Shortly after most novice traders discover how trading works and begin to realize that they have the potential to make unlimited amounts of money in the financial markets, they start dreaming the near-impossible dream. They fantasize about buying a condo in Boca Raton for their parents or surprising their son with a brand-new car on his 16th birthday. They even begin to imagine themselves opening their own trading firm or milling about the pit of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, lobbying against other professional traders for the perfect entry into a once-in-a-lifetime trade. But then they watch the markets lurch in wildly unpredictable ways, lose their shirts in a few live trades, and freeze in their tracks, wondering if they will ever be able to consistently trade in a manner that can even loosely be defined as "profitable." To be sure, becoming a full-time professional trader is a challenging endeavor.