a couple of months at least

OG65 

At which point does a trader qualify to receive the name of profitable? what timeframe he needs to be profitable 1 Month 2 Months 6 Months 1 Year is this a stupid question ? Can I call myself profitable when i am profitable for 1 month now?

Trading can go a bit overboard with philosophical musings and thoughts which tends to obscure people from seeing basic facts.
Trading is a business like any other that will give you a profit or loss each day/week/month. Just like owning a shop.

So how can you tell you are profitable? Work out all your outgoings that come from trading each month (computer equipment, software and data fees, rent or if working from home a basic electricity cost etc).
Then look at your profit/loss for that month. If you exceed your outgoings then you're a profitable trader.
Then the next question will be how profitable am I, can I maintain these profits, are they enough to sustain me, can I make more profits, what do I need to do to make more profit.

When paying your quarterly US Income Tax puts a smile on your face.

If you are having to pay tax due to making money by activity of trading you are profitable.


Month is too small of a timeframe, whole point is seeing if your strategy can handle different market conditions over long periods of time. Only then you have path of sustainable profitability.