Why do you need to spend 6-8 hours in a day job just to have a social circle? Can't you just go out and talk to people in your community or something?
Unfortunately not, because those people are all working 8-10 hr day jobs. I recently test drove retirement (early 30's) to spend time with my little boy while my wife worked. I loved the time we spent but there is just no social interaction to replace a working environment (at this age at least) - the people I wanted to interact with were all at work... it became very lonely and I felt isolated. Also, when getting together with friends, relatives, etc: the conversations inevitably turned to careers. I took on a new job after 6 months and am extremely glad I did - too soon to be out of the game I guess!
Because its better to be paid and be in a social circle than to pay to join a club and be in a social circle.
When you took on the new job, did it affect your trading? Or are your systems already automated and only require optimizing from time to time? If I had 8-10 hours to spare every day, and am fairly confident that my systems can be left on their own, I would go to a golf driving range. Should be plenty of people there for you to meet (and potential investors in your trading system too if you're ambitious enough to manage other's money for a cut). Or I would go to baseball games. Or I would learn a new skill, fencing, archery, chess club, etc. Or I would go volunteer at a soup kitchen. Or I would go volunteer at..anything at all, there're so many causes out there - politics, charity, environment, etc. I would be able to meet people doing all these things. The one thing I won't do is shackle myself to a job 8-10 hours a day just so I can say hi to my colleagues and make jokes during the occasional break. Not unless I need the money.
When I first started in 1978, there were generally mainframes, but I didn't have access to those till early 80's, I went to library, into the basement where they had microfilm, good old days, yuk on Saturdays and get day by day from Wall street journal the high/low/close of stock prices and come home to hand draw them on graph paper, you would have to actually pick up the phone and call your broker to place 100 share trade at $125, I remember if it was less than 100, it was called odd lot and they would really screw you. So early years everything long term by hand back testing, learned that easier to calculate EMA's long hand. I got Futuresource in late 80's for charting and data and was using some software I just can't remember for backtesting, but it came in modules, it was the big thing back then and very expensive. Then System writer came out like 1990? for daily bars, which was the start of Supercharts/Tradestation, but it had flaws like you couldn't enter/exit on same day. My mentor back then was Toby Crabel of ORB fame1989-90, had flown to meet with him a few weekends for training and he had made a special software for his testing. And that is when I decided I was going to have to find someone who could help program software cause of all the commercial software had huge limits. Tradestation was being sold outright back then and each newer version would fix one problem and different ones would pop up. Ensign was also being sold back then as well, each brought different indicators and charting, but early 1990's, still I would call at least down to the floor to give them my acct number and order manually. Doing a "Cancel and Replace" was a pain in the rump, if you pissed off the guys at the trading desk, it would cost you in fills. i learned that Xmas gifts more than paid for better fills. I think it was 1993? when Globex first came out for nite time bonds but it was only like 3 hours and still had to call broker. In 1993 I went to a University and spoke to Computer Engineering Dean about an idea of making a class project on making some software for me, they needed new ideas, and we worked it out with pizza's and book donations, it handled one minute bars. I had bought almost anything that came out back then for backtesting, but most of was junk, more of optimizing which seldom works. In 1995, I was the broker for couple years. After that I traded thru Intenet. I stopped buying commercial softwares as they never did enough in areas of money management and amount of back data it could run. Any software is good for entries, but the exits is what makes the Mola. I would think there is some good software out there now for Platform and backtesting, I hear Wealth Lab is good, but you would have to ask those who use it.
It didn't affect my trading negatively at all - in fact, it improved greatly. I came from an energy trading desk and although I loved the job, I hated the bullshit corporate politics, favoritism and outright incompetence being rewarded for all the wrong reasons. Actually, I believe I posted in a thread at the time about corporate life and said "never again"... well, never say never! Trust me, I hit too many golf balls, drank too many beers on the beach, and read too many books on too many topics - along with spending as much time as possible with my little boy. I also work with my sister who is autistic and worked with various charities as well. The best part was not focusing heavily on trading but trying out some new strategies and simply enjoying myself. I'm not a full time trader and do not aspire to be (although I did at one time consider it heavily). I trade a few days a week in the evenings and couldn't be happier! Sadly, none of these things could fill the career void. I don't know if its a male thing, a younger person's prerogative, or just me, but I needed to work and be able to engage in conversation with a circle of co-workers. Actually, not just co-workers, but employment in general. I bitch and moan about the pointless paperwork, the useless meetings and all that good stuff but in a strange way, I appreciate those things like I never did before...
I am an RN, so I can decide when I work. I trade FX, so I can also decide when I trade. My systems operate in both mean reverting and trending markets, so I does not matter when I trade.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Always wondered what being a full-time trader was like before broadband, retail brokerages, and low commissions/spreads made it so easy to get started.
I second that homey staying home sucks! It's no wonder so many house wives become alcoholics. Now as far as hanging out with people my age... I sort of hate most of my 30 something friends they are either money grubbing snobby materialistic a-holes or they are so far stuck up their kids asses you can't have a normal conversation about anything non kid related. The only way I keep my sanity is hanging out at the golf course I used to work at with a bunch of 50 and 60 year olds. They keep it real! As far as the thread topic goes I guess it kind of depends on what you consider full time income and what you need to live on. Also if you have a family health insurance isn't cheap so I hope if you do have a family you can get on your spouses plan easily.