Risktaker not at all feeling like that but look at it this way. i own a 6 bedroom million plus house in Florida that I own for cash, I will have a over 2 million in tax free bonds giving off over 100k in tax free income. I have my kids educations paid for in UGMA accounts and florida prepaid programs. So shile I am not saying I am going to make millions out of the gate, why not give it a shot at this point in my financial life. If I put 100k in a trading account and if for some reason I lose the whole thing in a year or two, what is lost, I can always go back and buy a business and deal with the everyday bullshit of employees and customers. I just responded to the thread to show that idf it is done correctly with prudance then it is definitely worth trying. By the way I have a complete trading plan and have set rules with regards to money managemnent, stops and position sizes.
What Bloggs says resembles most of the traders I know. Many of them tried trading because they could not make good money in their original professions. They were smart but, let's say, a little quirky, too independent, and the kind of people who don't get rewarded in the corporate world. If you are making a killing as a executive or CEO or i-banker, why would you leave that for trading? They answer is you are over estimating your chances of success. You don't think that you will probably have to leave trading, and get another job but with much less money than when you started. If you left your position and put a two year break in your resume that would cause people to ask questions, could you really pick up where you left off? Would your new job be anywhere close to what you have now? What is the real, total cost of the possible hit your are taking?
What you're kind of saying is that your financial well-being will allow you to experiment on ways to profit from the stock market. That's all good. Some of us are at that stage as well. But what I'm telling you is basically that your $100K is basically play dough which will not allow you to earn much from. And to put substantially more into such a trading venture might begin to jeopardize your current good situation. Now if you had said something like...I've done good reasearch, have identified 3-4 good ''edges'' or such other inefficiencies where I can profit from and am ready to take advantage of with my current situation, then I would have had a very different answer. But with what you're saying, my advice is just leave the BS trading dream alone, put the funds in some index/mutual fund and go on vacation or do something else exciting and fun 'cause I assure you trading won't be.
Risk I should have clarified a bit from the beginning, in the late 90's early 2000's I traded with a couple groups of hedge funds out of there office and with about 200k, made money every month for about 2 years (average of about 10k a month). I would have continued doing it but this biz opportunity came up in south florida and it had a good real estate twist to it, which has enabled me to make good money on selling the biz in less that 2 years. so my inclination is to go back to trading serious full time and to see how successful i might become. Furthermore, I am a swing trader (1-3 day type stuff) and scan about 500-1000 charts a night looking for about 4-5 different short term setups that i have been using for years. All of it spelled out in my trading journal as well as position size and where to put in stops. S o yes, I do try to use an edge and not just throw darts and see what happens.
Well, all I can say is ...these ain't the '90's markets but it's your money, time and life so...good luck to you!
A successful business owner has more what it takes to succeed mainly because he knows what it takes to become successful. Unless he was some dot com accident, he should have many of the skills required to succeed in trading. All it takes is persistance, persistance, and persistance. I became net profitable in less then 5 months of hardcore trading school from the futures market. If you want it bad enough, you will get it. Drop all notions of going back to your old business, Succeed or die trying, that is the only mentaility that will take you above and beyond in any business. Come into the business with a light hearted attitulde, your failures will eat you alive every single day you lose money. Nothing prepares you for the failure you will experience in trading, everyday you'll be punched in the face until you learn who is punching you, why is he doing this, and where the hell did he come from??
Hard work does not mean success in any endeavor. Does a kid who aspires to be a pro athlete reach his goal because he focuses on it day in and day out for years? Not necessarily. What about someone who opens a restaurant? If they work 16 hours a day will they succeed? Not necessarily. They need a lot things to fall into place to be successful ... a good business plan, good location, appealing menu, adequate parking, good marketing to get their name out there, etc. And even with all of this they still can fail. And so can anyone who aspires to be a trader. That was why I initially suggested one have a business plan and have a "fall back" plan.
One reason is that money doesn't buy happiness, at least for a lot of people. Some people might be seeking freedom .. freedom from corporate politics, freedom from employee hassles, freedom for 16+ hour days. I knew of a guy who was making $500K/year as an IT exec. He quit to become a forest ranger making about $20K/year. I think there are cases where some people have "enough" money to make them secure and reasonably happy. They want something new, are willing to take a risk and pursue it. Many will fail and some will certainly regret it. But success is attainable if you want something bad enough and, in the case of trading, have discipline and are willing to make mistakes, accept them and learn from them.
The forest ranger thing I completely understand. But why would a person leave a high paying, high stress job for another high stress job where the best possible (and not assured) outcome would be merely to replace his existing CEO income with trading income?