I want at least $300k cash before I go full time. I prop trade remotely (and also work), so I get the benefits, and risks, of leverage. I want the money for liquidity as draw downs never come at a good time. I am starting too see the conflicts of doing both as my positions get larger. I am finding myself backing away from large positions if I have a busy day ahead, or I am tired from the week. My feeling there is a point where you have to decide what you really want to do.
This Question is so different for each individual. My experience has been working a full time day job, sleeping at night, when all the sentiment moves, as a rule, occur. I am learning the extreme discipline of trading sentiment momentum in this lifestyle of mine. At times I tell myself: "can't be done", yet I experience triumph on several occasions. Take the job, trade as best you can while working and let time present you with your decision. Na zdrowie, Tim
My suggestion is to keep the job and trade at the same time. When the trading is successful enough over a long enough period of time, the decision to ditch the job will be self evident.
Start up capital of 50K if you are single, with minimal expenses, and have an edge. If you don't know what your edge is, then obviously don't even try to go full time. I will say this about trading full time.: Your quality of life from an emotional point of view will go down, even if successful. Full time trading sucks the energy out of a person and makes other things in life seem trivial. The main benefit from trading are financial. And to some extent the joy of the challenge and thrills from the gambling aspects of the job. I know people will say that trading is not gambling, and a bad comparison, but it is the main draw, although never admitted, for the majority of traders.
If a successful full time trader donates their time to a good cause, while keeping an eye on their position, will reap benefits beyond their expectations. No need to close the curtains and hermit. Na zdrowie, Tim
"..Think about it this way. With marketable skills, finding a job that pays $150k is not that hard. to do it with less, working a job would almost certainly be a better bet." You said it! I just can't keep up with the 150k offers I'm getting for my marketable skills This is why I'm hearing about friends & acquaintances with "marketable skills" getting shit canned and considering getting into trading..on a weekly basis. I mean, why didn't I think of this before? Work from anywhere in the world..get to hang out with my kids during the day, screw the 90 minute commute, maybe even trade from the beach..yeah, that's it! Bottom line: We live in an ever increasing gambling society(Draft Kings? Sports Betting?) and with the way the job market is going, there will be more and more people "discovering" trading. It's a brutal, insider trader based biz. When you take into account taxes, health insurance and other necessity of life costs, the odds of CONSISTENTLY making a living(net 50k or more a year) are so minute that you should not even allow yourself to fantasize about it. There are a couple exceptions. One is you're fortunate enough to have built up, or married into, the necessary funds(at least +500k) to properly trade(somewhat avoiding the daily noise) as a longer term investor(no this doesn't include day trades that you didn't get out of) and don't even look at your positions on a daily basis until either your target or stop levels are penetrated. And like anyone else in this biz, be prepared for the possibility of your account going from 500k to 50k. Or your brother in law owns an HFT firm. Or you're a programming wiz whose created an algo, script or program which operates flawlessly and you're prepared to constantly be on the prowl for the next incarnation of it as they lose their ATM money making edge in short order. Additionally, if you've retired and built up a sizable nest egg and you're not keen on being a greeter at Walmart, then have at it. Just keep in mind that you'll probably end up churning and spinning your wheels. And for damn sure, don't risk too much of your hard earned nest egg.. But have fun Otherwise, you're best bet is to do whatever you can to get a paying job with benefits. JMHO
Crap or not, be your own best buddy. Some of these folks on here belong on drama island. Work on one's self. I only come here on weekends cause it's cold and can't garden just of yet. I have learned to ignore guru's and learn from my own experience...I am my own best teacher. Na zdrowie, Tim
hmmm, I have been trading over 2 years, lost my account a couple of times, now I am getting consistent and I will be leaving my day job to trade full time before the end of the year. I will start with my 30K account, trade w/o leverage or with minimum leverage, I need about 25K a year to live and I have enough savings for 2-3 years. According to most of what I have read above I must be crazy, but I do not think so. I know I can make 200$ a day consistently day trading with low risk and no leverage. I also think that I can make returns of 500% a year and plan to get to 1000% a year in some time, eventually as experience increases. So, my advice is if you can make money consistently taking limited risks (NEVER MORE THAN 2% of your account) you just need to figure out how much you need in your account to make the money you need...