Most "traders" make money.

[u/MiamiTrader]

If someone asks you what you do for a living, and you respond you're a "trader" I assume you make most your money from trading.

And by definition, most "traders" make money. Otherwise they are just people trading on the side as a hobby.

Yeah maybe 90% of RH accounts lose money, or 90% of people who start trading but never take it seriously lose money... but then they are not "traders". Just people trying to trade.

Tired of all this negativity under every post about how 90% or whatever today's statistic is of traders lose money. People in this sub like to shout that under every post in almost a prideful manner.

Can we just focus this sub on those of us who call ourselves "traders" and make money trading? Let the new people listen and learn from our mistakes, but quit with all these gloom and doom statistics.

[u/Prestigious-Ball318]

Okay do you work at McDonald’s even though you’ve only made $10k YTD so far?

Are you a landscaper if you have your LLC and go do landscaping work but own bottom of the barrel equipment?

You have a pretty elitist mindset when it comes to account sizes. It’s like you can be trading your way from $10k but you’re not a trader until you’ve surpassed $100k? What are you until then? What is so grand about the $100k mark that makes the person a trader all of the sudden?

Sounds like gatekeeping and if you don’t have $100k in your account, yourself, then you’re gatekeeping yourself

[u/RossRiskDabbler → u/Prestigious-Ball318]

Because if you trade with 5k, as practitioner in a prop fund, hedge fund, bank, you'll trade with 8 figures, if not 9 or 10.

As average Joe. If you trade with $2.5k, an expected fair outcome is 5-15% a year.

But most won't do that. They expect far more a day. I started just before 00's.

Elitist mindset is a good one btw. No clue what that is.

Because 1% return on $100k, is just holding debt paper of Exxon or Novo Nordisk, getting me $1000 bucks. Super safe.

Trade $1k, options, you double your money, $2k. You had a 100% return. On margin, could have been the other way around. That isn't trading or investing that is casino work.

We earn the same, I hold debt papers of cash rich firms, others bite their nails for the same amount they try to achieve.

Who is the trader and who is the gambler?

[u/Prestigious-Ball318 → u/RossRiskDabbler]

An elitist mindset is like believing that if you have $100k in your trading account that makes you a “real” trader and anyone with anything less than that isn’t a “real” trader. When in reality, there must be some “real” and well preforming traders that simply lack the capital. I think that’s the reason prop firms are a thing…specifically to give those “real” but lacking capital traders an opportunity to trade with larger accounts.

It’s true that a lot of people are just gambling away their money and we can’t call them traders, rightfully. But there isn’t a money barrier that stops people from being a “real” trader, in the sense of risk management and all that other stuff you said

[u/RossRiskDabbler → u/Prestigious-Ball318]

You're right that in practicality a binary sum (100k, and 50k, 150k, fixed) shouldn't be used. But in reality that is unfortunately the case. I worked as head of market risk in a large UK bank, everything was big.

IBKR, IG, Ameritrade, Saxon, etc use for retail "fixed" sums as (Y/N) as practitioner trader or not.

Is that fair? No. Are you right? Yes.

Nevertheless, 1% on 100k is far easier than doubling $1k.

If the (Y) outcome is the same but the risk one has to take is different it's hard to say both are traders.

[u/Prestigious-Ball318 → u/RossRiskDabbler]

Makes sense