“Blasphemy”…
“Tie him to the stakes”…
“Strangle him”…
Those are the phrases I could imagine in my head the moment I hit the publish button and sent out this article to countless readers across the world.
Some of my readers may have tears welling up in their eyes as they frantically read through this post.
They have been working tirelessly for weeks, months, probably even years to become full-time traders or whatever a full-time trader really means.
But after staring at the title of this article for a few seconds, you are now wondering…
Is Fillipo saying the truth or is he just messing with my head?
Well…, I won’t let the cat out of the bag just yet, because I know very few people can handle the truth.
The dream to become a full-time trader has driven many traders to confuse hope with just being gullible. The world of trading has promised more traders to become instant billionaires more than every other profession put together.
Please don’t get me wrong, it is good to have a dream that fires you up every single day when you get up. But it is also important you don’t mistake dreams for reality and end up chasing shadows your entire life
Before going any further, let’s first start with this question:
Who is a full-time trader?
The most popular answer to this question by traders who are relatively new in the game is:
- A full-time trader would be someone who makes a living ONLY through trading forex, stocks, cryptos, etc
Is the answer correct you ask?
Yes it is correct, but at the same time the answer is extremely misleading because it is not the entirely true
What is the absolute truth you ask?
I will allow you to decide what the truth is for yourself after I uncover some dirty little secrets about this profession you may never have been told.
Facts about trading:
If you go online and do proper research on how profitable retail traders are every single year, you will find out that:
- Less than 15-20% of retail traders who actively trade the market are actually profitable at the end of every year
- Out of the 15-19% profitable retail traders, over 75% make between 10-50% returns on investment per annum.
- Less than 3-5% of the 19% profitable retail traders make above 100% returns on investment per annum
Judging by the data given above, you can easily see that…
In order to become a “full-time trader”, you need more than just having decent trading skills, you also need a sizeable capital to solely depend on your trading gig to pay all your bills.
I will explain further by giving you examples:
Supposing you lived somewhere in New York, and let’s assume you were a profitable trader, and your starting capital was $10,000.00, and your skill level as a trader earns you 10-50% returns on investment per annum
Meaning: you will be making profits of $1,000 to $5,000.00 per annum.
This means you will barely be able to pay your rent every single month, talkless of feeding yourself or your pet.
Another example would be:
Let’s assume you lived somewhere in Nigeria, and again you were a decent trader with a starting capital of $1,000.00 and yearly returns of 10-50% ROI.
You will also fall short when it comes to paying your bills solely from your trading gig.
In Conclusion:
ALMOST every full-time trader has other side hustles that bring in some form of income.
Some of the side hustles could be directly related to trading like:
- Having a paid trading signal service
- Becoming a funds manager
- Mentoring services
- Having a youtube channel with huge subs
- Having a successful podcast
- Etc
Some other side hustles may also NOT be related to trading like:
- Having a full-time job or
- Running any kind of business by the side
The term FULL-TIME TRADER tends to be romanticized on different social media platforms which mislead many new traders.
The only difference between the two “full-time traders” is:
The percentage of their annual income that actually comes in through trading the market, and the income that comes in from other sources?
Remember…,
Trading is a numbers game, and before you can say that someone is a full-time trader who earns a good chunk of their yearly revenue through trading the market…, their trading skill and capital has to be quite impressive
Let me also stress that:
This is not to discourage anyone whose intentions are to become a trader who makes his entire income through trading.
I am only stressing the fact that:
Becoming a full-time trader as most imply it to be, takes a whole lot.
So…, if there is anything I would want you to take from this article, it would be:
- Know what your skill level currently is in trading and continue to improve on it.
- Being a full-time trader does not necessarily mean you make your ENTIRE income through trading alone
- You can still be a successful trader if you make a so-called “measly” 10-50% return on investment consistently year after year, as long as you also build other channels to add to your revenue stream, then gradually build your trading account to a level where you can majorly depend on it.
Now that I have explained myself to you, I will go ahead and ask the question again:
Are there full-time traders?
Comment below
