Can you collect unemployment while trading?

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by IronFist, Jun 18, 2008.

  1. No, but this is a bit of a grey area. Trading income is NOT considered "earned" income like you earned while at your work. It's considered "investment" income and taxed as capital gains. However, if you are active enough and profitable enough it's highly possible the gov't could challenge you on this. Don't know if you'd actually get caught and even if you did it's something that seems like you could fight but I'm no lawyer. What I would do is keep trading and keep collecting unemployment and keep my mouth shut. I don't believe you are breaking any laws. You are just managing your investments, not working.

     
    #31     Jun 19, 2008
  2. lets see - with 13 week extension, that is 39 times say, $400 a week. That is $16,000 for free. Why would anyone want that?

    And considering your thread that $5000 should be enough to make a living, you should be able to have 3 lifetimes worth...

    Especially, you could use it as:

    (your quote) "I have to say that among all the things I have tried, trading is the most difficult. For several times, I thought I got it, but then I made some horrible mistakes that reminded me that I don't know what I am doing."
     
    #32     Jun 20, 2008
  3. Cuz I just got laid off from my corporate job and have enough money saved up that I want to try trading for a while (while I continue to look for jobs... o_O)

    Because of my previous salary, I maxed out the Illinois weekly unemployment allowance (it caps at the equivalent of $9.225 per hour, lol... but unemployment is based on what you used to make, and I used to make much, much more than that, however that's the cap so that's as much as I can get). Unemployment supplements what I might lose while trading. It lowers my overall risk to my capital.

    So the question is why wouldn't I collect unemployment while I'm trading?
     
    #33     Jun 20, 2008