Re the comment: a trader going from $10k to $250k+ What causes the trader to lose it all and then be able to get it back? If he can trade so successfully and be profitable, what is the psychology that allows he/she to go through these stages?

I think you are really asking the wrong question. The person who goes from $10,000 to $250,000 or from $100k to $1 million is taking huge risk and doesn't understand position sizing...eventually they will go bankrupt if they keep it up. And yes, they may do it again, but that doesn't mean its wise or prudent. It probably means they love the excitement of the market, which also isn't a good trait because good trading is boring. It comes from having a business plan and treating trading like a business. It comes from have several good, uncorrelated strategies that fit the big picture. And most importantly, it comes from continually working on yourself to avoid mistakes and to keep from repeating them.

That being said, look at the earlier blogs on Tharp fundamentals. It's not that hard to develop a system that will make you 100% per year. But that means that it might take you four years to turn 100K into a million. However, most people cannot do that because they don't have enough self-responsibility or understanding to eliminate their mistakes. So far, our data indicates that each mistake you make averages out to a 4R loss for your system. Most people cannot overcome making such mistakes, no matter how good their system might be.