and stop trying to learn from online “information” (you and about a million other people!!).
For me, tightening up risk management and keeping a trading journal helped a lot. Staying patient and sticking to a plan made a big difference. Hang in there!
Sorry, but trading “knowledge” does not equal profitable trading. Profitable trading requires another way of thinking that is counterintuitive and no where near as fun as gambling (what most new traders do).
I wonder how to go from not being profitable to being profitable. The traders that have been in my shoes, how did you overcome this What was the thing(s) that you added or removed that changed the game for you?
The simple answer is that profitable trader brains are wired backwards vs most people. Most people are unable or unwilling to change themselves and a life long way of thinking, which is why so few actually succeed at trading professionally.
Losing traders put all their time and energy on figuring out how to win more.
A losing trader that wants to become a profitable one needs to master minimizing losses while letting their winners / profits take care of themselves. (*see note below)
This isn’t talked about anywhere online because the content creators themselves usually aren’t profitable traders and/or it’s too boring to attract subscribers, followers, views and likes.
For all the young aspiring traders, a content creator’s (social media trading “guru” trying to teach others to trade) primary purpose is to make a living for themselves via entertaining content, it’s NOT to educate you with accurate information that actually works.
Note: experienced traders do focus their attention on squeezing more out of their winning trades but this is an advanced skill to be done only after they have first mastered cutting losers.
Sometimes the “like” button isn’t enough. I just wanted to say how good it’s been to read your posts over the last couple of days. Each point in the post above is an “I should have said that” moment for me. Thank you.
I started learning how to trade earlier this year and just focusing on Dow Jones and Nasdaq. I find the indices more volatile for day trading.
But sometimes, I wonder if it’s also because I only trade part time. 
Anyway, I’d like to think I have enough knowledge to trade, but not enough knowledge to become consistently profitable just yet. 
If you don’t mind, do you have a particular goal that made you say you’re not making enough? 
