Chapter 14
Getting Started
in Trading
- Be Well Capitalized
Why do most businesses fail? Is it lack of desire on the part of their
owners? Is it inferior intelligence or the absence of people skills
necessary to succeed? Although many failed entrepreneurs believe
that these are the causes of their demise, the truth is often far more
mundane. The majority of businesses fail simply because they do
not have enough money to survive the inevitable mistakes that
befall all startups. Often the difference between eventual profit
and dead certain loss is the amount of money at the disposal of the
business owner. Money buys time and time turns into experience,
which is the necessary ingredient to master any skill. Therefore,
the need to be well capitalized is one of the key rules for starting a
career in trading.
Does that mean that a trader needs to have hundreds of thou-
sands of dollars at his disposal in order to enter the trading busi-
ness? Not at all. Many of our interviewees started with very modest
amounts. However, none of the traders who started small relied on
trading as their sole source of income during their initial learning
stages. Several like Paul Willette and Hoosain Harneker had their