What kind of money have people here made trading?

[mackminer]

Thanks.

[lucasjkr]

Trading is a zero-sum activity. For every person who had earned $1000, other people will have lost that same amount; more even, due to commissions/spreads.

[gentlemand]

I don't think you'll get too many straight answers. Folks will be too ashamed or smug to admit much. There aren't too many with the discipline to run away once they've made bank. They'll come back and get ravaged.

[calme]

Trading is a zero-sum activity. For every person who had earned $1000, other people will have lost that same amount; more even, due to commissions/spreads.

Yup, it all equals out. And since there are whale groups who deal in the thousands of BTC and talk in private, the typical regular on this site might have lost money.

[stonerider]

Yep, the proper question ought to be:

How much money have people here LOST trading?

[Amph]

very low amount with trading bitcoin, more with altcoin, but even more with mining

[Miz4r]

Since I've started margin trading on Bitfinex I've been doing quite well trading. I used to be very hesitant about trading on margin but if you know how to control your risk and where to put your stop losses and take profits it can actually be quite rewarding. I've been making money on both longs and shorts, and I've had to cut my losses as well a few times but I'm still way up into positive territory. Not a bad experience so far.

[r0ach]

For working class traders, there is almost zero reason to trade Bitcorn instead of altcorn.  There's a large amount of altcorn that saw 100x gains in short periods of time.  The markets are not very liquid, which is why they can have those gains, so the only reason to change to Bitcorn seems to be for people trying to gamble larger amounts of money.

Having said that, there's always doomsday prophecies of the altcorn market collapsing and providing no returns for anything.  Whether we will ever reach that point or not is up for debate.

[adaseb]

For working class traders, there is almost zero reason to trade Bitcorn instead of altcorn.  There's a large amount of altcorn that saw 100x gains in short periods of time.  The markets are not very liquid, which is why they can have those gains, so the only reason to change to Bitcorn seems to be for people trying to gamble larger amounts of money.

Having said that, there's always doomsday prophecies of the altcorn market collapsing and providing no returns for anything.  Whether we will ever reach that point or not is up for debate.

Bitcoin price is easier to predict then altcoins. Plus most altcoins go to 0 and what good is that when you can't short them.

[r0ach]

For working class traders, there is almost zero reason to trade Bitcorn instead of altcorn.  There's a large amount of altcorn that saw 100x gains in short periods of time.  The markets are not very liquid, which is why they can have those gains, so the only reason to change to Bitcorn seems to be for people trying to gamble larger amounts of money.

Having said that, there's always doomsday prophecies of the altcorn market collapsing and providing no returns for anything.  Whether we will ever reach that point or not is up for debate.

Bitcoin price is easier to predict then altcoins. Plus most altcoins go to 0 and what good is that when you can't short them.

I have the opposite experience.  Altcorn tends to actually make moves in logical directions based on market sentiment and news, while Bitcorn trading during a deflating, Mark Madoff Gox bubble doesn't.

That's Bitcorn's current biggest hindrance.  Nobody wants to enter the scene until they know the Mark Madoff bubble and correction is over.

[bassclef]

You're not going to get a straight answer here for multiple reasons, anonymity being the first and most obvious.

But look at the tape at an exchange like BFX and it becomes obvious there are players likely making (and losing) plenty of money.

Say Bob wants to do some trading and he has some bitcoins he doesn't mind putting at risk. He deposits BTC33 as margin at Bitfinex. Now he can trade with 3x that amount and keep the profits or eat the losses, minus the cost of the loan. He knows these markets pretty well and bought at $180 thinking a reversal was at hand. Not wanting to risk his whole margin, Bob makes a BTC25 margin buy. Now he is long and his unused margin protects him against an improbable crash to sub $150. (Should that happen, however, his account would be wiped out if he did not close in time.)

Bob has held onto that position until today. Now he can close his BTC25 long position at $295 per coin. The original position, worth $4500, is now worth $7375, a profit of $2875. Not a bad income for a few weeks' work, and he gets to keep his original BTC33 margin too. Had he risked more, say BTC50, he could have pocketed $5750, or nearly BTC20.

