I'm curious to hear how the responses will be different asking this in a trading forum vs. the ones that are posted on poker forums. I've been playing poker for about 4-5 years and have made good money from it while going to a good college; around $275K-$325K. I have an interest in the markets and I should naturallly be able to progress into becoming a good trader because of the similarities in the pyschological side of both of them. I graduate with a Finance major this semester and I'm at the turning point in deciding if I should just stick with poker or become a trader. I've gotten offers from top tier prop trading firms. I have also opened up an account at Tradestation and trade the e-mini S&P and NASDAQ with some minor success and I enjoy doing it. In terms of compensation in both, I would expect to make between 200K-400K a year in poker playing ~30 hours a week, and obv no idea in trading (in terms of profit splits). Other factors that I'm debating are how I would rather be in a social environment vs. at home just playing poker or trading. The negative to that is how I have to have set hours plus a boss and can't take off whenever I want to do random things. The freedom of playing poker is a huge factor for me because I'm not used to being in any other type of environment. I had an internship last year and enjoyed it, and I didn't mind the set schedule, but considering that was for only 3 months vs. a full time job might change my mind. Based on these set of facts, do you think I should stick with poker or give trading at a good firm a shot?
Obviously a level. No one who is smart enough or lucky enough to make 6 figures a year playing poker would be dumb enough to ask this question on an open forum at site where 95% of the people who post are "wanna be" traders. Do you really think that any response would be anything more than verbal diarrhea from people who can't answer your question for you? "You went full retard." "Never go full retard."
Trading is a CAREER for life and should be approached with that mind set. If you can see yourself playing poker for the rest of your life day in and day out then just do that if not then try trading and see if you like what it offers.
Its quite funny to me that numerous people in the past have compared the many parallels of poker and trading. Of course in each "game" you need discipline, a certain understanding of odds, risk managment.... and the list goes on. However, whats not often mentioned is that you can walk into any poker room and find a group of players who are consistently successful. Everyone knows them by name because of reputation or the amount of hours they spend in a casino.. Conversely, most people can't find even a slim number of traders who are successful over time. Its not that poker players have better skills than traders, but to be successful in trading takes FAR more than just to have to certain inherent skills. The only people who truly win will always be the house (the casino and the prop firm owners)
play poker fulltime study markets, then slowly make a transition pending on how successful you become... 200k+ a year is more than alot of traders will make... in reality you'll just need to gauge how much you think you could make trading based on position size and trading strategy then compare that to what you can make playing poker.... however your earnings can also be compounded trading.... and possibly more readily than they would playing poker... personally i'd try and balance both if you're only working 30h a week playing poker
it's a life i once dreamed of living........now, I'm happily doomed with fatherhood responsibilities......maybe after my kids goto college????
Just to clarify, poker is not the same as odds games like slots, roulette and blackjack where the player plays against the house. The player in poker must pay a rake to the house, to be sure, but in the odds games mentioned above, those who are profitable over a given time period are profitable because of random chance, whereas poker players are profitable because of their skill level relative to the skill levels of their opponents. The rake is more like a commission. The edge in roulette over the long run belongs to the house over all players. The edge in poker over the long run belongs to the skilled players over the unskilled ones, just like it is in trading. I trading and in poker, it is not true that the only people that will win in the long run are the houses. The houses and the skilled players will win, the vast majority will lose.