just kept buying corn. more corn and more corn. and with the profits from the corn, I bought more corn. man I was crazy wouldn't do that again and I bought some wheat and beans too, you know, diversification
Wow...that's quite a run. I started as a broker in 1984 and started hating it in 1984. (Same day if I remember correctly) Peace, rs7
lol...i got my series 7 in December 1996 ...finally left that business in August of 2000...I wanted to quit about 10times during that span....a lot of what kept me in it were the guys I worked with. having a blast , going out after work, happy hours etc....thats the only thing I miss really. Most of those guys got married. I'm the only one holding out...my girlfriend and I fight about it on a weekly basis, so if i don't pop the question soon she'll probably dump me. hmmmm...Cayman Islands sound nice
I was selling the house anyway and moving to a city with lower living expenses so I could trade with lower overhead. I only owned it a year and did well on it, and it wasn't money I was depending on. Plus I had over a year's living expenses put away on top of that. Plus education and experience in an industry that was hiring, plus a sideline business I could fall back on. The decision to quite a career and trade full time isn't one to be taken lightly, and trust me, I didn't. You should assume a period of no income to start and a high chance of failing.
I wonder what a reasonable amount of time is these days to expect to get through the necessary initial mistakes (lose and learn). When I started as a day trader, in mid '96, they told me to expect to not make a "living" for a year. It was a lot easier then than it is now. It is hard for me to imagine starting as a day trader today. Anyone making money consistently who has less than a few years experience? I know I have barely kept my head above water for the past year. (Did OK first 3 months of '02, but not much since). In '96, I started in April, and made enough for the year to have to pay taxes. But not much. Looking back, it was easy. Too bad I didn't have the buying power or the guts to get rich that first year. By the time I really got rolling ('99), the party was almost over. Good luck to all. Maybe the market will be more cooperative in '03! Peace, Rs7
Me too. Lasted for six months in 1987, but hated it from day one. I wanted to be a trader, thinking that would be the first step. Ha! Traders labled me in the same group as car salesman with the "broker" title on my resume. Luckily, I had some cash left over from a college fund to get going (went to a cheap school). I did, however, go broke twice after that before I got my act together. Jay
In response to RS7's question on how long to expect nowadays.. I started day trading stocks full-time in mid-2001 after 3 good years as an end-of-day stock swing trader. I figured if I was making decent money swing trading I could make a killing if I could increase my opportunities. Lo and behold, what worked for me as a swing trader didn't work as well as a day trader. I started with my 25K at a prop firm. Lost 10K in the first year bouncing from tactic to tactic when my initial one didn't work. More than half the loss was fees, though. Having run through a good portion of my safety net money I'm back into my earlier field consulting full-time (it was my backup plan). I still hate it and would rather be trading. I'm going to make the move again in a year or two or three. I've been coming up with a trading plan, testing my strategies on paper and with small positions. I'm planning the whole thing more thoroughly this time. I still have a backup plan in case I go down the 2nd time. So to summarize, I'd say you'll know in a year if you'll make it as a trader. It just may not be your first year.
I picked up the latest installment in Swagers' series of books on the wizards. This one is called Stock Market Wizards. It's pretty good... much of the same as the other two. I'm not going to critique it or anything because I'm just taking it for what it is - good stories of success and failure. This post is a mini-version of that book. I think it's great !! I started out playing pro baseball - in the minors of course - and saved some money. No more no less that a well paying job. It gave me the chance to appreciate how important ones reserve captial is because after an injury (or three) I had to retire and... well, you know the rest. :eek: If trading were a pregnancy it'd be in the womb for about 4 years and then you'd be born right into puberty. The learning curve is steep but yes the rewards can be wonderful. I do agree with a couple of the posts - 2002 was not spectacular - esp in the 2nd half. But that's what is great about this game. You have to constantly adjust to what they throw you (pardon the pun). Best to all and keep up the great posts,
Getting Started Trading on a Shoestring how's this for an idea: 1) work and save up a stake of say $12k. 2) hole up in your house for a couple of weeks (depending on how quick you pick things up) and study for your Series 7 3) get a part time job (out of market hours) that earns enough so that you can eat and live (albeit minimally) -- don't worry, you'll be so focused on this trading thing you won't be going anywhere or doing anything else, will you? 4) pop your 10k into a prop firm 5) trade 100 share (or less, if they'll let u do odd lots) positions. 6) don't even think about making money, just keep cutting those losses short. i'll say that again, don't even think about making any money, just keep cutting losses. 7) let's say you take 20 trades a day, cutting losses at .15 and taking winners at average of .15 (of course, you should be going for more - but don't worry about that for now). let's say you're sooo inept that only 30%, or 6/20, turn out winners. that leaves you $160 in the hole (commish included). even if you sucked this badly for 40 straight trading days -- that's about 2 months of hitting 6 of 20 every day in a row -- you'll still have half your stake left. 8) note: if you're hitting less than than 6 of 20 for 40 days straight, come and tell me what you're doing -- you're on a winner. 9) most likely, you should be able to last for three solid months and still have nearly half of your initial 12k left if you call it quits at that point. 10) after that first 3 months or so of trading in this manner, you should be very close indeed to 'getting it'. indeed, you may have even become profitable (congrats). 11) if you didn't end up getting it, but your equity sank so low your firm asked you contribute extra funds, just go find another job and save up another 10k or so. remember you should still have about 5-6k left from this time around. 12) anyone should be able to save 10k within 6-12 months. if you lack the discipline to put aside 10k in that time period, in my not-so-humble opinion, you're an idiot and may as well not trade in the first place. 13) start trading again. if you did indeed focus in on cutting loss after cutting loss after cutting loss (ad nauseam) as i advised you, you will have learnt A LOT from the initial experience. this time around, with, hopefully, a tad more equity, you should be able to turn the corner and become a bona fide profitable trader -- in any case, your chances of being one will be far, far greater than the typical idiot who starts trading. 14) all up, if this endeavour fails, it will have cost you about 10-12k. hardly a king's ransom. if it succeeds, you stand to make massive multiples on that initial stake. that's what you call 'high reward to risk'.