As an EE, I make a respectable salary. But when the daily fluctuations in my trading account are like 2-5 times the size of a single paycheck..... i do wonder sometimes..... why even bother working this day job?
My perspective on that is that you might want to consider pursuing trading full-time, but that you should probably also try to build up something first to fall back on (let's call it hedging your bets). I'm at the stage where I now have a full-time job and will be able to trade a bit early in the morning, so my goal is to grow my trading account and payoff debt (should mention that those two goals are independant). Over time I certainly hope to be able to be more and more successful with my trading, and scale back my work at some point. I think part of that would be to build up some lower-risk income generating reserves.
Wow, I'm really impressed with the ingenuity displayed here (trading in a toll both, trading with distractions, doing double duty at your job!:eek: ), that's pretty damn impressive if you can pull it off and end up with a weekly profit! I live in NYC, so we have plenty of 2nd and 3rd shift work for computer techie's. I had a day job, but wanted to pursue full-time trading, so I got a weekend 36 hour job. It's recently gone to evenings, so at least I'll have my weekends free now. The screen time has been invaluable in helping me to craft a consistently profitable methodology with a discernible edge (it's taken about 2 years+), and I hope to go to full-time in another couple o' years. The ideal situation for a trader would be to work in the foodservices/hotel industry, computers, or anything else that would allow you to pursue your dream full-time while still putting food on the table. That and a lot of hard work and there's a nice light at the end of that tunnel! On a related topic, what do your girlfriend's, wives or significant others think of your trading? (my ex wasn't thrilled with the perception of lack of stability, - uh that's one reason she's my ex). I do miss her, but after we split-up my trading really came together! I'm guessing that having the responsibilities of a family can also put a lot of pressure on your trading, and is tied into the need to have a 9 to 5. Best Regards, Jimmy
I am a self-employed computer tech. I use end of day information for my swing/long-term trading stuff. Most of my trades are for week or more holding periods. Being a passive trader and looking for long term stuff doesn't effect my computer clients service needs. As for the girlfriend, she has totally left the trading stuff to me so she's not too stressed. We review our holdings quarterly and she understands what we have and why. She even has periodic suggestions of companies that we might want to watch. She's one of the best investments that I've made in a very long time.
There's an inherent conflict here. To enter trading with your own money, you need a cushion. But, you also shouldn't have too many obligations (i.e., Family). So, it makes sense that the time to enter trading is in your early twenties when nobody is depengin upon you for thier livelihood. But - then what about that cushion? Bottom Line: It's this contradication that robs many people of the dream of trading for a living. My only advice would be that if you are in your twenties and want to trade, just do it. Save a couple months salary and just plunge in.
I have a home office and I am more of a freelance in my day job...my neighbors are getting jealous. Even if I could find 10 million dollars to trade, I do not think I would give up this lifestyle. I think the idea is to live within your means... Michael B.
Well, another contradiction is that if you're a swing trader (weeks, months, years), having successful positions in the market means things are very BORING... you know you're doing the right thing when you see your portfolio grow every other month and you dont have to do anything but watch.... like I said... BORING. I figure, why not have a regular day job instead of being bored. As long as I have readily reliable internet access, I'm good.
I trade ES emini in the morning and works as a programmer from noon on so I can get health insurance for my family and have no pressure during losing streak or while stop trading after a winning streak. Sometimes the job takes more energy from me than I would like but it's good to have a job.
Yeah, I'm a happy boring trader. I agree. Not a lot of risk. Not a lot of positions. Not a lot of stress or drama. That's exactly right. I find a stock, buy a few shares and hold them. I need to not use the term "swing trader" as the holding periods do tend to be more than a month. And yep, if the portfolio grows I do sort of consider me successful in my trading/investing. And I really do love the day job too. Thanks for the correction. I'll remember to use the terms better in the future.
Mine doesn't really understand trading, though I'm slowly educating her about various business, econ and finance stuff (I mean that in a nice way). I think that in order for me to trade full-time we would need to have a bit of a cushion, and I would probably need to show her that I'm capable of earning money doing so. I've made it very clear to her that pursuing trading is a very important goal for me, and thus far she is supporting me in doing so (I've been trading on a part-time basis for a bit, but now I need to get serious about this and build up a trading account).