I have read this book and am incredibly inspired. Without going into further details, would you say age is a barrier to becoming a prop trader? At some point is one past the age where the skill set is present? Let me say that I am 50, have a fulltime job and am up 35% YTD and 140% off the March 09 lows and was beyond inspired by One Good Trade. Thank you in advance.

Bella Responds

Age by itself is not a barrier to success. Trading is a skill that requires purposeful practice, combined with motivation (mostly intrinsic), plus critical feedback from trading pros, and a whole lot of domain knowledge. Age does not stand in the way of putting in the time to develop the trading skills to become a consistently profitable trader.

There is an interesting phenomenon coined the “stereotype threat”. This occurs when you perceive you are less likely to succeed at something because of a personal trait. For example  in one famous 1997 study when whites were told they were being tested for their athletic ability with a putting challenge they performed worse than blacks. When the same groups performed the same task without mentioning a test of natural athletic ability both groups tested the same. So if you think you are less likely to succeed because older folks do not have as good a chance of success at trading then you will infect your performance. If you think those that go to Ivy League schools are more likely to succeed at trading and you didn’t then you will infect your performance. If you think you cannot become a good trader because you didn’t grow up near a country club then again you will infect your performance.

I would comment that the older you are generally the more responsibilities you have. A twenty-something right off a college campus does not have a house payment, college tuition for their kids, and all the other bills of grownup-dome. The ability to survive the learning is real. And the lower your monthly expenses the longer you can survive while you are developing.

Mike Bellafiore
Author, One Good Trade