Most don't. There are no profitable short term traders, trading from home. There can be some retired traders, getting decent (5-20%) returns from long term trading.
I see where you are coming from and I have a similar problem. My neighbor is a famous highly paid heart transplant surgeon and I am always on his case to teach me how to do it. I only have weekends and some evenings available but I am really keen to learn.
When I first started trading, just about every family member snickered and waited for me to blow up. Now that I have a beautiful apartment and am able to travel any time I want, I don't think they feel that way anymore. Actually, I really don't care how they feel. I am having a blast living the way that I want. I have a huge smile on my face all the time while all of them are bitter with their 9 to 5 job that hardly pays crap. As for people asking me to teach them how to trade, I first ask that they open an account with 250K. Then I ask them if they can handle losing 10% of that in under 10 minutes. Usually, it ends there! Don't apologize or ask for permisson to be successful.
A loner and a hermit? If you are a successful trader then you will have both the time and the money to travel, to go out and meet way more people and experience way more things than the average worker bee.
depends on how much work you let the computer do vs how control freak you are over it. once you know where the market is going - its like land speculation you buy in the path of progress. m
Most of the members of my family (not my wife and children) think that trading is not working. I guess they think that it is easy and below 'their level' of work (and intelligence) (Don't know how to tell in English what I'm thinking...). I'm sitting most of the day in from of the PC because I'm also a software developer and do only some 'very small' trading in my spare time.
+1 Also I think the more important issue here is, how will you face your friends and family when you fail. Because lets face it, 90%+ do fail. I'm going on my 4th year and I dont trade full time, but each year I feel like I'm getting closer and closer. For most here on ET and else where, trading full time is, and never will be more than a dream. But I wish you the best. Kon
I can tell some of the people who have written in this thread are still very young and inexperienced in life. Here are a few good examples. The 19 year old guy who believes that he knows more about the market and economy then the older people in his family. The simple truth is that most people at one time in their life have been in the stock market and experienced the economy in one form or the other. Lets take a 50 year old man. Do you not think the 50 year old had money in the stock market in some form since the 70s? Do you not think he still does have money in the stock market? Maybe he trades actively? Most people do not openly talk about their finances or what they do with their money. In another reply, the poster goes on to suggest that his family was snickering at him. The reason why they were snickering at him was not to make fun of him, but because they too were involved in the market at one time. They probably had some outrageous gains during the tech bubble and then it crashed down one day leaving them broke. They were laughing because they know how the market works more then the poster. Then another poster suggests that people who go to real jobs on a daily basis are something lesser then him because they are not making a living trading. The original poster suggests that many people would die to trade for a living. You see. The market is more or less a game of chance where you take guesses on the movement of a certain instrument and throw your money down behind it. It is essentially the largest casino on the planet with countless active gamblers. There are some people out there that do not want to live their lives in a casino and enjoy the routine predictable life of a daily job. I would not laugh at them, in fact, I would laugh at the active trader. The mail-man who delivers your mail is not an underpaid civil servant. In fact, from reading different news stories, it appears many of them make a nice living. His day is very predictable and he gets to interact socially with a great many people. At some point in his life, he can retire with a check coming to him every month and paid benefits. You can't possibly make fun of that guy because he does not have to worry about getting it right or drawdown. He simply does his job and lives his life without worry. Another thing is the concept of happiness itself. Most people on this board and thread associate making money with being happy. This is how a younger person thinks. The fact of the matter is that there is a great many people out there who are blind, can't walk and have serious medical problems. Some people pass away early in life. Tonight, there are tens of thousands of veterans from the various military operations around the world who are going to bed with a serious handicap whether it be mental or physical. Many of these people were very healthy at one time and could probably outpace you in a race and at the gym, but now is a different time where they struggle. The point I am making is to be happy that you have your health. If you can run 50 meters without effort, have both arms and feel energetic then just be happy with that. Be happy that you have your freedom. You are not in jail, you are not homeless or struggling in some 3rd world country. In regards to dealing with people and explaining something as simple as trading. That is truly a joke of a question. Its not like you are explaining something really bad to anyone. Are you explaining to them that you have a disease? No. Just relax and be yourself. If you dont know how to handle simple social situations like this, then see a psychologist. There is no shame in seeing one. Remember that you do not have much quality time in life. In your 20s, you will have a lot of physical energy. After your 20s, you will still have that energy, but it will fade as you grow older and things will change. The point I am making is that you have to do what makes you happy. If you are doing something just for money, then you are wasting your time. You would not trade away a few years of your life for a briefcase of cash would you? I wouldn't... Finally, if you are up big in the market and feel very confident in your abilities then there is only one thing that you can do and that is to quit while you are ahead. The simple fact is that everyone blows an account at one point in their life. Many do not wish to admit it. Others who have not blown an account probably will at some point in time. The best risk management plan is simply not to trade. You might have made bank from March until now, but 2010 is anyone's guess. The best way to keep the chips you won in the poker game is to call it a night and head up to the hotel room. If you keep going all night then you will blow that pot.
"You see. The market is more or less a game of chance where you take guesses on the movement of a certain instrument and throw your money down behind it. It is essentially the largest casino on the planet with countless active gamblers." To succeed in trading, one must accept and believe in the above statement that retaildaytrader makes. One must take the rules of chance as found in bridge or poker and apply them to the markets. This is your only chance at making it in trading. Your role is to develop trading systems that increase the odds of you winning at games of chance. You start at 50% and work from there. On Happiness; the happiest are those who help others. It provides more emotional happiness than money ever will.