Don't throw in the towel.

You've accomplished more than many who attempt to trade. I say that, because you were able to quit your job and trade full-time. How many people who attempt to trade can say that?

You mentioned that you introduced statistics into your strategy. At least you are thinking outside of the box. Many day traders stick with the same pedestrian indicators, and never consider deep statistical analysis. The closest they come to statistics is Market Profile and Bollinger Bands (the average, 1sd, 2sd, blah, blah, blah).

In my opinion, you shouldn't limit your progress to a time frame. Ten years may be a long time. But if you are studying on your own without the tutelage of a professional trader or a prop firm, then 10 years isn't that long of a time, especially when you have other commitments.

1. Am I trading too many sectors (Equites, Interest Rates, Energy, Commodities, Currencies, etc)? For me, I limited my trading to one sector-- interest rates. When I limited myself to a sector (or specific instrument), I began to understand what affects it, and understand its movements.

2. Do I really have an edge? You might want to revisit the statistical angle. Statistics can be the basis of your edge provided you are looking at the right thing.

4. Does my discipline suck? My discipline sucks. I will hold on to trades to long, move stops and dollar cost average without justification. So, I looked in algo trading a little over two years ago and haven't looked back.

5. How much debt to I have? Before embarking on trading full-time, a trader should be debt-free-- mortgage paid off, car note paid off, and no outstanding loans.

Trading is tricky. We can fool ourselves into thinking that we aren't making any progress when in fact we are making tremendous progress. Just look at where you were 10 years ago compared to now. Are you willing to throw all of that away?

1. Many traders say that they have rules for their trading and they experience problems because they don't follow them consistently during live trading. Was that the source of the drawdowns you experienced?
(sorry if you addressed this before, I couldn't find it in the earlier posts)

2. And is the entry/exit methodology you have developed 100% rule-based or is it "primarily rules-based" (if that's a thing; that is how I characterize my own approach). Or are decisions primarily discretionary after analyzing statistics?

“What if the truth was that 95 % of would-be traders are not successful after 10 + years? And among the 5 % who are, they're not making that much? Maybe it's like 1 % that actually make a killing?”

3. I've been trading and reading posts on trading forums for about 15 years and this sounds right to me, except I suspect that the 1% number might really be 0.01% - 0.1%. My own history is that I became variably profitable after about 5 or 6 years, i.e., I can make money swing trading every year but the % gain is quite variable.

maybe you should consider using Prop firms instead of using your own money to trade future, that is what I do and it has been great so far

Agreed. It's however also easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we are making progress. LOL.

Which markets (equities [single stocks, ETFs, indices], futures, FX, crypto) and instruments (cash/spot underlying, options) do you trade?

What's your strategy - mkt-neutral or directional?

What're your trade horizons/frequency (short, medium, long term)?

Is it discretionary or systematic signal generation and execution?

I thought this thread was about throwing in the towel for good? Yet here you are trading again doing the same exact stuff you did before.

Getting lucky and making 7 points after being stopped out. A 2 point stop with this volatility are you kidding!!!

Look another 10 years will go by in the blink of an eye and you will have even less accumulated real world skills and you will have missed out in promotions and pay raises and bigger benefits and accumulated vacation time.

Having trading on you resume for a large period does not help you at all it means you did not make it and you just kept at it and did not understand your own limitations. You have one life to live and let me tell you. There are way easier ways to make 50 to 100k a year then trading!!

Think about a gaussian curve which since you stated you use statistical analysis (bullshit day trading bs) you must understand gaussian distributions.

But remember the resources and power of the big winners is enormous and they will use all means necessary to protect what they know and built and have established...would t you?

My point is that if you find it difficult to make money consistently it will only get harder to move up more in terms of money gains on the winning side. It's not a bet where it's like finding a buried a treasure or the cure for cancer where you are guaranteed to have wealth! It's still and always will be a struggle that will only get more difficult for mouse clickers. I am a mouse clicker and it's getting more difficult every month or 2.

Look at pro sports players kets say baseball. There are tons of teams and players. The league minimum is like what 300k I think. Unless you love playing baseball for a living and making 300k which is great but your better players make millions. Yes you are an amazing pro baseball player but you will never make a million a year.

That's the point of my statement. Just quit trading. You are not searching for a huge treasure or a huge patented payoff you are going to be constantly metal detecting beaches for the rest of your life looking for that one real treasure like the hope diamond that someone brought to the beach and forgot! Yeah right. Just quit trading it's a dopamine addiction.