90% of traders lose money , is it even true ??

[russian_trader]

I swing trade any market where I see a great opportunity. I look for situations where the probability of reward is high, and the probability of risk lower in comparison.

I use fundamentals to decide whether I want to be in or out of a trade, and I use technicals to choose my entry and exit.

When I am in a trade, I might short term trade part of my position. Meaning, I sell part of my position when I reach targets, and then buy it back for cheaper when price pulls back.

I am constantly reading articles and listening to people smarter than me, as this help me build up my understanding of situations.

What return do you have in percentage a year? If it isn't secret)

 

[Nowler]

What return do you have in percentage a year? If it isn't secret)

I only started trading in May 2017, where I lost almost 70% of my account.
It was this year that I finally made my money back and restarted depositing money into the account again.

Last year I made +17%

So far this year:
Trading Account 1 =+114%
Trading Account 2 =+51%
Investing Account = +3%

I think this year is an extreme.
Next year it will probably be closer to 17% again (I might even lose money this year)

However, I still see much more profit potential this year from my trading accounts if my current positions pay off.
My investing account probably wont do much this year, but I am building some positions that I expect to do well over the next few years.

Note: My accounts are not very big.

 

[1nvest]

I only started trading in May 2017, where I lost almost 70% of my account.
It was this year that I finally made my money back and restarted depositing money into the account again.

Last year I made +17%

So far this year:
Trading Account 1 =+114%
Trading Account 2 =+51%
Investing Account = +3%

I think this year is an extreme.
Next year it will probably be closer to 17% again (I might even lose money this year)

However, I still see much more profit potential this year from my trading accounts if my current positions pay off.
My investing account probably wont do much this year, but I am building some positions that I expect to do well over the next few years.

Note: My accounts are not very big.

Investing Account = +3%

I can help you with your investment account, as long as its long term and risk averse..just a week long course for £1500...no seriously, if your interested in a longer term approach i'd love to write up a great strategy that everyone should start with. T2W does seem to be very short term in nature

 

[Nowler]

I can help you with your investment account, as long as its long term and risk averse..just a week long course for £1500...no seriously, if your interested in a longer term approach i'd love to write up a great strategy that everyone should start with. T2W does seem to be very short term in nature

No thank you.
I've got it under control

PS: Most people here are traders, not investors.
Trading by it nature is short to mid-term... anything longer would be more of an investment than a trade

 

[JensG82]

One thing that gets tossed around very often in the trading community is that 90% (or 80 or 95!) of traders (specially beginners) lose capital , how much of it is true or everybody is saying that because they heard it from somebody else ?

Most people only repeat what they have heard.
If you think about such a statistic for a moment, you will quickly recognize the problems:

• Do we really want to lump serious traders and the Lunchmoney Retail Gang together? This may sound a bit snide, but the problem remains that a trader who feeds an account with 50 USD probably has a completely different attitude to this business than someone who forms a company, hires tax consultants and has a 6-7-digit amount with his broker. Just the marketing of brokers alone is already divided within these extremes and ranges from casino-like to the serious Prime of Prime Broker (if we restrict it to FX). If we were to include all the BinaryOptions gamblers, we would have a market that, for technical reasons, probably produces almost 100% losers.
• The other problem is the time span of the observation and thus the sample size. A short-term trader with a holding time in the minutes produces thousands of trades in 6 months, someone with a holding time of 1-2 months produces only a few.

My conclusion: I wouldn't worry about those numbers at all. The time is better spent working on the traders' mindset and other aspects that define your individual success.

 

[Attila the trader]

Most people only repeat what they have heard.
If you think about such a statistic for a moment, you will quickly recognize the problems:

• Do we really want to lump serious traders and the Lunchmoney Retail Gang together? This may sound a bit snide, but the problem remains that a trader who feeds an account with 50 USD probably has a completely different attitude to this business than someone who forms a company, hires tax consultants and has a 6-7-digit amount with his broker. Just the marketing of brokers alone is already divided within these extremes and ranges from casino-like to the serious Prime of Prime Broker (if we restrict it to FX). If we were to include all the BinaryOptions gamblers, we would have a market that, for technical reasons, probably produces almost 100% losers.
• The other problem is the time span of the observation and thus the sample size. A short-term trader with a holding time in the minutes produces thousands of trades in 6 months, someone with a holding time of 1-2 months produces only a few.

