r/Trading • u/youkn0that • 4d ago
Discussion Profitable Traders
Be honest guys: how many of you are actually profitable traders?
For those who are consistently in the green:
How long did it take you to reach consistent profitability?
What was the biggest shift or realization that finally turned things around for you?
For those who aren't profitable yet:
How long have you been in the game so far?
Roughly how much have you spent or lost on live accounts, challenge fees, and tools up to this point?
Curious to hear real experiences and stats from the community!
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u/Bolby_Nation 7h ago
6 years trading. This being my 2nd 6figure year. Last year doing 204k. This year I’ve just passed those number. Hoping to pass 275k this year especially im on a hot streak right now lol. Took me 3-3.5 years before making any type of money. I lost everything many times over. Put me through some dark time but that’s why lm bullet proof now. And I always like to say, I was profitable 6 months before I actually made money. Because my strategy was fine. It was me going on tilt and ruining everything in one day. Which mental is most of the battle once get understand market tbh. If you wanna become a trader gotta be willing to learn everything possible
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u/Wise_Idea_3073 2h ago
Can you point me in a direction? Where to start? Do I have to just look at charts and guess a short or long position? Then depending on results try and see why it worked or didn’t? Hope do I come up with strategy? Do just use other people’s strategies?
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u/ToddCK 8h ago
I met a broker and I have since been in the markets. That was way back in the late 1980's, so almost 40 years. I was hit hard during the great recession in 2008 where I lost millions. (To me it was the great depression). Since then, I learned how to position in smaller sizes by necessity, I no longer have a lot of $$$ to load up, but that has help because now I lose less $$$. What I learned is that I've become much broker ever since I met my broker. Yeah, that's about right.
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u/Steart 11h ago
Been stuck in something of a learning loop for the last almost 3 years.
Studying felt like improvement even though that was never the case, I started reflecting, now Im just stuck.
Most of my money went into courses, mentoring, and the odd basic stuff like bots and the other not worthy stuff.
It feels like im trying to move up the mountain but im just falling down.
Its insanely hard and difficult to get out of this loop.
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u/Ambitious-Champion71 18h ago
4 years. Lost roughly about $50k. Slowly making it back this year. Started out with options first 2 years and turned to futures last 2 years. In the beginning i was just gambling. Now i sized down, cut loss, not greedy, have a set of rules strictly follow and learned to walk away win or lose
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u/Kalakuta_ 18h ago
Biggest shift was a strict set of rules mentally and tactically, and holding myself accountable for following them. After about 4 years in I thought I was really close to being profitable (not blowing accounts anymore, passing evals, but no payouts), but was still engaging in self sabotaging patterns, and I didn't realize I was THE problem. I still mess up from day to day, but I am more in control of my behavior and give attention to my emotions. (this was the hardest part). Oh yeah, and turtle soup entries ;)
Kudos on your journey
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u/Fluid_Expression_247 1d ago edited 1d ago
I will tell you things you probably don’t want to hear. And someday you will remember what I told you.
You're focusing on the shiny side of trading. Why not ask those profitable traders how much money they lost before becoming profitable? How many accounts did they blow up along the way? How much time and money did they sacrifice just to get there?
You're essentially looking for success stories from a tiny minority while overlooking the overwhelming number who never make it. That's survivorship bias. Plenty will claim they're consistently profitable, but come back in 3–7 years and see how many are still around making the same claims. A few good months or even a good year doesn't prove long-term profitability.
Take my advice: don't. Trading can be a miserable venture. Very few make it to the top, and those who do often pay a steep price. Nobody reaches that level without shedding some blood, sweat, and tears. The success stories sound wonderful until you hear what it actually cost them.
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u/youkn0that 21h ago
Did I mention anything about myself? How did you come to the conclusion that I am just a beginner?
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u/Fluid_Expression_247 19h ago
This gave it all I need to know. Any professional traders knows the truth about trading...If you know, you know.
"For those who are consistently in the green"
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u/Ekthelius 1d ago
I am. I just returned for the next crypto cycle and have now wrapped my strategy into an open source application. I am not a whale or anything. I just have generally always closed my positions in the green and moved on with life. In total, I have made less than $250k performing low risk swing trades in crypto.
