Hey Guys, I need your collective wisdom and advice on this. I've been on ET on/off for years. As some of you might know, 2015 was my breakthrough. Finally became net profitable. While I was net profitable, the amount was very small compared to my corporate salary. It's more like a nice yearend bonus. This was all because I was doing it part-time while holding down a very nice corporate job in the tech industry. So no pressure to make money all the time and all the associated benefits(both psychologically and monetarily that goes with that). So, I got laid off from a tech company a few months ago. And I've been trading a little in the morning in between recruiters calling, interviewing, vacationing, and some side gigs I'm doing. I have two strategies. In my daytrading strategies, I can average a few hundred bucks a day easily. $100-$500. Without being too aggressive. Of course, there are down days too. On my longer term trades, it has been disastrous! Holding on to losers for too long on large size on one account. But on another account, my long term trades are good(riding a good trend). I know it's a bit schizo. Long story. On my good(meaning net profitable though still somewhat volatile) long trading account, I recently got margin on it through Robinhood. So now I can swing pretty large amount of capital. I was thinking maybe I should be more aggressive on that longer term account? But I don't want to lose money like the other longer term account that has been decimated. Not sure how best to proceed.. I guess I haven't quite figure out this longer term thing yet. While the daytrading is steady, the profits are small. I'm not banking big like in my volatile swing trading account. I'm not sure how to scale it up without erasing that steady small profits. Meaning if I put on a lot of shares/futures contracts I'm sure the equity curve will not be as steady & smooth given the psychological element of holding large positions. I'm very hesitant to do this full-time, because even at $100-$500/day it's still SIGNIFICANTLY below my corporate job salary in the tech sector. Should I be MORE AGGRESSIVE in my daytrading and try to get above $1k+ daily? If I do that then I'll be above my corporate salary though there's no guarantee to I'll be able to do that everyday. Or should I just try to lock in another corporate job again and forget this fantasy of full-time trading? For a brief moment, I thought maybe if I was more aggressive in my daytrading then perhaps I can do this fulltime and escape the corporate job all together. Is that just a fantasy? For guys who have been in this shoe, please respond. Or should I just continue to trade on the side again and slowly compound that pot? Since I have time now(unemployed) to weigh these options, I like to know your take on this. Actually my daytrading is now more than my unemployment benefits. haha. And my good swing trading account is occasionally more than my old corporate job's monthly salary. My ideal setup would be to be for my daytrading to be $500-$1k+ a day. For my longer-term swing trading account to capture good moves(10pts+) a month. I have enough capital on that account where a 10p+ move would be a significant profit. I'm not sure I can do that everyday for my daytrading account. I'm not sure if I can do that every month on my swing trading account. I know there are no guarantees... thank you in advance! trader99
Maybe try stop doing the long term shit.... 100-500 day, so avg what... 300? That's 75k yearly... So trade a bit bigger if you're consistently profitable... try it for a few months. But it's not for everyone. Why do you want to quit Tech Corp? If you're good at it, stick with your trade... your Tech Corp that is.... Don't start looking for something that probably isn't there. Unless you're really driven to do full time trading... but in my experience, it's pretty boring 75% of the time. Basically, everything is a trade. Do you really want to trade your corporate job for the stress of actively trading fin markets? Swap good fixed salary with bonus for highly variable trading profits?
I'm not concerned about that yet. I have a decent amount of savings lined up. My wife works too. I think just my daytrading alone can probably cover a decent portion of the expenses. But maybe if I go full-time I might not be as consistent everyday....??? Realistically, I can go 6 more months without salary. While I have enough savings to last beyond that, I need a stop loss. I'm well educated and skilled. I don't want to waste time if going FT trading is worst than doing part-time trading. Yet at the same time, I don't want to miss out on a good job openings if I'm just trading all day long. Also, I don't want to miss good market moves while at work either. I know you can't have it both ways. haha
You do have a good point. I didn't quit my tech corp job. I was laid off. So I have some time before I jump back in Corporate job again. Just pondering. $300/day would be a HUGE pay cut from my corporate job...I would need to supplement that with some good swing trades. While your suggestion of trading bigger size makes mathematical sense, I'm afraid psychologically it might make the equity curve less smooth. You wrote,"Basically, everything is a trade. Do you really want to trade your corporate job for the stress of actively trading fin markets? Swap good fixed salary with bonus for highly variable trading profits?" That's a great point! Probably not. So, you are suggesting I go get another corporate job and trade on the side like I was doing before? Stop fantasizing about FT trading..
I have some questions: Why are you better at managing risk on a day trading account versus a long term account? Why are you risk adverse day-trading, which shows consistent profit, yet risk on in the swing account? What are your concerns about scaling up in a day trade account if all you have to do is click a button to add another contract? Have you ever day traded before for extended periods of time, like a month straight? How big of a concern is making money right now?
Hello, I personally would not quit my full time salary position unless I am making 3-4x times a year trading. I love intraday trading, but it is a bit stressful trying to figure it all out. I would continue working fulltime and trading like you are doing now. Your current trading profit is much less then what you make now from the 9-5. It would not make sense to trade full time unless you are making twice as much trading. Another option is to scale up your trading. If you making $300-$500 per day that is pretty good. Keep it simple.