How Long Does It Take to Become a Profitable Trader?

[How Long Does It Take to Become a Profitable Trader?]

To become an engineer takes between 3 and 4 years (3.5 years x 8 hours/day x 5 days/week x 40 weeks/year = 5600 hours) and then probably 1 - 2 years of practical experience untill you can manage a project alone (2 years x 8 hours/day x 5 days/week x 50 weeks/year = 4000 hours) so we are back to about 10,000 hours (and that was without overtime )

Asuming one devotes themselves completely to trading, 8 hours/day x 5 days/week x 50 weeks/year = 2000 hours ==>> 5 years.

And don't forget that in college you have teachers that guide you, mostly, in the right direction, whereas in trading we listed to all kinds of advise (sometimes given by people who should not have opened their mouth or sat in front of a keyboard to give their "advice/knowledge".

Other professions might take much more some, less but not too many.

I remember that a plumber in Montreal told me that he had to apprentice for 8000 hours (8k), on top of studiying, to get a liecense to be a master plumber.

To be a liecensed electrician, if one has a degree in electrical engineering, one had to be an apprentice for 6000 hours (6K).

It seems to me that those who truely want to be traders as a profession should count on 5 years if they cannot find someone to mentor them and shave off a few years off the journey.

 

 

 

I personally don't believe trading can be compared to any of these professions.....or pretty much any profession for that matter. They all work under some sort of structure. There are laws for electricity, the human body is the human body, water and crap go down hill, etc. In these environments you solve a problem with static numbers. Trading is much too dynamic to put static numbers to it. The market is new every second, something not seen before. In trading everything works and nothing works.

 

 

Here is a good quote from Livermore.....

 

"Rarely do any of us grow up learning how to operate in an arena that allows for complete

freedom of creative expression, with no external structure to restrict it in any way. In the

trading environment, you will have to make up your own rules and then have the discipline

to abide by them.

 

The problem is, price movement is fluid, always in motion, quite unlike the highly

structured events that most of us are accustomed to. In the market environment, the

decisions that confront you are as endless as the price movements you intend to take

advantage of. You don't just have to decide to participate, you also have to decide when to

enter, how long to stay in, and under what conditions to get out.

 

There is no beginning, middle, or end - only what you create in your own mind."

[A Look at a Stock Trader's Day]

Do you pay attention to the futures price action closely when placing your trades?