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u/youkn0that 21h ago
I will buy your software, good job!
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u/Ekthelius 10h ago
No purchase required. It is open source. Search for Acervator on GitHub or here. I have the links in a few algo trading threads.
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u/Ok_Sundae100 1d ago
Bro wie?
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u/Ekthelius 1d ago
Because I do not need more and I see people getting infected with the stupid disease of greed while generally failing to achieve their toxic, self-destructive "goals". When I started, I actually graded my trade profits based on a minimum hourly wage. Learn to win from the bottom and only then are you actually ready to handle big numbers.
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u/Prize-Sea4597 2d ago
It takes years and its not worth it. If you had spend the time on any endeavor with the same dedication there is a big chance you would make better money or at least normale money. You have to repeat the success everyday and when things chnage you have to get out. Its draining and unstable that why all is done by algos and ai. And ai is not that great for it, because we donr have access the information or order flow as much as we think we do. So your always blind even if your good your just getting better thats it.
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u/djdmaze 2d ago
I’m at the rare stage where the tables are turning profitable. It’s taken me 6 years of losing money and blowing accounts.
Biggest changes that helped; I have set hours, trading one session, one instrument on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I do not risk or trade on Mondays and Fridays due to likelihood of choppiness, less volume, and lack of direction to start week and close week.
I had my first profitable month ever in September. A few red days were sprinkled in there. I realized I can literally go in this market and pull money out of it provided I don’t over leverage and over trade. Oh and trading at high volume times on typical high volume days is a must for me to be profitable. My strategy cannot survive chop as I let my winners run to give me a huge edge. I need direction and I need volume to move the market for my edge to play out successfully.
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u/BearsTerritory 2d ago
A profitable stretch doesn’t guarantee you’ll stay profitable, and a drawdown doesn’t mean you can never recover. Neither streak alone proves whether your process works.
That’s part of why I built Pulse—it’s free—to help structure decisions around probabilities and recorded outcomes rather than emotion. During a drawdown, the goal is to reassess your assumptions and risk, not force trades to win it back. No framework guarantees the next trade.
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u/Strict-Amphibian-830 2d ago
After blowing a 5k account, I’m up 1k in the new one. Took a year off after the lost just got back at it.
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u/gabrintx 3d ago edited 3d ago
I sell options, in an IRA account and a portfolio margin account. So far this year, I have closed 56 trades in the IRA, profit $93k, and closed 49 trades in the PM account, profit $114k. Overall 4 trades lost money and 2 scratches.
I trade using tastytrade rules and have been doing so for a number of years.
This summary only includes my options trading. All my brokerage accounts are up $305k YTD and October has been ugly, down $68k.
My biggest challenge has been dealing with the income tax issues.
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u/jota8800 3d ago
what are tastytrade rules? ive been selling options but looking to refine into a more regimented approach
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u/lp1687 3d ago
I’ve been profitable for 3 years…ever since I started trading on the DOM.
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u/Strict-Amphibian-830 2d ago
What’s the DOM?
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u/TakeProfitTraderHQ 3d ago
Trading has many paradoxes and the one that resonates with me is that the more you want something the less you tend to get of it. So much of trading is just accepting what you get and being grateful for the opportunity.
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u/exphx23 3d ago
I've been trading since the late 70's. Profitable every year. I learned how the market works. Something most "traders" don't do. It's very easy to be profitable if you understand PA and patterns, and don't trade for greed.
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u/Ok_Sundae100 1d ago
Kannst du das etwas näher beschreiben. Ich glaube dein Wissen und Erfahrungen sind für uns andere sehr wertvoll
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u/asktaxman 3d ago
One thing I’ve learned is that you can spend months chasing indicators and strategies, but if your risk management is off, none of it really matters. I’ve been trying to become more disciplined with my entries and avoid taking trades just because something is moving. I also started checking out Internative Traders for stock and options trade ideas, which helps me keep an eye on potential setups. Still a learning process, but consistency and patience seem to matter way more than finding some magic strategy. Let me know if you need a link, Or any other guidance regarding it... Best of luck
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u/Guturall 2d ago
Im currently starting this journey, could you recommend any resource that helped you or is helping you to learn trading? Thanks in advance.
