This is first article in “Trading is not easy” edition. More to come.
There is no "guarantied monthly income" in trading. It is a rocky road out there. Your income will depend of your level of knowledge, trending or ranging market and volatility of instrument(s) that you trade. Opportunity potential is not the same every day, week, month or even a year. Potential is higher in trending periods and lower in ranging periods. Higher volatility means more opportunity. But, low or high volatility could be the same for novice trader – they will lose either way, because in the beginning they don’t know what are they doing. So you have to learn and to invest in yourself. Invest time and money. Best learning is from already profitable trader that can be a mentor to you. Not an option for many of us. I haven’t had a mentor, and learned majority of what I know by myself, and some useful things from other traders. Many hours of screen time, and money paid for books, courses, trading rooms and services. Money lost in trading. Watched hundreds of hours of videos. You have to find a way to shorten the learning curve. Because it takes many years to actually know what to do in every situation, and how to be consistently profitable. After the novice period, when traders build some experience, for majority of people, average level of volatility is going to be their comfort zone. They will do poorly in days of high volatility, and could be chewed up by choppy markets in times of very low volatility – chasing the market that will constantly coming back to the edges of the range. Up, down or sideways markets – there are different strategies for each of them. IMO, better to first improve the things that you do well - to do it even better. Then, turn your attention to the things or markets that you don’t trade well.
After a good amount of time, which is measured in years, you will know how to avoid usual traps. After all, trader is an occupation, like craftsman. At least if you want to live out of it. That is then your profession. A shoemaker doesn’t make shoes first couple of years… he learns the craft. A dentist goes to college for years, than on practice for years, before he can get experience to fix your teeth. And so on – you get the picture. You can begin your trading in a period that suits you, like some strong trend, and you will make money and think how easy this is… but soon when markets start to range or trend reverse, you could get a reality check and cold shower. Then that false sense of security will collapse like a house of cards. Seen this many times. There are people out there who run services and have a YT channels that say they are trading just for a year and a half. Preaching and selling you stuff. Would you give your shoes to an apprentice to fix? Probably not, you will give them to the seasoned shoemaker. Then why in the hell would you pay money to rookies?
Choose wisely content on the internet, and avoid click-bait headlines and “opportunities”. There are plenty of good stuff out there – free and paid ones, but you have to dig deeper to find one that is suited for you.
Learn and invest in yourself.