I would like to hear how others manage to juggle trading with the rest of their life? Trading requires not just extra time but also zen or peace of mind. And there is always something going on. Like drama at work, or something in the house broke that needs fixing, or guys texting me. A guy I really like started texting me this week but I had to tell him "that's enough" because I don't have the time to respond. Or family drama. Plus you need time to take care of yourself, like a new pair of eyeglasses, doctor's appt or teeth cleaning, or the car needs an oil change or shopping for clothes or something needed for the house. Doing the laundry and grocery shopping. Also you need to find time to exercise and get enough sleep (I need 9 hours to function). How do people fit trading into all this? I am starting to feel overwhelmed with juggling everything and I don't even have kids etc to take care of.
You treat it the same as any other business and balance your time. I ran my trading business for 25 year after I got married and starting a few years before my daughter was born. I was always home for dinner and has time for my wife. You have to decide what is important and make time for those things.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. There will always be choices and sacrifices and "juggling" in life , The very best traders in life and history...are rather evident of this fact. You can tell from reading about them, and observing some in videos...that they are kind of slightly weird, or not as normal. I guess from all that focus, and hunger/ambition, and somewhat market stress, and isolation from screen/trading time. Some become/look manic, restless, irritable, depressed, zoned-out, anti-social, -- kind of like Rain Man. Dustin Hoffman is the Elite trader. -- While Tom Cruise represents the 97% or 99.5% who essentially fail or get nowhere. Marty Schwartz, Larry Williams, Japanese traders CIS and BNF, Dan Zanger, Jesse Livermore, Hetty Green, Nick Leeson/Ewan McGregor, Bernie Mac, Handle123 and Kim Klaiman and Gordon Gekko are just a few of the well-known one's who have reached a unique level of Greatness, May all your trading and life dreams come true in 2018, rin4et Mazal tov, Robert Morse I prefer the old fashioned, hearty High-Five` or handshake....the modern, germophobe fist bump is stupid.
Everything I mentioned above is important because they are absolutely essential. Notice I didn't mention anything about watching movies or going on a vacation. We need time to take care of our health and homes.
Suggest space your trading into a longer term view if one is struggling with busyness issues. For example, being focused should imo be a priority rule in trading. This is difficult when busy and attemting a day trading type scenario. Therefore, my suggestion is, think about it this way, one only needs to hit 2 to 3 jackpots a year to be profitable, work a trading plan to only trade the troughs/major pullbacks. First select the targets, will it be IT stocks or healthcare or whatever, which ones are not speculative (these dump unexpectantly too often) then stalk the selected targets until they appear to have bottomed. Don't chase rising stocks or indices. In other words, be super selective and trade seldom. You will then have time for a life as well as for trading. That's how I go about, sit on hands for can be up to months at a time, then go in big!
Proper multitasking and equipment is key to trader work-life balance. Therfore, I propose the following: 1. Instead of a chair in front of one’s trading monitors, have a toilet. 2. Have an understanding spouse that will bring food to you and clean up after. 3. Only have sex with your spouse in your trading room. 4. Excercise and sunlight are important. Therefore, have an oversize window, treadmill, and other excercise equipment in your trading room. 5. Proper sleep in also important. A comfortable bed with monitors on the ceiling is a critical addition to a serious trader’s trading room. As can be seen from the above, it is possible to achieve a proper work-life balance while trading!
''After all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life.'' Joseph Brodsky
What about if the person is not your spouse? Also, Be sure to turn off any alerts on your computer before having sex. Women don't like emini-interruptis. Although if you find one who is understanding- keep her.
One way to trade the markets is to be "all consumed". Another is to see trading like most other jobs... 9-5. That is, trade the market from "NY open to close" and don't worry about it for the rest of the time. Trading well is not really like "discovering the mother lode and striking it rich", but more like normal gold mining. That is, "processing tons of pay-dirt to extract a certain amount of gold/ton". As a trader, you will occasionally get the opportunity to "load up and catch a big gain"... IF you recognize and catch it, but trading is actually more of a grind-out. And the better you "grind it", the more lucrative it is.