How long did it take for you to become profitable ?

I can say that I've had five or six distinct "starts" in trading and in two of them I was immediately profitable.

My first profitable chapter in trading was in buying shares. This was during a massive bull market: all I needed to do was buy a share on a Monday, sell it on the Friday and watch the account grow.

The second immediately profitable start was in trading forex. I bought every pair that was rising strongly and sold every pair that was falling strongly and again made money every week.
 
Took me 3 years on my FX/Commodities account.
I could have done it sooner but I refused to deposit more money until I made what I lost back.
It was a matter of principle.

Percentage growth, I am doing very well.
Still need to increase my capital in order to be making good money.
Made 97% last year on one of my accounts, and up 43% realized on that same account this year (sitting on 21% unrealized)

I opened a Stocks & Shares ISA & a CFD account around April last year and that's doing well also.
I am purely playing the mid to long game with that account.

Stock A/c = +23% ROI
CFD A/c = +15% ROI
 
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It totally depends on your learning power and ability to grasp things, but make sure to not rush to live trading, practice on demo accounts until you feel confident to make live trades.
 
When I started trading in 2009, I lost $ 2000.
I began to receive the first stable profitable results in 2012 in fundamental and long term trading, and in 2019 I changed my strategy to med-term trading and now I feel am getting the desired results.
 
I definitely took some losses in the beginning. After around a year I got to the point where I was breaking even or making a little profit over losses. A year after that I would say that I made a lot of improvement, but still have a long way to go.
 
No Quarter said:
It surprised me how much markets change. My methods are quite stable, but not as stable as I thought. I didn't make money in July-Nov, I actually lost an infinitissemal amount. From December on I'm back to normal... But a bit scary to not make anything for 5 mths, that was a surprise. The good thing is that my system (combined with my own hard discipline) does not allow for significant losses, so bad periods don't wipe me out...
Click to expand...
sometimes you should stay on the sidelines , its better to not make anything waiting for a good trade , than losing
 
It depends on individual. Some may get consistent within 2 years and some may need 5 years to be consistent. I took about 6 years to be consistent. I traded as a part time trader in those 6 years though. I am consistent after all these years of trading, but I still need to improve a lot.
 
Those who start trading forex to make huge profits often end up making heavy losses. I never made this mistake, still, it took me several months to make my first profitable trade. I also dealt with losses, but since I had an effective risk management strategy, they didn’t have a high impact on my capital.
 
Just keep your day job or start a tangible business......... Consistent my arse !!!!..... Muppets & mugs think they are consistent ... Consistently wasting their life thinking they can join the very few who genuinely make a decent living trading !!

If you are giving up years of your life on trading then you will be consistently profitable alright......... Consistently profitable for your broker & giving your money to the wizard of oz.
 
How long is a piece of string...I can see the logic of asking such a question but i dont think it fundamentally helps. You are alone when learning to trade. It can be detrimental to set targets others have mentioned. I know traders that have become profitable in 6months easy then others 10 years. Most lie within them but it is so individual that even family members that are very similar in all aspects including personality have different learning curves and obstacles. I would suggest to take your time do the things you can do right and then let the process unfold. You will be a lot more successful doing it that way imo
 
I don’t think I have become a profitable trader as of yet. Sometimes I make tens of profits alternately and the other times, I am just sitting clueless about where my money is going.
 
No Quarter said:
Wow you guys are fast. It took me 3½ years. Had 1½ year of losses, little less than a year very close to B/E, then small profits, and finally the last year profits...
Had doubts I would make it many times during that process, quite a relief to get throught to the other side :)
Click to expand...
I bet. Thought I'd smashed it 8 months in and very recently got smashed in the face hard and not even sure I'm going to make it now. However, I know for a fact if I knew 9 months ago what I know now I would be in a far far better position. What I have learnt is immense but it might be too late.
 
Although it is nice to find out other's experiences i wouldnt be worried too much how long it takes others. This industry really is a race against yourself. You can just get better each day and only mark your progress against yourself. You will be profitable so much quicker this way
 
Two years for me I stayed on demo for 18 months ultra conservative but then I still took losses to heart lol the old trading psychology 😅
 
For new traders lurking and reading this and itching to get their trading started - don't start trading until you're consistently profitable in a demo account.

BUT - don't despair, this should take only a few days. The reason is you don't need to invent a strategy, you just need to adopt a strategy which is already in use and which is therefore already profitable. Your demo trading is just to get you used to the mechanics of order types, the platform's features, chart set-ups etc.

Recognise that you only need a strategy which has a 55% win rate to be a top performer.
 
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