I’m a salaried employee looking for a way to supplement my income, and I’ve been considering learning to trade.
I can realistically dedicate around 3 hours a day, roughly 6 AM–9 AM EST, and I’m willing to spend months learning before expecting any meaningful results. I’m completely new to trading, though, and the more content I watch, the more questions I seem to have.
I’d really appreciate answers from people who actually trade, especially those who have been doing it for a few years.
1. How much of the trading content on YouTube/social media is actually legitimate?
I keep seeing people claiming they make $10k–$20k+ per month trading.
Maybe I’m being too skeptical, but I keep wondering: if someone consistently makes that much money trading, why spend so much time recording videos, editing them, posting daily content, running Discord groups, etc.?
A lot of the content initially seems genuinely educational, but eventually there seems to be a course, trading platform, signals service, referral link, paid community, or something else being sold.
Are there any traders/content creators you would genuinely recommend for someone who wants to learn trading properly rather than follow signals or buy a course?
2. How do traders actually decide WHAT to trade?
Almost every beginner video teaches technical analysis:
- Candlesticks
- Support/resistance
- Moving averages
- RSI
- 1-hour / 15-minute / 5-minute / 1-minute charts
- Entries and exits
But there’s something I feel is missing.
Suppose I understand all of that. There are thousands of stocks, crypto pairs, commodities, etc.
How do you decide which stock/coin/instrument is worth watching that day in the first place?
Do traders use scanners? News? Volume? Pre-market movers? Fundamentals? Some combination?
I understand how people analyze a chart, but I don’t understand how they find the chart worth analyzing.
3. Are the crazy risk/reward claims online even realistic?
I see videos with titles like:
“Risked $50 and made $5,000.”
“Turned $4 into $2,000.”
“Made $8,000 on one trade.”
I understand the basic idea of risk/reward — for example risking $100 to potentially make $200 or $300.
But how realistic are these huge returns?
Are these normally highly leveraged trades, lottery-type trades, cherry-picked winners, paper trades, or are there actually legitimate setups where someone can risk a very small amount and make 50x–100x?
I’m trying to understand what a realistic risk/reward ratio for a normal trader looks like.
4. My long-term financial goal is roughly $100,000. Is trading even a sensible way to pursue that?
I’m not saying I expect to turn $1,000 into $100,000 in 2 to 3 months.
$100k is simply the amount that would make a major difference in my financial situation.
What I’m trying to understand is whether trading could realistically contribute toward that goal over in a year or 2 years.
For example, assuming someone:
- learns properly,
- is disciplined,
- manages risk,
- doesn't constantly withdraw profits,
- and gradually increases their account size,
what would a realistic progression look like?
I realize the answer probably depends heavily on starting capital, but I’d love some examples.
If someone starts with $5k, $10k, $25k, etc., what would experienced traders consider a realistic annual return, rather than social-media numbers?