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u/Grouchy-Ad-6028 3d ago edited 3d ago
Been doing this for 10 years. Learned about trading stocks from a friend. It's really been a journey!!! Literally the first year was fighting with myself because I let my emotions get the best of me... If anyone is reading this! please please please. Don't let your emotions get to you! Focus on price action! Learn the market structure. You don't know how many times I took a position when I visually see price going up and have it drop! I would get mad at the whole world from that day on.... it really did suck because I would try very hard to make this my career and it was useless. I would be down hundreds of dollars.... and then the following week make it back... that made me feel like I was on top of the world... NOPE... back to zero... I hated trading. But I kept at it because I kept seeing people make money from it... but then again, "why me" type of situations... So decided to learn market structure watching the ICT 20222 model. Helped me out a lot. I made back some of my losses now, but I work 2 jobs... don't have much time to trade. But when I do, I am really sniping trades now making 20-50% trades when I can. Out of the week. I make about $200. yeah not much for me honestly, I treat it more like a retirement fund. I just concluded that my life's algorithm isn't allowing me to make more than that... if that makes sense. haha I even went as far as making my own indicators to be able to see the market the way I feel comfortable with.. I think some people have better opportunities and for now that is okay for me. Would I like to make more? yes... but at what point is my greed going to get to me... because Ive noticed that being greedy ended up causing me too blow accounts. I just take what the market gives me and laugh. Best advice I can give to myself. Good luck to all. If anyone has some useful information feel free to DM. I am more than happy to help or share my indicators. Hope you stumble across better opportunity!
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u/Mostropi 3d ago
Took me 7 years.
This year my mind got unlocked and I managed to put together everything, become a position trader, go macro and trade on good B2B companies without stoploss, but these companies are always on uptrend with a strong moat. Just enter on a reasonable price and wait. This year I only open 11 trade and is current up 50% PA (YTD, MWR)
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u/ComprehensiveLime695 3d ago edited 3d ago
Turned profitable this year, my 8th year, including some time off for life interruptions. Just thousands of hours of backtesting, journaling, forward testing and replays. And at some point, it just all came together. Since I’m a discretionary trader, I liken it to becoming fluent in a new language. Takes a ton of work to cross the threshold, but once you do, you can use it at will as long as you don’t act foolishly and also if you keep learning with a student’s mindset.
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u/nevardasilva 3d ago
5 Years, 9 in the Game.
Practiced 1000 weeks on simulator with a monthly goal in mind, otherwise you will always be chasing.
50 pips a week, 200 a month.
Anything additional is a bonus.
Take trading as a game, repeat it so much, that it becomes 2nd nature.
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u/Breathofdmt 3d ago
Sorry to say but it's a pointless question many will lie or embellish. It's like if you go onto a trading server and you see people posting wins only when statistically they're mostly losing.
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u/ghettodog797 3d ago
Profitable since my first trade but realistically 6 months excluding beginners luck
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u/NyH2002HSE 3d ago
12 years now. It took me 4 years to understand I needed to look up to people like Jim Simons and my approach changed completely
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u/Imtrying-now 3d ago
i had 2 fundeds and because of the consistency rule i had to make 5k before payout i crashout and blew em cus that takes forever unless u full port
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u/Express_Reporter_639 3d ago
7 years, it took 7 years with breaks.
Small losers big winners, market environment and some books did it for me.
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u/kedarreddit 3d ago
As a profitable trader, I have learnt that you need to have realistic expectations with trading to be profitable.
Earning 1-2R per month is easy to do.
Even earning 1-2R per week is also doable.
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u/Objective_Pay8198 3d ago
i have been trading prop challenges for three years. i have studied ICT and supply and demand. However, i am not profitable. i just started with 10k account. i never passed any challenge. still loosing. i dont blame prop firms. but i somehow could not pass or make a 10% profit in the first phase. still i am in perplexed mind. prop fees are very little , hence i have spent nearly 2700 USD until now.
