i-tom

There the key to the kingdom was just given to any aspiring career traders. The above advice is exactly what I do and have done to make my living since 1996. I only wish that I could get back the wasted time, money and years of my life trying to find out what really works. I wish someone had told me the truth and saved me all the heartache. The information quoted above is golden. I will tell you this also, in all of my years in trading for a living, I have never met a single soul who makes a living trading forex or options. They may be out there somewhere, just like lottery winners, two headed cats, and albino squirrels.

You have made a lot of incorrect asssumptions. Professional traders rarely travel and trade. Trading while on vacation makes no sense, you are recharging your batteries, getting away from trading for a while. Secondly, 99% of the people here do not trade for a living, and have no clue how that would be done. Since I have traded for a living full time since 1996, and I come here mostly for the comedy relief, it is easy to spot the huge amount of fakers and wanna be neophyte "pros". I have never met a professional trader, and I know dozens, that screw around with forex, or trade options. Not a single one, since 1996. Yet, look at all the "professional" here that trade options and forex. I tell you, it it hilarious stuff to read. These same imbeciles are giving advice to other wanna be traders. It's like watching a house burn down, or seeing an accident by the side of the road; you really should not look at other peoples misfortune, but it is hard not to, and in the case here, it is tradic comedy show.

Whatever you do, don't trade Forex. I have been trading for a living for sixteen years, and I have never met a full time professional Forex trader. It attracts under capitalized newbie traders and imbeciles, who typically lose their funds then give up. This is a shame, but the Forex market is an unregulated sham and naturally attracts the dregs of the trading world.

The reason futures seem risky, is that to a large extent you can determine your own level of risk and leverage, much more so than with equities. Just because many futures firms offer $400 intraday margins on ES contracts, does not mean you should take advantage of it. They are attempting to attract the next group of low budget amatuers with those margins; they count on these under funded wanna be traders for business. I believe you should have at least 4k per ES contract that you want to trade. Even if you are an experienced trader, if only for psychological reasons. Look at this way, 1 point on the ES is $50 as you know. There are 4 ticks that make up that point, each worth $12.50. When I used to trade the ES, I knew that I needed 8 ticks to make my living each day. That's all you really need to be able to do each day. Trading 5 contracts you can pay your bills, trading 10 contracts, you are comfortable. Notice that I said contracts, I see a lot of pretend traders on the internet calling them cars. I have never known any full time futures trader who called a contract-----a car. It makes me laugh when I read this stuff. I have been a member here for a while, but I admit that I mostly come here for the comedy. Here is something to consider. I have been trading full time since 1996. I know many people in the industry, many floor traders, etc. I have never met a single person who trades options for a living who is not on the floor, not a single one. I doubt there is a single person who trades options for a living on the retail end that can prove it.

It depends on how you trade obviously. However, a decent scalper can make a living off just one good stock like GOOG, AAPL, PCLN, AMZN, NFLX, and many others. I did it for many years before switching to fiutures in 2008; I know other traders that are doing it right now. I think it is far easier to trade just one instrument, but most aspiring traders love to complicate what should be a simple task. Which is just one of the reasons for the high failure rate among active retail traders.

To some extent the vendors are regulated. The CME has a list of education partners. The only honest vendors that I personally know of are on that list, especially if they are attempting to teach a person how to trade a CME product. If they are on that list they are legitimate. If not, you take your chances.

Can't say about winnings? I earn my money.