I did the work-through-college thing at SLO Town (Cal Poly), got hired by a Fortune 50 company, and worked for the next 15 years as a Systems Support Engineer. During that time, I made a few small investments (50-100 shares) in my company's best customers here in Silicon Valley. As my company started to change, I decided to take an early retirement offering before the big axe fell. Sold some stock before the market tumbled. Then said to myself, "Now what?" The stock market has always fascinated me, but at the time I "retired", the investing wave was over. So, I decided to study active trading. After about a year of paper trading, reading, and learning (and BOY, did I have a lot to learn--bid, ask, short, market maker, direct access????), I made my first day-trades in May of this year. Report after one month? "Even-Steven" after commissions and hundreds of trades (I now know why people warn of over-trading!). Most trades are between 100-500 shares. Paper trading is helpful, but nothing opens your senses to learning more than actual trading. Anyway, I ramble. I was 43 when I started trading.
Folks, I started an actual POLL on the subject of this thread. Hope this shines a little more light into this issue.... Have Fun, ~Scientist
I haven't started trading yet... even papertrade... I don't even follow the market... will start in 10 years... so... -10 years...
I made my first trade at 16 in my brother's account, traded on and off until I got out of college, and then took a 25 year break while I held a "real" job. In 1994, I saw the light again and resumed at 47. I was helped in "seeing the light again" when my department was eliminated in a downsizing frenzy 8 years ago. I still thank them. DS
What are you on about, kid? You're just 5% older than Joey yourself! I'm 10% older! That's twice as much older!