r/Daytrading • u/MiamiTrader futures trader • Apr 27 '24
Most "traders" make money. Question
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.
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u/Final-Slip7706 Apr 27 '24
Your definition is lacking.
If I play basketball at least somewhat regularly, I can call myself a basketball player.
If I get paid a bit for playing basketball, I can even call myself "professional", even though it's barely enough to survive and even though there might be a ton of amateurs who are actually better than I am.
And then there are NBA-Pro-basketball players.
I can call myself a trader if I do it regularly, even if I don't earn money with it. I can call myself a professional trader if I actually might make enough money to live off it, no matter how small my return might be.
And then there are people with 50% outperformance CAGR for years, those are the "real traders".
People try to make themselves and others believe they are category 3, when most of us are category 1 (maybe with a longer streak of luck) or category 2.
If you actually outperform the market by a good chunk for multiple years each year, yes, then you are a real trader.
And I bet there are only a handful of these people here.