You either want to be a trader, just started trading or know someone in the markets. Most often you have this question when you’re on your way down the day trading path.
Any job you’re thinking about taking always comes with the question of how much does it pay. Even if you’re starting a business, you have to at least know how much potential profit there could be.
What’s attractive about day trading is that it can create financial freedom. You don’t need a degree and you can be anywhere in the world with an internet connection and trade. Who doesn’t want to be able to travel and also make an insane living?
The sad truth is that most people are asking the wrong question. It’s not how much do day traders make, it’s are you willing to do what’s necessary to get there.
What Successful Traders Make
If you’ve been around trading for any length of time, you no doubt have heard of people making millions seemingly overnight. Starting with just a few hundred dollars and turning it into a fortune gets everyone’s attention.
Oftentimes these are professionals. Or at least people who have been at it long enough to have their system dialed in. Their results are in no way typical of a beginner who’s still working out their edge.
To get right to the numbers there are some traders who make 7 figures a year. Even if they only profit one million for the year, that’s an average of over $83,000 a month. That’s around the average US salary every 30 days.
Some can push out six figures a year trading their own funds which is no small feat.
Of course income from the markets is not as consistent and steady as a regular paycheck. You can’t reverse engineer yearly earnings and bank on that coming in month after month.
There are other things to consider like Prop Firms which may offer a salary to get you going. At these firms the risk is different than if you were just trading your own capital. They offer the potential to make more by allowing you access to their funds, but you have to prove you have the skills first.
For those trading their own money, success is still attainable. However it’s rarely a straight line and there’s no guarantee you’ll get there at all.
How Much Can You Make Day Trading?
What you can earn really comes down to how much work you dedicate to becoming a master of your craft. It’s no different than any pro athlete. The more value you bring, the higher your income potential.
Countless people come into trading thinking they will be rich within a matter of months. Instead of focusing on what it takes to be a professional, they focus only on the income of a pro.
You have no doubt heard of the 10,000 hours rule. Whether you believe in it or not, you can’t argue that you need to practice to get better at anything. One of the first goals of anyone trying to be a trader should be to get some reps in.
Those who are lucky enough to put on a profitable trade without knowing why, soon part with most or all of their account. Good traders know when they got lucky and when it was an edge. Many have blown up their accounts because they thought being lucky was a trading strategy.
Another glaring statistic that anyone with a healthy amount of self confidence overlooks is that most beginner traders lose money. You have to be overly sure of yourself to try to achieve something that over 90% of people never do. This is not to say you can’t find success. It’s that you only hear about success stories.
If every financial news show aired a story when someone blew up their account, that would be the only breaking news you’d ever see. All but guaranteed failure doesn’t make the masses want to download trading apps like it’s going out of style. You have to believe there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or you won’t bother.
What Should I Expect To Make Trading?
At the beginning of your journey it’s best not to focus on making money at all. I know that’s not exactly what you want to hear. Planning how to spend those profits before you’ve ever even hit the buy button has caused many to never succeed.
Instead you want to focus on making great trades. If you can create the mental toughness to take that setup every time you see it, you’ll be better than most.
Making money is the result of great trading, not the focus of it. You don’t often hear that because making great trades takes tons of practice. And that doesn’t even consider what is takes to even find great stocks in the first place.
So how much will you earn as a day trader? How will day trading fit into your current lifestyle? How much time do you have to dedicate to learning and trading right now? Do you want to trade full time or just part time and keep your career?
There are many things to consider other than what day trading pays. It’s like any worthwhile career. It pays the most to the best. Are you determined to make it a reality in your life?
If you haven’t started your investing journey yet here is a good place if you don’t know where to begin. And to make sure you only pick the perfect financial instruments to trade, check out this article here.
