Excellent Shannon! You hit the nail right on the head didn't you? Yes, you first need to be a "successful" trader...but success can be measured differently for everyone. Many of us just consider "success" to be the big home run trades, but those are very difficult to do.

I spoke to a newbie trader who happened to be in the right place at the right time in a rice trade and pyramided the trade to over $40,000 in profits! If I remember right it was only his first or second trade...talk about beginners luck! :-)

But the point is that management is the key to your successful trading. Management involves many aspects of trading from choosing the right time frame to picking the right markets to knowing how much profit is "enough" for you. These are some very basic questions that each trader needs to answer for themselves.

As Dino Dave's post below outlines, you can earn $100K a year trading by making $250 net profit per contract. Not a big some to demand from any market really. Most markets will trade $200 - 300 in a day or two, so you should be able to capture that in a week...after enough papertrading of course. After that it becomes a numbers game where multiples add the punch. It's like the kids riddle: how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

This is a very valuable concept. I hope this thread keeps going.

Erich
http://www.tradershelpingtraders.net
http://www.supportandresistance.com