Why not trade on your vacation days or saved up sick days ? You must be getting at least 2 - 3 weeks of vacation per year by now...what was your trade results than on that 15k small account ? Also, you mentioned that you "could" go back to your old job. Does that imply you're like on a leave of absence ? You're still under-capitalized and forget about your prior profits because market conditions are not the same. Regardless, you should know what you're living expenses are and financially have the money in the bank for any unexpected expenses instead of using your jobs (going back to your old job or taking the new job offer) as your backup plan. Last of all, a 15k account for trading index futures...that's good for 1 contract trading. Don't fall into the trap of those popular $400 / $500 dollar per contract stuff because brokers know 99% will over-leverage and abuse it via trading multiple contracts. wrbtrader
I am in the same situation OP. Except slight differences 1) I have ~120,000 liquid 2) ~50,000 gross income 3) extremely frugal budget 4) insane proprietary edge that took like 6 months to develop and YEARS of study and learning including a degree in mathematics and a complete obsession with futures trading Even so, I'm hesitant to quit the job and go full time. It is just so much less stress to try to fit some trading in around the free time than it is to eat a $50,000 opportunity cost, and then try to finance the budget and grow the account with the markets. @tommcginnis re the above quote. I think I'm starting to feel the same way. I am looking into ways that I can get a second account going (AMP Futures?) and just leave the 100k in the ib cash sweep vehicle. Hell, even thinking about getting 3 accounts by funding a 401 (k) on top of that! I think I'm just completely obsessed with have a failsafe, foolproof, and guaranteed backstops to prevent me from messing this up. To OP, I wouldn't even bother with 15k you could probably grow your net worth much faster just buy getting TWO JOBS instead of trading such a small sum. You will most likely blow up, but you knew somebody would say that. I'm like you except I already worked 85 hour weeks and scrounged and saved. I tried it with 10k and forex and it was obvious that I would need at least 60 grand to even try to do this at all, let alone full time. RM
I already stated my results. Trading on vacation days doesn't amount to much over a year. Sick days imply being a leech. No thanks. No, I quit. Actually, my official last day was at the end of August, but I was basically begged to stay for another two months and am getting paid 40 % extra of my base salary for that. I've also been told that I'm welcome back if I should change my mind in the future. Okay. I already stated that I have savings to cover living expenses for 6 months. Also, I consider other supplementary ways of income eventually. It's not unlikely that I can do some remote consultancy work for my current firm. I can also do carpentry gigs if I want to. The difference is that moving forward trading will be my main focus instead of focusing on a day time job.
%% Invest 20% or 30% of 15k, in a trading library; that way, it would be impossible to lose it all. And get the girlfriend to get you some investing books @ local library. One non trading book she may love ; TOUGH GUYS + Drama Queens. LOL=true...…..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
'' Similar (I quit FT job to pursue trading FT). Now, still trading. Though I started with a larger capital base (amount I was comfortable to try with). I don't know what your margin comfort level is. Let's say it was 12500/ ES contract (1000 Tick base). So you trade 1 contract with your 12500. Once you net 1000 ticks, you'll have 25,000, add a second contract... Trading 2 contracts with 25000, once you net another 12500 (25/tick * 500 ticks), add 3rd contract... Trading 3 contracts with 37500, once you net another 12500 (37.5/tick * 333 ticks), add 4th contract... Trading 4 contracts with 50000, once you net another 12500 (50/tick * 250 ticks), add 5th contract... That's not a recommendation, just one example of a way to scale up (assuming your plan is net profitable)... You'll have to develop a scaling strategy that is suitable for your trade plan and temperament. (Note: my example is simplistic. Obviously withdrawals will need to be made along the way for financial obligations, taxes, etc.) If you are able to grow this way, it will be gradual, but you'll be ready for the next step, rather than getting funding to come out swinging a size you've never tried before. EDIT add: Keep in mind, the hypothetical "scale up" scenario mentioned, would blow out at any point the day traders plan hit a 1000 tick drawdown (without doing some type of scale down on the way down).
Hopefully you'll be able to keep away the stressful aspect of trading full-time or part-time via knowing you you have employment if/when you run into problems in your trading especially in current market conditions. 6 months of savings is not good enough (1 year minimum) but your backup plan via the job offer and the option of going back to your old job (you stated you're welcome back) should compensate. Regardless, you'll be able to sniff out problems with your plan within the first 30 days in the current market environment. In comparison, most newbie traders can't see their problems nor admit to any in the first 6 months even if they're losing money. wrbtrader
More essentially it is how ready you are regardless how much capitals you have (within a reasonable range of course). Look at that guy trading Micro with $1000 and gained >$400 within a month, and he used very conservative leverage (he trade 1-2 micro), had he used the more aggressive leverage (5-10, as one micro is only about $60-80 day trading margin), he would be up $4000, that is 400% return in a month. Of course consistency is more important, so lets see if he can continue to keep that rate.