34 Steps to $25,000

The title is probably a little misleading. It assumes you already know certain things such as how to make more successful trades than unsuccessful trades. The steps to develop that skill are not taken into account in these 34 steps. Instead, I have posted these 34 steps to motivate myself and other traders (and possibly potential traders). Among my many psychological hurdles, pushing my expectations beyond the realistic resides as one of those near the top. If you do not know what to expect, and if you do not set realistic expectations (and even these below may be much too high), then how can you psychologically prepare yourself for the battles ahead?

At least that's the idea behind this post. You see, in order to be a day trader (that is, to trade whenever and however many times you please) you must have $25,000. Therefore, I am setting that as the goal. With many stocks at the moment, and especially with options, I figure a 10% gain is a reasonable stepping stone. Sure, there will be times when you will get less or even lose money, but there will also be times when you obtain more (at least, that's my experience).

With those as guidelines, I wondered how long it would take to get to $25,000 on a $1,000 account, and I came up with 34 steps:

1 - 1000
2 - 1100
3 - 1210
4 - 1331
5 - 1464
6 - 1610
7 - 1771
8 - 1948
9 - 2142
10 - 2356
11 - 2591
12 - 2850
13 - 3135
14 - 3448
15 - 3792
16 - 4171
17 - 4588
18 - 5046
19 - 5550
20 - 6100
21 - 6710
22 - 7381
23 - 8119
24 - 8931
25 - 9824
26 - 10806
27 - 11886
28 - 13074
29 - 14381
30 - 15688
31 - 17257
32 - 18982
33 - 20880
34 - 22968
35 - 25265

If you want to count obtaining the $1,000 as a step, then you would have 35, but, as with the trading knowledge, turning on your computer and the breakfast/morning routine, I will stick to 34 steps, and assume you are beginning with 1,000 at the moment. The above isn't quite accurate, as I did it by hand, cutting off any gains below a dollar.

Using the formula (I'm a math tutor) A = Pe(rt) you'll get ~32 times after plugging in all the information. But, as mentioned before, these are just guidelines.

PS: I finished reading Liar's Poker over the weekend. Expect a review soon. Also, I am about half way through Irrational Exuberance and Kirkpatrick's book (long title). If you had to choose one, I'd go with Irrational Exuberance, but I'm a little more biased towards the macro side at the moment.

Side Note: This weekend has been rough and somewhat stressful. I hadn't been close to him since middle school, but one of my cousins was shot and killed over the weekend by a gang. My aunt is, understandably, very upset. My mom and the rest of my family is rattled as well. Take care, and remember to love those around you.