Now take a bigger trader, Alice, who is trading with a stash bought in 2013 for double digits. She has no worries putting BTC100 on margin. She makes a bold bet from $240 and buys BTC200, entering a long position worth $48,000. Today that position is worth $59,000 and Alice can realize a $11,000 profit. Now Alice has BTC137 in her account, and can take a portion as profit and slowly scale her trading positions up, increasing her income if she's successful and practices good risk management.

Take an even bigger trader who went long with BTC300 at $240. Today he's sitting on a $16,500 profit. Should he sell at $330, that's a sweet $27,000 profit in less than a month--more than a year's salary for the vast majority of people on earth.

Scale these types of profits up for people who trade with BTC500 and BTC1000 at a time during volatile periods, and you can see how trading becomes very interesting very quickly and get an idea of what kind of profits they are making.

Edit: I should probably add that if you are a new/unskilled trader or a gambler looking for somewhere to feed your addiction, negative signs can just as easily be put in front of the aforementioned profits as the market looks to shake these types of traders out.

[deluxeCITY]

I am sure some have made a bloody fortune threw trading and others have lost a fortune but the losers are likely to lie to you and their self lol I started trading altcoins when i first started and i lost a fair bit around 4-5 btc if i remember but then i stopped just jumping in and actually spending time researching the coins and their future, long story a little shorter ended up in profit not a fortune but got my money back so it's all good. Recently started trading usd/btc and i love it by far the best way to trade and the most btc to be made. I cannot give an amount because i really don't know except it is more than i started with and i have some in storage, spent some and cashed out some so probably 5+ btc since nov which is not great but not bad Happy trading   

[Robert Paulson]

please tell you're boss in the IRS i've lost everything.

[Nrcewker]

very low amount with trading bitcoin, more with altcoin, but even more with mining

couldn't agree.

bitcoin profits > altcoin

[hyphymikey]

The only reason I trade is to gain back everything I lost trading.  

[Baghead]

The only reason I trade is to gain back everything I lost trading.  

I know this very well and i am almost pro at it, losing i mean lol i have many bags but only need one or two of them to treat me right and i will be happy to claw back some losses  

[mikelitoris]

i done well from the scam coin pump and dumps, all up i made around 18BTC from those days, now i just hold BTC for the long term whether it lives or dies i am well ahead of where i started.

[Hazir]

Trading is a zero-sum activity. For every person who had earned $1000, other people will have lost that same amount; more even, due to commissions/spreads.

I am sure that the op knows that. But I think that he asked directly of your trading experience and money you earned/lost while trading.
I think that your profit from trading is dependent on your initial money invested. So in my case I earned really not that much I mainly trade just by buying bitcoin low and wait for price rise. With bitcoin alone is great strategy. I do not care about altcoins at all.

[Morecoin Freeman]

btc-e days:
My results from bitcoin and litecoin trading have been really consistent. Quite phenomenal and something I'm proud of. To give you an idea between November 2013 and March 2014 I turned $3,000 into a little over $20,000. Short version: Bought litecoin at $8 and sold at $41. Lost big chunk on bitcoin China ban news. Got really good at day trading bitcoin and grinded my way to 20k in a falling market.

mintpal era:
Then I got some crazy results from trading alt coins too. Made most on Dark, Asiacoin-scam and Liberty. These were all x1.5 - x2 trades. Only lost a little on Ultra.

bittrex saga:
Small gains in random coins followed, and my record trade of x2.5 from Vootcoin. I took a break and visited Central and South America (I'm from Europe).

bittrex post-sabbatical:
During my later alt coin trades however I got overconfident and foolish. I was overall distracted and not dedicated. Therefore I lost about $50,000 within two months!! Yea seriously... I learned a valuable lesson right there.

bitfinex present:
Since then I only trade bitcoin again, learned about margin trading and got my discipline back.

[TrailingComet]

I have made maybe 100+ small trades and net net made a profit of 2BTC tops