Are stories of turning a few thousands into millions by trading stocks real?

Question

I've seen stories on the internet, people got rich from only a few thousands by trading stocks. I've seen some trading academies claim offering courses that can help you to make a living by just trading stocks and all you need is a few thousand bucks to enter the market.

I've attended one of those courses but didn't sign up because I will have to pay a few thousands to take the full course. They were showing the income statements of those who took the courses and become rich by trading stocks.

Are those stories for real? I am sure it's possible to get rich by trading stocks with only a few thousands, but what's the likelihood that you can succeed, is it just pure luck or you can certainly do it if you have the required knowledge and skills?

Answer 1

If they could really do this, do you really think they would be wasting their time offering this course? You are being lied to.

(Or more accurately: It's certainly possible to gamble and get lucky, but those gambles are more likely to result in your rapidly losing your money than in your rapidly gaining value.)

It is possible to make money in the market. But "market rate of return" has historically averaged around 8%. That won't make you rich by itself, but it's better return than you can get from banks... at higher risk, please note.

There are places in the market where, by accepting more risk of losing your money, you can improve on that 8%. For me the risk and effort are too much for the potential additional gains, but de gustibus.

Answer 2

Consider this thought experiment:

Take 10 million people and give them each $3,000. Every day they each purchase a random stock with all of their money. The next day they flip a coin and if it's heads they do nothing, and if it's tails they sell it and purchase another random stock. Repeat everyday for 5 years.

After 5 years, you'll probably have many people that lost all of their money due to the fees they paid for each trade they made. A lot of people will have lost a little or won a little. Some people will have doubled or tripled their money, or even better. A very small number of people will have made "millions".

Some of those small number of people that made millions will likely go on to write books and sell seminars on how to make money in the stock market.

Answer 3

10k in taser stock at $1.00 per share made those who held into the hundreds per share made millions.

But think about the likelihood of you owning a $1 stock and holding it past $10.00. They (taser millionaires) were both crazy and lucky.

A direct answer, better off buying a lottery ticket. Stocks are for growing wealth not gaining wealth imho. Of course there are outliers though.

To the point in the other answer, if it was repeatable the people teaching the tricks (if they worked) would make much more if they followed their own advice if it worked.

Also, if everyone tells you how good gold is to buy that just means they are selling to get out. If it was that good they would be buying and not saying anything about it.

Answer 4

The short answer is yes, it is possible to do what these classes claim, however, it is highly unlikely. For every person they can show you that got rich using whatever so called method they are teaching, there are hundreds of people that didn't that they aren't telling you about.

What I would recommend is invest in a well diversified portfolio. If you have a higher tolerance for risk then you can make some of that portfolio out of higher risk/reward investments. Maybe you pick the next Apple or Google or Netflix or whatever but that portion of your portfolio should be money that you can afford to lose in case you pick duds.

Answer 5

Warren Buffett pointed out that if you set 1 million monkeys to flipping coins, after ten flips, one monkey in about 1,000 (1,024) actually, would have a "perfect" track record of 10 heads. If you can double your money every three to five years (basically, the outer limit of what is humanly possible), you can turn $1,000 into $1 million in 30-50 years. But your chances of doing this are maybe those of that one in 1,000 monkeys.

There are people that believe that if Warren Buffett were starting out today, "today's version" could not beat the historical version. One of the "believers" is Warren Buffett himself (if you read between the lines of his writings).

What the promoters do is to use the benefit of hindsight to show that if someone had done such-and-such trades on such-and-such days, they would have turned a few thousand into a million in a few short years. That's "easy" in hindsight, but then challenge them to do it in real time!

Answer 6

I did once read a book titled "How I made a million dollars on the stock market". It sounded realistic enough to be a true story. The author made it clear on the first page that (a) this was due to some exceptional circumstances, (b) that he would never again be able to pull off something like this, and (c) you would never be able to pull of something like this, except with extreme luck.

(The situation was small company A with a majority shareholder, other small company B tries to gain control by buying all the shares, the majority shareholder of A trying to prevent this by buying as many shares as possible, share price shooting up ridiculously, "smart" traders selling uncovered shorts to benefit when the price inevitably drops, the book author buying $5,000 worth of shares because they were going up, and then one enormous short squeeze catching out the traders. And he claimed having sold his shares for over a million - before the price dropped back to normal).

Clearly not a matter of "playing your cards right", but of having an enormous amount of luck.

Answer 7

I made upwards of 3M from 200K by trading stocks, which I made from a business that I invested 20K in.

HOWEVER, DO NOT use trading stocks as a source of income, you're gambling with your precious cash. There are safer alternatives.

Answer 8

It's possible to make money in the market - even millions if you "play your cards right". Taking the course being offered can be educational but highly unlikely to increase your chances of making millions. Experience and knowledge of the game will make you money. The stock market is a game.

Answer 9

you'll need 25k to start or 2k in multiple accounts, that way you have access to margin, and don't have to worry about Pattern day trading limits.

Be right more than you are wrong. Go up look for 3x potential up vs down risk.

Compound daily. you can't double a penny every day every day for a month it becomes to difficult. but you can do 1%/day or maybe better. 2k compounded 1% every day becomes 75k at the end of a year (but you'll likely have to take weekends off, or look for other markets)