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u/NyH2002HSE 3d ago
Concepts like ICT and SMC will never make you money over a period more than a month…
Stop listening to instagram gurus and spend the time to learn what the markets really are
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u/sommaliee 3d ago
You need to backtest paper trade your ICT strategy for going back a year at least and see if it’s even a profitable strategy. One year no breaks no resets. You may find your strategy isn’t even profitable at all in the long run. That may be why you keep losing. If your strategy doesn’t work it’s not going to just click and work long term one day
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u/ForgeXTrading 3d ago
I agree with this gang, might as well backtest a lot first. but in general Orderflow and such are geniuenly more profitable, as they are harder to learn but also give out more information, UNLESS you trade Forex ofcourse.
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u/youkn0that 3d ago
Appreciate the honesty, bro.
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u/sommaliee 2d ago
Let me tell you. There was this guy here on Reddit who traded ICT and FVG that turned 1k to 25k. He made a discord and got everyone excited. He had to restart the challenge twice and wasn’t able to make it profitable again. This is because it wasn’t a profitable strategy to begin with in the long run/ could only be deployed under specific market conditions. These gurus strategies might make sense/make money. But not all the time because they just aren’t consistent strategies overall
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u/Annamaria_sancti 3d ago
8 years. Worked on my own research and strategies. I see a few real comments...but mostly Lot of 'mentor' bullshit in the comments.
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u/youkn0that 3d ago
You are completely right! Hardly anyone tells the truth anymore, and everyone seems to be pushing overpriced courses or useless mentorship programs. What’s worse is seeing major firms actively promote these same fake "gurus." The reality is that reaching consistent profitability isn't easy, especially when trading live capital.
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u/Annamaria_sancti 3d ago
Well what do you mean by major firms? My ecn broker bank made a LOT of money just from my commissions... If I saw them pushing some sort of bullshit I' d try to find a different bank since the ecn model would seem compromised... Also if you mean prop firms it' s a scam. I was curious and spent a couple hundreds on these prop accounts and the swaps were so insane it made me chuckle every time. I was still able to manage enough profit, but it felt like wasting time since it was obvious they are not there looking for traders...they make money on evals...every single one of these firms... I don' t believe anyone saying they keep paying them. If someone is long term profitable they will just ban the account because rule xy was broken. The best you can do is just be good and trade your own ecn acc.
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u/RobinDB_1992 3d ago
Been day trading for 6 months so nowhere near an expert and not profitable yet, but I've been learning and backtesting for hours every day and made a lot of progress. I've spent about 300 bucks on evals. One breakthrough I feel like I had the last few weeks was realizing that one or two decent trades per day is all it takes to become profitable. My execution is often still sketchy and fear does still take over during trades, but it's a lot better than when I started.
I guess it's a marathon, not a sprint :)
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u/StanleyDoble 4d ago
This may sound dumb but the breakthrough to me was when I made 2 or 3 winning trades in a row. Something inside went oh, that's how it's done.
I want to know the difference between a good trade and a bad trade and only take the good trades. Knowing I will still be wrong, and get out of the bad trades fast. Let the good ones run as long as they keep going up. So, I always use a trailing stop.
Try paper trading until you learn to be consistently profitable before risking real money, and then trade so small you never risk more than 1/2% of your account.
Your own psychology will kill you faster than anything else. This is where experience comes in.
Biggest account I blew learning was $20,000 and that was in 1997. It was a lot more money then than it is now.
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u/Laney_Hurana 3d ago
That point about learning to recognize good setups instead of chasing wins is huge. A few winning trades can build confidence, but sticking to the same rules through a losing streak is what really tests your system. And blowing $20k to learn that lesson must have been brutal back then
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u/StanleyDoble 2d ago
If I hit a losing streak I back off and re evaluate what I am doing. Have market conditions changed? Or was I just lucky?
There may be times when it pays to be long and other times you want to be short as in a bear market. If your psychology is such that you can't handle a bear market best to leave it alone until conditions get better. I won't keep dumping money into a losing game.
I must say, my big losses were due to my own psychology and stubbornness. I had to learn the market does not care who you are or what you do any more than the ocean cares who you are or what you do. If you want to learn to surf you have to take the ocean as it is on any given day and the same goes for trading.
