Are there any traders in the SF bay area? I wish that I have found this forum earlier. A newbie. I have a simple question. Do most of the day traders eventually diversify into other businesses? Appreciate whatever comments in advance. I saved enough money in the first 4 years after college that I gave day trading a try last year from March to December. My mentors were 2 consistant high profitable traders who had seen the good and bad times. In the last November and December, I started to turn the corner and began to make some small money. In January of this year, I entered Columbia MBA, but I had to interrupt the study after the first year for some personal reason. Before going back to Columbia, I decided to trade again. I have been profitable and slowly ramping up my size. In my spare time, I tried to focus on learning investing and had an eye on internships, since my intended field after Columbia MBA is mutual fund and hedge fund. I remember that Steve Cohen from SAC said that day tradying and investment do not mix. Part of me wants to pursue prop trading, get good at it, and even diversify into futures, options, and currency. Market making and trading for Goldman or Lehman sound too stressful for me. Another part of me wants to pursue money management. I know that hedge fund internships are really difficult to get, but if I know enough stocks and their fundamentals by heart, I may have a chance. I thought that after trading, I could diversify into money management for other people. I don't know if it makes any sense. I would really appreciate your thoughts.
I think what Cohen said (in market wizards) was to find what you do best and pursue it.....something like "If it's daytrading then daytrade, if it's long term investing then invest for the long term". There's absolutely no inherent conflict, but I think most who do really well figure out what their wheelhouse is and stick with it (why wouldn't they?). It's probably redundant to mention that 99.9999% of everyone does neither well. Best