My conclusion: I wouldn't worry about those numbers at all. The time is better spent working on the traders' mindset and other aspects that define your individual success.

yeah , many trading platforms like Robbin hood targets the lest sophisticated folks , who would just put a few hundred dollars , use some crazy leverage and get blow out withing few weeks , and then there are the ones who do it for the thrill and as a hobby , these people account for a large part in the losing majority , serious traders who respect the craft and put time and capital into it only represents a small majority of the losing traders IMO .

 

[Attila the trader]

I only started trading in May 2017, where I lost almost 70% of my account.
It was this year that I finally made my money back and restarted depositing money into the account again.

Last year I made +17%

So far this year:
Trading Account 1 =+114%
Trading Account 2 =+51%
Investing Account = +3%

I think this year is an extreme.
Next year it will probably be closer to 17% again (I might even lose money this year)

However, I still see much more profit potential this year from my trading accounts if my current positions pay off.
My investing account probably wont do much this year, but I am building some positions that I expect to do well over the next few years.

Note: My accounts are not very big.

are you trading for a living ?

 

[Nowler]

are you trading for a living ?

Nope.
I'd need to build my capital much more than what it is now.

This years returns so far wouldnt be expected every year. I'd have to build my trading capital to 100k before I could realistically trade for a living.

In fact, I'd have to have 100k before I dropped back from full time to part time in my current job.

 

[Bluedog]

That sounds like a sensible plan Nowler. Trading for a living is hard work but is a great lifestyle (if that's what you want to do and have the skills, resources, mindset etc. to do it)

 

[CavaliereVerde]

On a timeframe of 5 years more than 99.9% lose money, the other 0.1% are hedge funds.
Even hedge funds struggle to make money every year, the best ones average 10% annualized.

 

[Pat494]

The brokers usually give a figure of about 73% who lose.
I don't know how they calculate this figure but it seems about right.

 

[CavaliereVerde]

That percentage is calculated with a lookback of one year.
They update the percentage every quarter.
Suppose you make 1 trade you win and than you dont' trade anymore for one year, for that calculation you are a winner...
Not so significant.

 

[ionone]

75% of IG traders lose money

 

[Lily123123]

75% of IG traders lose money

In fact, there is no good analysis of the market will be a loss

 

[KISvalue]

75% or 95%, the fact that it's not 100% is what is keeping people's hope alive.

 

[Pat494]

Whatever will happen to the markets once quantum computers become widespread ?

 

[CavaliereVerde]

I don't thnik computing power makes the difference.
Algo trading is mostly the same as 10 years ago, overfitting is easy and robust strategies are hard to endure, long stagnations.
Discipline and patience of men behind strategies is the same, no matter computing power and sophistication of tools.
The disciplined makes money on the long run while the undisciplined lose.

 

[trendie]

This guy is brilliant,
The past few posts reminded me to post this somewhere. Here is a good a place as any.
Ultimately, any edge in the market gets eroded, changing its nature, and resulting in new edges.
The billionaires described below gamed flaws in the system rather than market patterns.
(not to say thats the only way to win at trading.)

Anyhow, I think the high number of losing traders may be misleading.
I personally blew several small accounts before blowing two big accounts (low 5 figures) before getting settled into profitability. How many of those "73%" losing accounts were same people coming back for another shot?

 

[CavaliereVerde]

How many of those "73%" losing accounts were same people coming back for another shot?

Exact this is the point.
And I I said the lookback for this number is one year, that is nothing in the world of business.
If we compound 25% of winners for some years we are below 1% in 4-5 years.
Every year that 75% of losers are very likely to give up and another wave of dreamers comes.

 

[J Livermore]

Whatever will happen to the markets once quantum computers become widespread ?

The money will flow from the accounts of the not so best written computer programs into the accounts of the best written trading programs. A lot of money will flow from computer to computer.