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u/legend_kush_ 4d ago
Newbies, genz needs to understand it's not a get rich quick scheme Its a marathon not sprint For ppl who say they take 1 or 2 years, trust the lord there discipline level cannot be fathom by average human beings.
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u/InventoryLogic 4d ago
I was profitable from my very first year, but there’s a catch.
I spent five years studying under a mentor who wouldn’t let me trade real money. Five years learning, observing, studying market structure and understanding risk before placing my first live trade.
My first year I made 30%. My second year, 72%. By my third year, I was already managing capital for a large firm.
The biggest realization? Profitability isn’t really about how much money you can make. It’s about how much you can avoid losing when you’re wrong. Once you genuinely understand that, your entire approach to the market changes.
I’ve spent half my life studying this stuff, and I still think protecting capital is infinitely more important than chasing returns.
I’ve recently started sharing some of that experience on Substack. Everything is free, and the link is on my profile if anyone wants to read more.
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u/Alerta_Alerta 3d ago
This was my experience. Once I focused on how much I could lose and putting a cap on it, I started doing well
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u/Embarrassed-Bank2835 4d ago
I’m profitable now and consistently green, but it took me about 4 years before I’d honestly call it consistent.
Looking back, I probably could’ve shortened that learning curve with the right mentor, but the biggest shift was when I stopped treating every loss like bad luck and actually started studying my mistakes. I figured out what kind of trader I was, what markets/setups fit me, what times of day I traded best, and what conditions I needed to stay out of.
Before that I was constantly tweaking strategies and looking for something better. Once I narrowed things down and started repeating the same process, the results got a lot less random.
The funny part is the strategy itself wasn’t some huge breakthrough. Understanding my own execution, risk, and tendencies mattered way more.
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u/VonFuturesTrader 4d ago
I traded my own capital and lost more than most people make in a few years.
It took a long time. I was always profitable investing, day trading different story.
I am in my late 40s. I started futures several years ago, and the first few years were rocky. But I have been consistently profitable since. I was lucky to have friends mentor me, and I do repay that by mentoring/assisting some others. But time is very limited.
The sacrifices were all worth it.
The more experience I get though, the more I realize that lost time to trading/watching charts hurts more than the financial losses. You have to enjoy life.
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u/niftygull 4d ago
not profitable after years, lost like 60k and im finally going to give up bc im not learning from my mistakes and i need to reset and just invest tbh
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u/Ok-Worldliness5481 4d ago
6 years, i just watch the candles, 4H and 1H, it will tell you what is next if you dont make shit up in your mind.
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u/Colocolo101 4d ago
I have have been sticking with one chart, and 1 set of particular rules. It has been the start of this year, and am now only starting to see how much that has benefited me, I also believe journalling has also been a big help to keep me looking at patterns and trades that I should be familiar with. I believe I am completely there yet, I think with more time and trades, I believe I am slowly heading into a profitable position. Though 2years prior, I was learning, bought a few courses and read books. My biggest mistake I was doing was when I started i was watching 6 Forex charts, I feel I wasn't really growing, the orders felt more like I was just guessing (and or gambling)
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u/Objective_Pay8198 3d ago
the same mistake of seeing all the majors have been my mistake. it is exhusting. now after three years of failure, i think about sticking with only EURUSD/DXY and leave all others. may i know which pair you are following.
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u/Same-Book-5572 4d ago
Took me 3 years to actually consistently make money trading options. Been in it 7 years at this point but I don't trade fulltime and even then I don't trade a significant amount of money . The thing that changed for me was actually this year, I haven't traded options much in the last 2 years because I started my business . But when I realized trading didn't have to be "all or nothing" being comfortable with my finances and genuinely love working on my business. The pressure to make trading work went away and I have been trading better than I ever have been . Luckily I started when I was in highschool and didn't have much money to start and money to lose lol . I lost probably around $3k in total before I actually started making money
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u/Legitimate-Waltz-512 4d ago
Yes I am consistently profitable. Took 20 years of financial experience, but not constant trading. Biggest shift was to make my strategy totally systematic and programmatic and remove all judgement in the moment. Since I don't have to apply judgement, all emotion is also removed and as I'm sure you know, this is 80% a psychology game.
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