The Hallmarks of Unprofitable Traders

I recently received a message from someone that made me think, “This person probably won’t succeed.” I want to break down exactly why.

First, take a look at the message below:

I’m reaching out to you because I need some advice. My question is about how much time I should be dedicating to practicing for my trading.

I’ve been trading for over 10 years, but I’ve always had incomplete knowledge and a half-hearted approach to practice. As a result, I’ve never made a single profit, which is no surprise. Because of this, I stopped trading about four years ago. However, after seeing your tweets, I thought, ‘Hey, if I really learn this method, maybe I can start earning a steady income. I know practice is important.’ So, my New Year’s resolution was to focus on learning properly and turning it into profit.

My concern is that as a salaried employee, I often work late on weekdays, so I’m worried I won’t have enough time for practice. From June to August, I have almost no free time. Other than that, I usually get home between 8 PM and 11 PM. Besides practice, I’m also worried if I can even manage to trade under these circumstances. (I’m hoping to do things like reading books during my spare moments.)

Given my situation, I wanted to ask for your advice on whether it’s possible for me to start earning a profit.

Thank you for your time.

I’m sure many of you find yourselves in a similar situation.

From his message, I can see two main reasons why this person is unlikely to succeed.

They are:

1. They lack the real commitment to earn money from short-term trading.
2. They’re trying to succeed without taking on any risk (i.e., without changing their current situation).

I’ll explain each point briefly.

They lack the real commitment to earn money from short-term trading

First of all, this statement:

“Given my situation, I wanted to ask for your advice on whether it’s possible for me to start earning a profit.”

To put it bluntly, anyone who asks this question is highly unlikely to succeed in short-term trading.

That’s because people who actually become successful (the ones who are truly determined to earn money) don’t ask this kind of question. Instead, before they ever reach out to someone else, they’re already racking their brains, asking themselves, “How can I start earning in this situation?”

They make the effort and find ways to change their work schedule, they cut into their sleep and meal times to free up more time, and they ask their family to take care of some of their responsibilities.

Successful people take action first, before they ask questions.

When someone asks, “Given my situation, I wanted to ask for your advice on whether it’s possible for me to start earning a profit,” they’re essentially entrusting their life to someone else. It’s an immediate giveaway that they aren’t serious about earning money from short-term trading.

If I were to say, “No, you can’t succeed in your current situation,” would they just give up? Is that all their desire, goals, aspirations, and hopes for life amount to? That’s the real question.

Those who succeed in trading don’t need me to tell them what to do—they figure it out on their own.

You say you don’t have enough time, but that’s just an excuse. If you’re getting home between 8 PM and 11 PM on weekdays, you have plenty of time to practice. And if you have weekends off, you can use that time to really focus on your training.

Sure, after a long day at work, you’ll be physically and mentally drained. Everyone feels that way sometimes. We all think, “Ugh, I don’t want to study or practice trading right now.” And on weekends, we’d all rather relax.

But you want to make money from trading, right? Then you have no choice but to do it.

Most people justify their lack of earnings by making excuses like:

• “I don’t have time.”
• “I don’t have money.”
• “I don’t have confidence.”

But nobody starts out with all the time, money, and confidence they need.

Successful people are the ones who sacrifice something to create time when they don’t have it. When they lack money, they find a way to get it so they can buy trading materials, books, or practice software. They don’t use what they lack as an excuse; they take action to become the person who can earn money.

It’s not that you can’t do it because you don’t have time or money. It’s the other way around. You do whatever it takes because you don’t have time or money, and you’re determined to earn the freedom to create time and money for yourself.

Look back at your message. Ask yourself what kind of determination, passion, and action successful people have. If you don’t have that level of commitment, you’ll likely never succeed. You might as well give up now. That would save you from a lot of heartache in the future.

They’re trying to succeed without taking on any risk

The second reason I feel this person will have a hard time succeeding is their attempt to earn money from short-term trading without changing their current situation.

I can’t help but feel they might be thinking, “I don’t want to make my life harder, but if I don’t have to, then maybe I’ll give it a serious shot.” This is an incredibly naive way to approach short-term trading.

Trying to earn money without changing your current situation is too convenient. It’s the same as saying, “I don’t want to take any risks, but I want to make money!”

If this person were serious about becoming a successful trader, they would need to take some risks to free up time. This could mean finding a less demanding job, negotiating a different work schedule with their boss, or even accepting a pay cut in exchange for regular 9-to-5 hours.

This is what I call “paying the price in advance.”

“Paying the price in advance” means you have to pay the price—whether in money, effort, or time—upfront to get something of value. The key is that you have to pay it first.

Consider people who get into Harvard. Unless they’re once-in-a-generation geniuses, they paid the price in advance from a young age by:

• Cutting down on TV time to study.
• Giving up time with friends to attend cram schools.
• Sacrificing hobbies and sleep to study.
• Giving up family time to study.

They got into Harvard precisely because they put in the effort and made sacrifices when everyone else was playing around. They paid the price in advance by dedicating their time to studying, sacrificing time with friends and watching TV.

This is exactly the same for those who become successful at short-term trading.

If you want to get results in trading, you have to pay the price for those results upfront.

In addition to changing to a less demanding job, negotiating a new work schedule, or accepting a pay cut, this could also mean:

• Turning down drinks with friends to study and practice.
• Cutting down on sleep to study and practice.
• Using your work breaks to study trading.
• Dedicating all your time after work and on weekends to studying and practicing.
• Investing your own money—or even begging your parents for a loan—to buy practice software, a PC for trading, and books on the subject.
• Quitting your job and asking your family to support you so you can free up time.

If you want to achieve results in the world of short-term trading that are better than an average person’s, you have to put in the money, effort, and time in advance.

Not later—in advance.

You must present the sacrifice first if you want to get results. Remember this. Success is always prepaid. You never get results on a deferred payment plan.

Successful people understand this fundamental principle, so they make the sacrifice first. Unsuccessful people, on the other hand, try to succeed without paying the price in advance. They want to succeed without making sacrifices and without changing their current situation.

(The person who sent the message is a perfect example.)

That’s why they can never succeed and remain just average.

Do you think someone who studies for less than an hour a day, sleeps ten hours a day, spends weekends with friends, fully enjoys their hobbies, and won’t pay for study materials will get into the University of Tokyo? Of course not.

I once knew someone who wanted to make $10,000 a month from an online business. When I observed him, I saw that he would:

• Work for only two to three hours a day (and I’m not even sure if he was doing anything important).
• Go to the gym every single day for his hobby of weightlifting.
• Sleep a lot.
• Hang out with friends and go to karaoke alone.
• Refuse to buy educational materials with proven business strategies because he thought it was a waste of money.

Naturally, he wasn’t able to earn money. He never reached his goal of making $10,000 a month because he didn’t pay the price in advance.

That’s all there is to it.

To summarize: To get anything of value, you have to pay the price for it in advance.

Always remember this fundamental principle.

Everyone who is now achieving a certain level of success has taken a risk to get there. I’ve never seen anyone succeed without taking any risks or paying the price in advance. Most successful people have gone through hell at some point, and that’s because they were willing to take risks.

Just to add one final note

I have to ask: do you have to earn money from short-term trading in the first place?

Your goal is to make money, not necessarily to trade, right? If that’s the case, short-term trading doesn’t have to be the only way.

There are countless ways to earn money besides short-term trading. And looking at your situation, even if you found a way to practice and master the skills, you would still miss most of the entry opportunities because you have so little time to watch the charts. Frankly, short-term trading may not be the right fit for you.