I am thinking about this : on 60K , you borrow on the back of your job. Say to at least 100k. Then 100K in a prop firm for instance to increase your capital. The more capital, the less return you need to reach 1million.
Sorry, i am not familiar with prop firms, what would be the benefit of that ? I can put up 100K instead. What can prop firm do for me ?
I think they can add capital in your account, so that 100K is your stop loss , and none of that goes into your margin. And also, if the experience is positive, and you increase that to 200K, there are the capital allocators online that will add 10 times capital. so 200k ==> 2 millions. So less return size needed to reach 1 M.
I'll have to think about that. Thanks for the idea What I found out that there is always optimal bet size where I am cautious enough and not scared. Wrong size has negative impact on my trading decisions. Too small - reckless, too big - too cautious.
Treat your trading like a business instead of implying its an income producing hobby and you'll have the exact same characteristics that you miss from your other job. Meeting other traders in person usually doesn't involve discussing trade methods unless someone intentionally set up meetups for "method discussions". Traders I know in person, there has never been a "method discussion". Last time we got together, we took the kids to a movie on a school day off and then played soccer afterwards. Prior to that meetup, we did talk about how to reduce "overhead costs of trading" but that conversation quickly change to one of the guys complaining again about his ex-spouse. In contrast, I highly recommend any "method discussion" if/when needed to be via online (e.g. forum, skype conference, twitter, chat room). Back to the OP, trading can be performed at home as a retail trader but your social life shouldn't suffer because when your trading session concludes for the day...enjoy your family (spouse and kids). Yet, if you miss that office like environment, you can always find other traders in your area to rent an office space and share expenses. Its hard to do but worthwhile if its a big issue. It's something I did for several years before doing the "at home" trader thing. I've now been doing the "at home" trader for many years and currently looking to get an office space again because it was a very good work experience for my trading.
If you relate to professionalizing your trading by hiring an assistant or other traders or taking OPM, I agree, as other people are now involved in your trading. You can now share your ups and downs with those (especially with your investors... lol). Then you can get also the sense of accomplishment by having goals like acquiring x new investors or y amount of money per year or preparing and implementing a marketing strategy, etc. I've related my comments to the retail trader working alone with the "only" goal to increase the account size with a certain degree of drawdown. And that goal is FOR ME not at all like the type of goals I had when I was managing projects for a company. When I've finished these projects successfully, I had a sense of success, which I do not get from trading like described above. Maybe, you do, but I don't. I don't know what you mean by "usually"... I guess, you relate to the trader meetings YOU had so far and YOUR specific experience. But then you have met with friends which happen to be traders. My comment was related to deliberately trying to connect specifically with other traders. If the topics discussed or activities shared are anyway not related to trading, why would you want to limit yourself to one specific profession? If you seek advice on certain topics, like reducing your overheads or else, then you can get ideas for that also in different ways.
karoshiman, I know very little about the OPM route. Thus, I can't really comment about it other than to say that one doesn't need to go OPM to treat their trading like a business. I once worked part-time and as an intern for a fortune 500 company prior to becoming a full-time trader. Thus, I had a roadmap via my experience as a member of many projects. Its not too difficult to incorporate such into the profession of trading especially to treat trading like a business. Today, I'm close friends with retail traders, institutional traders, business folks that work at the exchanges that are not traders...a few are family members. Note: I had no intentions of working in a career at at fortune 500 company. I just used them to help pay some of my college expenses and to have a backup plan. Also, when I'm hanging out with another trader...we rarely talk trading. I just see him/her as a friend. In contrast, if I want to talk trading with folks I don't know in person...I do it at a discussion forum, twitter, skype, chat room or social media just like I am doing now in this message post. After all, this forum is a place for most folks to meet others in the same profession and talk about whatever (e.g. trading, politics, religion, career and so on). Yeah, if one of my trader friends I know in person wants to talk trading...telephone or backyard barbecue is perfect for such and it'll most likely be a short conversation in comparison to talking about other things in life. Therefore, if I need advice on a trading topic, I'll use any network or resource available but my own family and friends are my secondary sources. Thus, I rather talk trading with those I don't know in person because its already available (if needed) from family and friends. A collaboration route that works very well for me. Anyways, the OP message seemed a little odd because if someone is collaborating online with others in the same profession...why is trading (fear when becoming full-time) to him/her a lonely experience ? Thus, maybe he/she is talking about "in person" experience or feels that trading will isolate him/her from family & friends. Maybe there's something there family related not being mentioned. Reality, trading is not a profession that isolates someone and if someone is isolated...it's by choice or physical/mental condition. P.S. There's hundreds of other professions that folks work at home..same advice for them too. Retail trading is a choice and we don't need to be alone while walking that road especially for those that already have families as mentioned by the OP.