10,000 Hours to Master Trading?

Welcome to another Trading Myth Buster’s episode.

This is where I take the old adages and see if we can bust them or not.

Today’s adage goes to…

“You need 10,000 hours to master something”.

Let’s first break this up into how many days this will take.

If you practise an art of something for 30 minutes a day…

10,000 hours equates to 300,000 minutes.

We then divide that by 30 minutes and of course we get 10,000 days.

Divide that by 365, and here’s how long it will take you to master something…

Drum roll…

27 years!

However, most professionals practise 8 to 10 hours a day – hence them being able to master the art in a short time.

This is definitely plausible if you want to be a professional ballet dancer, golfer, cricketer, rugby player and even a chess champion.
But no ways in hell, should it take that long to learn how to trade.

I am just the exception but it’s because of what was available when I started…

So please bear with me, on this side note…

In 2003, when I started, it took me 10s of thousands of hours and years and years, to learn how to be a successful trader.

This is because of a number of reasons:

• I spent two years studying both technical and fundamental analysis
  
  Each year I learnt and adapted a new trading strategy
  
  I back-tested and forward tested countless systems
  
  I had no one to show me the way
  
  I made unnecessary and timely mistakes
  
  Charting platforms and education were extremely limited
  
  I traded from morning up until 4am trading different markets
  
  I went back to the drawing board trying to find what works, year in and year out
  
  I entered into limbo mode for three years living in doubt and thinking trading was a scam
  

So as you can see, I wasted thousands of hours of finding out HOW NOT TO TRADE…

Made countless mistakes and wasted a ton of money – without having someone to direct me.

But I pushed through it all and eventually found my feet one day.

And so, yes it took me a lot longer than what it should have.

So how many hours do you need to learn HOW TO TRADE?

If a trader follows a path of a successful trader and method, it should not take more than 10 months to get their feet off the ground.

Here’s how I calculated this time for learning to trade:

#: 1 Month – Learn the basics to advanced theory
#: 1 Week – Adapt and learn a proven and trusted trading strategy
#: 1 Week – Back-test and journal 20 trades with different markets
#: 4 Months – Forward test 20 trades with the proven strategy using a demo-account
#: 4 Months – Real test 20 trades using a proven trading strategy with a LIVE (real money) account

Here’s how to follow the foot-steps of successful traders

The above is how to master the art of trading on your own…

But having said that, you’ll still most definitely need to learn the mechanics of:

How to trade CFDs
How to take a trade
How to adapt money management rules
How to develop the mind of a successful trader

This is a subjective and introspection journey that you need to run your own marathon. Take your time, go with your own energy and day by day you'll get closer to achieving your trading goals.

And the more you do it, the quicker and more effortless it will become.