How Much Money Can A Price Action Day Trader Make
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Many people believe that all successful day traders are extremely wealthy, and while most do very well, not all day traders live the life style that one might think or expect. For those that are curious, I am going to try and answer the question of how much money can a price action day trader make. In the end, how much money a day trader makes on a daily basis is reliant on the goals of the trader, and different traders have different profit goals. While there are some day traders that make many thousands of dollars per day, there are other day traders that have goals of only a few hundred dollars per day, and sometimes, even less. There are some places in the world where one can live like a king on $100 US dollars per day, and if you live in one of those locations, or even if you don’t, making $100 per day might be all the money you need, so in that person’s eyes, they are doing very well as a trader making what others might only perceive as pocket change.
The first thing a trader must do in order to make even a single dime of profit as a day trader is to learn how to read a price chart while also learning how to control their emotions. Learning to control one’s emotions while day trading is probably as much or more important than having a profitable trading strategy, but most traders go broke long before they ever get that far in their trading career. Most successful day traders will likely have a daily target goal in mind that they hope to achieve each day as they begin trading. This should be part of the trader’s overall business plan, and like any successful business, traders must have a business plan that they follow. If they don’t have a trading or business plan, then their business is likely to end in failure.
I personally am of the belief that a trader should begin with a small and reasonable daily target profit goal of something that is easily obtainable and then work upwards from there moving slowly so as not to put too much pressure on their trading efforts and results. While making $100 per day profit as a day trader might seem small, this can be easily achieved in an our or two each trading day, and will result in a profit of around $25,000.00 per year. While $25K per year is not a lot of income, where else can you make $25K per year working an hour or so per day from almost anywhere in the world? Once you can consistently make $100.00 per day for some period of time, you can then try to increase your profits to $200.00 per day for a while, and then slowly continue to build over time. If you can work up to making only $500.00 per day, you will be making around $10,000.00 per month or over $100K per year. According to the IRS, less than 10% of American workers make over $100,000.00 per year as individuals, so that would put you in the top 10% for all wage earners in the USA. Once you go over $500 per day, you are starting to make some serious money, even if you don’t consider $500.00 per day as a large income.
Below is an excerpt from an article I ran across at www.millennium-traders.com, and here is what that article had to say about making money as a day trader.
You as the individual will control how much money you make while Trading Stocks, Trading Futures or Trading Forex, however; do not for one minute, think that Day Trading is a ‘get rich quick scheme’ because it is far from it. You as the individual must realize that immediately or you will lose your money, real fast. While the possibility is real to make money Day Trading, don’t set your sites too high at first. All good things take time and that includes increasing your potential profit goal, over time.
Day Trading can be a successful livelihood for many individuals but, it takes a great deal of time, dedication and training to be successful. A majority of failed Day Traders are a result of jumping in the market, with no training. Actually, it’s almost a ‘given’ that, individuals who fund an online trading account and start to trade without developing a trading strategy and fail to participate in any Day Trader Training will lose their trading capital within 2 weeks to a month. Of course this depends on the size of their trading capital account but, it will not take long to be out of the Day Trading game, fast.
Determining the realistic amount of money you need to make to survive is job #1. Remember that, once you decide to Day Trade, the work has just begun on your new career and the success with it. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of training.
Day Traders determine their projected profits in various ways. Some Day Traders calculate the percentage of money they invest per trade for their projected return on their investment per trade. You will have Day Traders who project the number of points or portion of points needed to gain per trade, based on number of shares traded. Because there is no way to determine what any stock will do, some Day Traders do not project profits on a per trade basis but, on an undetermined number of trades’ basis. Basically, beginning during their personal training period, in demo mode, a trader will place trades (demo or real) and after learning to read charts etc., they take the profits realized and tally up profitable trades, subtract losses and fees for a grand total of realized profits (both in demo then during live trading). You can read the rest of the original article here.
What I really like about this article is the fact that the author attempts to make it very clear that day trading is not a “get rich quick” scheme or profession, depending on how you want to look at this business. Because there are so many failures in the trading world, many would characterize it as a “scheme” versus a “business.” I personally treat it as a business and with the same respect as any entrepreneur might when entering a new venture. To do otherwise is to set yourself up for failure before you even get started. If you plan to begin a start up trading venture, you will need capital, training and you must work hard and long before you will likely see success. The number one thing you will need though is training and experience. Think about that one long and hard for a moment, because that’s why so many traders fail. Would you risk a large amount of your hard earned money by opening an upscale restaurant without any experience or training in the restaurant business? I’m guessing the answer to that question is “no,” but your thought process should be no different when considering a profession as a day trader.
In the end, “relevancy” is the key word that one must consider when asking the question of how much money can a price action day trader make. It’s all relevant to your perception of wealth, but a good day trader should be able to consistently make $500 per day after time, and that would put you in the top 10 percent of all American incomes, and those numbers are certainly relevant, even if they do seem small for your own personal goal. If you want to learn how to become a day trader, you must start with a proven day trading strategy, and we can provide you that by teaching you how to read a price chart using price action trading strategies. If you want to learn more about price action day trading, you can find that information at http://priceactiontradingsystem.com/pats-price-action-trading-manual/. Just remember, day trading is not a get rich quick scheme, but rather a business that must be run like any other legitimate business. If you take that line of thinking seriously, you will be off to a better start than most new comers to the day trading world.
