Most traders lose money; Most investors make money.
You have to find a balance between "Trading" vs "Investing". Almost every investment, should start as a trade, but if it has worked - you need to hold on to it, for longer duration to become investment. Recipe of success is
- Create an "Investment" account and deposit money in it for years and years. Whatever you can save - put it in it with the intention of never selling a stock. Invest wisely and in a good companies. Ideally, don't touch that account until it has went to significant amount - preferably a million dollars. It may take 10, 15 years to get there, but its worth it.
- Once it has reached the first million - with an average return of 8% or so - you should make a return of 80,000$ next year.
- Transfer that profit - into a "Trading" account. Now, this is "House" money that you can play with. You may gamble it with options - risky stocks etc.
- Since you have done the hard work in first 10-15 years of creating an investment portfolio of a million dollar - you now have luxury to play around each year with 80,000 to 100,000$ a year. If you make it big - great (because now you also have 10-15 year of experience of being in the market)- chances of massive errors are less but even if there are - it is the house money that you are losing - which you will get a new set of money to play with next year.
- First step is the hardest though - It is not "Easy" to be able to "Save" a million dollars - and keep it in the market for long term and not touch it (touch it and you lose it).
