Psychological issues. Anybody who feels the loss of $1 ten times more than he feels the gain of $1 needs professional help. Just saying.
Make sure that after recalibration of your investing skills from daytrading to macro oriented money management.............you also do a very through evaluation of your skills and abilities to 'RAISE FUNDS' for the asset management program. Starting an RIA or even micro Hedge Fund sounds glorious but the real challenge in initial stages is (mainly for hedge funds) the staying power in business. Raising funds is not easy due to competition and ability to gain investor confidence etc. That is why doing part time RIA while earning from 'pay bills atleast' type of job and slowly growing into asset management should be the safer model. Not easy but very much doable. Mere $200 should get an RIA, exams and study material included.
This an on going problem in today's financial environment. People can't make it on their own, many times, not due to lack of capital, but due to lack of edge or mental fortitude, then they resort to managing others funds or worse, teaching. In fact, I'm convinced it's the natural course of many "losers" that just cannot stay away from the markets.
This is interesting thread.... as said above, how can he as a losing daytrader have skills to become portfolio mgr???? let's review.... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102684 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=220513 so.... 2005: lose money 2006: lose money 2007: ?? 2008: ?? 2009: +75k 2010: +15k 2011: lose money 2012: ?? 2013: lose money I assume unless 07/08 had huge gains, net result of this is most likely negative number please quit daytrading, delete trading platform from your computer and throw away your Al Brooks books where they belong.... you know the right thing to do is get out of this trading busness... any job even low wage is better for you.... work low wage job while going to school or training for better career.
It's not the trading business that's the problem. No philosophy you've expressed mathematically is. Even if you don't want to believe black boxes are creatable by the lay person if you've taken the time to write down how you approach investing, systematic trading becomes more of a question about how much you can afford to lose in each age bracket you're in than it is about how much you can make. If you've discovered a profitable trading strategy then being comfortable is more a matter of correlation. Drawing down as much as the market but twice as much sometimes because it happens to occur in synch with the market is no different than Fund Timing investments some IA's make. It's not the trading business he's interested in. It's profitability. Let someone else take care of that for you because they are out there and I'm not saying this just because I might benefit from it if you really can't sit down for months on a computer and keep track of your trading to the point where you're profitable in 10 years with a systematic, mathematically derived definition of your trading style, the people who have it know to never quit, but when this OP doesn't stop laughing that he told himself to stop, then we'll find out who really knows what they're doing in another 10 years. I liked the swing trading and day job combo, but this is completely irresponsible if it's significant money and throwing away times for making decisions is every vital part of a man's future as much as what he does is. I can't say whether I'll make it, either, but I know I'm doing all right as long as the S&P is thousands of basis points behind me.
You need to find a Real Estate Investors Club in your area. Chances are if you find a property there it will need a rehab but 15 to 20% annual return is not that hard to find as long as you are a cash buyer and willing to deal with code violations. It takes 6 to 12 months to get a property rented but after that you typically have a HUGE cushion and great return.
I used to have a job in the nightclub/bartending industry in nyc. If you are good you can make $500 in a night, only working 2 nights a week.