Nice post TraderEX...you seem to be less stressed. Or to put it from trader to trader...you seem to be in the sweet spot of volume..(only TraderEX knows what this means) ElectricKeepItPositiveSavant
Why do you believe in GOD? I offer the OP the secret to trading was in meditation once. He didn't take the offer.
I believe in God because He gives me what I need. In this case, peace of mind and control from my instinctive greed as well as severe egocentric ism. With regards to my physical pain, He relieves the severity. Jesus is my "go to" deity. When I analyze my stats, just do better when He is in the picture. Jesus promised us that good will be returned 100x. Karma is only even money. Trading for profit or loss, Jesus works for me!
I agree. Traders who trade purely for profits ends up being poor trader. In the movie Batman Begins, Christoper Nolan writes that when Bruce Wayne wanted to just best up criminal he was just another ordinary dude. But when Bruce Wayne decides to dedicate himself to an idea, he became something bigger. He became Batman.
@TraderEX Thanks for your thoughtful and detailed response. I'm NOT selfish and I'm doing the sensible thing as I've said earlier. I got the offer and waiting for the paperwork and administrative stuff to clear then start. I figure with my job total comp $150K-$200K (depending on bonuses and stock options) I can have peace of mind and provide the financial security my family needs. I will save and build back to a bigger account. Given that I trade better now than I was when I started out, hopefully I can initially kick out another $50K-$100K from trading on the side. Then as time progress and I get better and bigger my side trading can match up to my job income and over time be multiples of that. That's my plan. Hopefully that all works out. In 10 years, I will have enough to retire early and have a large trading account where I can easily generate $5K-10K a day on average. Then living the dream. But it will take a lot of work to get from here to there. I'm all up for it. Wish me luck!
Here's the update. All the paperwork is cleared. I'm starting work next week. However, I will continue to trade. I have about 1.5hours a day in the morning to trade before work. Maybe more if I get up super early. I'm on PST time so in theory I could be up trading at 5am PST or whatever. Futures markets are open that time. Since waiting for my paperwork to clear, I've made more progress in trading. Here are a few things I noticed: 1) My signals are getting good, but I'm little gun-shy. I missed the signal by putting to buy at the bid. Then it runs away from me. Vice versa for short. 2) When there are huge opportunities available, I should trade with size. I think this confidence will come with time. There are multiple occasions the last 2 weeks where I could have easily make $10K+. But all I ended up making make $1K or less. 3) too many opportunities and not enough mindshare. I track CL, NQ, GC, NQ. And now I've added a few stocks and options. I have missed a lot of good moves because I'm constantly scanning. I need to get better at jumping on a good opportunity and ride with it without distraction. I understand some of you advocate focus on one instrument. For me, I understand the point but sometimes the one instrument I focus is not moving that day. On other hand, when you see too many things moving it's hard to know which one to jump on. Anyhow. Any thoughts and advice? Thanks in advance!
Be very careful. The mind plays tricks, we are prone to bias, we see what we want to see. Scale up slowly! Greed will kill you in this game! Greed can be interpreted as too much enthusiasm and optimism. Remember, trading is about protecting capital, not about reaping masterstroke windfalls.