Very good and thoughtful post, Steve. Sorry to hear that things have not worked out in the time you had hoped or expected. Believe me, you're not alone! Whether you decide to walk away from the markets or eventually give it another go, I just thought I'd comment on something you wrote: Would that not suggest that you should be more focused on controlling your downside? By your own account, the upside was taking care of itself. (Unless your profitable trades were principally the product of averaging down on lucky trades, in which case you have a timing issue.) You're obviously a smart guy. So can I assume that you have tightened your exits on losing trades as much as possible? As for the "gurus" who say to scale into losing positions to reduce your average cost, I would suggest that those are the ones who need your money the most. I think adding to losers is akin to driving faster when you're lost. Anyway, that's just my opinion. Whatever you decide to do going forward, I wish you the best.
They give the same kind of motivation (that, i hope, you tried to share) in the army, - harsh one. Nothing too wrong with it. Sometimes it is really necessary. But the thing is, Steve looks like an intelligent person, such choice must have taken quite some time to be made & ,,to come out in a public place" like this and to admit a loss, that in itself takes, - ballz.
Well aren't you clever. I have never been in the Army, however I am an Army wife, my parents were in the Army, my father used to make me shine his combat boots. I worked on an Army base for 25 years, and I live in an Army town, so some of that Army stuff must have rubbed off on me.
Depending on what skill you do have on your geography, there is an outside chance of a trading desk hiring you as a rookie - and providing some training. Long shot, but good timing as 2022 was, for many, a poor year.
Nah, your online persona I'm sure is far different than what you display in personal life. Online you are a completely abrasive, nicompoopish douchebag...so surely you don't treat strangers in real life like this. OP made this post to clear his head...he is obviously full of negative emotions. Regret weighs tons upon your soul...loss of money loss of time, FAILURE at something you truly want and believe is possible...that's real pain. He probably came here because (if he's anything like me) he doesn't know many or any pro traders in person and online communities are about the only place to find understanding. You are kicking a guy when he's down. Poor character displayed by a poor person.
Not at all kicking him. He is an attention seeker who will be back in a few days to say that he changed his mind. He's a waste of time. He could have wrote a book and sold it on Amazon in the time it took him to write that lame ass post. As to my online personality, it doesn't matter to me what you think since you will never know me in the real world. And I'm not here to make friends.
Hi, Steve, If you managed to stay alive for seven years outside the work force and even have half your original stake left I'd say you've done way better than most. I'm sure finding a job or some other primary income will be great for you and possibly help you in trading if you decide to continue pursuing it. It will probably be a great relief for you and your personal life as well. For most people I think swing trading on the side while having a day job or a business of sorts is the way to go. It's a path I wish I'd taken myself as well, but for some reason I got sucked into the world of day trading about ten years ago. I know a guy who threw in the towel and he was actually way ahead when he quit as well. He told me he haven't missed it for a second. Particularly the stress of it all was weighing him down and he even had a day job for primary income. I think it really takes a special type of personality to be a trader. It's not for everyone and I'm sure there are easier ways to make money. I've been full time about three times, but in some ways gave up the dream a while back. I always knew I would succeed as long as I put in the hours even if it took years, but only for these last two years have I considered that maybe there's a chance I actually won't. Right now I have a day job which pays my bills and I keep plugging away on trading with virtually all my free hours. I feel I'm the best trader I've ever been and the winning streaks are longer with the losing streaks smaller, but I'm still not where I should be and definitely nowhere close to be a full time trader considering my capital base. That's mostly my experience as well. I'll rack up a 20 day winning streak, double or triple my account and start thinking I know something, but then I'll have a few losing days which throw me off balance and which can cascade into a losing streak wanting to make it back quickly to equity highs only compounding my mistakes. For me, I think it's partially due to complacency. After winning for a while I start thinking it's easy and start to get sloppy on my analysis and using wider stops and/or more leverage. Not using the care and precision which actually produced those initial profits. I think walking a tight rope is a very accurate parallell for day trading and maybe trading in general as well. There just ain't that much of a margin for error. If you lose your balance you're financially dead. Sorry to hear that, but I don't think think you should feel any shame. You took a chance and gave it your best. If anything, be proud of that. Make it a priority to get your health in order before you do anything more related to trading. If at all. I can relate to your feelings of regret, though. It does indeed feel wasted when one sacrifices so much time, effort and money and don't have much to show for it beyond lost time and money. And you start thinking where you'd be in life if you poured all that effort into something else instead. I have friends who mindlessly got into the stock market post financial crisis and literally became rich doing nothing and think they're the next Warren Buffet not even knowing how lucky they got. When your thoughts start drifting in those loops it can take you to dark places, but it's really no use as the only thing we can do is to take control of our life moving forward. The worst would be to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. What's done is done. Not long ago I wrote that I'd pay $1000 if I could have some transparency about the details of trading operations (returns and account size) on traders in general and particularly on ET. I'm sure there would be many surprises. Some are transparent while others keep it vague and want to be the market wizard on ET. I suspect most belong in that latter category. One friend of a prior market wizard on this board recently said he don't think that guy ever made any actual money from trading. I'm at a point myself where I don't really believe many at all are making much money or at least as much as they want you to believe, but I do still believe it's possible to be a successful trader. They're just very few. And often when I talk to a succesful trader I learn that they're so well capitalized that it's not even funny. I mean, if I had several $100K in my trading account I'm sure it would be a different outcome for me. Anyway, good luck moving forward. I'm sure it'll turn out right for you. Give us an update about what happens further down the road. All the best.
Enjoyed the read. Your escape from cubicle life had me chuckling. Seven years ain’t so long. It sounds like you spent the time going down the conventional path. If you’ve really abandoned that path (not an easy thing to do), you may actually be at a point where you can begin to learn. There are various ways to trade that do not require you to forgo earning an income at a job. Swing trading stocks EOD comes to mind. Darvas is a good example. If you are self-learning, it is best to do it on the side anyway. And choose to pay the minimum tuition. There are opportunities worth risking your life savings on. Learning to trade on your own isn’t one of them.