Every trader has their own story that differs from other traders
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This is a question that every aspiring trader wants to know. There is a lot of conflicting information on the internet about this question.
This is because, every trader has their own story that differs from other traders. Now some traders think that since it took them x months or years to become profitable, that others will also take that long.
The truth is that it is different for everyone. Some people will take a year, others will take two years and some will take three years. A few can take less than one year to be profitable.
Now when someone says it took them three years, it is hard to tell how many hours per week they were spending on trading. So all that information is subjective because people use time differently, but when you get into trading just know you are getting into something big and not a side hustle.
Black swans
When I started writing on Medium, it took over 12 months for my traffic to rise above 1000 reads a month. That is a long time. Now some people take three months but those are black swans.
Just like life, trading is a game of probabilities, the longer you stay in the game, the more you raise your probability of winning by sharpening your skills, journaling, learning from others and the sort.
All this depend on the approach that one takes. If you get a mentor it could probably take you a shorter time than when you are just on your own.
If you know that something could take you longer than a year, you are likely to prepare yourself mentally and put in place what you need to start the journey.
Greed
Most of the time people get delayed by the desire to make money quickly. That lack of discipline is what takes time to correct. Since discipline is not segmented, it demands that you change or be disciplined in other aspects of your life in order to be disciplined on the charts and that takes time.
However, the most important thing is that you should not approach trading with a desire to make money fast. That will delay you from getting to your destination. The more you choose to enjoy the process the faster you will get there.
When you give yourself to learning as much you can, you will realize you are moving fast, however when you start trading with an intention of making money right from day one, you will end up losing a lot of cash in the process.
Keep learning
At the same time it is also important to note that when you start making profits consistently, it does not mean everything will now be set and you will be ready to go. No, there are more challenges along the journey. You have to continue learning. Your strategies will stop working after some years or months and you will have to reinvent yourself. Trading is not easy.
We all get duped into starting something only to realise half way into the journey that it is not as easy as we had thought. I am sure when you started writing on Medium, you thought you will make bucks in a few months, off course a few people do but that is just not how it works.
So be patient getting into trading. Try to enjoy the journey and learn and enjoy the process because the process is the single most important aspect of anything. Your goal should be a good trader. Aim to master. Mastery is a long term process and only long term people aim to be masters of the game.
