Can Anyone Become A Full-Time Trader?
No. The reality is that not everyone has the work ethic, the correct mindset, or the right personality to be a successful trader. Trading is one of the hardest professions in the world. There is no guaranteed salary, and your mistakes are punished by the market taking money from you. Most people cannot handle this amount of uncertainty with their income. Many give up after they realize that trading isn’t an “easy” source of income.
Just because it is hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. There are numerous styles of trading, so if one style doesn’t suit you, there are others to explore. You need to find a style of trading that is suited to your personality, time commitment, and capital you have available. Regardless of what style you chose, profitable trading is not an overnight process.
How Much Money Can I make From Trading?
This answer is completely dependent on your account size. It is also the wrong question to be asking when you are starting out. The first question is if you can make any money at all from the markets. Once you prove that you can execute a strategy successfully over an extended period of time than you can figure out how much you could potentially be making per month.
In trading you aren’t guaranteed anything. How much you make is dependent on the opportunities the market gives you, and how well you capitalize on them. You cannot focus on day to day PNL, because some days there will be zero opportunities, and other days there will be a dozen. Your focus should be on your weekly and monthly performance. If you can finish green consistently at the end of each week and month, it means you have an edge that you can capitalize on in the markets. But one day does not make you or break you as a trader, so don’t get too excited over a green day or too depressed over a red one.
What software and scanners do you use?
This is the most common question I get. The answer doesn’t really matter because software and scanners do not make you a better trader. New traders overemphasize the importance of scanners because they are under the impression that you just need to find “hot stocks” and then the stock just hands you money. Unfortunately, scanning is not even 10% of the part of making money in the markets. I could give every new trader my watchlist and scanners and 95% of them would still probably not make money from those stocks. You still need to find good entries on the best stocks, exit your position at the right time, size correctly, and manage your risk to make money.
I use TC2000 for my charting and Trade Ideas for my scanning. There are numerous charting platforms and scanning software out there. It really doesn’t matter which one you chose to use. If software was all you needed to be a profitable trader everyone would be a trader and there would be no one to work in the corporate world.
Free Trader Assessment
If you want some direct feedback on where you are as a trader and your trading goals, you should take our free trader assessment for advice on how to take your trading to the level. We will also direct you to our free webinar “How to make $200 a Day Trading” to give you even more free insight on how to achieve consistency in trading.
