I totally agree ... Do Not Change... Tell him to keep doing what he is doing. I would probably make more money from trading if I had the stability of a guaranteed income behind me too. Living from day to day on trading alone is NO fun and a very tough way to go. In another 8 years having $1,150,000 well thats another story. Then he could take $250,000 and start trading fulltime with a huge $850,000 cushion. Congratulation to your friend tell him to keep up the good work.
Speaking out, I agree enirely with the above post. Assuming what you say is true then your friend should stick to his current trading approach. He sounds eminently successful to me and it would be foolish to tamper with his currently productive approach. You probably dont realise it but his figures are actually better than most traders on elitetrader. But jealous traders would never admit that would they "speakingout"?
Judging from the lack of responses to my recent inquiry, I will assume that the silence here is that its a fact that most people don't have anywhere near what my friend has in capital. Geez I know that I have been trading a while full time and I don't even have anything close to it either. In fact I will admit that I have a total capital pool of 58K. However, I am not married and I rent and my expenses are far less than his Nonetheless my friend asks me my opinion because I'm the only person he knows trading full time. Hence why I in the first placed suggested posting his thoughts here on the ET board. So I will assume that most people here do not have his trading capital and that this idiot (trade4dollar) although he is obnoxious is probably stating a fact about most people being woefully undercapitalized and yet they continue to trade.
You came to a public site asking for info on trading 250K. And you were expecting what? The wisdom of the ages? Get real. There are some good comments here, so you now need to move on, because ultimately it is up to your friend's level of confidence and abilities. He has all he needs to know. There are no guarantees in life. And as well, there is seldom real success in life without taking some risks.
If he makes $75K trading a $250K account I'd say he'll be breaking even best case. His bills at $4200/month would be slightly over $50K per year. And after he pays income taxes on the $75K what would he have left? Enough to pay the bills? Does he expect to have kids one day? Kids cost $$$ to raise and educate. I'd say he better do a lot better than $75K with that size account if he's serious about doing this.
A lot of people don't need $250K to trade and make a living. I know I don't. Then again a lot depends on what expenses a person has. No mortgage, no car payment, no credit card debt makes for a much different scenario than one who has such expenses.
First off sorry I sounded obnoxious to you. I was simply stating a fact that most people on ET are representative of the fact that they don't have any real capital to trade. In fact its a rare breed that you will find that has over 50K at all let alone 250K. As for some of the comments here: One guy just wrote if your friend is going to make 75K a year then he is just going to break even after taxes when he takes his bills in to account. Well I think isn't that the same as someone who works at a job they hate ( who does not trade) and makes just enough to pay their bills each year? Hey thats about 95% of all Americans if you have not heard! At least your friend can do something they enjoy doing, thats worth a price even though its intangible. Also when you hear a comment like he is just gong to break even after its all said it done, tell your friend that this comment is probably coming from another putz who barely has enough capital himself to survive. So remember your taking advice from people who talk about breaking even, when its all done after you pay your bills, and these same idiots still continue to trade and they have shit in their accounts. If your friend takes the advice from these clowns on ET the reality is that would mean that nobody and I mean nobody on this message board should be trading if a guy with 250K should be balking at taking a shot at trading full-time. Remember I am being nice here and assuming this post that your friend has 250K is real. See I am a nice guy!
I just love when new posters come on ET and make such asinine, uninformed and stupid comments (like the above). First, go do the math. If the aspiring trader makes just $75K and has over $50K in expenses he'll not net anything after taxes. Next, I'm not a "putz" who "barely has enough capital to survive". I've been trading full time for 8 years and I don't need a $250K account to make a living. I offered the guy some advice ... and you reply with garbage. If you're here to just flame people you might want to refrain from such uninformed posts since there's no value added.